Act Fast to Keep Your LinkedIn Data

For years LinkedIn has allowed subscribers to “tag” connections.  If you are already familiar with LinkedIn tags you know how marvelously useful it is.

stop-300pxSure, it could be a bit labor intensive, especially if you needed to comb through all your existing contacts to assign any newly-created tags.  But tags were a very handy way to filter your connections nonetheless.

Well, no more.  This feature has been removed from the Linkedin interface and is only available under paid subscription plans.  That change may be a consequence of Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Linkedin.  Thanks, Microsoft.

If you have used the tag feature in the past, then you have until May 31, 2017, to recover your data which includes the use of those tags.  The instructions are posted on the LinkedIn website.  But here are the steps:

  1. Click the Me icon at top of your LinkedIn homepage.
  2. Select Settings & Privacy from the dropdown.
  3. Under the Basics section of the Account tab, click Change next to Getting an archive of your data.
  4. Navigate to the data export page or access it from the Settings & Privacy menu.
  5. On the Account tab, under the Basics section of your Settings & Privacy page, click Change next to Getting an archive of your data.
  6. Click Request archive.

You’ll receive an email with a link to download your data archive. Your notes and tags will be in the file named Contacts.  From here you will likely want to import the CSV file into Excel or a relational database such as MySQL or similar.

LinkedIn says that after May 31, 2017, your tag data will no longer be recoverable.  If you find you cannot live without this feature, you’ll need to investigate LinkedIn’s various premium subscription plans.

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