Automate LinkedIn Content Ideas to Airtable with n8n

Opening Problem Statement

Meet Sarah, a content marketer juggling multiple social media platforms to find inspiration for her company’s blog. She spends hours every week scrolling through LinkedIn, saving posts she finds insightful or worth sharing, only to lose track of them later. This manual hunt not only wastes Sarah’s precious time but also causes valuable content ideas to slip through the cracks, delaying her team’s content creation and impacting engagement.

If you’re like Sarah, manually curating content ideas from your LinkedIn activity can easily consume several hours weekly and overwhelm your content pipeline. There’s a clear need for an automated way to capture and organize insightful LinkedIn posts you’ve liked recently, enabling your creative flow to stay consistent and focused.

What This Automation Does

This n8n workflow named “Linkedin to Airtable” seamlessly bridges LinkedIn engagement data with your Airtable content repository. Here’s what it accomplishes when it runs on your schedule:

• Fetches your recently liked posts on LinkedIn via the LinkedIn RapidAPI (free with a RapidAPI key).
• Filters these posts to keep only those marked as “insightful” and that were posted within the last 7 days.
• Splits the batch of liked posts into individual post entries for easier processing.
• Extracts and formats relevant details—author, post text, post URL—into structured content ideas.
• Saves each content idea directly into an Airtable base and table you configure, tagged as type “Linkedin” for easy reference.
• Runs automatically on a schedule you set, eliminating manual copying and saving time.

Using this automation, Sarah can now reclaim several hours weekly, easily track insightful content from LinkedIn, and maintain a rich, up-to-date idea pool in Airtable — all without lifting a finger.

Prerequisites ⚙️

• n8n account (either n8n.cloud or self-hosted; if you want to explore self-hosting, consider Hostinger’s guide)
• RapidAPI account with access to linkedin-api8.p.rapidapi.com for LinkedIn post data (API key needed)
• LinkedIn username (the account whose likes you want to track)
• Airtable account with a base (like “Content Hub”) and table (like “Ideas”) configured to store the content ideas

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Set Up the Schedule Trigger to Run Automatically

In your n8n editor, select the Schedule Trigger node. Set it to run at your preferred interval—for example, daily or every few hours. This node ensures the workflow runs automatically without manual intervention.

Navigation: Click the Schedule Trigger node → Under “Rule,” set the interval (e.g., daily)

Outcome: Your workflow will activate automatically based on this schedule.

Common mistake: Forgetting to set the interval correctly, resulting in no or too frequent runs.

2. Configure the Fetch LinkedIn Likes HTTP Request Node

This node fetches your LinkedIn liked posts using RapidAPI.

Navigation: Click the Fetch LinkedIn Likes HTTP Request node → In the parameters:

• URL: Already set to https://linkedin-api8.p.rapidapi.com/get-profile-likes
• Query Parameters: Set your LinkedIn username in username, and keep start=0 to start from the latest likes.
• Header Parameters: Add your RapidAPI key in x-rapidapi-key, with host linkedin-api8.p.rapidapi.com.

Example: If your LinkedIn username is “sarahjohnson,” enter that value.

Expected outcome: The node returns JSON data listing your liked posts.

Common mistake: Using a wrong or expired RapidAPI key causes authorization errors; double-check your credentials.

3. Split the Batch of Liked Posts

LinkedIn returns multiple liked posts in an array. Use the Split Liked Posts node (SplitOut node type) to process each post individually.

Navigation: Click the Split Liked Posts node → Confirm it splits by the field data.items

Outcome: Each liked post will be handled one by one down the workflow.

Common mistake: Not specifying the correct field to split causes processing failure.

4. Filter for Insightful and Recent Posts

We only want posts you reacted to as “insightful” and that were published within the last 7 days.

Navigation: Select the Filter Insightful & Recent node → Under conditions, set two:

• Check that $json.action contains the string “insightful”
• Check postedDate timestamp is greater than (current time minus 7 days in milliseconds)

Outcome: Only posts meeting both criteria proceed further.

Common mistake: Incorrect date comparisons or string checks result in no data filtered through.

5. Format Content Idea Data

Use the Format Content Idea Set node to construct fields with meaningful names and values for Airtable:

• Title: Prefix with “I just liked a linkedin post of {{ author.username }}”
• description: Extract the post text content
• source: Store the post URL for reference

Example value: Title could be “I just liked a linkedin post of sarahjohnson”

Common mistake: Typos in field names cause Airtable to receive empty data.

