How to Set Up Your LinkedIn Event in 5 Easy Steps

Event marketers and planners know everything that goes into setting up a great in-person event. They’ve refined and built upon their processes with each successive effort. It’s no coincidence that some of our favorite conferences and summits just seem to get better each year.

Obviously, it can be a bit more difficult to build hype for online events. You can’t entice your audience with a snazzy event space or door prizes. That doesn’t mean you can’t still make your online events anticipated and buzz-worthy experiences. It just means you have to change your approach — and use the right tools.

The best way to change that approach? Lean into the advantages your online event offers. Positioned correctly, online events allow brands to engage their communities in interactive, scalable, and repeatable ways that can make them every bit as valuable as their in-person counterparts.

LinkedIn Events help brands like yours get the most out of every online event by making set-up quick and painless, outreach targeted and customizable, and the event itself easy to host, join, and share. 

LinkedIn Events are quick and easy for marketers to get up and running. Here we’ll walk you through the process in five steps while highlighting some recently added features.

Setting Up a LinkedIn Event in 5 Steps

From gaining the right access level to creating your event page to attracting attendees, here are the essential steps for bringing your virtual event to life on LinkedIn.

Step 1: Become a Page admin

Only LinkedIn Page admins are able to set up an event on behalf of an organization, so you’ll want to make sure you have this level of access first. If you’re not already a Page admin, chat with your company’s social media manager — or whoever else handles the LinkedIn Page — about getting yourself set up as one or securing their partnership on creating and managing the event.

Step 2: Navigate to the “Create an event” button and enter info

From the admin view of your Page, you will see a panel on the left side. One of the options on this panel will be Events. Click the Add icon in this section. A Create an event window will pop up.

There are several fields to complete in the “Create an event” pop-up window:

• Upload cover image: This will be the banner image that appears in the post about your LinkedIn Event. You can use several different banner sizes including 480x270 or 1280x720 pixels. The minimum width is 480 pixels, and the aspect ratio must be 16:9.
• Add alt text: Alt text is a description of the image that will help members using voice-over screen readers understand the ad. It will not be visible to members who are not using screen readers.
• Organizer: This is who is hosting the event. Select either your profile or your Page depending on whom you want to be shown as the event’s host.
• Event type: Select online if it is an online event or in-person if it’s an offline event. If you select “offline event,” you will be prompted to provide additional details such as the venue and location.
• Event format: There are three types of LinkedIn Events. Select the one you’d like to use. LinkedIn Live Events are live videos streamed via a third-party tool. LinkedIn Audio Events allow you to host an audio-only event directly on LinkedIn. Select external event link if you want to stream or host your event off LinkedIn, and only want to create an event on LinkedIn to promote this event. After selecting this option you will be prompted to provide a link to the external broadcast service. This link will appear in the LinkedIn Event created.
• Event name: Type in the name of the event.
• Timezone: Select the applicable time zone from the drop-down menu.
• Start date/start time: Select the start date and time of the event in the fields provided (the event will specify the timezone you provided above).
• Add end date and time: This is an optional field to select if you want to give your event a specific end date and time. Selecting this checkbox will populate the fields for you to input this information.
• Use a LinkedIn registration form: This section will only appear if you are creating the event as a LinkedIn Page (not profile). Select the checkbox to allow members to register for the event. If you select this link, you’ll have to provide your privacy policy link in the provided field.
• Description: The description you draft here will appear on the event.
• Speakers: The names of the speakers who will be featured in the event. If you are connected to the speakers on LinkedIn, you can use suggestions to automatically invite them to the event and link to their LinkedIn profiles from the event information.

After filling out this information, click next, and a what do you want to talk about field will appear. Whatever you type in this field will appear in the Share box when promoting your event.

Finally, all you have to do is select the LinkedIn members you’d like to share the post with and click post to create the event.

Step 3: Attract your audience, directly and indirectly

When you set up your event, LinkedIn will create a unique event URL, which you can share widely to generate awareness and drive registrations. Event attendees tell us that the number one way they discover professional events is through their email inbox, their social feeds, and word of mouth. 

A few recommended methods for spreading the word:

• Share the event URL on your Page feed to reach your followers. Adding images or video will help it stand out. Consider targeting the post to the most relevant subsets within your audience, whether by job title, industry, seniority, language or location.
• Share the event URL with your personal network to attract friends, colleagues and peers who might be interested.
• Use traditional demand generation tactics, such as email and paid ads. Again, each event you create on LinkedIn becomes a landing page that you can promote just like any of your other landing pages.
• Invite your first-degree profile connections to attend (this capability is only available for Page admins).
• Create a LinkedIn Event Ad: Event ads allow you promote LinkedIn Events from your Page to a defined audience in a Sponsored Content ad format. Event ads are displayed in a member’s LinkedIn feed on desktop and mobile devices and are optimized to highlight the most important “must-know” event details, such as the name of the event, host, date, and time. Learn more about creating a LinkedIn Event Ad Campaign.

Remember, with all forms of virtual event promotion, make sure to be clear about what the event is, why you’re doing it, which types of professionals it might be valuable for, and what they’ll gain. We find that the headline is especially important for attracting the right audience. 

Step 4: Engage your audience

One great feature of LinkedIn Events is the ability for event organizers to continually engage and nurture attendees before, during, and after the event. Use the event page to start and join conversations relevant to the topic at hand. Organizers have the ability to recommend key posts in the event feed and notify registered attendees up to two times per week – a feature unique to the LinkedIn platform. 

Before the event, consider posting a question or soliciting from the audience. Conduct a poll to learn more about your attendees in advance. During the event, be sure to share key images, quotes, stats, or other memorable moments to the event feed and definitely moderate the comments in the live stream if you’re using LinkedIn Live. After the event, send through a survey link, conduct a follow-up poll, and share concise takeaway resources for attendees who couldn't attend or may want to revisit the content. 

The more you can stay top-of-mind, reinforce the value of attending, and foster a sense of community around your event, the more people are likely to show up and participate.

Step 5: Launch your event

When the big moment comes, you’ll want to be ready for it. If you’re choosing to stream live into your LinkedIn Event using LinkedIn Live, you’ll simply open your third-party broadcast tool and send the stream to your Event, rather than your Page. Your event attendees will be sent a notification on LinkedIn and an email to the address connected with their LinkedIn account, letting them know that the Event is now live. 

Let the Show Begin

That’s really all there is to it. We’ve worked to make the setup process as frictionless as possible so you can focus your time and energy on creating great content and thoughtful promotion for your event.

Of course, you might have more questions. What should be the focus of your event? Which actions can organizers take during and after to maximize success? What are some best-in-class examples of LinkedIn events from recognizable brands?

You’ll find all these questions and more answered in our Guide to Hosting Events on LinkedIn: Using LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events.