LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 660 million users worldwide. With so many professionals on the platform, there is a vast amount of data that can be leveraged for business purposes. Pulling data automatically from LinkedIn can provide valuable insights and opportunities but requires using the right tools and techniques. This comprehensive guide will explain the main methods for extracting LinkedIn data automatically and how to use it for business goals.
Why Automatically Pull LinkedIn Data?
Here are some of the key reasons companies and marketers want to pull data from LinkedIn automatically:
- Identify leads and prospects for sales and recruiting outreach
- Conduct market research on competitors, industries, or target buyer personas
- Monitor brand mentions and sentiment
- Identify influencers and experts for partnerships and campaigns
- Track engagement metrics for company pages, Groups, and Sponsored Content ads
- Enrich customer data with LinkedIn profile information
- Monitor employee advocacy and engagement
Doing this manually for a large volume of LinkedIn users and content is extremely time consuming. Automated tools make it possible to extract and analyze LinkedIn data much faster and efficiently.
Methods for Pulling LinkedIn Data Automatically
Here are the main methods available for extracting LinkedIn data:
LinkedIn API
The LinkedIn Application Programming Interface (API) allows accessing data from LinkedIn programmatically. Companies and developers can use the API to build custom integrations and applications powered by LinkedIn data. The API provides access to profile data, connections, groups, posts, ads, and more. Key capabilities of the LinkedIn API include:
- Search LinkedIn members by name, location, skills, company, job title, and more
- Retrieve member profiles including name, headline, experience, education, skills, etc.
- Get a member’s connections and 2nd degree connections
- Access Group data including statistics, discussions, and members
- Publish new posts and interact with existing posts
The LinkedIn API uses the industry-standard OAuth 2.0 protocol for authentication and authorization. Applications must go through a review process and get approval from LinkedIn before getting full access. The API provides flexible filtering and pagination for large datasets.
LinkedIn Data Scraping
Web scraping uses software tools to automatically extract data from websites. Scraping LinkedIn profiles, company pages, groups, posts, and other public data doesn’t require API access. However, scraping violates LinkedIn’s terms of service and risks getting banned if detected. Here are some common scraping use cases:
- Build prospect lists by scraping profile data from LinkedIn search results
- Scrape company info, employees, followers,updates, etc. from LinkedIn Pages
- Monitor brand mentions across LinkedIn posts and comments
- Compile industry contact lists by scraping people data from LinkedIn Groups
While scraping can provide a vast amount of LinkedIn data quickly, the lack of structure, accuracy, and oversight are major downsides.
LinkedIn Data Providers
Rather than building custom scraping and integration solutions, many businesses turn to third-party data providers. These vendors have existing access to LinkedIn data through partnerships, infrastructure, and compliance processes. Working with a provider makes accessing LinkedIn data easier but comes with a cost premium. Some top providers include:
- LinkedSelling: Lead generation and sales intelligence data sourced from 300M LinkedIn profiles. Package options based on number of credits.
- ZoomInfo: Database of 140M+ B2B professional profiles with contact info. Flexible subscription plans.
- Lusha: Browser extension enriches LinkedIn with direct emails, cell numbers, and more. Packages by number of prospects.
- BeamLead: Bulk exporting of LinkedIn profiles, connections, groups, posts, and more. Per download pricing.
The leading aggregators invest heavily in infrastructure, compliance, and relationships so customers don’t have to build their own LinkedIn extraction systems.
LinkedIn Pages and Apps
Companies can leverage their LinkedIn presence to collect data from their followers and visitors. Options include:
- Visitor demographics under Page Analytics for Company Pages
- Lead capture forms and contact requests
- Insights on employees sharing company posts
- Polls and Surveys to gather data from followers
- Apps that enrich Pages with new types of data collection
While limited to a company’s own audience, this approach avoids the access limits of LinkedIn APIs and scraping tools.
How to Extract Value from LinkedIn Data
The methods above can provide immense volumes of LinkedIn data. To get value, companies need to incorporate the data into workflows, campaigns, and systems. Here are top ways to drive value from LinkedIn data:
Sales Prospecting
LinkedIn data powers more effective outbound prospecting in multiple ways:
- Identify the best prospects by filtering profile data for target attributes like job title, skills, company size.
- Prioritize high-value prospects based on profile completeness, number of connections, engagement metrics.
- Append profile data to CRM/MAP systems to enrich prospect records.
- Get email addresses and direct contact info for sales outreach.
Automated sales tools like Outreach.io use LinkedIn integrations to fuel prospecting at scale.
Recruitment and Sourcing
LinkedIn’s unmatched professional data makes it a goldmine for recruiters and hiring managers:
- Search profiles by skills, experience, education, location to map talent pools.
- Filter and prioritize prospects who are more open to being contacted.
- Showcase open positions to matched prospects.
- Source passive candidates not actively job seeking.
