While the branding is new, LinkedIn Virtual Events is an integration between the company’s Events and Live tools. The Microsoft-owned network says the unified solution will help deepen engagement and brand awareness for organizations. Under the Virtual Events banner, uses can create a live stream through LinkedIn Live and invite followers to view. Using the tool, organizations can interact with attendees and tap into third party tools such as Socialive and Wirecast. In a blog post, LinkedIn points to the following benefits of Virtual Events:
“Attract the right professional audiences: We’ve made it easy for you to promote your event to your Page followers and send direct invitations to your first-degree profile connections. You can also reach your target audiences outside of your network with paid targeting & ads solutions, while members can take advantage of organic discovery features to more easily find your event. Drive buzz and engagement for your event: You can build buzz for your event by posting an update to your Page or event feed and recommending key posts for attendees to check out. In fact, LinkedIn Live is seeing 23X more comments per post and 6X reactions per post than native video.”
When a live event finishes, the stream can be converted into a LinkedIn Video and placed on a feed for all followers to see.
Polling Feature
LinkedIn also announced a new poll tool for users this week. The Microsoft-owned business social network says the new Polls tool allows users to generate a survey in 30 seconds. Polls can be used to collect valuable information from network followers. Polls will reach users gradually in the coming weeks and are available worldwide.
