Shield LinkedIn glossary

Navigate essential LinkedIn analytics terms for personal branding and corporate influence, with straightforward insights and examples to support your LinkedIn growth.

Activity

Activity on LinkedIn includes all actions taken on the platform, such as posting, commenting, and engaging with content from other people, other creators. High activity can improve visibility and connections, building a more engaged network. For creators and brands, consistent activity is crucial for building connections and influence. With Shield you can track your posting activity, also called post frequency, to stay consistent on the LinkedIn platform.

Activity

Analytics

LinkedIn analytics are the data and insights collected from your LinkedIn profile and posts, helping you track performance and understand what resonates with your audience. Key metrics like impressions, engagement, and follower growth can inform your content strategy and improve reach. For professionals seeking to maximize LinkedIn, understanding analytics is key. Shield brings all your LinkedIn analytics into one dashboard, giving you a comprehensive view of profile and post performance. In depth, and at a glance.

Analytics

Audience

Your audience on LinkedIn consists of the people who view, engage with, and are influenced by your content and profile. This includes your connections, followers, and anyone else who interacts with your posts. Understanding your audience’s interests and needs is essential for creating relevant content that resonates, drives engagement, and supports your personal or professional goals. To grow a LinkedIn presence within your market, knowing your audience is essential. On Shield you get to understand your audience better with audience demographics, revealing location, occupation and more from the people who view your content.

Audience

Authenticity

Authenticity on LinkedIn is the practice of presenting yourself genuinely, sharing real insights, experiences, and values that reflect who you are professionally. Being authentic helps build trust with your audience, making connections more meaningful and interactions more impactful. Authenticity fosters stronger relationships and can enhance your credibility and influence on the platform. Shield tracks engagement across all your content. This way you get to learn which posts resonate with your target audience, and you will understand much better which role authenticity plays in your content strategy.

Authenticity

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process of comparing your performance metrics against industry standards, competitors, or yourself from a previous period. Benchmarking LinkedIn data provides insights into how well your LinkedIn presence stacks up, helping you set realistic goals and measure success over time. Shield is helpful when it comes to benchmarking versus your past self from a previous period. For example this month vs last month, this quarter vs last quarter, or last year vs the year before that. Shield provides you all the information you need to learn if you’re moving in the right direction.

Benchmarking

Brand

A brand on LinkedIn represents the unique identity, values, and expertise that set a person or organization apart from others. It’s shaped by how you communicate, the content you share, and the relationships you build on the platform. A strong brand helps you stand out, builds trust, and creates lasting impressions with your network, supporting both personal and professional growth. Shield helps you stay on top of your organic, personal branding activities, by providing you key LinkedIn metrics across your content and activity. And both content and activity on LinkedIn play a pivotal role in shaping your personal brand in the minds of your audience.

Brand

Brand Ambassador

A brand ambassador is an individual who promotes a company’s brand on social media, often sharing company content and engaging with their target market and followers. On LinkedIn, employees acting as brand ambassadors can enhance company visibility and reputation through organic connections via their own personal profiles. Staying on top of the organic activities of your brand ambassadors is easy with Shield’s employee advocacy software. When you run a brand ambassador program, employee advocacy program, or otherwise, Shield brings all your brand ambassadors into one dashboard for you to stay on top of key metrics and performance. Forget all about manual data collection, Shield does the heavy lifting for you. Measuring the impact across personal LinkedIn profiles has never been easier.

Brand Ambassador

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness means how familiar people are with your brand, based on factors like visibility and engagement. Strong brand awareness helps establish credibility and attract a more relevant following and build a more relevant network. For companies and individual creators, brand awareness is vital for credibility. Shield tracks both reach and engagement, making it easy to track progress and adapt your content for a stronger brand recognition on LinkedIn.

Brand Awareness

Call to Action (CTA)

A CTA is a prompt that encourages people to take a specific action, such as clicking a link, commenting, or following. Effective CTAs can increase engagement and drive traffic to your content or profile. Use Shield to save posts containing your best CTAs. Shield’s “collections” feature makes this easy. Use and reuse the CTAs that work the best.

Call to Action (CTA)

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR is the percentage of people who click on a link in your LinkedIn content. CTR is calculated by dividing clicks by impressions. High CTR indicates that your content is compelling and relevant to your audience. Use Shield to track how people move from your content to your profile, increasing profile views, and new followers. That’s how you can consider your CTR within the LinkedIn platform itself.

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Comments

Comments are responses from LinkedIn members on your posts, providing a direct way to engage and build relationships. Comments are also your replies to content from others. LinkedIn comments signal high engagement and can increase the visibility of your content in the LinkedIn feed. LinkedIn comments is a valuable engagement metric. Shield tracks your comments, and helps you understand the type of content that drives most engagement across different metrics. This allows you to build a more engaging community by creating more of the content that drives engagement.

