Proxyrack - September 14, 2023
Why and How You Should Use a LinkedIn Proxy
For business professionals, LinkedIn is the go-to social media platform. It provides a space for people all over the world to connect with and learn from one another, helping to facilitate commercial growth and development.
It's a fantastic resource for career-driven individuals, but it isn't without its limitations and challenges when it comes to getting the biggest ROI from your efforts.
In this guide, we'll walk you through how using proxies can elevate your LinkedIn activities. We'll explain the best types of LinkedIn proxies and showcase some of the situations where the assistance of a quality proxy provider could be your ticket to LinkedIn success.
First things first: How do proxies work?
A proxy server, often just shortened to a proxy, is essentially a virtual middleman. It handles the business of end users by communicating with destination websites on their behalf, acting as an intermediary between their device's IP address and the website they're visiting.
With a proxy, you perform actions and make requests via a totally separate online identity meaning you can protect your anonymity when browsing, conduct in-depth market research, run marketing campaigns internationally, and even access geo-restricted content that would otherwise be off-limits.
Why do people use LinkedIn proxies?
People use LinkedIn proxies for a whole range of reasons, from data scraping and managing multiple accounts to protecting their privacy online. Let's look at some of these use cases in a little more detail.
Data scraping
Arguably, this is one of the main reasons why people use LinkedIn proxies. By data scraping, we mean sifting through huge quantities of user data (usernames, email addresses, website links, skills, industries, job titles, seniority levels and so on) to make decisions about competitors and conduct market research.
If you open and browse through each profile one after the other, it will take you days, if not weeks, to finish. Scrapers make collecting data at scale possible, allowing you to gather and organize huge amounts of user profile information.
People rely on proxies when using scraping tools on social media platforms because the rules of the platforms often state pretty clearly that such activities are forbidden. If you want to scrape data on LinkedIn, you'll need to do so under the radar, or else you could face account termination.
Managing several LinkedIn accounts
Logging into multiple accounts from a single IP address will raise some red flags for LinkedIn's security detectors. Using a proxy network with rotating proxies allows you to change your IP each time you log into a different account.
An example of this might be a sales manager who needs to access the accounts of their team in order to send connection requests or share marketing materials.
Improved privacy
People with premium LinkedIn accounts will be able to see who views their profile, meaning that any snooping or competitor research you do can be tracked. By using a LinkedIn proxy, you can mask your online activities and protect your privacy.
Moreover, disguising your true IP address in favor of one from somewhere else means LinkedIn won't be able to know your location when generating connection recommendations in your area. If you want to build a network with professionals from a town, city or country other than yours, using a LinkedIn proxy is the way to go.
Bypass location restrictions
Need to create a business profile in other countries or locations? Proxies enable you to assume the virtual identity of a device in that country by using its IP address.
Also, using a proxy server can allow you to create and manage a LinkedIn account, even if access to the platform is limited in your location or network.
Scale your LinkedIn activities
To see success on LinkedIn, you need a large network of connections from industries relevant to your own. Whilst you could go and send connection requests manually, this takes time and effort...and this is where proxies for LinkedIn come in.
LinkedIn proxies let you automate certain actions like building connection lists using a near-unlimited bandwidth.
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The best proxies For LinkedIn
There are two main types of proxies: residential proxies and datacenter proxies. Residential proxies use a genuine IP address associated with a specific device located somewhere else in the world, while datacenter proxies come from remote servers and are linked to datacenter IPs, rather than residential.
Each type of proxy server has its pros and cons, so the best proxies for you will depend on your particular objectives and requirements. You can learn more about the differences between residential proxies and datacenter proxies on our blog.
For scraping LinkedIn, a residential proxy is going to be your best option. Let's look at why this is the case in a little more detail.
Residential proxies for LinkedIn
Residential proxies are the best proxies for scraping LinkedIn. These types of proxies make use of a residential IP address like the type provided by an Internet Service provider (ISP). As a result, a residential proxy uses an IP address that reflects an actual location. However, that location is not your real location.
If you want to scrape LinkedIn, you need to do so anonymously, i.e. without giving up your actual IP address. This is why residential proxies are the best. Rather than using any random IP from datacenters (which may not point to any location and, as such, are far easier to identify), they use real IP addresses.
It's not all plain sailing, though. Some sites, LinkedIn included, issue IP bans if they receive too many data requests from the same IP address. To avoid this, you should opt for a rotating residential proxy.
Basically, proxy rotation is merely switching between several proxies in a proxy pool. This is similar to what your ISPs do (IP rotation), so you do not access the internet with the same IP address all the time. A rotating residential proxy switches your proxy with every session, and each proxy in the pool has a residential IP address.
So, as you access LinkedIn to scrape, your IP address will be continuously switched as proxies rotate. Although you may be sending more requests than LinkedIn permits, you likely won't get a ban since your traffic won't originate from one fixed IP address.
