LinkedIn Live has established itself in recent years as a must for online business-to-business events. In fact, we’ve organized many of them, in particular in partnership with Loic Simon of #SocialSellingForum (see here the page on the extended enterprise event series). I asked Loic to describe the criteria for the success of these events on LinkedIn Live and on other social platforms.
How do you make success of your professional events on LinkedIn Live and social media?
Organize a LinkedIn Live event
According to Loic, there are 3 key aspects to organizing a successful LinkedIn Live event:
- Preparing your event. Loic insists on preparing his event. You can’t just improvise, you have to think things through a bit before getting down to work online. This doesn’t mean you can’t be spontaneous, quite the contrary. But you do need to prepare beforehand.
- Setting a goal. Secondly, it’s important to set yourself a goal, this will be very different if you’re a small business or a freelancer, or a large Fortune 500 company. Regardless of size, setting a goal is crucial to success.
- Based on this objective, we will finally determine a strategy. The strategy will incorporate your preparation and goal, and will essentially be a framing of your live event.
The objective of your event
This objective could be awareness, or the ideation of a concept or category, as we did with Loic for the Extended Enterprise (with Cornerstone) or the Sales Enablement (with Seismic).
It can also be a lead generation objective… provided you put in the budget and the effort. It’s also worth noting that on more than one occasion we’ve brought in leads from among the panelists at the event, and placed them in front of the customer’s eyes. Too often, customers are polluted by Inbound marketing sales pitches. Inbound, as a way of generating leads, is mostly applicable to B2C and mass B2B markets.
So the right question is: “What am I trying to do?”
The final point is the strategy for getting there. This is the “how” of your LinkedIn Live event.
Differentiating goals based on who you are
The goals you set for yourself, and the strategies you implement, depend of course on who you are. “This doesn’t mean you can’t change your goals,” explains Loic, “quite the contrary.”
What are the keys to taking action?
Here again, Loic provides us with three important keys:
- Strive for excellence through practice, not perfection. Too many companies and people aim for perfection, wrongly. Don’t plan too much and don’t train too far in advance; train by doing. We also recommend co-branding partnerships, because you’ll gain freedom and speed, avoiding the rigidity of the usual (large) corporate communication processes. There’s no question of producing poor-quality events, failure is bound to happen. Excellence is not perfection, because perfection doesn’t exist. Achieving excellence means aiming for the best possible result at any given moment and achieving it.
- Get support… don’t reinvent the wheel. LinkedIn Live is particularly well suited to this, as you can take advantage of the network effect. You also need to play on your generosity by helping others and giving before you receive. Once you build a network and have a strong base of generosity, help can come easy.
- Only talk about what you know. According to Loic, it’s important to avoid going into areas you haven’t mastered. The trick, when you’re not an expert on a subject, is to become the “master of ceremonies” who will lead a panel of experts who will highlight the others. Loic and I have already done this with 4 or 5 panelists. It gives everyone confidence because it’s much easier to organize an event with several people. Still, it requires the master of ceremonies to work hard on his subject to avoid asking offbeat or inappropriate questions.
The strategy to be implemented
Loic explains that the strategy to be implemented must be based on mutual support and on the practical and useful side of the event. It should include explanatory elements on why and how, and avoid at all costs talking about oneself and praising the virtues of one’s products.
Organizing the event with several panelists avoids the self-centeredness that reduces credibility.
Some important considerations:
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- Often, these LinkedIn Live events are a way to create content: blog posts, podcasts, video replays, eBooks… You shouldn’t hesitate to repeat the same messages, without parroting them. So you can mix the LinkedIn Live event with other means of expression.
- Surround yourself with partners who will participate with you in the success of your event. And if you’re inviting customers to speak, make sure they don’t give you too much to handle. It’s also important to choose the right partners. If you’re focusing on a new subject, even though it may scare you and seem counter-intuitive, don’t hesitate to communicate with your competitors, as Michael Porter recommended. While avoiding illegal collusions between suppliers, that goes without saying. Incidentally, that’s how Loic started SocialSellingForum.
- Exercise by doing and pay attention to technology: this is especially necessary, as technology is often a challenge at these LinkedIn Live events. Above all, don’t test new features at an important event. Take care of the sound and video too, which is particularly important at these events.
These are just a few essential tips to help you make your professional LinkedIn Live events a success. Nothing can ensure the success of your event, but taking these tips into account gives you a good chance.
Matthew est étudiant à Ohio State University et travaille actuellement comme rédactreur junior de contenu chez Visionarymarketing.com
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