Livestreaming is inherently a nerve-wracking concept for those who are inexperienced. Especially on LinkedIn where the concept is newer, and the tools are lacking.

LinkedIn doesn’t support going live directly through the platform or the LinkedIn app, so you’re going to need to use another app to help you with the stream.

I’ve used Restream, Streamyard, and even OBS Studio in the past. Restream and Streamyard are easy to use, but come with a fee. OBS Studio is free (and awesome!), but is complex to set up and requires considerable resources on your computer (which considering how many browser tabs I have open is worrisome).

Of course, I have a Zoom subscription for my online meetings. I’m extremely comfortable with Zoom, like I’m sure many are now after the pandemic.

When I heard that it’s possible to livestream directly from Zoom, I had to explore because this seems like it could be the best live streaming option for me.

I’ll walk you through exactly how to set up Zoom to live stream into LinkedIn Live. Let’s hit it!

START WITH CREATING A LINKEDIN EVENT

First you will need access to LinkedIn Live. If you don’t already, here are the steps: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a568503

According to the article, you should automatically be granted access as you create an event, but follow the steps outlined in the article if you don’t see the option in this next step.

CREATE A LINKEDIN EVENT ON YOUR COMPANY PAGE

Search for your company on LinkedIn, and click onto the Company Page. You must have Admin access to the page in order to do this.

Click Admin tools >> Create an event

Under “Event format” select LinkedIn Live. Then give your Live a name.

LinkedIn will make you create a post from your company page to publicize the event in the next step, so be ready to create the announcement post.

Now we go to Zoom.

NEXT, SET UP THE ZOOM MEETING

Log into your zoom account (this is the url when I go there: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/schedule)

Create a Zoom meeting anytime before the start of the meeting, but since you can’t configure the live stream portion of it until 1 hr before the stream is scheduled to start, you can either create the meeting now, and then come back to edit it within the hour before streaming, or just create the meeting an hour before the live stream starts. Whatever you’re most comfortable with.

Schedule a new meeting, and choose your desired options for the meeting. Hit Save.

Then click the tab Live Streaming.

Click “Custom Live Streaming Service”

Keep this Zoom tab open in your browser as you’ll need to come back to it. We need to go to LinkedIn now to get the information for these fields.

BACK TO LINKEDIN

Click on this link to go to LinkedIn’s live streams: https://www.linkedin.com/video/golive/manage/

You should see every scheduled live stream for the pages that you’re an admin of. If this is your first time, you’ll likely only see your own LinkedIn event.

Click “Prepare to go live” next to the LinkedIn Event, which will be clickable within 1 hour of your event.

It will ask you to choose your region to get the best server. Take note of the output that it gives you here as we jump back to Zoom.

BACK TO ZOOM

Get the Stream URL and Stream Key from the output that LinkedIn gave you and put them into the Zoom options back in your Zoom browser tab.

For the field “Live streaming page URL”, copy the link to the LinkedIn event page and paste it in there. If you can’t find it, you can go here in a new browser window to get to the event very easily: https://www.linkedin.com/video/golive/manage/

It should look something like this when filled out:

NOW GO START YOUR ZOOM MEETING

Don’t worry – no one is here. This is your safe space.

Now that you’re inside your Zoom client, click the three dots in the bottom right corner and click “Live on Custom Live Streaming Service”

It should pre-populate all of your information that you put into the Zoom meeting setup originally, so don’t sweat what you see here.

Now click “Go Live!” (Don’t worry – you’re not actually going live yet. Take a breath.)

This is Zoom beginning to send the stream to LinkedIn, but LinkedIn isn’t picking it up yet until the last step. You’ll still have a chance to preview everything. Take another breath.

BACK TO LINKEDIN ONE LAST TIME

Now go back to LinkedIn’s managing streams and click “Prepare to go live” on your event.

It’ll show you the preview window below. The “Go live” button in the upper-right corner will be grayed out until the scheduled start of the event.

YOU WILL NOT ACTUALLY BE LIVE STREAMING UNTIL YOU CLICK THAT “Go live” BUTTON

Get comfortable here. Check your hair. Put on a better shirt. Get looking fabulous. Take more breaths. You’re almost there.

IMPORTANT: Mute the sound on the preview page so when the stream starts, you aren’t listening to yourself on a delay. That’s massively distracting as you’re trying to talk.

IT’S TIME TO START THE BROADCAST!

When it’s time for the broadcast to start, click “Go live” and after a few seconds, the live stream will start.

Keep that preview page open so you can see the comments that come in while you’re streaming.

There’s a ~10-second delay, so don’t be surprised by that. Most of your viewers will come from the replay, so just jump right into your topic – don’t hold things up by waiting for people to join.

YOU’RE A STAR!

You’ve done it! You’ve live streamed directly from Zoom to LinkedIn Live. How does it feel?

Give yourself a pat on the back. And keep a link to this post around for the next time you schedule a live stream.

Good luck, superstar!

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