Can you use free proxies for LinkedIn?
While you can use free LinkedIn proxies to scrape data, manage accounts, hide IP addresses and so on, this is risky business.
With proxies, it really is a case of you get what you pay for. Sure, opting for a free proxy might save you some money in the short term, but it could end up proving more costly further down the line.
Why? Well, free proxies are almost always less secure and less reliable, and the IPs you use are more susceptible to being blocked by sites such as LinkedIn.
Learn more about the risks of using free proxies.
What does LinkedIn say about scraping?
As a top social media platform, LinkedIn is stringent in protecting its users' data. In fact, the use of bots, crawlers, plugins, or the like to scrape or modify data on LinkedIn is not permitted.
In 2019, LinkedIn scraping was ruled to be legal by a court following the block by LinkedIn on hiQ from scraping the platform. When LinkedIn is scraped, bots can only download publicly available data which can be viewed and accessed by others.
However, the ruling didn't change LinkedIn's stance on scraping. If your LinkedIn account is detected to be involved in such, you are likely to get your account shut down or restricted at least. LinkedIn could also take you to court, as they have done several times in the past.
The bottom line, then, is if you want to scrape data on LinkedIn, you have to do so with caution.
The Best LinkedIn Scrapers
1. LIX – LinkedIn Search eXporter
This tool is a data scraper and extractor for LinkedIn. You can use it on any device or browser, and it's an online tool, so you won't need to download or install it.
Conversely, LIX has been used by over 11,000 customers to scrape thousands of search results. With LIX, you simply have to run a search, after which you can export all search results. You can download 100s of search results at a time.
2. FollowingLike
FollowingLike is a social management tool for LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr, etc. Hence, it is more than a LinkedIn scraper.
With FollowingLike, you can search LinkedIn by companies, posts, educational institutions, emails, likes, skills, and more. Also, you can export the search results.
You can use multiple LinkedIn accounts to scrape data, as the tool features an Account Manager that supports this. Also, you can get statistics of accounts with FollowingLike. Not to mention, it has native support for proxies.
3. Webscrapper
This is a popular scraping extension on the internet with more than 350,000 users. You can use it to extract data from any website or platform, and LinkedIn is not exempted.
With a point-and-click interface, the Webscrapper tool is straightforward to use. You just need to install its extension on the Google Chrome browser and then navigate to the LinkedIn website to start scraping.
The scraped data can be exported in JSON or as CSV or XLSX files. Webscrapper also supports cloud scraping.
4. Scrabin
The Scrabin tool is ideal for LinkedIn lead generation, account management, and outbound marketing.
As you search for LinkedIn leads using Scrabin, there are several filters to get the right ones. Then, you can download the search results into a CSV file or export them to a third-party CRM.
Scrabin is available to use as a web app, or you can download and install the extension on Google Chrome.
5. Octoparse
Octoparse is an intelligent web scraping tool. It takes just three steps to extract data; you find the data, select it, and export it.
You have multiple options for exporting scraped data; you can save them as CSV or XLSX or store them on a different platform using its API keys.
With Octoparse, you might not need a proxy, as the scraper can rotate IP addresses.
Next steps with Proxyrack
Since LinkedIn activities can have an impact on your business or livelihood, it's not worth taking chances. For LinkedIn scraping, it is best to use a premium proxy service from renowned proxy service providers to avoid getting banned from the platform.
Here at Proxyrack, we know what's what when it comes to proxies for LinkedIn (actually, scratch that, we know what's what when it comes to proxy servers, full stop)!
With a proxy subscription from Proxyrack, you'll get access to all the LinkedIn proxies you need. Our network of private proxies, residential proxies and datacenter proxies is secure, high-speed and reliable, and our support team is always on hand to help.
With Proxyrack's proxies, you don't have to worry about your identity being leaked or your connection being flagged. Combine our proxies with a reliable LinkedIn scraping bot, and you're good to go.
FAQs About LinkedIn Proxy Servers
Why Do People Scrape Linkedin?
In general, people scrape websites and online platforms for extra data. This data can be used for any purpose; it could be for analysis or business intelligence.
For LinkedIn, the number one reason why people scrape the platform is to get data on businesses and their employees.
One use case for this is recruitment. If you're a top company executive in need of skilled individuals to work for your business, manually scraping LinkedIn to find people and then copying their profile data or contact details will take far too much of your time.
By scraping the platform for workers in your industry, you can get the profile data of every potential worker registered on LinkedIn at a time within the parameters you set.
Is Scraping LinkedIn Illegal?
Using scrapers on LinkedIn isn't illegal, but the platform does take a very hardline stance against anyone who attempts it. If you're found to be scraping LinkedIn data using bots or crawlers, the site will likely terminate your account, preventing you from connecting with other users in the future.
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