Section 11 · Companies
11Social & Reputation
How a company shows up on social platforms, how it's reviewed, and how aggressively it's hiring all tell you where it is in its growth — and give you timely, specific things to talk about. Four tabs cover this ground: LinkedIn, Facebook, Google Maps, and Team.
The LinkedIn tab is a snapshot of the company's LinkedIn presence — its follower count, the industries and specialties it lists, and its recent posts. Because Instinct captures a snapshot over time, a Snapshot History lets you see how the presence has changed — growing follower counts and steady posting are signs of momentum.
The posts are especially useful: they're what the company is choosing to say publicly right now, and referencing a recent one is an easy, genuine way to open a conversation.
Figure 11.1The LinkedIn tab. Followers, specialties, recent posts, and a history of how the presence has changed.
The Facebook tab is the same idea for Facebook: a snapshot of the company's page, with its own Snapshot History. For many local businesses Facebook is the more active channel, so it's worth a look even when LinkedIn is quiet.
Google Maps
The Google Maps tab shows the company's Google listing and its reviews — how the public rates it and what they say, again with a history so you can see the trend. A company's star rating and review volume are a fast read on its local reputation.
Figure 11.2The Google Maps tab. The company's listing, rating, and recent reviews — a quick read on local reputation.
Team
The Team tab is about people and reputation as an employer — a strong proxy for growth and health:
- Active Indeed postings and hiring velocity — what the company is hiring for on Indeed, and how fast.
- Active LinkedIn postings and hiring velocity — the same, from LinkedIn.
- Glassdoor sub-ratings and rating trend — how employees rate the company across categories, and whether that's improving or slipping.
- Recent reviews — what employees are actually saying.
Read together, these tell you whether a company is expanding (lots of open roles), and how it's regarded from the inside.
Figure 11.3The Team tab. Open roles and hiring pace, plus Glassdoor ratings and reviews — a read on growth and culture.
Hiring is a timing signal
A company hiring several technical roles at once is often scaling — and scaling companies buy. The hiring velocity on the Team tab (and the Hiring sub-score in Section 08) helps you spot who's growing right now, so you reach out while the need is live.
Any of these tabs may note that its data hasn't been collected for a company yet — social and review data fills in as it's gathered.
The bottom line
What they say, how they're rated, who they're hiring.
Social and reputation data is your source of timely, specific openers — a recent post to reference, a strong review to acknowledge, a hiring spree that says "now."