LinkedIn is a popular social media platform used by professionals and businesses to network, build their brand, advertise jobs, and share content. With over 722 million members worldwide, LinkedIn provides a great opportunity to reach a large audience.
One of the key features of LinkedIn is the ability to publish posts. This allows users to share articles, images, videos, and other content. Over the years, LinkedIn members may have accumulated hundreds of posts. There are several reasons why someone may want to export their LinkedIn posts:
- To have a backup of the posts in case the account is ever deleted
- To repurpose the content on a blog or other website
- To analyze metrics and performance of different types of posts
- To use the posts as writing samples or testimonials
Fortunately, LinkedIn provides a way for users to export all of their posts in just a few clicks. In this article, we’ll walk through the step-by-step process of exporting your LinkedIn posts along with some tips and tricks.
How to Export LinkedIn Posts
Exporting LinkedIn posts is a straightforward process that can be done directly from your account settings. Here are the steps:
- Login to your LinkedIn account on a desktop web browser (the export feature is not available in the mobile app).
- Click on your profile image in the top right corner of the screen.
- From the dropdown menu, select “Settings & Privacy”.
- On the left side of the page, click “Privacy”.
- Under “How LinkedIn uses your data”, click “Getting a copy of your data”.
- On the “Get a copy of your LinkedIn data” page, click the “Request archive” button.
- On the popup, select the checkbox for “Posts and activities”. You can also select any other data you want to export.
- Click “Request archive”.
LinkedIn will now start processing your data export request. The time it takes to prepare the download can vary anywhere from minutes to a few days depending on how much data is being exported.
Once ready, you’ll receive an email from LinkedIn with a link to download the ZIP file containing your data. The posts will be in HTML format within the “Feed” folder.
Exporting Specific Posts
By default, LinkedIn exports all of your posts when you request an archive. However, there may be times when you only want to export specific posts rather than your entire history.
Unfortunately, LinkedIn does not provide an option to select individual posts to export. There is a workaround though using third-party tools. Here are two options:
Social Media Exporter
Social Media Exporter is a free online tool that allows exporting LinkedIn posts. To use it:
- Go to SocialMediaExporter.com and click “LinkedIn Exporter”.
- Login with your LinkedIn account credentials when prompted.
- The tool will display all your posts. You can use the filter and search to find specific posts.
- Check the posts you want to export and click “Export Checked” at the bottom.
- The selected posts will download as a CSV or JSON file.
The main limitation with this method is that only basic post data like text, links, and hashtags is exported. The HTML formatting and styling of the actual posts is not included.
LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn Premium account holders have access to an advanced search tool under “My Network” that can filter posts by date ranges, keywords, content format, likes, comments, and more.
Once you have the search results filtered to the specific posts you want, you can individually export each one:
- Click on a post from the search results to open it.
- Click the “…” icon in the top right corner.
- Select “Save as PDF” to download just that single post.
This method is more time consuming but will export the posts in PDF format with styling intact. You may need to run multiple searches and repeat the steps above to capture all the posts you need.
Alternative Export Options
If you need a backup of your LinkedIn posts outside of the archive ZIP file, here are a couple alternative export options:
Save as PDF Chrome Extension
The “Save as PDF” extension for Chrome allows exporting any webpage as a PDF file. To use:
- Install the Save as PDF extension in Chrome.
- Go to your LinkedIn profile and click “See all activity” under your intro.
- Scroll down through your posts and click the extension icon when you want to export a post.
- A dialog box will open to save the post as a PDF file.
This is a more manual process but can be helpful for occasionally exporting individual LinkedIn posts that you want to save offline.
LinkedIn Post Scraper
For developers, there are LinkedIn scraper tools like LinkedIn Post Scraper that can programmatically export posts through unofficial APIs. The repository has instructions for running the scraper locally to export post data.
This method requires some technical setup but is the most robust way to export LinkedIn posts. The scraper can be customized to export specific post types, date ranges, etc.
Tips for Exporting LinkedIn Posts
Here are some additional tips when exporting your LinkedIn posts:
- Request posts and activity data only – This results in a smaller archive size for faster downloads. You can then request other data separately if needed.
- Export posts before making major account changes – If you’re planning on deleting connections or changing jobs, export your posts first.
