LinkedIn stats and what they can tell you

by | Apr 7, 2014 | Author Platform, LinkedIn profiles

LinkedIn stats and what they can tell you 

Why have you set up a LinkedIn profile? To help you find a job? To help you build up your business and connect with potential customers? Whatever you have a LinkedIn account for, you want people to do one or all of three things:

1. Find your Profile
This could be because of something posted, either in a group or on the home page, but in all likelihood, it will be because someone was searching for you or the skills you have.

2. View your profile
Once they have come across your profile, then the next step is to view your profile. Hopefully, if the person likes what they see, then an invitation to connect will follow.3. Connect with you
Yay. Someone found you, viewed your profile and now wants to connect with you.  Just remember, an invitation to connect is also a conversation starter, so always respond to an invitation to connect, even if it is just to say thank you for the invitation.So, whether you are using your profile for personal marketing or business, it’s really important to look at the LinkedIn stats related to your profile. LinkedIn is really helpful in this regard. Take a look at your home page, and you’ll see the following:
LinkedIn stats and what they can tell you

In this case, both metrics are shown for 3 days, so we can see that less than half the time that I show up in searches, my profile get viewed.
11/27 => 41%
LinkedIn stats and what they can tell you

This screenshot was taken more recently. Whilst my profile was viewed less, it’s a higher percentage in terms of how many times I’ve shown up in the search results.
5/3 / 16/7 => 71%
Now, take a look at your home page.How many times have you appeared in searches? This can potentially be an indicator of how effective the keywords in your profile are. Bear in mind that you can search by name, so if you have a name that is common, then you’ll appear in more searches. In my case, it’s also an indicator of how other marketing efforts are working, for example, after publishing a new course, book or blog post my stats increase.How many times your profile has been viewed? This can be an indicator of how well you appear in searches, i.e. your headline and image, the fact that you appear high in searches or that you were the person being looked for. It could also be an indicator of how active you are, so people are looking for you specifically, rather than someone with your skills.What’s your percentage of profile views to search results? Monitor this on a weekly basis. That way, if you make any changes to your profile, you can see if, for example you appear in more or less searches, or if you changed your headline, did that mean more people clicked on your profile.Who’s viewed your profile
The other area where LinkedIn stats are shown is in the “Who’s viewed your profile” screen. What you see will depend on whether you have signed up to a premium service.  Here’s an example of mine:

LinkedIn stats and what they can tell you

In my case, spikes occur when I published courses and a new ebook, however, in early March I lost a close family member suddenly, and so was offline. During that time, I responded to emails but didn’t post blog posts or join group discussions, so was effectively inactive.
LinkedIn stats and what they can tell you

If the impact of being inactive on LinkedIn is not clear, take a look at the screenshot above. Only 21 profile views where due to a LinkedIn search. 17 were due to groups, 16 due to LinkedIn inbox i.e  I sent out invitations to connect, 9 Who’s viewed your profile i.e. people viewed my profile after I viewed theirs. So the more active I have been on LinkedIn, the more my profile gets viewed.Take a look at your “Who’s viewed your profile” screen and see:

  • how many times people are looking at your profile
  • where your viewers come from

Also, look at the people who actually viewed your profile and see how connected your are to them. Take a look at their profile and consider whether or not you’d like to send them an invitation to connect.

Finally, a review of my LinkedIn stats have shown me that, for me at least, the more active I am on LinkedIn, the more likely I am to get found on LinkedIn. What are your statistics telling you?