Comments

Consistency

Consistency on LinkedIn means posting and engaging regularly to maintain visibility and build trust with your audience. By sharing content consistently, you increase the chances of reaching a broader audience, reinforcing your brand, and fostering ongoing engagement. Consistency also helps the LinkedIn algorithm recognize your activity, potentially boosting the reach of your posts and profile over time. Shield tracks your post frequency and shows you how your activity evolves over time. This helps you stay consistent which is necessary to achieve real results, real impact, over time.

Consistency

Content Strategy

A content strategy on LinkedIn is a plan for creating and sharing valuable, relevant content that aligns with your goals, such as growing your network, enhancing brand awareness, or driving engagement. It includes defining target audience interests, selecting content types (e.g., posts, articles, videos), and setting a consistent posting schedule. A strong content strategy helps ensure that your LinkedIn presence is impactful and aligned with audience expectations, building authority over time. Shield helps you track and measure content performance over time, helping you learn what works and what doesn’t across content types. This way you can easily adapt and refine your strategy to maximize reach and engagement on LinkedIn.

Content Strategy

Corporate Influencer

A corporate influencer is a professional who shares content and engages an audience to promote their company’s values, products, or services. LinkedIn is a popular platform for corporate influencers due to its professional network and focus. A corporate influencer is in many ways similar to a brand ambassador. For companies looking to leverage corporate influencers as a strategy in their corporate communications, tracking their activities, performance and impact becomes essential. With Shield’s corporate influencer tool it’s easy to measure the performance of corporate influencers, so you can refine the overall strategy and amplify brand reach organically.

Corporate Influencer

Credibility

Credibility on LinkedIn reflects how trustworthy and knowledgeable you appear to your network, often built through consistent, high-quality content, professional interactions, and an optimized profile. Strong credibility helps reinforce your expertise, making others more likely to engage with your content, seek your advice, or consider you for potential roles or partnerships. On Shield, tracking your profile views and follower growth is an indicator of increased credibility on the LinkedIn platform.

Credibility

Dashboard

An analytics dashboard is a visual display of LinkedIn metrics and data, allowing you to track content performance and analyze trends over time. A dashboard like that provides a quick overview of key data points, making it easier to understand engagement and reach. The Shield dashboard brings all your LinkedIn data and metrics together in one place. This way you can easily learn what works and what doesn’t across all your content, for as many personal profiles as you need.

Dashboard

Data

Data on LinkedIn consists of all the metrics and information generated from your activity on the platform, such as reach and impressions, engagement rates, profile views, audience demographics, and follower growth. This data provides valuable insights into how effectively you’re reaching and resonating with your audience. By analyzing LinkedIn data, you can refine your strategy, optimize content, and track progress toward your goals. The Shield dashboard offers a deep dive into your personal LinkedIn data and metrics. From content performance to profile activity, we got you. Learn what works, what doesn’t, and what resonates with your target audience.

Data

Direct Messaging (DM)

DMs on LinkedIn allow users to send private messages to each other, to connections, making DMs ideal for networking, outreach, or sharing opportunities. Personalized DMs help foster stronger relationships and open doors to collaboration. While Shield doesn’t directly track DMs, the platform can support your outreach strategy by providing insights into which posts and topics resonate most, helping you create effective, relevant DM conversations.

Direct Messaging (DM)

Earned Media Value

Earned media value quantifies the reach and exposure your content gains through organic engagement, like reactions, reposts, and comments. It’s often viewed as “free (earned) advertising” and can enhance credibility when others advocate for your brand. Shield shows your earned media value right on the Shield dashboard in real time based on your actual impressions at any given moment, for any period you choose. Your earned media value helps you understand the effectiveness of organic content compared to paid channels.

Earned Media Value

Employee Advocacy

Employee advocacy is the promotion of a company by its employees, often by creating and sharing content, or by engaging with posts on LinkedIn. Employee advocacy boosts brand visibility, amplifies employee loyalty, and makes the company appear more relatable and trustworthy. Shield’s employee advocacy software is all you need to track your organic LinkedIn activities across any number of employees. Shield provides you impression numbers per post, per profile, as well as engagement metrics and profile activity, plus more. All in one user-friendly dashboard. This makes it a lot easier to evaluate your employee advocacy efforts, and adapt according to what the data and information tell you.

Employee Advocacy

Engagement Rate

Engagement rate measures to what extent users interact with your LinkedIn content, calculated by dividing total engagements (likes, comments, reposts) by impressions. It’s a key metric for assessing how well your content resonates with your audience. Tracking engagement rate with Shield is easy. The number is calculated for you for all your content. This helps you stay on top of the most engaging content. Pair that with audience demographics to really understand what works with your target audience.

Engagement Rate

Experience Optimization

Experience optimization refers to the overall experience of using LinkedIn by improving content, engagement strategies, and personalization. This can increase audience satisfaction and engagement. Shield’s metrics, data and insights can help you improve the overall experience your audience has with you, your content, and ultimately, your personal brand. In short, do more of what works, what gets you the most relevant engagement, and less of what doesn’t.

