LinkedIn is one of the most popular professional social networking platforms, with over 740 million members worldwide as of October 2022. Many professionals use LinkedIn to build their personal brand, make business connections, find job opportunities, and stay up to date on industry news.
With the rise of live video across social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube in recent years, many LinkedIn users wonder if there is a way to do live video broadcasts on LinkedIn as well. Live video can be a powerful tool for engagement and connection with your professional network.
In this article, we’ll look at whether LinkedIn currently offers a built-in live video broadcasting feature, examine some potential alternative options for streaming live video to your LinkedIn connections, and speculate on whether LinkedIn may add native live video capabilities in the future.
Does LinkedIn Have a Native Live Video Feature?
Currently, LinkedIn does not have a built-in, native feature that allows users to broadcast live video. Unlike platforms like Facebook that have dedicated tools and apps like Facebook Live that are designed specifically for streaming real-time video, LinkedIn has no comparable offering as of October 2022.
There is no way to “go live” directly within LinkedIn’s website or mobile apps. You cannot create live video broadcasts natively from your LinkedIn profile, Company Page, Groups, or other sections of the platform. LinkedIn’s messaging and chat functions also do not accommodate live video chatting.
So in short, no – there is presently no first-party live video feature included in LinkedIn’s suite of tools and capabilities. Live video broadcasting is not a core part of the LinkedIn experience at this time.
Why Doesn’t LinkedIn Have Live Video?
There are a few potential reasons why LinkedIn has not yet jumped on the live video bandwagon:
– **LinkedIn is focused on serving a professional audience.** Platforms like Facebook have a broader focus on general social connection, entertainment, and community in addition to professional networking. LinkedIn’s narrower focus on career and business may dictate a different set of priorities in their product roadmap.
– **Video may not align with much of LinkedIn’s engagement.** The majority of engagement on LinkedIn revolves around written content, job searching, and making connections. Video may not get as much traction with LinkedIn’s user base as other types of content.
– **Integration challenges.** Adding live video features could require rebuilding significant portions of LinkedIn’s architecture and interfaces. This is a major engineering challenge, especially for a mature platform.
– **Low demand.** LinkedIn may have assessed that there is not sufficient demand or need from its members to justify investing resources into building live video capabilities.
– **Monetization uncertainty.** LinkedIn may still be determining how it could monetize live video to offset the costs of developing the feature. Video ads and broadcast sponsorships require different solutions than their current offerings.
So while the lack of live video support may be disappointing to some users, LinkedIn likely has reasonable concerns that have prevented this capability from being added yet. The good news is there are some workarounds available in the meantime.
Workarounds: How to Stream Live Video to LinkedIn
Although native live streaming isn’t an option, there are a few alternative approaches you can use to broadcast live video out to your LinkedIn connections:
### 1. Go Live on Another Platform and Cross-Post
One of the easiest methods is to use the live streaming tools on another social media platform like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitch and simultaneously post the live video feed to LinkedIn. Here are some cross-posting options:
– **Facebook Live:** Stream to Facebook and share the live video link to your LinkedIn profile or Company Page.
– **YouTube Live:** Go live on YouTube and post the live stream link on LinkedIn.
– **Instagram Live:** Similarly, you can stream live on Instagram and share the broadcast to LinkedIn.
– **Twitch:** Use Twitch’s streaming capabilities and embed or share the Twitch stream link in a LinkedIn post.
The main downside is that viewers have to jump over to a separate platform to watch your live stream instead of viewing it directly within LinkedIn. But cross-posting does allow you to tap into LinkedIn’s reach.
### 2. Use a Live Streaming App or Hardware Encoder
Alternatively, you can use a dedicated live streaming app or hardware device to broadcast your video feed and share the viewing link to your LinkedIn connections:
– **StreamYard:** This popular cloud-based live streaming studio lets you stream to YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more simultaneously.
– **OBS Studio:** OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) is a free and open source live streaming program for Mac and PC.
