How to Use the LinkedIn Profile Follower Collector

Before you start

• Data scope: LinkedIn only lets you export followers from your own personal profile. This Phantom won’t work for company pages or other people’s profiles.
• Optional enrichment: You can pull additional details (headline, company, etc.) from each follower’s profile to create a lead list. This increases runtime but gives more complete results and is required if you want followers to appear in your LinkedIn Leads database.

Step 1: Connect your LinkedIn account

To let the Phantom act on your behalf:

1. Install the PhantomBuster browser extension and connect your LinkedIn session in one click.
2. If you’re not using Chrome or Firefox, you can retrieve your session cookie manually (see our cookie guide).

Check your browser user agent
Make sure your browser is up to date before connecting your account.
→ If your Chrome or Firefox version is outdated, your session cookie may expire much more quickly, and you’ll need to reconnect often.

Step 2: Configure follower extraction

• Enrich leads (optional):
  • Enable this option if you’d like to extract each follower’s public profile details in addition to their name and profile URL.
  • This is recommended if you want to build a ready-to-use lead list but will increase processing time.
  • Followers will only appear in your LinkedIn Leads database when enrichment is enabled.
    Without enrichment, your results are only available in the Results tab or CSV file.

Result file settings (dropdown in setup)

1. Name your results file (optional)

   • You can customize the file name.

     If you rename the file between launches, the Phantom will create a new results file and start processing inputs from scratch.

2. Fields to keep (optional)
   • Export only the fields you care about by listing them (comma-separated).
     Example: profileUrl, job, location.
   • This generates a second CSV file with just those fields.
   • Learn more in our guide: Customize how your Phantom results files are saved.

Step 3: Select launch frequency

Choose how often the Phantom should run:

1. Launch manually: Start the Phantom yourself whenever you need.
2. Launch once at a specific time: schedule a one-time run at a set date and time.
3. Launch repeatedly: schedule regular runs (e.g. once per day, several times during working hours).
4. Launch after another Phantom: chain automations together so this Phantom starts right after another finishes.
5. Advanced scheduling: customize the exact minutes, hours, days, or months when the Phantom should run.

→ For a complete walkthrough of scheduling options, see our guide to scheduling Phantoms automatically.

Step 4 (Optional): Advanced settings

Advanced settings are available if you want to fine-tune how your Phantom runs, but by default they’re already optimized for most use cases.

We recommend leaving them as they are unless a guide specifically instructs you to change something.

→ For a detailed overview of all advanced options (like execution limits, retries, email notifications, proxies, webhooks, and file management), see our Advanced settings guide.

Launch and results

When you’re ready:

1. Click Launch to start your Phantom.
2. Once it finishes, open the Results tab in the Phantom console to see the data collected.
3. Download your results as a CSV or JSON file, or view them as a dynamic list on the LinkedIn Leads page.

→ To learn how to export your data to Google Sheets, integrate with other tools, or reuse it in more automations, check our Access and Export your Phantom Results guide.

Export and input limits on the Free plan
If you’re on the Free plan or Free trial, some features are limited:
- CSV exports include only the first 10 rows of results.
- CSV download links (for dynamic viewing in Google Sheets or integrations) are not available.
- JSON exports are not available.
- CSV upload as an input method is not supported.
To unlock all features, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

What you give (Input) and What you get (Output)

This section gives you a detailed breakdown of everything you need to provide to run this Phantom, and everything you’ll receive once it completes.

What you give (Input)

What you get (Output)

Tips and troubleshooting

Common pitfalls

• This Phantom only works on your own personal profile followers → It cannot extract company page followers or followers of other people’s profiles. As a workaround, if you want to target another person’s audience, you can try scraping their connections instead.
• Expecting full data → this Phantom only extracts basic follower details. For deeper enrichment (company, email, etc.), use the LinkedIn Profile Scraper.
• Renaming your results file mid-run → this creates a new file and reprocesses data from the start.
• Selecting enrichment for very large follower bases → this can extend runtime considerably.
• Expecting followers to appear in the LinkedIn Leads database → this only happens when enrichment is enabled. Without enrichment, your data will only be available in the Results tab or CSV file.
  • You can use Sales Navigator Lead Sender to pass the profiles forward, or LinkedIn Profile Scraper to enrich them for further use.

If you run into issues

• Check how to troubleshoot your Phantom using Logs.
• Browse the Fix Issues & Troubleshoot Errors section for solutions to common problems.
• Review our Automation Rate Limits by Platform guide.
• Check our Best Practices for Social Media Automation guide.

Suggested automations

After exporting your profile followers, you can:

• LinkedIn Outreach → turn your followers into 1st-degree connections, manage replies from one dashboard, and set follow-ups if needed.
• LinkedIn Auto Liker/Commenter → engage with your followers’ posts to stay visible and build warm relationships.
• LinkedIn Activity Extractor → monitor what your followers are posting or engaging with, so you can identify the right moment to reach out.
• LinkedIn Profile Scraper → enrich selected followers with full professional data and verified emails.