Experience Optimization

Followers

Followers are LinkedIn users who subscribe to see your content in their feed - to follow your LinkedIn profile. Growing your follower base expands your reach and potential for engagement, which can be key for personal branding, influence, authority and credibility on the LinkedIn platform. For creators, influencers and brands alike, follower growth is a key success metric. Shield lets you track and measure your follower growth over time, helping you build a more engaged and relevant audience.

Followers

Funnel

A LinkedIn funnel represents the journey of turning strangers into profile views, into connections, followers, and ultimately clients or collaborators. Each stage requires a different approach, from awareness to engagement and conversion. For LinkedIn users building relationships or sales leads, an optimized funnel is crucial. Shield’s social selling software reveals which content resonates most, enabling a more targeted approach to profile growth, conversations and conversions down the line.

Funnel

Goals

Goals on LinkedIn are specific objectives you set to guide your activity and measure success. Goals are often related to increasing engagement, growing your network, or enhancing brand visibility. Clear goals help you stay focused, track progress, and adapt your strategy to achieve meaningful outcomes on the platform. With Shield, you can easily track your progress towards goals related to your LinkedIn metrics, such as impression count, engagement, or new followers.

Goals

Goal Setting

Goal setting on LinkedIn involves defining specific, measurable objectives for profile growth, engagement, or other performance metrics. Setting clear goals can guide your LinkedIn strategy and help track progress over time. With Shield, you can easily track your progress towards goals related to your LinkedIn metrics, such as impression count, engagement, or new followers.

Goal Setting

Hashtag Strategy

Hashtag strategy involves selecting relevant hashtags for your LinkedIn posts to increase visibility and reach target audiences. Effective hashtag use can improve discoverability, making your content visible to a broader audience. Shield tracks post performance across different hashtags by using Collections or Search. This gives you actionable insights into which hashtags drive the most engagement, helping you fine-tune your strategy for better reach and visibility on LinkedIn.

Hashtag Strategy

Headline

Your LinkedIn headline is a brief description under your name that highlights your expertise and attracts attention. A compelling headline can improve profile views and give others a clear sense of your professional identity. The headline is shown on your profile, but also under your name alongside the comments you make across posts on LinkedIn. While Shield doesn’t directly track headline performance, insights from Shield can help you refine your headline by showing which content themes attract the most engagement and views.

Headline

Hook

A hook is typically the first line of text on your LinkedIn post. The opening sentence or phrase that captures attention and encourages users to read more. Strong hooks are essential for boosting engagement and making content memorable. Shield tracks all your content, including engagement rates, which may give you insights into what posts (and hooks) resonate most with your audience. By comparing post performance, you can refine your hooks to better capture attention. Make sure you use Collections on Shield to save posts with great hooks to be reused later.

Hook

Impressions

Impressions represent the number of times your LinkedIn posts are displayed on users' feeds, regardless of engagement. High impressions may indicate good visibility, but analyzing alongside engagement metrics can provide more insights. Shield tracks impressions on all organic posts from any number of personal LinkedIn profiles connected to the Shield platform. This makes it easy to stay on top of your overall impressions in a given time period, or across a group of people aiming towards the same goals, as seen with employee advocacy programs and corporate influencer initiatives.

Impressions

Influencers

Influencers on LinkedIn are individuals with significant authority and reach, who shape opinions within their industry.

Influencers

Influencers on LinkedIn are individuals with significant authority and reach, who shape opinions within their industry.

Influencers

Influencers on LinkedIn are individuals with significant authority and reach, who shape opinions within their industry.

Influencers

Influencers on LinkedIn are individuals with significant authority and reach, who shape opinions within their industry.

Insights

Insights are data-driven observations about your LinkedIn performance, often encompassing metrics like audience demographics, content effectiveness, and engagement trends. Insights provide valuable guidance for refining strategy. On Shield you’ll find plenty of insights from your own LinkedIn data if you’re not afraid of getting your hands dirty. Look for content with high engagement among the right target audience. Or explore when you gain most followers and what content was posted in the same time period.

Insights

Just-in-Time Content

Just-in-time content is content created to address a current trend or immediate need, making it highly relevant to your audience. On LinkedIn, this could mean posting about recent industry changes or news, which can boost engagement because of the timeliness and relevance of the content piece itself.

Just-in-Time Content

Key Metrics

Key metrics are the most important metrics to track LinkedIn success, such as impressions, engagement rate, and follower growth. Focusing on these helps optimize performance and understand what drives results. Shield tracks all your LinkedIn data and metrics in one place, including impressions, engagement (reactions, comments, reposts), engagement rate, profile views, overall activity, and follower growth. Everything you need to learn what works and what doesn’t on Linkedin.

Key Metrics

Keyword Optimization

Keyword optimization involves using strategic keywords in your LinkedIn profile and content to increase visibility in search results. It’s essential for being found by the right audience and improving profile discoverability. Shield tracks all your content and with our precise search feature, you can easily find content using specific words, phrases or hashtags. In other words, with Shield, keyword analysis and keyword optimization becomes a breeze.

