Salesforce Integration with LinkedIn - Here's All You Need to Know

The general approach to selling doesn’t work as effectively in today’s world. You cannot expect extraordinary results by pushing out bulk emails to every prospect that comes to you. Things have shifted towards tracking and understanding the need of buyers by using data and analytics. Due to this rise in the need for customer relationships, the rise of Salesforce, an innovative CRM was expected.

Salesforce breaks down traditional technology silos between departments and makes it easier for them to work with each other towards a better experience for the customer. It uses concepts of targeted marketing & approaching at the right time to maximize sales. Salesforce needs customer data for this to work well and LinkedIn is a great platform for that. The great news here is, that they both can work together via integration. One can hire experts in Salesforce app development to help with this, provided that you meet the eligibility criteria.

Let us now understand the different ways you can integrate Salesforce with LinkedIn and the prerequisites for the same.

Prerequisites for Salesforce-LinkedIn Integration

Before we jump into the options to integrate Salesforce with LinkedIn, let’s quickly go over the requirements:

You need to have Administrator rights to start the installation process.
You need to have an active LinkedIn account with LinkedIn Sales navigator (or a higher plan) purchased.
Your browser must have a minimum version of Flash Player 9.0 with JavaScript enabled for a seamless process.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator, available on AppExchange, is a powerful feature of LinkedIn that helps you drive sales processes more smoothly and conveniently. It lets you find the right leads for your organization, get useful insights about these leads, and give a push to your sales through personalized approaches.

The platform not only provides you with the leads that best suit your organisation but also suggests those who can react positively when approached. Other than this, LinkedIn Sales Navigator also offers you ample interesting features such as InMail messaging, real-time sales updates, updates on who viewed your profile, notes and tags, smart link presentations, and many more. You must install this feature for linking your Salesforce with LinkedIn.

Don't forget to check out: Integration using Salesforce Connect

How to Set Up Salesforce Integration with LinkedIn using Sales Navigator

Let us now discuss the steps associated while setting up Salesforce Integration with LinkedIn using Sales Navigator. The whole process of this integration can be divided into three major steps:-

Installing LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Configuring Salesforce LinkedIn Integration
Testing Salesforce LinkedIn Integration

Now that you have been through the major steps for the Salesforce Integration with LinkedIn, let us now dive through these steps in detail:

Step-1 Installing LinkedIn Sales Navigator

First of all, visit Salesforce AppExchange and type ‘LinkedIn Sales Navigator’ in the Quick Find search box.
You must click on the ‘Get it Now’ button when the pop-up window appears.
From the given list of options, you must select ‘Install in Org’ and click on ‘Install Here’. Click on the box alongside agree to the terms and conditions section and then click on ‘Confirm and Install’.
Finally, choose the installation type for the integration. You get three options here, namely, Install for Admins only, Install for all users, and Install for specific profiles. You can select any of these options as per your requirements.

Step-2 Configuring Salesforce LinkedIn Integration

First of all, you need to visit Setup > Customize > Leads and click on Page Layouts.
Next, you can add the desired new Section to the layout by dragging it.
In the Section Properties window, select the below-given options for the respective fields and then click OK.

Section Name: LinkedIn Company Page
Detail Page: <checked>
Edit Page: <unchecked>
Layout: <1-Column>

After this, you must drag and drop another Section below the newly created LinkedIn Member Profile Section and submit the given details in the Section Properties and click OK.

Section Name: LinkedIn Company Page
Detail Page: <checked>
Edit Page: <unchecked>
Layout: <1-Column>

With the help of Scroll Bar, you must move to Visualforce Pages and drag one of the pages: either LeadLinkedInMemberPage or ContactLinkedInMemberPage Visualforce page into the new LinkedIn Member Profile section.
Now, you must click on the Properties icon present in the upper right corner of the Visualforce page component. Here, add the below-given options and then click OK.

Width: 100%
Height: 675
Show scrollbars: <checked>
Show label: <unchecked>

Next, you must drag one of the two pages into the new LinkedIn Company Page Section (either the LeadLinkedInMemberPage or ContactLinkedInMemberPage Visualforce page).
Now, you must click on the Properties icon present in the upper right corner of the Visualforce page component. Here, add the below-given options and then click OK.

Width: 100%
Height: 675
Show scrollbars: <checked>
Show label: <unchecked>

Finally, click on the Save button present at the top of the page to preserve changes to the Lead or Contact page layout.

Step-3 Testing Salesforce LinkedIn Integration

You must visit your Contacts homepage and choose any desired contact record after adding Sales Navigator embedded profiles.
Go through the pages and check whether the updated changes have been applied there or not. Further, you must ensure that the embedded profile is successfully added.

Tip: In case you have added the Sales Navigator embedded profile to Leads, Accounts, and Opportunities also, you must repeat these steps.

Check out another amazing blog by AtoCloud here: Salesforce Marketing Cloud: Your One-stop Marketing Solution

LinkedIn Integration Options

There are many ways to integrate Salesforce with LinkedIn, differing in time to set up and the extent to which they work together. One can use the official tool or a custom tool made by Salesforce app development. However, many people end up using the traditional copy-paste method to get the data inside Salesforce. This method is tedious and prone to manual errors.

A step up from that are Chrome extensions like Assistlead. It opens a fresh tab in Salesforce for each new contact, prepopulating the given fields. It is slow and doesn’t offer full-fledged integration, however, it’s free and hence helpful if you are looking to work on a budget. If you want more options, you can opt for freemium or paid extensions like Salesbot which give the power to search, create and edit Salesforce records.

Amongst all options, let’s dive further into two that are relatively better than the rest.

Native Integrations/API

Using native integration to sync data between Salesforce and LinkedIn Sales Navigator automatically imports account and contact records. The Sales Navigator receives leads assigned to Salesforce users and maps them to the same user’s account. It also provides suggested leads by using its complex algorithm to interpret the combined information from Salesforce and LinkedIn.

AppExchange

This is arguably the most effective way for organizations to carry out Salesforce-LinkedIn integration. Users can import accounts, contacts, and lead records from Sales Navigator with ease to create a seamless experience for the user.

With the power of integration, the user can automatically log in to InMail Messages & notes and import account records from Open Opportunities into Sales Navigator. Accessing LinkedIn information is made effortless with CRM widgets as it allows reps to see all relevant information about the prospect quickly. One can even use Salesforce AppExchange development should they need a unique app.

Using these, you can harness the combined power of Salesforce & LinkedIn, pushing the way you approach sales to new heights. If you are interested but do not want to spend your precious time on it, we can help you. We at AtoCloud are renowned for innovative & reliable Salesforce solutions. Our team of experienced experts are just a click away. Contact us today!