Integrations with HR systems turn LinkedIn into a hiring pipeline management system.
Competitive Intelligence
Monitoring competitors on LinkedIn provides market and business intelligence:
- Identify key personnel changes and new hires.
- Get intel on new products, initiatives, and campaigns.
- Assess brand awareness, sentiment, and reviews.
- Track employee growth over time as a proxy for revenue.
- Analyze content engagement and follower metrics.
Marketing and sales teams should continuously extract intel on competitors from LinkedIn.
Lead Generation
LinkedIn provides several ways to generate and capture new leads:
- Ads allow targeting prospects by job role, company, interests, and more.
- Company Pages can showcase products, content offers, and contact options.
- Sponsored InMail connects advertisers to high-value prospects via direct messaging.
- Lead capture forms, contact requests, and Page followers provide self-identified leads.
Integrated lead management is crucial to nurture prospects from LinkedIn into customers.
Market Research
The rich demographic data on LinkedIn supports better understanding target markets:
- Segment audiences by geography, company size, industry, job function.
- Analyze follower demographics and interests for Company Pages and Groups.
- Conduct surveys and polls to gain direct market feedback.
- Monitor discussions and comments across the network.
Product, marketing, and research teams should tap LinkedIn data for consumer insights.
Steps for Pulling LinkedIn Data Automatically
Based on the options and use cases above, here is a high-level process for extracting maximum value from LinkedIn data automatically:
- Define your key business objectives and questions.
- Identify what LinkedIn data is needed to meet those goals.
- Evaluate the best methods for automated data access.
- Select tools and vendors to provide the LinkedIn data.
- Implement processes to analyze and act on the data.
- Integrate LinkedIn data into CRM, MAP, and other systems.
- Measure the impact on campaigns, pipeline, and revenue.
- Refine data collection and usage based on results.
It takes some upfront planning, resources, and trial-and-error to build effective workflows around LinkedIn data. But the access to LinkedIn’s unique professional data makes the investment extremely worthwhile for most B2B organizations.
Key Takeaways
Here are the major points to remember about automating access to LinkedIn data:
- Valuable Business Insights: LinkedIn data powers prospecting, recruiting, market research, competitive intel, lead generation, and more.
- Multiple Access Options: Main methods include LinkedIn API, data providers, scraping, and native Pages/apps.
- Requires Integration: Workflows, campaigns, and systems must leverage LinkedIn data to drive ROI.
- Evolving Platform: New products and restrictions require flexibility and experimentation.
- Proceed With Caution: Follow LinkedIn’s terms of service and monitor data quality.
With 660+ million professionals represented, LinkedIn is the largest and most valuable source of B2B data online. Applying the right tools and strategies enables harnessing LinkedIn data at scale to gain competitive advantage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of data can be extracted from LinkedIn?
LinkedIn provides access to various types of professional data including member profiles, skills, job history, education, connections, company details, groups, posts, articles, ads, and more. The depth of data depends on the extraction method used.
Does LinkedIn allow data scraping?
No, scraping violates LinkedIn’s User Agreement and risks account suspension if detected. However, many still scrape due to the amount of data accessible. Use scraping judiciously at your own risk.
What are the risks of automated data extraction?
Main risks include violating LinkedIn’s terms of service, exceeding rate limits resulting in blocked access, incomplete or inaccurate data, and changes to platform restricting access. Monitoring and testing are necessary to mitigate risks.
How can I best use LinkedIn data in sales prospecting?
Use LinkedIn data to identify quality prospects, append key details to CRM records, segment and prioritize outbound lists, and integrate with sales automation tools. Focus on high-value fields like job role, company, connections, and profile completeness.
What are some key tools for accessing LinkedIn data?
Top tools include LinkedIn native apps, the LinkedIn API and associated SDKs, data providers like LinkedSelling and ZoomInfo, browser extensions like Lusha for enhanced profiles, scraping software, LinkedIn API integration platforms, and more.
Is all LinkedIn data publicly accessible?
No, much of LinkedIn’s data requires authentication and approved access through the API or partner programs. Publicly visible data is limited to cursory profile info, general connections, and publicly shared posts. Private messages, network insights, and profile details require API approval.
Can I extract data from my own LinkedIn company page?
Yes, Company Page admins can access data on visitors, followers, page updates, employee shares, and more under Page Analytics. Lead capture forms also allow collecting data from site visitors. Apps can extend data collection capabilities.
Is it legal to scrape LinkedIn data?
Technically scraping violates LinkedIn’s terms of service and would be considered illegal access of private data without consent. However, scraping LinkedIn itself is not prohibited by law. Many still proceed with scraping despite the risks.
What are best practices for extracting LinkedIn data?
Key best practices include: carefully comply with LinkedIn’s terms of service, implement robust monitoring and testing of data, integrate LinkedIn data into workflows to drive measurable value, stay up-to-date on platform changes, start small and expand program gradually.