Keyword Optimization

Lead Generation

Lead generation on LinkedIn is the process of identifying and attracting potential clients or collaborators. Through content, networking, and outreach, LinkedIn offers various tools to support lead generation. Shield tracks all your content and makes it easy for you to understand what drives the most engagement. Make sure you check audience demographics to understand if your content is reaching the right people. And make sure you check regularly who engages with your content to ensure that those people are also relevant to your lead generation efforts.

Lead Generation

LinkedIn is a professional networking platform where users connect, share content, and explore career opportunities. With features like profiles, posts, and messaging, LinkedIn helps users build their personal brand, engage with industry insights and other members, and foster meaningful professional relationships. It’s widely used by job seekers, recruiters, companies, and thought leaders to network, showcase expertise, and grow their influence in their fields. And more recently, LinkedIn is used by creators from all walks of life all over the world, increasingly becoming the most vibrant, genuine and generous social platform on the internet. For people creating content and engaging on LinkedIn, Shield’s LinkedIn analytics makes tracking post and profile performance easy. Shield is a powerful tool used by thousands of brands and creators all over the world to learn what works and what doesn’t.

LinkedIn algorithm

The LinkedIn algorithm is the set of rules that determine what content appears in users' feeds based on relevance and engagement. Algorithms are always changing with the goal of serving users the most relevant, helpful and engaging content possible. Trying to really understand LinkedIn’s distribution algorithms is a lost cause. Instead, use Shield to learn from your own content. That way you do what you actually can to stay data-driven, adapting your content and strategy to what your very own data actually reveals. Whether you aim for more impressions, higher engagement rate, or new followers, the Shield platform covers your tracking needs.

LinkedIn algorithm

LinkedIn feed

The LinkedIn feed is the main content stream users see when they log in to the LinkedIn platform, featuring posts, articles, and updates from their connections, followed pages, suggested content, and ads. The feed is tailored by LinkedIn's algorithms based on relevance, engagement, and user interests, making it a key place to share content, engage with others, and stay updated on industry trends. Organic content in particular thrives on the LinkedIn platform enabling millions of users to reach their target audience. Shield tracks organic content performance from personal profiles, meaning everything you post that goes into the LinkedIn feed. Using Shield will help you understand what content attracts the most engagement and visibility among your target audience.

LinkedIn feed

LinkedIn presence

LinkedIn presence refers to the overall visibility and activity of you and your profile on the LinkedIn platform. This includes the quality of your content, engagement with others, and network growth. Your LinkedIn presence is closely related to your personal brand, as a strong LinkedIn presence enhances credibility, keeps your profile top of mind, and can attract new opportunities in your industry. Shield keeps track of key metrics related to your LinkedIn profile and your activity on the LinkedIn platform, such as follower growth, post impressions and engagement rates. These metrics, and more, help you dial in on your LinkedIn presence, targeting the right people at the right time. People using Shield amplify and expand their LinkedIn presence over time.

LinkedIn presence

LinkedIn users

LinkedIn users are professionals using the LinkedIn platform to build and expand their network, share insights, seek opportunities, and engage with content as well as other users. Historically, LinkedIn users kept their CVs updated for recruiters to find them. Today, LinkedIn users are still job seekers and recruiters, but increasingly LinkedIn users are industry leaders, influencers, and content creators, leveraging the LinkedIn platform to build businesses, grow their careers, build and establish their personal brands, and stay informed about industry trends. Shield empowers active LinkedIn users to track and measure their content and profile performance, all in one place, making it easy to learn what works and what doesn’t. To work smarter, not harder, to grow their LinkedIn presence, establish thought leadership and build a long lasting personal brand.

LinkedIn users

Media value

Media value, also referred to as earned media value, means the estimated worth of media exposure, calculated by the cost equivalent if it had been paid for as advertising. It’s used to measure the impact and reach of media coverage, and often includes earned media like PR and organic mentions. Media value aims to give a financial perspective on visibility generated through non-paid means. Shield provides you an earned media value estimation based on your organic impressions. The estimation updates in real time right on your Shield dashboard, as your organic impressions go up. Earned media value on Shield is often used to report back to leadership or other key stakeholders, showing the worth of organic initiatives on LinkedIn in a language such stakeholders can relate to (i.e. money language, dollar signs).

Media value

Mentions

Mentions occur when a user tags another LinkedIn profile in a post or comment, increasing visibility and encouraging engagement. Mentions are useful to highlight other LinkedIn users, or bring their attention to a post or comment. While Shield does not track mentions of your profile, you can use Shield’s powerful search to find all posts you have published mentioning a specific person (word, or hashtag). This makes it super easy to demonstrate the earned media value related to campaigns or certain brand mentions.

Mentions

Messages

Messages, also known as DMs, allow LinkedIn users to communicate directly, enabling personalized conversations for networking, outreach, and relationship building. Effective messaging builds rapport and can lead to new opportunities. While Shield does not track direct messages or any private conversations on the LinkedIn platform, we do know that great content leads to many more relevant conversations and DMs. We recommend you start there. Create a backdrop of relevant content that people can look into. All your DMs will be much more pleasant and relevant as a result.

