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You will learn how you can analyze your profile and content by using the LinkedIn Dashboard. On top, I'll show you groundbreaking alternatives to get even deeper insights into your data.
If you ask yourself if this guide can help you to rack up your LinkedIn game, read further and see which topics we will go through.
You will learn where to find and how to use your native LinkedIn Dashboard statistics
You will see which LinkedIn Dashboard alternatives exist and where to find them
You will gain valuable insights in how to get the most out of your LinkedIn Dashboard
The first topic we cover will be about the standard LinkedIn Dashboard, that is available to every user. You don't need to have a premium account to access the data listed below.
The standard LinkedIn interface allows you to accumulate valuable insights. However, it can be tricky to navigate on the LinkedIn platform since the available data is nested pretty badly.
I have categorized the different topics based on what insight you get. Also, I will show you where to find the respective metrics.
The LinkedIn profile Dashboard gives you insights based on the people visiting your page. Some metrics will be visible right away, others need to be expanded to be noticeable.
You see the avatars of the people that have been visiting your profile. Note: some users have set their profiles to be not visible in your preview.
Profile Views indicate the number of users that were on your private profile.
Knowing who interacts with your content is key. You can optimize your planing and fine-tune your message based on these insights. Therefore LinkedIn provides you with some hidden metrics, which can be found on your profile Dashboard.
LinkedIn's Dashboard will show you 5 companies where people who search for you work.
You will find 5 vague job descriptions of people searching for you. For example "Founder" or "Journalist".
The keywords people used to find your profile over the search.
The number of times your profile appeared in search results within 1 week.
To improve your content performance you have to understand what moves the needle for your use case. At this point, LinkedIns only option to analyze your posts and articles is to do it manually, post by post.
For large accounts, teams and businesses this may be inappropriate. If you fall into one of these segments, the next section covers some good alternatives for you.
Views or Impressions indicate how many people have seen your post or article.
You see the quantity and distribution of your likes.
You can find who has commented and which reaction to your post has received the most thumbs up.
The discovery hub lets you see popular hashtags in your network as well as hashtag opportunities for your content. The page itself is pretty unknown. I would say this is primarily because the discovery hub is also somewhat hard to find in the LinkedIn interface.
LinkedIn will present you hashtag they think are relevant for you.
You can find people that have similar profiles or other users that match your current network.
Example: People who follow #linkedin also follow these hashtags
You find a bunch of recommended and trending pages other people in your network follow.
LinkedIn gives you an idea of which people are frequently followed in your network. Also, you get suggestions based on your activity.
Some love it, some don't understand it: the Social Selling Index (SSI). Personally, I find it not so helpful to focus on these metrics. I miss concrete insights that help me to improve.
In a recent conversation about this topic, I was argued that the SSI is only there to reward active communication on LinkedIn. Whatever it is, the following stats are provided by LinkedIn.
Info: I have written a detailed Guide about LinkedIn's SSI. This guide helps you to understand HOW the Social Selling Index works and WHAT you can do to positively influence it. Following this guide will strengthen your Personal Brand.
A score that indicates how well you have established your brand. LinkedIn recommends creating meaningful content and complete your profile to increase the score.
Aka. find the right people. This score is influenced by the way you use the search tools provided by LinkedIn to connect with others.
The way you interact with others on the platform determines the score of this metric.
LinkedIn suggests that you strengthen your network by finding and establishing trust with decision-makers.
This chart shows you how your SSI developed over time.
You can compare your SSI with other users in your industry.
You can compare your SSI in regard to your direct network.
Interim result: LinkedIns standard dashboard solution offers insights for beginners and intermediates. Professionals complain about the scattered metrics, which are found all over the platform.
Also, LinkedIn's standard solution lacks important metrics like the engagement-rate, historic data visualization, the number of shares, and correlation of certain KPI's.
In my opinion, the absence of essential stats makes it way harder to achieve a substantial analysis. Tip: in the next section you will find a solution that fixes these issues.
I have researched and put together alternatives that you can use to either build your own dashboards or to go with pre-made ones.
I know that there are different needs, so there are ranging solutions. The tools I have put together are categorized around personas that I believe are relevant for most of you.