– **Wirecast:** A more advanced live switching and production software by Telestream.
– **vMix:** A live video production and streaming tool with built-in social media integration.
– **Teradek:** Hardware encoders like Teradek’s VidiU line allow you to connect cameras and stream directly from the device.
The benefit of apps and hardware solutions is that they give you more granular control over your video production quality, layouts, and branding. They essentially replace the need for an internal LinkedIn live streaming feature.
### 3. Embed Live Streams in LinkedIn Posts
Some platforms meant for organizations and brands allow you to natively broadcast and embed live streams into LinkedIn posts and pages:
– **LinkedIn Live:** LinkedIn’s external live streaming platform for Company Pages. Video embeds directly into LinkedIn.
– **StreamYard for LinkedIn:** Add StreamYard’s LinkedIn Live Tab to stream and embed video.
– **Restream for LinkedIn:** Restream.io also lets you add LinkedIn as both a streaming and embedding destination.
– **Wirecast for LinkedIn:** Telestream’s Wirecast software can natively output live streams for embedding into LinkedIn as well.
Embedded streams create a more seamless viewing experience for your audience right within the LinkedIn interface. The limitation is that these platforms may have monthly fees or viewer limits.
### 4. Use the LinkedIn Live API
LinkedIn does provide some live streaming capabilities via their Live API and embed codes, but these are only available to approved partners at this time. So unfortunately, this is not an option for most individual users or brands wanting to stream on LinkedIn. But it hints at future expanded live video support.
### 5. Consider Alternatives Like Pre-Recorded Video
If going live isn’t right for your purposes on LinkedIn, consider alternatives like pre-recording video content and uploading it to LinkedIn’s native video hosting platform. You can then share these videos to LinkedIn posts. Some options include:
– **LinkedIn Video Uploader:** Directly upload MP4 videos up to 10GB from your computer.
– **Recorded video from apps:** Use apps like Loom or Screencast-o-Matic to conveniently record videos of yourself or your screen.
– **Video editing software:** Edit and produce video content with tools like Adobe Premiere.
Pre-recorded video misses the interactive aspect of live streaming but may fit your needs and workflow better in some situations.
The Future: Will LinkedIn Add Live Video Features?
Although LinkedIn currently lacks official live streaming capabilities, there are signs that the platform may be warming up to supporting live video in the future:
– **LinkedIn Live API:** As mentioned, LinkedIn does have a Live API available to partners, showing intent and infrastructure for live video on LinkedIn.
– **Launch of LinkedIn Events:** In 2022, LinkedIn introduced LinkedIn Events to help creators connect with audiences via virtual events. Live video integration could complement this offering.
– **Increase in live events industry:** The pandemic has accelerated industry growth in platforms and services for corporate live streaming and events. LinkedIn may want to capitalize on this trend.
– **Member demand:** More LinkedIn users are expressing desire for live broadcasting options natively within LinkedIn, rather than having to rely on external platforms.
– **Usage growth on other social platforms:** Live video continues to take off on other social platforms, leading LinkedIn to potentially add it to stay competitive.
– **Product lead hints:** LinkedIn’s head of product recently hinted at looking into what live video could look like on LinkedIn, signaling it’s on their radar.
So while LinkedIn currently lags behind in enabling native live video, they appear to be exploring options to add live streaming capabilities in the future. With the alternative options available, LinkedIn may be strategically waiting until they can support live video seamlessly across web, mobile, and their API.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn does not currently have official, built-in support for broadcasting live video streams natively from its platform. The lack of a “Go Live” feature is likely due to LinkedIn’s professional focus, video not aligning with much of its engagement, and the substantial product development required.
However, there are workarounds available using external live streaming apps and cross-posting from other social platforms with live video tools. As live video on social networks becomes more ubiquitous, LinkedIn appears to be acknowledging growing demand by laying the groundwork to eventually incorporate native live streaming and embrace interactive video. But for now, those wanting to reach their LinkedIn networks with live content will need to employ creative solutions using other services.