Messages

Metrics

Metrics are measures of certain activities. On LinkedIn, metrics relate to data points tracking LinkedIn content and profile performance and activity, such as post frequency, post impressions and engagement, profile views and follower growth. Metrics offer valuable feedback and insights into what’s working, and help guide strategy adjustments. Shield provides you all your key LinkedIn metrics in one place, the Shield dashboard. Everything from content metrics such as impressions, engagement, engagement rate, and audience demographics, to profile metrics such as post activity, profile views, follower growth and more. Shield is the preferred tracking tool for brands and content creators worldwide who show up consistently on the LinkedIn platform.

Metrics

Native content

Native content on LinkedIn is content posted directly on the platform, such as posts, articles and videos, rather than links to external sites. Native content often performs better since LinkedIn prioritizes native content in the LinkedIn feed, to keep you engaged instead of going elsewhere. Shield tracks and measures all native content published from personal LinkedIn profiles connected to Shield, including all content types such as posts, videos, carousels, and even reposts of company page posts. Shield is built to track organic, native content, and has done so since 2019.

Native content

Network

A network on LinkedIn is the group of connections and followers on your profile. Your audience are those who see your content. Your community (and fans) are those who engage with your content, support your goals, and help broaden your professional reach. Building a strong, ever expanding network by connecting with like-minded professionals and industry peers can expand your influence, enhance opportunities for collaboration, and provide valuable insights into your field. Shield tracks your LinkedIn network growth across key metrics such as followers and connections. And before people become either, Shield tracks your content metrics and impressions that may drive profile views and new followers and connections as a result of showing up in the feed.

Network

Network growth

Network growth measures the increase in LinkedIn connections and followers, reflecting profile reach and influence. A growing network can lead to more engagement and opportunities. Shield tracks both follower and connection growth on your LinkedIn profile, as well as related metrics such as profile views and audience demographics (from your published content).

Network growth

Organic reach

Organic reach means the number of people who see your content without any paid promotions. High organic reach suggests strong content that naturally attracts attention and engagement. Shield tracks and measures organic reach and engagement across all content published from personal LinkedIn profiles connected to Shield. Brands and creators worldwide use Shield to track and measure their organic LinkedIn performance across one or multiple personal profiles.

Organic reach

Outreach

Outreach on LinkedIn involves proactively connecting and engaging with users, often to build relationships, explore collaboration, or generate leads. Effective outreach is typically personalized and thoughtful. While Shield does not track outreach, Shield tracks organic content and profile performance across metrics such as organic impressions, engagement, post frequencies, and network growth. Shield helps brands and content creators stay on top of what’s working and what doesn’t.

Outreach

Owned media value

Owned media value measures the worth of content shared on your own LinkedIn profile or company page. In other words, content you create and control. For an individual content creator, owned media value overlaps with earned media value, except earned media value includes mentions and content created by others. For brands, earned media value includes content created and shared by employees or customers. Shield is used by brands and content creators to track all organic content published on the LinkedIn platform from relevant personal profiles, whether it’s just you as an individual creator, or a group of employee advocates, brand ambassadors, or agency clients of yours. Shield is the go to LinkedIn analytics tool to track organic content performance and profile activity.

Owned media value

Performance

Performance on LinkedIn refers to how effectively your content and profile achieve desired outcomes, such as engagement, reach, and follower growth. Key performance metrics include impressions, reactions, comments, and reposts, which help gauge the impact of your LinkedIn activity. Regularly analyzing performance can inform strategy adjustments to better meet your professional or personal goals on the platform. Shield tracks and measures all your organic content performance and LinkedIn profile activity in one place. Key metrics such as organic impressions, engagement, posting frequency, profile views and network growth across followers and connections are all tracked on the Shield platform.

Performance

Personal branding

Personal branding is the practice of crafting a unique and authentic professional identity on LinkedIn, showcasing your skills, values, and expertise. Often through content published consistently to the feed, attracting and engaging your target audience. Effective personal branding helps you stand out, attract the right connections, and position yourself as a thought leader in your field. As a result, all kinds of opportunities are attracted and generated. Shield is the preferred LinkedIn analytics tool among content creators and professionals alike building their personal brands on LinkedIn. Shield tracks key metrics as well as audience demographics, helping you make sure your content is reaching the right people in the right markets. Shield is to personal branding on LinkedIn what the smartwatch is to the runner.

Personal branding

Posts

A LinkedIn post is a piece of content you create or curate to the LinkedIn platform. Posts include text, images, videos, or links, designed to inform, engage, or prompt interaction from your audience. Regularly posting valuable and relevant content will increase visibility, strengthen your personal brand, and drive engagement with your target audience. Posts on LinkedIn are a primary way to stay active and reach a wider network over time. Shield tracks and measures all your organic posts published on LinkedIn, as well as content performance and LinkedIn profile activity, all in one place. Key metrics such as organic impressions, engagement, posting frequency, profile views and network growth across followers and connections are all tracked on the Shield platform.

