How to get LinkedIn URL based on profile name?

[Mohsin_Raza]

I have Airtable base which contains persons name and their job title.
I want to retrieve LinkedIn URL of person’s based on their name. How to do that?

[Bill_French]

Mohsin_Raza:

I want to retrieve LinkedIn URL of person’s based on their name.

The name URL for Linkedin profiles is often a lowercase concatenation of first and last name. However, this is not always the case. Example…

Unless your data matches the profile URL, you will be forced to use the Linkedin API to perform lookups to extract the true URL for each profile.

[ScottWorld]

Bill.French:

The name URL for Linkedin profiles is often a lowercase concatenation of first and last name. However, this is not always the case.

Just like all social media platforms, the username can be anything and is chosen by the user. It doesn’t even need to have anything to do with the person’s name.

Bill.French:

Unless your data matches the profile URL, you will be forced to use the Linkedin API to perform lookups to extract the true URL for each profile.

As far as I know, the LinkedIn API does not support this, and therefore does not support what @Mohsin_Raza is looking to do.

[Bill_French]

ScottWorld:

As far as I know, the LinkedIn API does not support this, and therefore does not support what @Mohsin_Raza is looking to do.

Okay, this is how lots of companies do it. At the outset, if you know the ID of the Linkedin member, you are able to retrieve profile information including the vanity URL.

If you lack the ID of the member, there are many APIs that will allow you to match your data with actual people like this search API which supports a passthrough to the Linkedin API for developers who do not have a tight relationship with Linkedin. To be clear, anyone can get direct access to this API.

I must also say that It’s been a bumpy ride on the Linkedin API train, but they do make it possible and support a very broad array of API services. Is it practical, or affordable - that’s a different question.

[ScottWorld]

From LinkedIn:

The use of this API is restricted to those developers approved by LinkedIn and subject to applicable data restrictions in their agreements.

[Bill_French]

ScottWorld:

From LinkedIn:

Yes - as is the case with almost all big tech APIs; they want to know who is using their data and they want a vig for every use. This is not uncommon for services that possess highly valued data that has been deeply vetted.

[Mohsin_Raza]

So I understand that there is no tool that can fetch LinkedIn URL directly through their first and last name.

[ScottWorld]

You could manually do the searches on LinkedIn — and then manually send the URL to Airtable — by using Airtable’s web clipper app & Chrome extension:

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Web clipper app

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Clip web content to your Airtable bases on Airtable with the Web clipper app.

[Bill_French]

Mohsin_Raza:

no tool that can fetch LinkedIn URL directly through their first and last name.

Let’s be clear - as @ScottWorld points out there are tools that can be used to fetch Linkedin content, but you cannot predict the URL with any degree of precision based only on first and last name. And there are business intelligence systems that will get this data based on a variety of inputs including first and last names. But these values tend to contain ambiguities that are not easily resolved in automated processes.

I assume your interest is to harvest Linkedin user profiles in an automated process. If you have a relationship with the targeted personas you should consider an oAuth-based app that allows these targeted individuals to share their profile addresses through a secure means. Scraping personal data through any means (in 2022) is a risky idea; best to get authority and that will make it far easier to harvest accurate data about these people. And read the fine print in the ToS for Linkedin - you might be a bit surprised. :winking_face:

If you want this data but have no relationship with the individuals, you are constrained to either buying the data or develop an intricate integration process.