How to Connect LinkedIn to Microsoft Excel

Getting your LinkedIn data into a spreadsheet opens up a world of possibilities for analyzing your connections, tracking your content, and creating powerful sales funnels. But there isn't a giant Connect to Excel button on your profile. This guide will walk you through the most effective methods, from simple manual exports to setting up automated workflows, so you can turn your LinkedIn activity into actionable data.

Why Connect LinkedIn to Excel in the First Place?

Moving your data from LinkedIn's platform into a flexible environment like Excel allows you to see your network and performance in a totally new light. What you're really doing is giving yourself the power to sort, filter, and visualize information that's usually locked within LinkedIn's interface. Think about a few of the results this can achieve:

• Better Audience Understanding: Once you export your connections, you can slice and dice the data with PivotTables. Instantly see which companies are most represented in your network, find contacts in specific roles, or track how your network has grown over time.
• Smarter Content Strategy: By exporting your Company Page analytics, you can track post performance over a long period. Identify trends in what types of content get the most clicks, shares, and engagement, and use those insights to shape your future posts.
• Streamlined Lead Management: An export of your new connections can become the starting point for a simple, effective Lead Management system. You can add columns in Excel to track outreach status, conversation notes, and follow-up dates without needing complex software.
• Customized Reporting: Instead of relying on LinkedIn’s limited analytics dashboards, you can build your own in Excel. Create charts and graphs that highlight the metrics that matter most to you, your team, or your clients.

Essentially, you're taking raw social media information and turning it into organized business intelligence. It’s a foundational skill for any marketer, salesperson, or brand builder who wants to be more data-driven.

The Direct Route: Manually Exporting Data from LinkedIn

The most straightforward method for getting your LinkedIn data into Excel is to use LinkedIn’s built-in export features. It’s free, easy, and gives you a snapshot of your data at a specific point in time. There are two primary types of data you’ll want to export: your personal connections and your Company Page analytics.

How to Export Your Connections

LinkedIn allows you to download an archive of your data, including a neat CSV file of all your first-degree connections. This is perfect for building a contact list or getting a high-level view of your professional network.

Here’s the step-by-step process:

1. Log in to LinkedIn and click your Me icon in the top right corner. Then, select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown menu.
2. In the left-hand sidebar, navigate to the Data privacy section.
3. Find the option that says "Get a copy of your data" and click on it.
4. You’ll be presented with several options. To get just your connections, select "Want something in particular?" and then check the box next to Connections.
5. Click the Request archive button. LinkedIn will take a few minutes (sometimes longer if you have a huge network) to process your request. You'll receive an email notification when your download is ready.
6. Once you get the email, follow the link to download the ZIP file. Inside, you’ll find a file named Connections.csv.

Open this CSV file with Excel. You'll find columns for "First Name," "Last Name," "Company," "Position," and importantly, the "Connected On" date. This simple file is a goldmine for organizing your contacts.

How to Export Company Page Analytics

If you manage a LinkedIn Company Page, exporting its performance data is essential for reporting. LinkedIn provides separate analytics for your visitors, followers, and individual posts.

Follow these steps to find and export the data:

1. Go to your LinkedIn Company Page and make sure you are in administration view.
2. At the top of the page, click on the Analytics tab. You’ll see several options like Visitors, Followers, and Content.
3. Click into one of these sections, for example, Content to see your post performance.
4. In the upper right corner of the analytics module, you’ll see a blue Export button.
5. You can set a date range (e.g., last 30 days, last 90 days, or a custom range). After selecting your desired time frame, click Export.
6. Just like with your personal data, LinkedIn will export an XLSX or CSV file directly to your computer.

This export file will contain detailed metrics for each of your posts, including impressions, clicks, click-through rate (CTR), engagement rate, likes, comments, and shares. Repeat this process for the Visitors and Followers tabs to get a complete picture of your page's performance.

Pros and Cons of Manual Exports
The biggest advantage is that this method is 100% free and sanctioned by LinkedIn. However, it's a manual process. The data isn't live, so you'll have to repeat the export periodically to keep your spreadsheets up-to-date.

