There are lots of reasons why you’d want to find out a bit more about a company.  Whether they are a competitor you are looking to profile, someone you’re looking to join for employment or a sales prospect.  I’ve written previously about the idea of the CIA in social media, that is, the ability to research and investigate on-line.

A little used feature of Linkedin is the company profile option, which holds some fascinating information.

Here’s how it works. Let’s just say that I wanted to find out a little bit more about Manchester City Council.  Normally with any large public sector organisation, knowing where to start is a nightmare.  So, in Linkedin, go to your top box where you search and change the drop down box to “companies” from “people.”  Then type in “Manchester City Council.”

You’re search return should come to this page.  It shows that there are 501 people on Linkedin who work for the council with profiles on Linkedin, ideal if you want to look through and see a target for connection.  Your direct connections are shown and recent activity.  At the bottom of the page is shows who has moved jobs, great if you want to drop someone a line. 

Here’s the bit that most people miss.  On the right hand side of the page is a hyperlink to “check out insightful statistics about Manchester City Council employees.”  Click that and it should take you here.  Now if you just work yourself round that page and see what level of information you can see about Manchester City Council.  Right from the number of graduates they employ, how long people have worked there, where people live, where people go to when they leave, whose got a new job title and whose just departed.  All in real time.

This is a stunning research tool, particularly if you are a recruiter or in HR.  What’s really great is that you can click the link at the top that says “Follow Manchester City Council” and this – a bit like Twitter – will send you a weekly or daily digest update on what is happening, job title changes, job changes etc.  If Manchester City Council were – for example – a major account of mine (if I were a salesperson), I’d be following them and keeping right up to date with whats going on within the organisation.   If a trusted contact of mine had a promotion, I’d drop them a card.  If a trusted contact left, I’d want to know where they were going in case there were a chance of business somewhere else.

It’s a terrific feature in my view and – when used properly – another powerful reason why social media should not be ignored by business to business sales organisations.