How to scrape LinkedIn: our simple and effective tips

Scraping on LinkedIn, like Growth Hacking, is very popular among marketers. It allows you to collect a maximum of data on your prospects in a minimum of time and use them directly via CRM.

Although this technique is both criticized and praised by professionals, it remains an essential asset in a sales automation strategy, provided that best practices are respected. In this article, we explain to you how to scrape Linkedin.

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Linkedin scraping: what is it?

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Scraping, or data extraction, is a technique that allows you to quickly and efficiently retrieve a large volume of data online.

You can then use this data for multiple tasks, such as:

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👉 A market/competitive study

👉 Lead generation and manual prospecting

👉 Lead generation and automated prospecting, especially with a CRM.

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Scraping on LinkedIn is interesting because you can extract a lot of usable data quickly: professional profiles, company pages... The catch is that LinkedIn's complex structure makes scraping difficult. To do it well, you need to have good techniques, and/or good tools! You will then be able to extract valuable data effectively.

Let's move on to practice: discover the best tools and techniques to do your LinkedIn scraping.

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Scraping Linkedin manually

As we said, scraping Linkedin by hand is complex and mainly intended for those who know how to code and master HTML as a second language.

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If you still want to try it, you need to install Selemium, a test framework, and master the Python language.

Although this method is free, it is very complicated: you may lose a lot (a lot) of time without getting the results you want. Hence the interest in automating this time-consuming task.

There are plenty of tools that can automate, as long as you know how to use them.

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✌️ Good to know: once you have scraped Linkedin, you will have an interesting contact base to take action and send your cold email campaigns! To help you be successful, we have written an article that gives you 7 examples of really effective emails.

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Use Linkedin scraping tools

The lemlist tool

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Thanks to the lemlist Chrome extension, you can extract, in a few seconds, all the data of your prospects on Linkedin or through a Sales Navigator search.

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With this tool, you get a lot of useful information: first name, last name, company name, LinkedIn URL, phone number on Linkedin...

This data is then automatically sent to one of your lemlist campaigns. If you prefer, it is also possible to import your Linkedin prospects one by one. The interest? You can add additional information such as position, status, degrees, industry, company information, etc.

The extension also allows you to create an ultra-personalized introduction sentence (or Icebreaker) for each lead and to import it as a variable in lemlist. For a unique message, add a personalized image for each prospect, with a screenshot of their profile integrated into your campaign.

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Use the lemlist extension to scrape Linkedin profiles:

👉 Create a Lemlist account for free

👉 Go to the Chrome Webstore and download the lemlist extension.

👉 Make sure you are connected to your LinkedIn and lemlist accounts.

👉 Open the extension and connect your LinkedIn and lemlist accounts.

👉 Go to a specific LinkedIn profile or search with the filters needed to target a group of prospects (with or without Sales Navigator).

👉 Once the search is complete, click on the extension.

👉 A form opens and the fields are automatically filled in with information from the LinkedIn profile of your prospects.

👉 From the dropdown menu, select the campaign you want to export leads to.

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The Phantombuster tool

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Widely used by scraping neophytes on Linkedin or Sales Navigator, Phantombuster allows you to scrape and prospect through the platform, all while ensuring compliance with Linkedin's general terms of use.

The software gives access to various pre-established “phantoms”, ranging from scraping profiles and accounts that have liked one of your publications to extracting participants in an event.

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Use the Phantombuster extension to scrape Linkedin profiles:

👉 Create an account on Phantombuster

👉 Choose the Phantom Linkedin Profile Scraper

👉 Add the URLs of the Linkedin profiles you want to scrape. To do this, either you enter them manually or you use the Linkedin Profile URL Finder feature.

👉 Configure your scraping settings, for example, indicate if you want tFind a business email address.

👉 Start Linkedin scraping to export data.

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The most? Phantombuster is free for up to 2000 contacts per month!

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The Waalaxy tool

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Waalaxy is a scraping tool that allows you to recover all the data of a Linkedin contact. From an interface point of view, it is very intuitive and quite simple to install.

The good news is that the platform is constantly developing new features. For example, it is possible to send direct messages to group members or automate targeting on Linkedin as well as on Sales Navigator.

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Use the Waalaxy extension to scrape Linkedin profiles:

👉 Install the extension using the Chrome Web Store

👉 Create a list (for example “architects Paris”)

👉 Export contacts

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Linkedin scraping: best practices

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Scraping on LinkedIn offers huge potential for accessing data and generating leads, but it needs to be approached ethically.

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Here are best practices and mistakes to avoid when it comes to privacy, security, and data extraction:

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1- Respect the confidentiality of data

✅ Use data responsibly and ethically.

❌ Do not use data for spamming, unsolicited prospecting, or any form of harassment.

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2 - Ensure the security of your LinkedIn account

✅ Choose scraping tools that are safe and reliable.

❌ Never share your LinkedIn login details with unsecured tools.

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3 - Seek accurate and high quality data extraction

✅ Ensure that the data extracted is accurate, complete, and relevant.

❌ Avoid inaccurate or incomplete data that can lead to poor decisions

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4 - Manage your weekly scraping capacity

LinkedIn can restrict or penalize accounts that scrape excessively.

✅ Spread out your scraping activities over the week (no more than 1000 profiles per day!)

❌ Avoid scraping too much data at once.

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Follow these practices to maximize the benefits of scraping while avoiding common pitfalls.

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What to do after scraping Linkedin?

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The data you have recovered can be valuable for a variety of tasks:

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1 - LinkedIn scraping in recruitment: finding potential candidates

• Use LinkedIn data to identify candidates that match your job descriptions.
• Reach out to these candidates directly, saving time and resources in the hiring process.

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2 - LinkedIn scraping in sales and marketing: generating leads

• Scrape LinkedIn to generate leads and build lead lists.
• Gather key information like job title, company, location, and contact information for prospects.
• Use this data to personalize your prospecting sequences and increase your conversion rates.

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For everything related to prospecting by cold email, we recommend using an enrichment tool like Dropcontact or Neverbounce! Dropcontact, for example, is a tool that is both intuitive and powerful.

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3 - LinkedIn scraping for business agility: analyzing trends

• Use the extracted data to analyze industry trends.
• Track competitors and better understand your target audience.
• This information can guide strategic decisions and help you stay ahead of the competition.

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Take advantage of these practices to maximize the impact of your scraped data on LinkedIn and drive business growth.

To go further, follow our Scraping training !

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