An Advanced Method: Using Excel’s Power Query

For those feeling a bit more adventurous, you can use a powerful built-in Excel feature called Power Query (also known as Get & Transform Data) to pull public data from the web. This method is best suited for grabbing information that’s publicly visible on a LinkedIn Company Page, like post text and engagement numbers, but it’s less reliable for private or account-specific data.

A word of caution: LinkedIn's website structure changes, and they actively work to prevent large-scale scraping. This method can be temperamental and may not work consistently, but it is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal for certain tasks.

Here’s how you can give it a try:

1. Open a new blank workbook in Microsoft Excel.
2. Go to the Data tab on the ribbon.
3. In the "Get & Transform Data" section, click on From Web.
4. An input box will pop up. Paste the full URL of the public LinkedIn Company Page you want to get data from. Click OK.
5. Excel will open a Navigator window that shows all the data tables it could detect on that page. You’ll need to click through the different tables in the preview to find the one containing the data you want (e.g., post information).
6. Once you've found a relevant table, you can click Load to import it directly into your worksheet or Transform Data to open the Power Query Editor for cleaning and formatting.

The Power Query Editor is where the true power lies. You can remove unnecessary columns, filter out rows, and shape the data exactly how you need it before loading it into your spreadsheet. A major weakness of this method is that it often struggles with dynamic pages that require scrolling to load more content (like a company's post history).

Using Third-Party Tools to Automate the Connection

If manually exporting data every week sounds tedious, you're not alone. The easiest and most reliable way to connect LinkedIn and Excel is by using third-party automation platforms. These services act as a bridge between the two applications, allowing you to create "recipes" or "zaps" that move data automatically based on specific triggers.

Automation Platforms like Zapier or Make

Tools like Zapier are built for this exact purpose. They connect to thousands of apps, including LinkedIn and Microsoft Excel Online. You can set up workflows without writing a single line of code.

Here's a relatable example of what you can accomplish:

• Trigger: New post on your LinkedIn Company Page.
• Action: Create a new row in a specific Excel spreadsheet.
• What data gets sent? You can map the data fields, sending the post text, link, publication time, and even initial engagement numbers directly into columns in your sheet. A few hours later, you can have another "zap" update that same row with new engagement stats.

This creates a live, automated content performance tracker. You could also set up triggers for when you gain a new follower on your page or when a specific keyword is mentioned on LinkedIn.

Specialized Data Extraction Services

Some tools, such as PhantomBuster, are specifically designed for extracting data from social media. While powerful, it’s necessary to use these services responsibly and ensure they comply with LinkedIn's terms of service. They are often used by sales and marketing teams to automate lead list generation or to gather research on competitors. Always prioritize ethical data-gathering practices when using these types of powerful tools.

Putting Your Data to Work: What to Do in Excel

Once you have your LinkedIn data in Excel, the real fun begins. You can move beyond just viewing raw numbers and start creating helpful analysis and management tools.

• Create a Connections Dashboard: Use a PivotTable on your exported connections list. In just a few clicks, you can create a summary that groups your contacts by their current company. It’s an incredibly fast way to see where your network is concentrated.
• Track Your Content Over Time: With your content performance data, create a simple line chart. Set the date on the X-axis and metrics like Impressions or Engagement Rate on the Y-axis. This visual makes it easy to spot which days your content performed best or if your overall engagement is trending up or down.
• Build a Mini-CRM: Take your new connections export and add a few columns: "Status" (e.g., Not Contacted, Messaged, Follow-Up), "Last Contact Date," and "Notes." This simple addition transforms a static list into a dynamic tool for managing your outreach efforts. Congratulate a new contact on their latest role a couple of days after an intro message–you’ll be a pro in no time!

Final Thoughts

Connecting LinkedIn to Excel bridges the gap between social media activity and actionable business data. Whether you choose manual exports for quick analysis, automation tools for constant tracking, or Power Query for more custom tasks, getting this information into a spreadsheet is a foundational step in becoming a more insightful and organized marketer or salesperson.

Pulling social media data into spreadsheets often fills a gap left by tools that make clear reporting difficult. Since we run social media for multiple brands, we built our analytics dashboard at Postbase to show everything you need in one clean view, across all your platforms. It helps you get clear, actionable insights on what's working without ever needing to mess around with manual CSV exports in the first place.