6. Prepare Data for Airtable

The Prepare for Airtable SplitOut node extracts just the three key pieces of data you want to save: Title, description, and source.

Navigation: Ensure the node splits out these exact fields.

Outcome: The final data format matches your Airtable columns.

Common mistake: Wrong fields set here break the Airtable mapping.

7. Save Content Ideas to Airtable

This Save to Airtable node connects to your Airtable base and writes new records.

Navigation:

• Connect your Airtable Personal Access Token credential.
• Select the base (e.g., “Content Hub”)
• Select the table (e.g., “Ideas”)
• Map the columns exactly:
• Type: Set to “Linkedin”
• Title: from data Title
• Description: from data description
• Source: from data source
• Status: set to false (unchecked boolean)

Outcome: Each qualified post liked insights become a new row in your Airtable content ideas tracker.

Common mistake: Incorrect base/table or mapping errors cause records not to save.

Customizations ✏️

• Change filter criteria: In the Filter Insightful & Recent node, modify the string “insightful” to another reaction like “love” or “celebrate” to capture different engagement types.
• Adjust timeframe: Update the date calculation in Filter node to fetch posts from 3 or 14 days instead of 7 by changing (7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000).
• Include more post data: In the Format Content Idea node, add more fields from the LinkedIn API response, such as the author’s full name or post impressions.
• Use different Airtable table: Change the Save to Airtable node to point to another base/table for specific campaigns.
• Run on demand: Replace the Schedule Trigger node with a Webhook node to trigger this workflow manually via HTTP request.

Troubleshooting 🔧

• Problem: “Error 401 Unauthorized” in Fetch LinkedIn Likes HTTP Request node.

  Cause: Your RapidAPI key is invalid or expired.

  Solution: Go to your RapidAPI dashboard, generate or copy a valid API key, and replace it under the Header Parameters of the HTTP Request node.

• Problem: No posts are passing through the Filter node.

Cause: The filter conditions for “insightful” reaction or date are too strict or incorrect.

Solution: Double-check the filter expressions, verify the JSON property names ($json.action and $json.postedDate), and adjust time filters accordingly.

• Problem: Records not saving in Airtable despite no error.

Cause: Column mappings don’t match Airtable schema exactly or missing permissions.

Solution: Review the Airtable base and table setup, confirm field types, and ensure your API token has sufficient rights.

Pre-Production Checklist ✅

• Verify your RapidAPI key is active and linked to the right LinkedIn endpoint.
• Check your LinkedIn username spelling in the HTTP node.
• Confirm Airtable base and table names exactly match what’s in the workflow node.
• Test the workflow manually before enabling schedule.
• Backup your Airtable base data to avoid accidental overwrites.

Deployment Guide

Activate the workflow in n8n by toggling the “Active” switch in the top-right corner. Ensure the Schedule Trigger node is set to your preferred run interval.

Monitor workflow success and failures in the n8n execution panel and Airtable for record creation.

Adjust trigger frequency based on Airtable API rate limits and your content needs.

FAQs

• Can I use a different platform instead of Airtable?
  Yes, but you’d need to replace the Airtable node with another database or spreadsheet integration and adjust the field mappings accordingly.
• Does this consume API credits on RapidAPI?
  Yes, each API call counts towards your RapidAPI usage quota. Monitor your plan to avoid overages.
• Is my LinkedIn data secure?
  n8n processes data within your environment, and your API keys are stored securely using n8n credentials. Ensure you do not share sensitive keys publicly.
• Can it handle a large number of liked posts?
  Yes, but verify your Airtable and API limits. Consider batching or increasing schedule frequency accordingly.

Conclusion

By implementing this n8n workflow, you’ve automated the tedious process of manually curating insightful LinkedIn posts you liked recently and turned them into organized content ideas stored in Airtable. You save hours every week by letting technology do the busywork, maintain a consistent flow of inspiration, and empower your marketing strategy with reliable content insights.

Next, you might explore integrations to auto-post these ideas to social media, enrich ideas with AI-generated summaries, or extend to other platforms like Twitter or YouTube for a broader content ecosystem.

Keep automating smartly and enjoy the extra time for creativity!