You can use the Google Data Studio to build custom dashboards for LinkedIn. However, this solution is only capable to analyze your LinkedIn business sites, not your personal LinkedIn profiles. You will need Supermetrics to connect LinkedIn to the Google Data Studio.
Pros:
Customizable Dashboard
Beautiful Interfaces
Cons:
Not for personal accounts (that sucks)
Supermetrics monthly fees
No team plans
This solution is perfect for you if…
You want to customize the LinkedIn Dashboard exactly like you imagine. You do not need to analyze individual profiles. You are happy to pay money for this solution.
I guess most users fall into this category. Whether you are a freelancer, recruiter, focused on personal branding, an agency helping customers, serious about getting a job, or a sales/ marketing person, this solution is most likely for you.
The tool it is about is inlytics.io. We're talking about a comprehensive LinkedIn Analytics solution, that gives in-depth insights and provides you with actionable steps to upgrade your LinkedIn game.
inlytics has a free plan for people just getting started, as well as paid plans for professionals and teams.
Pros:
Best in class LinkedIn Analytics
Time-efficient evaluation
Comes with a Free plan
AI optimization on the roadmap
Team plans available
Cons:
No statistics for business sites yet (Update: 04.06 it's on the roadmap)
This solution is perfect for you if…
You are an ambitious professional, agency, or team member and want to know exactly which content strategy works best for you. You want to save time. Also, you don't want to spend a fortune.
There is much hokus pokus and speculation around what workes "best" on LinkedIn. My mission is to cut out the guesswork and show you metrics that guide you to a sustainable performance improvement of your content.
The metrics that I think are most relevant, I'll show you in a second.
Before that, I want to notice that to demonstrate your important interrelations I will use inlytics as my LinkedIn Dashboard of choice.
Metrics are there to help you identify potentials and improve based on this information. Whatever LinkedIn Dashboard you use it should focus on relevant insights, not buzz metrics.
Let me explain:
In the case of inlytics the dashboard looks like this
You obtain many stats at one glance and can easily customize your interface.
When doing please be cautious about which metrics you focus on.
Avoid Overestimating These Metrics:
Content Impressions*
SSI Score
*Note: Impressions are a good indicator of how many people you have reached with your post. Unfortunately, people often worship the impressions of a post to be the only important metric. Which is certainly not the case. Thanks why I included it here.
When you look in your LinkedIn content Dashboard and see two different posts. One has 5000 impressions but rarely any engagement, the other one has 1000 impressions but an engagement-rate of over 10%.
Which one is more successful?
Guess what, for me, it's the post with more engagement.
Why? My goal is to create a responsive network of people I know and trust. For me, the Engagement-rate is a more suitable KPI than reach.
Metrics To Look At:
Engagement-Rate
Nobody knows exactly how the LinkedIn algorithm works. What we know from LinkedIn itself is, how they process and evaluate the quality of your content. Their strategy is to keep the LinkedIn feed relevant.
To better understand why your post develops the way it does, I recommend looking at the correlation of your post stats in your LinkedIn Dashboard. I a recent post LinkedIn also mentioned that the dwell time will have an increased importance in the assessment of the reach your post gets.
Metrics To Look At:
Chart visualization of the correlation between Reactions, Comments and Impressions
Becoming influential on LinkedIn takes time and a good understanding of what works on the platform.
LinkedIn Dashboards can help you accelerate the process by providing you with essential insights.
The selection of the right tool or method is up to you. I hope I could give you practical insights and help you to choose the perfect LinkedIn Dashboard.
That's all from me for today, have a great week!
WRITTEN BY
I help startups to validate their critical assumptions, sharpen the business case and ultimately generate traction.
I answer the questions that you may still have
To get the all start batch you need to do the following:
1. Get yourself a professional photo
2. Write a compeling headline
3. Complete your profile summary
4. Add your previous work expiriences and job descriptions
5. Ad skills and references
6. Customize your LinkedIn profile URL
A good resource for learning more about the all star award is this article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/12-steps-reach-all-star-linkedin-profile-status-claire-greenhow/
Yes there is. LinkedIn offers a dedicated LinkedIn Dashboard for Recruiters. You can find it here: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/recruiter
