Question

I am browsing the LinkedIn API for a status update: https://developer.linkedin.com/documents/get-network-updates-and-statistics-api

and also at the persons connections: https://developer.linkedin.com/documents/connections-api

And I am wondering if it is possible to get the number of users connections from getting their user_id or something else in their account.

Is it possible to get a persons total number of connections, and the total number of their connections? In other words, if someone shares this with their LinkedIn friends, can a total reach be calculated?

Thanks!

Answer 1

There is no way to determine the ‘viewed reach’ of a share as there are no APIs that allow you to determine who has viewed a share. You can determine who commented on a share, or who liked a share, but not who viewed it.

In terms of connections, it is only possible to get the full list of connections for users that have granted your application access – and even for those connections, it is not possible to get their connections, per the docs. If you just wish to get the connection count for a given user, that would be possible using the num-connections field of the Profile API.

Update:

Interestingly, it is possible to determine how often content is shared (not viewed) as well, via a custom share button:

https://developer.linkedin.com/retrieving-share-counts-custom-buttons