Success! The ultimate guide to scraping Linkedin

In this article we will discuss: 

• LinkedIn scraping for talent discovery 
• Scrape LinkedIn for better investment decisions 
• Performing CRM enrichment using LinkedIn scrapers 
• Scraping LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn scraping for talent discovery

Recruiters are identifying people with specific experience

By scraping LinkedIn for specific public data points, Human Resource professionals are able to collect information such as:

• Employee titles 
• Companies in targeted industries
• All while filtering for specific entities that interest them.

For example, companies can collect the names of all the Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), of businesses in the U.S. with under 50 employees. They could further pinpoint their search by identifying CTOs who have a background in social-gaming, and who have 10+ years experience. This ability to customize the data collected to their specific needs coupled with precise geo-targeting enables much more efficient talent discovery. 

Experts are analyzing career paths in general and of ethnic groups in particular 

University researchers, labor institute policymakers, and job search application builders are all using LinkedIn data collection in order to:

1. Understand how to promote career paths in different industries for those that are currently underrepresented. For example they are looking to answer questions such as How can we increase the participation rates of women in engineering fields? And How can we enable people of color to attain more leadership roles in the financial sector? Etc.  In order to get a real-time picture of how labor is currently evolving professionals can collect information on female engineers, where they were educated, as well as where they have worked in order to algorithmically create a profile that can be replicated to empower the broader female labor force. 

2. Educational institutions such as universities who want to better understand how the top-earning/performing professionals in a given field achieved their success. Are asking, and answering questions such as: Where did these individuals do their Bachelors, and Masters degrees? What firms did they intern with? And what hobbies/societies or extracurriculars were they involved in?

Scrape LinkedIn public data for better investment decisions 

Funds are identifying companies that are ripe for investment 

Venture Capitalists, hedge funds, and other groups that are constantly looking to get in on deals at the mezzanine level are using LinkedIn data to identify new deals. For example, a Venture Capital firm may be looking for companies that are not performing well despite having a good product offering. So if they see that employee growth is stagnant, user brand engagement is low (vis-a-vis brand mentions, organic posts, likes, shares, and comments), or that a company is getting negative coverage, they can then take further action. Once such an entity is identified in a field in which they have previous experience bringing value-add they may want to take a closer look, and see if they want to invest, ‘fix what is broken’, and sell that company at a profit a few years down the line. 

Companies are mapping their competitive landscape based on geography 

Companies that are looking to enter a new market, roll out a new product, or attempt to change the way in which an industry operates are using LinkedIn public data in order to get a more accurate picture of target markets. For example, Chinese electric car companies that are looking to break into markets in Europe and the Middle East may want to collect data on companies that are already successfully operational in these locales. They may want to collect data points on marketing campaigns, articles being shared and engaged with, as well as which influencers are impacting consumer decisions in a meaningful way. Then using this information to generate valuable and actionable insights on market penetration tactics. 

Performing CRM enrichment using LinkedIn scrapers

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are leveraging LinkedIn data sets in order to enrich their lead generation process. Most leads need to be followed up ‘blindly’ from a third-party source. But when collecting public company information such as:

• Size
• Location
• Industry
• Recent activity 

They are able to add a layer of information that sales reps and business developers can use in order to cross-reference, ultimately deciding:

• If a lead is a worthwhile target to invest time, and effort on
• How the lead in question should be approached 
• Who is the most appropriate person in the organizational hierarchy to make a pitch to
• What solution, scale, and product capabilities could be most interesting to the target in question 
• What is the scope of operations which can serve as an indication of deal size growth over the mid to long term. 

Scraping LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Companies that collect information directly from the LinkedIn sales navigator are most likely collecting illegal data as it is protected by a login process. This type of data is considered unlawful to collect under the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and American California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

The good news is that you can use tools like Web Scraper IDE in order to gain access to the same information which is displayed as open-source web data, making it complete fair play. This is key in protecting the value that this data helps create for your business in the long term (say new lead generation).

Some key data points that businesses look to target from the LinkedIn Sales Navigator which can be obtained using safer data collection tools, include:

1. Identifying professionals and companies in your space that have the potential to benefit from your products/services. This makes them excellent candidates for high-value customers with increased Customer Lifetime Value (CTV).
2. Keeping track of developments at target business entities such as changes in key role position holders, as well as Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A). This empowers companies to act strategically, and in real-time as new business opportunities present themselves.
3. Monitoring for trending content, and posts with high user engagement in order to better inform targeted marketing campaigns, and sales development pitches.

An alternative and more advanced solution for receiving all sorts of public LinkedIn data is utilizing a fresh LinkedIn dataset. Those datasets are collected on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis and are always kept updated, allowing companies to discover new potential prospects and talents on a regular basis without having to worry about proxy services, a web scraping platform, or solving CAPTCHAs and blockings.

The bottom line 

LinkedIn is a place where companies go to do business and can be an excellent source for companies to enrich their algorithms, systems, and teams with public information that will enable them to get the job done in a more targeted and efficient way.