Search LinkedIn posts by keywords

LinkedIn Post Research

Search LinkedIn for posts matching keywords via Apify. Returns posts sorted by engagement or date, with author info, full text, reaction counts, and direct URLs.

No LinkedIn cookies. No login. Just keywords in, posts out.

When to Auto-Load

Load this skill when:

• User says "search LinkedIn posts", "what are people saying about X on LinkedIn", "find LinkedIn content about"
• User wants to find high-engagement posts on a topic
• User wants to identify who's posting about a specific topic (thought leader discovery)
• User wants to find posts to extract commenters from (warm lead pipeline)

Prerequisites

Apify API Token

Required for searching LinkedIn posts. Set in .env:

APIFY_API_TOKEN=your_token_here

No LinkedIn cookies, login, or session tokens needed. That's the only setup.

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How It Works

1. Takes one or more keywords
2. Calls the apimaestro/linkedin-posts-search-scraper-no-cookies Apify actor
3. Returns posts with author, text, engagement metrics, date, and URL
4. Deduplicates across keywords by activity_id
5. Sorts by engagement (total reactions) descending, or by date

Quick Start

# Single keyword search
python3 skills/capabilities/linkedin-post-research/scripts/search_posts.py \
  --keyword "AI sourcing" --max-items 20

# Multiple keywords
python3 skills/capabilities/linkedin-post-research/scripts/search_posts.py \
  --keyword "AI sourcing" --keyword "recruiting automation" --max-items 30

# Sort by date (most recent first)
python3 skills/capabilities/linkedin-post-research/scripts/search_posts.py \
  --keyword "AI agents" --sort-by date_posted --max-items 20

# Output as CSV
python3 skills/capabilities/linkedin-post-research/scripts/search_posts.py \
  --keyword "AI agents" --output csv --output-file results.csv

# Summary table
python3 skills/capabilities/linkedin-post-research/scripts/search_posts.py \
  --keyword "AI agents" --output summary

CLI Reference

Flag	Default	Description
--keyword, -k	required	Keyword to search (can be repeated for multiple keywords)
--max-items	50	Max posts to return per keyword
--sort-by	relevance	Sort order: relevance or date_posted
--output, -o	json	Output format: json, csv, summary
--output-file	stdout	Write output to file
--token	env var	Apify API token (overrides APIFY_API_TOKEN env var)
--timeout	120	Max seconds to wait for Apify run

Apify Actor Details

Actor: apimaestro/linkedin-posts-search-scraper-no-cookies

API call:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apimaestro~linkedin-posts-search-scraper-no-cookies/runs?token=$APIFY_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "keyword": "AI agents",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "sortBy": "date_posted"
  }'

Polling for results:

# Check run status
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apimaestro~linkedin-posts-search-scraper-no-cookies/runs/{RUN_ID}?token=$APIFY_API_TOKEN"

# When status is SUCCEEDED, fetch results
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/{DATASET_ID}/items?token=$APIFY_API_TOKEN"

Output Schema

{
  "author": "Jane Smith",
  "author_headline": "VP of Sales at Acme Corp",
  "author_profile_url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/janesmith",
  "keyword": "AI sourcing",
  "reactions": 142,
  "comments": 28,
  "shares": 12,
  "reactions_by_type": {"LIKE": 100, "EMPATHY": 30, "PRAISE": 12},
  "date": "2026-04-01",
  "post_preview": "First 200 chars of the post text...",
  "full_text": "Complete post text...",
  "url": "https://www.linkedin.com/posts/...",
  "activity_id": "7447040447966826496",
  "hashtags": ["#AI", "#sales"],
  "is_repost": false,
  "content_type": "text"
}

Output Columns (CSV)

Column	Description
author	Post author name
author_headline	Author's LinkedIn headline
author_profile_url	Author's LinkedIn profile URL
keyword	Which search keyword matched
reactions	Total reaction count
comments	Comment count
shares	Share count
date	Post date (YYYY-MM-DD)
post_preview	First ~200 characters
url	Direct link to the LinkedIn post
activity_id	Unique post identifier
hashtags	Comma-separated hashtags

Cost

Apify charges per compute usage. ~50 posts costs approximately $0.01-0.05 depending on the actor's pricing tier. The script prints cost info after each run.

Error Handling

Error	Fix
APIFY_API_TOKEN not set	Ask user to add it to .env
Apify run fails or times out	Retry once. If still fails, try a broader keyword.
0 results	Keyword may be too specific. Try broader terms.