Look up a contact or lead's LinkedIn profile from Salesforce for free

Look up a contact or lead's LinkedIn profile from Salesforce for free

One of our most common feature requests at Salesbolt was the ability to be able to capture LinkedIn profile URLs into Salesforce.
So much so that we've built this capability into our chrome extension: Salesforce integration for LinkedIn

What's the use case?

It makes sense, you're inside Salesforce and want a quicker way of getting to a prospects LinkedIn profile in order to do some research before a call (Salesforce did have a Salesforce social widget at one point it's since been shelved).

“It's real easy to recreate a similar function with a little Salesforce admin / setup work you can add a button to find a person on LinkedIn from within Salesforce."‍

If you're not an admin - don't fear, click here and use our free tool that can grab any profile (including their profile URLs) and create them in Salesforce.

I'm an admin, how can I make a social lookup?

You're in the right place! This guide will show you how to build your own lightweight LinkedIn integration for Salesforce using what's sometimes referred to as a "URL hack".

Use Case

Your users want a direct link to their prospect or customer's LinkedIn profile so they can research a lead or contact before making contact.

Solution

We're going to create a neat little URL button that you can add to your record's page layouts in just a few minutes (It's super simple).
A LinkedIn search URL is coded into a custom Salesforce button and the search parameters of record being viewed are inserted into this URL using Salesforce merge fields.

Example:
https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?company={!Account.Name}&firstName={!Contact.FirstName}&lastName={!Contact.LastName}&origin=FACETED_SEARCH

When the button is clicked in Salesforce from a Contact Object record with the first name (Craig) last name (Maxwell) and Account name (Salesbolt) this then becomes:
https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?company=Salesbolt&firstName=Craig&lastName=Maxwell&origin=FACETED_SEARCH

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Create a Custom Detail Page Button

1. From Setup, click Object Manager, then click Contact.
2. Click Buttons, Links, and Actions, then click New Button or Link.
3. Name the button Search LinkedIn
4. Select Detail Page Button.
5. Paste the below URL into the formula editor for either people or companies search.

If you want to be specific with the search results, you can specify the search type in LinkedIn by changing the "index" value above with either "people" or "companies" this tightens up the results found in LinkedIn.

LinkedIn "People" Search from a Contact:

https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?company={!Account.Name}&firstName={!Contact.FirstName}&lastName={!Contact.LastName}&origin=FACETED_SEARCH

LinkedIn Company Search from an Account:

https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/companies/?keywords={!Account.Name}&origin=GLOBAL_SEARCH_HEADER
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Of course you can do the same with Lead just by swapping out the merge fields in the URL for Lead values. ⚡️

💡 Want to link to LinkedIn Sales Navigator instead? Try the below URL:
https://www.linkedin.com/sales/search/people?companyIncluded={!Account.Name}
&companyTimeScope=CURRENT_OR_PAST&doFetchHeroCard=false&firstName={!Contact.FirstName}&lastName={!Contact.LastName}

Example:
https://www.linkedin.com/sales/search/people?companyIncluded=Salesbolt
&companyTimeScope=CURRENT_OR_PAST
&doFetchHeroCard=false&firstName=Stony&lastName=Grunow

This URL uses merge fields such as ({!Account.Name}) and passes the field information from the contact record that the button is clicked from into the LinkedIn search URL.
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Here's what you should end up with:

Now add it to the Contact page layout

6. Click Page Layouts, then click Account Layout.
7. From the Buttons category in the palette, drag Search LinkedIn into the Custom Buttons area on the page layout.
8. Be sure to also edit the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions and drag your new button to the top of the list to ensure it is accessible on the page layout.

Here's what your finished custom button should look like... ⚡️

Let us know your thoughts. 👏