How do I connect my LinkedIn data to Power BI?

Connecting your LinkedIn data to Power BI allows you to visualize and analyze your LinkedIn network, activity, and metrics. This can provide valuable insights into your professional network and how you are engaging with LinkedIn. In this article, we will walk through the steps for connecting your LinkedIn account to Power BI and building reports with your LinkedIn data.

Requirements for Connecting LinkedIn to Power BI

Here are the requirements for connecting your LinkedIn data to Power BI:

• You need a LinkedIn account
• You need a Power BI account
• You need to be signed into both your LinkedIn and Power BI accounts
• You need to install the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app in Power BI
• You need to connect the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app to your LinkedIn account

As long as you meet these requirements, you will be able to connect your LinkedIn data to Power BI. Let’s go through each of these steps.

Step 1: Install the LinkedIn Sales Navigator App

The first step is to install the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app in Power BI. Here is how to do this:

1. Open Power BI and click on “Get Data” at the top
2. In the Get Data page, click on “Apps” on the left sidebar
3. Search for “LinkedIn Sales Navigator”
4. Click on “LinkedIn Sales Navigator” > “Connect”
5. This will install the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app in Power BI

Once you have installed the app, you will need to connect it to your LinkedIn account.

Step 2: Connect the App to LinkedIn

To connect the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app to your LinkedIn account:

1. In Power BI, go to the Home tab
2. Click on “Apps” > “LinkedIn Sales Navigator”
3. Click on “Sign in” and enter your LinkedIn login credentials
4. This will connect the app to your LinkedIn account

Once connected, the app will be able to pull data from your LinkedIn account to use in Power BI.

Step 3: Load LinkedIn Data into Power BI

Now that the app is connected, you can load LinkedIn data into Power BI:

1. In Power BI, go to the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app
2. Click on “Get your data”
3. This will display the LinkedIn entities you can load, such as Accounts, Leads, Contacts, Deals, etc.
4. Select the LinkedIn data you want to load into Power BI
5. Click “Load”

Loading the data may take a few minutes depending on how much LinkedIn data you are importing. Once loaded, you will see the LinkedIn data show up as tables in the right-hand side panel in Power BI.

Step 4: Build Reports and Visualizations

Now you can use the imported LinkedIn data to create reports and visualizations in Power BI. Here are some examples of reports you can build:

LinkedIn Network Analysis

• Visualize your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree connections
• Analyze connections by industry, location, company, job title, and more
• See which parts of your network are most dense or sparse

LinkedIn Activity Analysis

• Track number of profile views, post views, and searches over time
• Analyze engagement on your posts and articles
• See who has viewed your profile and when

LinkedIn Sales Metrics

• Track leads generated from LinkedIn
• Visualize accounts won from LinkedIn leads
• Analyze LinkedIn lead conversion rates

You can create visualizations like bar charts, line charts, pie charts, graphs, and more using your LinkedIn data. The visuals will update dynamically as new data comes into your LinkedIn account.

Tips for Effective LinkedIn Data Analysis

Here are some tips to make the most of analyzing your LinkedIn data in Power BI:

• Focus your analysis on 2-3 key business questions
• Combine LinkedIn data with other data sources like Salesforce or Dynamics 365 CRM to get more context
• Create custom metrics like lead conversion rate, deal size from LinkedIn, profile view rate, etc.
• Track trends and monitor changes over weekly, monthly, or quarterly intervals
• Create interactive filters to easily segment data like time frame, geography, industry, etc.
• Build shareable dashboards focused on specific goals like lead gen, recruitment, sales, etc.

Limitations and Considerations

Here are some limitations and considerations when using LinkedIn data in Power BI:

• You can only access basic LinkedIn data with a free LinkedIn account. For more advanced metrics, you need a Sales Navigator or Recruiter account.
• LinkedIn data updates in Power BI may have a 24-48 hour lag from real-time LinkedIn activity.
• You can only load last 90 days of historical LinkedIn data into Power BI.
• Be mindful of visualizing identifiable personal information of LinkedIn members and connections.
• If you have a very large LinkedIn network, loading all data into Power BI may hit throttling limits.

Conclusion

Connecting LinkedIn to Power BI unlocks valuable insights from your professional network and activity data. With the right LinkedIn account, you can load member profiles, leads, connections, company pages, and account stats into Power BI. Building visual reports and dashboards allows you to track performance over time, share insights with colleagues, and identify new opportunities.

To recap, here are the steps to connect your LinkedIn data to Power BI:

1. Install the LinkedIn Sales Navigator app
2. Connect the app to your LinkedIn account
3. Load LinkedIn data entities like Leads, Accounts, Contacts into Power BI
4. Create reports and visualizations with the LinkedIn data
5. Analyze and share insights from your LinkedIn network

With the ability to pull insights from your professional network, connecting LinkedIn to Power BI is a valuable tool for any sales, marketing, recruiting, or analytics role. Approach your LinkedIn data thoughtfully, focus on key business questions, and combine it with other data sources to get the most value.