How to keep your LinkedIn numbers beyond the short window LinkedIn shows

You want to know whether this quarter was better than the last one. You open LinkedIn analytics and find that the screen mostly shows a recent window. The older picture is gone, or only some of it is still there, and it was never laid out for easy comparison.

The fix is not clever. It is a small habit: copy the numbers somewhere you control, on a regular schedule, with the dates they cover. This post explains what to record, how to avoid the common traps, and how to start even if you have no history yet.

Why LinkedIn analytics feel short

LinkedIn presents numbers over limited periods, and the periods differ by number and by profile type. A personal profile and a company page do not show the same things over the same windows, and the windows can change as LinkedIn changes its product. Check what your own screen says today rather than trusting a table you read somewhere, including this one.

The practical effect is the same either way. If you do not capture a number while it is on screen, you may not be able to get it later.

Decide what to keep

Keep a short list, the same one every time. Here is a sensible set to begin with, adjusted to whatever your profile or page actually shows:

Followers, and connections for a personal profile

Impressions for your posts over the period

Reactions, comments and reposts

Profile views or page visitors

The posts themselves: link, date, format, and their numbers as of a date

A short list kept for a year beats a long one abandoned in a month.

Record the dates, not just the number

For every figure, write down three things: the number, the period it covers (start and end), and the day you read it. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that makes the history trustworthy.

Without the period, you cannot tell whether two numbers are comparable. With it, you can line up the same kind of window week after week. You also avoid the classic error of adding figures whose periods overlap, which counts the same people twice.

Post numbers need one more note. A post's numbers grow for days after it goes out, so record them with an "as of" date and read the latest snapshot, rather than adding snapshots together.

Choose a place to keep it

A spreadsheet. Free, flexible, and fine for one or two profiles. One tab per profile, one row per period, the dates in the first columns.

LinkedIn's own exports. LinkedIn lets you export some analytics from its screens. Exports are useful for filling in the detail, but their layout and date formats can differ between a profile and a page, so check them before you merge anything.

A tool made for it. If you track many profiles or clients, a purpose-built tool saves hours. InsightUno, for example, stores the numbers you enter with the period they cover and who entered them, so any week can be compared later.

A weekly habit that takes ten minutes

Step 1. Pick a day. Put it in your calendar.

Step 2. Open analytics and read the same numbers you read last time.

Step 3. Record each with its period and the date you read it.

Step 4. Add any new posts with their link and date.

Step 5. Glance at the change since last time. That one look is the real return.

Starting late

You cannot recover numbers LinkedIn no longer shows. Start recording today and let the history build. If you can export older data while it is still available, do it now and keep the file, with a note of what it covers. A history that begins today is still more useful than none.