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Analyzing LinkedIn Data using PowerBI

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LinkedIn is another source of data for some interesting data analytics using Power BI. The LinkedIn APIs enable you to access a lot of the LinkedIn data. I have found the easiest way to generate the query string for Power Query is by using the API Console from Apigee.com.

A quick example that I tried was to get a list of people with Big Data skills. In order to do this, I used the LinkedIn API Console at Apigee.com: https://apigee.com/console/linkedin

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I selected OAuth2 in the authentication window and signed in with my LinkedIn account:

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I then used the Search People API method for experimenting with LinkedIn.

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I used “Big Data” in the key words field to get a list of people with the term “Big Data” anywhere in their profile. I set the count parameter to the max: 25.

I then copy the query string which looks like this:

https://api.linkedin.com/v1/people-search?keywords=%22Big%20Data%22\&count=25\&sort=connections

and add the access token shown in the Request window:

https://api.linkedin.com/v1/people-search?keywords=%22Big%20Data%22\&count=25\&sort=connections &oauth2_access_token=YourToken

I then copy and use this query string in Power Query for Excel 2013:

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This returns a table in the Query Editor. Click on Table:

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And you will see a list of names:

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There are some interesting possibilities here with providing drill down data when you click on a company name or skill set to view a list of contacts from LinkedIn for that skill or company. As I build out a complete use case, I would love to hear your ideas on interesting use cases for this data in combination with other data.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 12, 2014
    Here's a use case for you that merges two of you examples: Let me pull a list of companies from LinkedIn matching certain criteria and filter out companies that I already have in my CRM (thinking of your Salesforce example). That way, I have a great list to start prospecting.

  • Anonymous
    August 13, 2014
    thanks Brian ... yeah that would be an awesome experiment to use PowerBI as the platform to derive insights from across different sources.

  • Anonymous
    May 06, 2015
    Note that this API is now limited to registered Linkedin partners. You can still use Linkedin company search API. Read more here: gallery.technet.microsoft.com/Excel-Power-Query-Linkedin-2776f40f

  • Anonymous
    May 06, 2015
    Thanks for the update Gil.

  • Anonymous
    July 28, 2015
    Could you check to see if this method works with PowerBI Desktop?  I followed your method above with version 2.25.4095.554 of the software, and it's giving me errors (although I got a "HTTP/1.1 200 OK" response on my Apigee test console.  Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    January 28, 2016
    Where i can find the access token? in the api console?

  • Anonymous
    February 04, 2016
    I needed the searche people API method but LinkedIn just made it only available to LinkedIn partners. This is such a shame... :/

  • Anonymous
    June 29, 2016
    Great post! I really like and appreciate your work. You really did a great job by posting this information. It's very helpful for everyone who wants to know about this topic. We got a lot of information at one place.