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LinkedIn Activity Logging

LinkedIn Activity Logging captures the outbound touches your reps make on LinkedIn (connection requests and direct messages) and records each one in two places at once: as a scored behavioral event in kenbun, and as a note on the matching contact's timeline in HubSpot. Your reps keep working in LinkedIn, and their outreach shows up everywhere it needs to without a single copy-paste.

Why This Matters​

LinkedIn is where a lot of modern outbound happens, but the activity usually never makes it back into your systems. A rep sends a connection request or a message, the engagement is real, and yet your lead scores and your CRM timeline have no idea it happened. That blind spot hurts in three ways:

  • Scores undercount real intent. A lead actively talking to your rep on LinkedIn looks "cold" in kenbun because none of that engagement was captured.
  • The CRM timeline is incomplete. Sales managers and teammates can't see that outreach already started, leading to duplicate touches or missed follow-ups.
  • Reps lose time on manual logging. Asking reps to log LinkedIn activity by hand rarely works; it's tedious and gets skipped.

LinkedIn Activity Logging closes the gap automatically. Every captured touch raises the lead's engagement score using your own scoring rules, and (when the lead matches a HubSpot contact) lands as a note on that contact's timeline so the whole team sees it.

What Gets Captured​

Version 1 covers the two most common outbound actions a rep takes on LinkedIn:

ActivityWhen It's Capturedkenbun Event Type
Connection request sentYou send a connection request from a profileLinkedIn Connection Request Sent
Message sentYou send a direct message in a conversationLinkedIn Message Sent

Both are outbound touches, meaning actions your rep takes. Received connection requests, incoming replies, reactions, and comments are not captured in this version.

How It Works​

There are two ways a touch gets logged. Both produce an identical event in kenbun, so your scores and timeline look the same regardless of which path was used.

  1. Automatic capture (default). A component in the kenbun Chrome extension watches for the two send actions on LinkedIn. When you send a connection request or a message, it quietly records the touch and forwards it to kenbun. No clicks, no forms.
  2. Manual logging ("Log This Touch"). A simple form in the extension's side panel lets a rep log a touch by hand: choose the activity type, paste the LinkedIn profile URL, and click Log This Touch. This is useful as a reliable fallback and for logging activity after the fact.

In both cases, kenbun:

  1. Matches the LinkedIn profile to an existing lead (or creates a new one) using the profile URL.
  2. Scores the touch against your active engagement scoring rules, just like any other event.
  3. If the lead also matches a HubSpot contact, writes a note to that contact's timeline in HubSpot.

Identifying the Lead​

kenbun matches each touch to a lead by the person's LinkedIn profile URL. The URL is standardized automatically (casing, www, query strings, and trailing slashes are stripped) so the same person always resolves to the same lead, even if the URL was captured in slightly different forms. The first touch for a new LinkedIn profile creates a lead; subsequent touches add to that same lead.

Before You Start​

To get the full two-system experience, you'll want:

  • The kenbun Chrome extension installed. See the Chrome Extension guide for installation and sign-in. Automatic capture and the manual form both live in the extension's side panel.
  • HubSpot connected (optional, but recommended). See the HubSpot Integration guide. Without HubSpot, touches still score in kenbun; they simply won't write a CRM timeline note.
HubSpot permission update

LinkedIn Activity Logging writes notes to your HubSpot contacts, which requires an additional HubSpot permission. If you connected HubSpot before this feature was released, reconnect once from Govern → Integrations → HubSpot so the new permission is granted. Until you reconnect, touches still score in kenbun but the HubSpot note is skipped.

Using Automatic Capture​

Once the extension is installed and you're signed in to kenbun, automatic capture is on by default. Just work in LinkedIn as you normally would:

  1. Open a LinkedIn profile and send a connection request, or open a conversation and send a message.
  2. The extension captures the touch and sends it to kenbun in the background.
  3. The touch appears in the Recent Touches list in the extension side panel, with a badge confirming it reached kenbun (and HubSpot, when applicable).

You can turn automatic capture off at any time using the toggle at the top of the Activity Logging section in the LinkedIn tab of the side panel.

