Wishlist: Linkedin Activity Heatmap

I love the professional value LinkedIn provides. Some people really miss the boat when they think it’s “just for job seekers”. There is so much information that LinkedIn can provide.

One thing I love, is how you can find and “follow” a company. This is good stuff. A weekly wrap of who’s there, who joined, who left, where they went… to a geek/recruiter, it’s awesome stuff.

Any astute LinkedIn user or recruiter will tell you that, watching LinkedIn for connection activity (who is connecting to whom, and the volume of connections per user) is an interesting measurement of, well, changes inside a company for one reason or another.

It would be pretty awesome if the LinkedIn crew would publish, alongside their great details about company information, a visualization of companies in my local area that are experiencing a high volume of connections and/or changes that may portend interesting insights!

For example:

• If many people are suddenly connecting IN to a company with a disproportionate amount of connectors OUTbound, then, maybe that company is suddenly the “hot thing” everyone is trying to get in, be like, or just bask in awe of. For me, that’s an indicator to buy stock (or eaves) in that company ASAP!
• If many people are suddenly connecting OUT of a company, there may be some future reason why that company is shrinking, about to have an organizational change or other distress. For those of you taking notes at home, that would be a “SELL” order in my book.
• If many people are suddenly connecting INTERNALLY in a company, well, then I see a few scenarios:
• There may be some future change (business spin-off or restructuring) and people are trying to connect while they still can.
• They finally got internet access.
• The interns are loose.
• The sales people just had club. Now they’re trying to work off their sunburns by “networking”.