- Use the Chrome extension for one-off needs – The official LinkedIn export is better for bulk backups. Use the extension to quickly save individual posts.
- Try downloading in incognito mode if the official export link doesn’t work – Sometimes cookies/cache can interfere with the LinkedIn download.
- Extract the posts from the ZIP file to retain formatting – Rather than viewing the HTML files directly in the archive, extract them to maintain styling.
What Data is Included in Exported Posts?
When you export your LinkedIn posts, whether through the account archive or social media exporter tool, here are some of the specific details that are included:
- Post text, including any formatting, links, emojis, hashtags, and @mentions
- Post creation date
- Engagement data like number of reactions, comments, and shares
- Images, videos, and other media attached to the post
- Post caption and description (if provided)
- Post visibility (public, connections only etc.)
Some data that is NOT included:
- Analytics like impressions and engagement demographics
- Information on who liked, commented, or shared the post
- Content of the comments and replies
- Insights about clicks on hashtags or @mentions
- A/B testing data if you tested different headlines/images
So the core post content and metadata is included, but not the detailed analytics and engagement information.
Uses for Exported LinkedIn Posts
Once you’ve exported your LinkedIn posts, here are some of the ways you can use them:
Repurposing Content
One of the most popular uses is repurposing existing content from LinkedIn for other platforms like a blog, newsletter, or social networks like Twitter and Facebook. For example, you can take a successful LinkedIn post and turn it into a full blog article by expanding on the topic.
Analysis
Exporting your posts allows you to analyze their performance more closely. You can sort by number of reactions and comments to see your top performing posts. Or filter by post type, length, media attachments etc. to identify trends and optimize your future content strategy.
Building a Portfolio
The posts showcase your writing skills and thought leadership. Maintaining an archive can serve as a content portfolio when applying for jobs, freelance gigs or consulting projects.
Guest Post Outreach
Your exported posts provide samples when doing outreach for guest posting opportunities on other sites. You can provide a few links to demonstrate your experience writing in that niche.
Legal and Compliance
For regulated industries like financial services, exporting social media content may be required for legal and compliance purposes. Having an archive of old posts can also help limit liability.
Important Things to Know When Exporting LinkedIn Posts
Here are some key things to keep in mind when exporting and reusing your LinkedIn posts:
- Always check the LinkedIn User Agreement for any restrictions on how you can use exported posts.
- Properly credit yourself as the author if republishing the content elsewhere.
- Update old posts with new facts, statistics or conclusions before reusing as outdated information loses credibility.
- You cannot export other user’s posts – only content you have authored.
- Connections may be notified when you reuse and repurpose content.
- Customize the content before publishing elsewhere to avoid duplicate content penalties.
- Review hashtags, @mentions and embedded media for relevance when reposting.
Following these best practices helps maintain trust with your LinkedIn network and gets maximum mileage from your exported posts.
Troubleshooting Common LinkedIn Export Issues
When trying to export your LinkedIn posts, there are a few common issues that may come up:
Error Creating Archive
If you receive an error when requesting the archive such as “Error creating archive – please try again later”, this is typically a temporary technical issue on LinkedIn’s end. Wait a few hours and try requesting the export again.
Warnings About Duplicate Content
LinkedIn may show warnings about duplicate content if you are reposting exported content too frequently. To avoid this, customize the post and add more original commentary.
Download Link Expiring
The data export download link expires after a few days. If you miss the window, go back to the ‘Get a copy of your data’ page and request a new archive.
Missing Data in Exported File
If certain posts, images or other data is missing from the exported archive, contact LinkedIn support. They can troubleshoot why the export did not complete properly.
Exported Posts Not Displaying Properly
Extract the HTML post files from the ZIP archive rather than viewing them directly. The formatting can break if you just open the archive and click the HTML files.
Conclusion
Exporting your LinkedIn posts is a quick and easy process that gives you access to all your content for safekeeping and reuse. Following LinkedIn’s privacy guidelines, you can repurpose this content for multiple platforms. Analyzing your posts also provides valuable insights to create better performing content moving forward.
With the steps provided in this article, you should now have a good understanding of how to export posts on LinkedIn. The official account archive is the best option for bulk backups, while tools like Social Media Exporter are better for one-off needs. Knowing what data is included, how to troubleshoot issues, and best practices for reusing posts helps maximize the value of your exported content.