Using the Manual Form​

The Log This Touch form is always available in the side panel's LinkedIn tab, whether or not automatic capture detected the action:

  1. Open the extension side panel and go to the LinkedIn tab.
  2. In the Activity Logging section, choose the Type (Connection Request Sent or Message Sent).
  3. Enter the LinkedIn URL of the person you reached out to (required). You can paste the raw profile URL; kenbun standardizes it for you.
  4. Optionally add the Recipient Name so the HubSpot note reads naturally (e.g., "LinkedIn message sent to Jane Doe").
  5. Click Log This Touch.

The touch is scored in kenbun immediately and, if the lead matches a HubSpot contact, written to the HubSpot timeline. It appears in the Recent Touches list with status badges just like an auto-captured touch.

Scoring Your LinkedIn Touches​

kenbun never hardcodes point values. The two LinkedIn event types are registered automatically the first time a touch is logged, and you decide how much each one is worth:

  1. Go to Configure → Scoring and open Engagement scoring.
  2. Add a scoring rule for LinkedIn Connection Request Sent and/or LinkedIn Message Sent.
  3. Assign the point value that reflects how much intent each action signals for your team.

A common starting point is to weight a sent message higher than a connection request, since a message reflects deeper engagement. Adjust to match your sales motion. See Engagement Scoring for details on building scoring rules.

What the HubSpot Note Looks Like​

When a touch is fanned out to HubSpot, it appears as a note on the matching contact's timeline, the same place a logged email or call shows up. By default the note is concise and describes the action only, for example:

LinkedIn connection request sent to Jane Doe

LinkedIn message sent to Bob Smith

The text of the message you sent is not included by default, to protect privacy. If your team chooses to include message text, that is an explicit opt-in setting. Only the rep's own outbound touches are ever logged.

LinkedIn Activity Logging is designed for logging your own outbound activity, the touches your reps send. A few defaults keep it respectful and compliant:

  • Message text is off by default. Notes describe the action ("LinkedIn message sent to …") and do not include the body of your message unless your team explicitly opts in.
  • Only outbound touches are captured. Received messages and incoming connection requests are not logged.
  • Automatic capture can be turned off per rep using the toggle in the side panel.

Leads Without an Email​

kenbun matches a LinkedIn person to a HubSpot contact indirectly: it resolves the kenbun lead first, then finds the HubSpot contact by that lead's email address. If a LinkedIn-only lead has no email yet, kenbun cannot match them to a HubSpot contact. In that case:

  • The touch is still scored in kenbun; engagement is captured and the lead's score updates.
  • The HubSpot note is skipped and recorded as "skipped, no email" in your HubSpot sync history.

Once an email is added to the lead (for example, after a connection accepts and shares contact details, or after a HubSpot sync), future touches will reach the HubSpot timeline.

Avoiding Duplicate Notes​

Each touch carries a stable fingerprint so that retries, page refreshes, and rapid re-captures never create duplicate notes in HubSpot. If the same touch is sent more than once, kenbun recognizes it and writes the HubSpot note only a single time.

Logging Touches Programmatically​

If you build your own integration, the manual logging path is also available as an API endpoint. See Log LinkedIn Activity for the full request and response reference. The automatic capture path uses the standard Ingest endpoint.

Troubleshooting​

A touch didn't appear in kenbun

  • Confirm you're signed in to kenbun in the same browser and the extension side panel shows your account.
  • Check that automatic capture is enabled (the toggle in the Activity Logging section).
  • LinkedIn occasionally changes its page layout, which can affect automatic detection. When in doubt, use the Log This Touch form; it does not depend on page detection.

The touch scored in kenbun but didn't appear in HubSpot

  • Confirm HubSpot is connected under Govern → Integrations → HubSpot.
  • If you connected HubSpot before this feature launched, reconnect once so the note-writing permission is granted.
  • Check whether the lead has an email address. LinkedIn-only leads with no email are scored in kenbun but skipped for HubSpot (shown as "skipped, no email" in your sync history).
  • Review the HubSpot sync history for the specific touch under Govern → Integrations → HubSpot.

Scores aren't changing when I log LinkedIn touches

  • Make sure you've added scoring rules for LinkedIn Connection Request Sent and LinkedIn Message Sent under Configure → Scoring (Engagement). Until a rule assigns points, the events are captured but carry no weight.

The same touch appears twice in HubSpot

  • This should not happen, because kenbun deduplicates touches automatically. If you do see a duplicate, contact support with the contact and approximate time so we can investigate.