LinkedIn Updates Pages with Live Event, Polling Capabilities

LinkedIn today released the quarterly release of its Pages product with new features to help companies connect with their communities through virtual events, share important updates, and rally them from afar, all for free.

The first offering is LinkedIn Live, which helps organizations drive reach and brand awareness with their audiences, while LinkedIn Events is helping strengthen relationships with target audiences by allowing them to seamlessly create and join professional events. This latest release brings a tighter integration between LinkedIn Events and LinkedIn Live, turning these two products into a new virtual events solution that enables companies to stay connected to their communities and meet their customers wherever they are.

This Events offering enables companies to do the following:

• Host events safely, in a trusted environment: Using LinkedIn Live, users can choose to live stream to Page followers or Event attendees. Admins can leverage third-party broadcasting partners, including Restream, Wirecast, Streamyard, and Socialive.
• Share events to Page followers and send direct invitations to first-degree profile connections.
• Build buzz for events or live broadcasts by posting an update to Page or event feeds and by recommending key posts for attendees to check out.
• Keep the conversation going after the event with the Video tab, a dedicated hub for a Page's organic video content that can be accessed by all community members.

A custom announcement banner allows users to post critical and timely updates to the top of their Pages. A Volunteer call-to-action button helps nonprofits ask members to volunteer.

With the new Polls feature, members can survey their networks through posts on their feeds. Users can create polls in 30 seconds. Users type a question, enter up to four answer options, and select the poll’s duration—between 24 hours and up to two weeks. They then push the poll live to connections, specific groups, or to anyone across the LinkedIn network.

Users can keep an eye on the activity in real time, such as how many votes have been cast thus far, results for each option, and how much time is left for voting. Once the poll closes, users see all the pertinent information, including the winning option, the percentage of votes for each option, and the total vote count, in one place. 

"As businesses around the world adjust to the new abnormal, we understand that one of the biggest adjustments you’ve had to make is in the way that you bring your professional community together. We're here to help and have created the resources and organic tools you need to stay productive and connected during this time," said Ajay Datta, director of product management at LinkedIn, in a blog post.