Posts

Post Engagement

Post engagement includes all interactions on a LinkedIn post, such as reactions, comments, and resposts. Post engagement is an important indicator of how well your content resonates with the audience. Shield tracks and measures all your organic content performance, including post engagement and engagement rates across your posts. Key metrics such as organic impressions, engagement, posting frequency, and profile views are also tracked, as well as network growth across followers and connections.

Post Engagement

Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is your professional digital presence, showcasing your experience, skills, and connections. A well-optimized profile can attract more visitors, engagement, and career opportunities. Combined with content activity, a LinkedIn profile serves as a landing page for your personal brand. When people see content from you in the feed, the natural next step is paying a visit to your LinkedIn profile. Shield tracks profile views on your LinkedIn profile as well as follower and connection growth on your account. Combine that with content performance metrics (also tracked on Shield) for a holistic view of your overall performance and growth on the LinkedIn platform.

Profile

Profile photo

A profile photo is the image displayed on your LinkedIn profile, contributing to your first impression. A professional and approachable profile photo can increase profile views and build trust. It is recommended that your profile photo looks like you and feels like you. Show up on your profile as you show up in real life. Shield doesn’t track your profile photo or how much people click on it to see a bigger version. Would be cool but the data is simply not available on LinkedIn. Shield does track other profile performance metrics like post activity, profile views and network growth across followers and connections.

Profile photo

Prompt

A prompt on LinkedIn is a question, statement, or call-to-action used to encourage engagement, such as comments, reposts, or reactions. Effective prompts spark conversation and invite your audience to interact with you and your content, helping increase visibility and fostering a sense of community around your content. Shield doesn’t track prompts or CTA’s per se, but Shield does track all organic content published from personal LinkedIn profiles connected to Shield. And when you are connected, you can save content (with great prompts or CTAs) into content collections for inspiration or to repurpose later.

Prompt

Post Frequency

Post frequency refers to how often you publish content on LinkedIn. Maintaining a consistent frequency helps boost visibility and engagement, as regular posting keeps your profile active in the feeds of other people. Shield tracks your post frequency and holds you accountable when you’re dropping off. A consistent frequency is key to building a strong LinkedIn presence and a strong and authentic personal brand.

Post Frequency

Post performance

Post performance indicates how well your LinkedIn posts resonate with your audience, measured by metrics like impressions and engagement. Tracking post performance helps refine future content strategy. Shield tracks your post performance across all organic posts made on the LinkedIn platform. Key metrics like impressions and engagement are tracked for you to learn what works and what doesn’t. Furthermore, Shield tracks profile performance metrics like profile views and network growth across followers and connections, to give you a holistic view of your LinkedIn presence and personal branding efforts.

Post performance

Prospect

A prospect on LinkedIn is a potential client, partner, or connection that aligns with your business or career goals. Someone who would be an ideal customer. Identifying and engaging prospects can lead to valuable networking or business outcomes. Shield doesn’t function as a CRM and so we don’t track or flag prospects. However, to drive a bunch of prospects your way, organic content is a great way to do so. And that’s where Shield comes in, tracking and measuring your organic content and profile performance over time. With features like audience demographics you can finetune your approach and attract the right audience, and ultimately, the right prospects to your product or service.

Prospect

Qualified leads

Qualified leads are prospects who meet specific criteria that make them more likely to convert to clients. On LinkedIn, content and messaging can help drive qualified leads. Similar to prospects, Shield does not track or flag qualified leads. However, when your content is targeting the right audience over time (which you can stay on top of using audience demographics on Shield), your engagement on LinkedIn will increasingly carry qualified leads.

Qualified leads

Quick win

A quick win is an achievable action that brings immediate, positive results on LinkedIn, such as updating your headline or optimizing recent posts.

Quick win

A quick win is an achievable action that brings immediate, positive results on LinkedIn, such as updating your headline or optimizing recent posts.

Quick win

A quick win is an achievable action that brings immediate, positive results on LinkedIn, such as updating your headline or optimizing recent posts.

Quick win

A quick win is an achievable action that brings immediate, positive results on LinkedIn, such as updating your headline or optimizing recent posts.

Reactions

Reactions are the “like,” “celebrate,” “support,” and other engagement icons users click to show appreciation for a LinkedIn post. Reactions contribute to engagement rates and boost post visibility by bringing content into 2nd and 3rd degree networks. Shield tracks and measures engagement, including reactions, across all the organic content available from personal LinkedIn profiles connected to the Shield platform. Reactions is a good indicator of whether a piece of content is resonating with people, but comments are a stronger signal.

Reactions

Reach

Reach is the number of unique users (LinkedIn members) who see your content. High reach indicates broad content exposure and is a useful metric for measuring brand awareness. Shield is tracking organic impressions across all content from all personal LinkedIn profiles connected to Shield, to help you stay on top of what content is working and what’s not.

