Currently from SFDC I am able to look-up a LinkedIn contact via the published API.
The description of the contacts company in LinkedIn may not match your Account name - I therefore hold the Account name they have recorded in SFDC. You can also look up by their Unique Id if you record this.
I would like to write a report in Saleforce that shows:
SFDC Account name, Contact Name and Job Title and my SFDC recorded details of the SFDC LinkedIn Account Name, LinkedIn Job Title (easy so far, now the hard bit).... plus the current values in LinkedIn for the Contact name, Account and Job Title.
... the key to joining would be the LinkedIn Unique ID. Is their any way this can be done automatiucally.
If I subscribe the LinkedIn for Salesforce does this provide me update details or add fields to Salesforce reporting that enables joined up SFDC and LinkedIn data values for an employee in a single report line?
If the above is not possible, what other way can you track peoples movements if you are not conncted to them.
Regards
jeremy
Hi Jeremy,
If you're using the LinkedIn API, Salesforce reporting won't automatically query LinkedIn and join the current LinkedIn values to your Salesforce Contact record.
A typical approach would be to store the LinkedIn Unique ID on the Contact, then have an integration periodically call LinkedIn's API and update separate Salesforce fields such as:
- LinkedIn Current Name
- LinkedIn Current Company
- LinkedIn Current Job Title
- Last LinkedIn Check Date
You can then report on both your Salesforce-stored values and the latest values retrieved from LinkedIn in the same report.
Whether LinkedIn for Salesforce provides those fields or change tracking depends on the specific integration/version you're using. If you share which LinkedIn package/API you're using, I can be more specific.
For tracking job/company changes, storing a dated history of the retrieved values is also useful rather than simply overwriting the previous value.