Reach

Relationships

Relationships on LinkedIn are the professional connections you cultivate through meaningful interactions, networking, and engagement. Building strong relationships with your connections can lead to new opportunities, collaborations, and a supportive network that enhances your credibility and influence on the platform. Engaging regularly with your connections’ content and sharing valuable insights are key to nurturing these relationships. Shield is not a CRM and we don’t keep track of relationships established and nurtured on LinkedIn. However, to get such relationships going in the first place you need content. Organic content. And that’s where Shield shines by tracking and measuring all organic content from any number of personal LinkedIn profiles connected to the Shield platform.

Relationships

Reputation

Reputation on LinkedIn is the perception others have of you, your expertise, and reliability, shaped by your content, interactions, and personal branding efforts. A positive reputation builds trust and can enhance your influence, making it more likely that others will engage with your content, seek your insights, and consider you for collaborations or opportunities. Consistently sharing valuable, authentic content and engaging respectfully with others can strengthen your LinkedIn reputation over time. Shield is tracking all relevant content and profile related metrics for you to stay on top of your progress establishing a solid, professional reputation on LinkedIn. As your numbers grow, so does your reputation. Use Shield to learn what works and what doesn’t, and reach more of the right people faster.

Reputation

Sales navigator

Sales Navigator is a LinkedIn tool for advanced prospecting, offering features to identify leads, monitor prospects, and track engagement. It’s especially useful for sales professionals looking to leverage LinkedIn for business growth via direct outreach. Shield doesn’t replace Sales Navigator but complements it by tracking your organic content performance and engagement metrics. This helps you understand which posts get the most attention and reach in the feed amongst your target audience with features like audience demographics.

Sales navigator

Social selling

Social selling on LinkedIn involves using the platform to connect with and nurture leads through valuable content and engagement, building trust over time. It’s a strategic approach to sales that prioritizes relationships over direct selling. Shield compliments your social selling activities as part of that involves organic content. And Shield is tracking all your organic content activities and profile performance for you to stay on top of what’s working and what’s not. To drive more results from your social selling activities by creating and sharing content your target audience love and care about.

Social selling

Social Selling Index (SSI)

The Social Selling Index (SSI) is a measure on LinkedIn tracking how effectively a user builds their personal brand, connects with prospects, engages with insights, and strengthens relationships on LinkedIn. High SSI scores indicate strong social selling potential. Shield is not tracking your SSI, because let’s be honest, what matters is not that metric per se, but the benefits you unlock by being active on the LinkedIn platform. As such, Shield is tracking your organic content performance as well as profile activity for you to learn what works and what doesn’t. (Ultimately leading to a higher SSI score too.)

Social Selling Index (SSI)

Strategy

A LinkedIn strategy is a plan outlining specific actions and goals to build your network, enhance brand awareness, or drive engagement. A clear strategy helps focus efforts and measure success. Once you have a strategy in place, Shield helps you track and measure organic content performance as well as profile activity for you to learn what works and what doesn’t. And to fine tune your strategy according to the story told by your data.

Strategy

Tactics

Tactics are the specific methods used to execute a LinkedIn strategy, such as content types, post timing, and engagement techniques. Effective tactics align with goals to maximize impact. Shield is not tracking tactics per se, but we do track content types and when content is posted. By using filters, search and sorting mechanisms on Shield you’re able to learn what works and what resonates with your target audience on LinkedIn.

Tactics

Target audience

A target audience on LinkedIn is the specific group of people you aim to reach with your content, based on factors like problems they have or pains they experience, or more traditional criteria such as industry, job role, or interests. Knowing your target audience helps create more relevant and effective content. Use Shield to track and measure your content performance and audience demographics making sure you create better and more helpful content for your target audience over time. This is going to come back tenfold by all kinds of opportunities as a direct result of your organic content activities on the LinkedIn platform.

Target audience

Templates

Templates are pre-made formats or structures used for LinkedIn posts, profiles, or messaging, offering guidance and saving time. They can ensure consistent and high-quality content creation. With Shield you can save your posts into specific collections based on the templates you use to keep track of what templates are most useful to you. Besides, Shield keep track of all your organic content for you to learn what works and what doesn’t so you can constantly adapt and improve your LinkedIn game.

Templates

Tools

Tools for LinkedIn include analytics platforms, automation tools, and software that simplifies content creation, performance tracking, and engagement management. Shield is one of a few LinkedIn analytics tools to consider when looking to hook up one or more personal LinkedIn profiles with some tracking and measuring. Shield is trusted by brands and creators worldwide for its unparalleled data accuracy and ease of use, specifically for people building their personal brands, employee advocacy programs, corporate influencers, thought leadership, and social selling. Shield doesn’t automate user behavior and we do not encourage users to automate stuff on LinkedIn beyond scheduling content.

Tools

Traffic

Traffic from LinkedIn refers to the number of visitors directed to your profile, content, or external links, such as a website or blog. Tracking traffic helps gauge how well your LinkedIn activities attract attention and drive users to engage with your content both within and beyond the platform. Shield keeps track of the so called on-platform funnel, driving traffic from content in the feed to your profile to new followers and connections. Shield tracks and measures all key content metrics from impressions to engagement, and profile activity metrics like post frequency, profile views and network growth.

Traffic

User activity

User activity on LinkedIn includes interactions like posting, commenting, and visiting profiles of other LinkedIn members. Tracking activity can provide insights into engagement trends and profile visibility. Shield tracks and measures content and profile activity across key metrics like post frequency and engagement levels, helping you stay on top and ahead of the curve. Content and profile activity are both core measures of your LinkedIn performance.

User activity

User engagement

User engagement means all interactions with your LinkedIn content, such as reactions, comments, and reposts. High engagement indicates content relevance and can increase reach. Shield tracks and measures all engagement metrics across organic LinkedIn content, including reactions, comments and reposts. This data helps you stay on top of what’s working and what’s not, to help you create more content and drive more meaningful engagement to your posts.

User engagement

Views

Views indicate either views on your content (today called impressions), or profile views. Content views (impressions) means how many times a post was shown to a LinkedIn member in the LinkedIn feed. Profile views indicate how many times your LinkedIn has been visited in a given time period. Shield tracks both content performance including post impressions as well as profile views over time. These key metrics along other metrics such as engagement metrics helps you stay on top of your LinkedIn game and build a more relevant audience matching your product, services or interests.

Views

Virality

Virality on LinkedIn refers to content that spreads rapidly through high engagement, reaching a large audience beyond the original network of the person posting it. Viral content boosts visibility of the post itself as well as the author and will typically drive more profile visits, followers and overall brand awareness as a result. Shield tracks all your organic content on LinkedIn and keeps track of your top performing posts for you. This helps you understand which of your posts resonate more deeply with your target audience, as well as what content is likely to drive engagement and reposts for broader reach. By analyzing patterns across your content you increase the likelihood of repeat success and increased reach and engagement.

Virality

Visibility

Visibility on LinkedIn refers to how easily your profile and content can be found and seen by others on the platform. On platform visibility is achieved through consistently posting great content, engaging with content from others, and optimizing your profile for search. Greater visibility increases the chances of connecting with a wider audience, growing your network, and enhancing your personal brand. Shield keeps track of your content and profile visibility as indicated by post impressions and profile views. Among other metrics like engagement rate and network growth, Shield keeps you informed of what’s working and what’s not, to help you improve your overall visibility on the LinkedIn platform.

Visibility

Workspaces

A workspace across different software tools typically allow users to self-organize and manage profiles or content in groups. Workspaces are particularly useful for teams or agencies managing multiple profiles, to keep people and data separate. With workspaces in Shield you can easily group and manage multiple LinkedIn profiles, whether colleagues or clients, to keep data separate and streamlined. The workspace feature gives you seamless access to specific groups of people in isolation from the rest for easy reporting, and to give people access to the data that’s relevant to them. And that data only.

Workspaces

Web traffic

Web traffic from LinkedIn includes visits to external sites or landing pages driven by LinkedIn content or profile links. Measuring this can reveal how LinkedIn impacts website engagement. While Shield does not track traffic that goes out of LinkedIn, we do track ‘traffic’ as it moves from content (impressions, engagement), to your profile (profile views), to network growth (new followers, connections). This way Shield provides you the full overview of on-platform traffic and LinkedIn account growth.

Web traffic

Year-over-year growth (YOY)

Year-over-year growth measures LinkedIn metrics over an annual period, such as impressions, engagement or follower growth, showing long-term trends and improvement over time.Shield tracks and measures all your content and profile metrics over time and makes it easy for you to pull up your numbers from last year or this year, or any other time period, for seamless comparison and in depth analysis of content trends - all based on your data from the personal LinkedIn profiles connected to your organization on Shield.

Year-over-year growth (YOY)

Yield (Return on Investment)

Yield or ROI on LinkedIn measures the value generated from your activities compared to the time or financial investment. Tracking yield helps assess whether efforts are leading to meaningful outcomes. Shield does not directly track yield or ROI outside of key social metrics from the LinkedIn platform itself. Shield does track earned media value which gives you a number in dollars that equals what you would have had to pay for the same amount of impressions via paid ads.

Yield (Return on Investment)

Zero-click content

Zero-click content is content that provides value right in the feed, directly on LinkedIn, such as how-to guides, infographics or other types of insightful or actionable content pieces. Zero-click content does not require users to click away for value but delivers it right there and then. This approach can boost engagement and keep users on the platform.Shield tracks all organic content from personal LinkedIn profiles you connect to Shield, including zero-click content that can be saved into collections to separate it from the rest of the content you create and curate. This makes it easy to compare and conclude how your zero-click content is performing versus the rest.

Zero-click content

Zero party data

Zero party data refers to information that LinkedIn users willingly share with you, such as their thoughts or preferences. This information is often shared in content itself, comments, or direct messages. This data is valuable for personalized engagement and strategic decision-making. Shield does not track zero party data per se, but Shield does track all organic content from profiles you connect to the Shield platform. By using Shield’s powerful search engine you are able to find content posted that includes certain keywords or phrases that could be considered zero party data.

Zero party data

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