I started working for SMI as a part-time Social Open Source Intelligence (SOSINT) Analyst last year when the company had overflow work or needed help with larger projects. I was aware of the different products they offered, but I didn’t take to mind what the different clients were, or why they wanted certain products.
Since then I started working full time and became part of the everyday functions of SMI. I was very surprised to see how many different industries needed SMI’s products. Some of SMI’s clientele includes law firms, insurance companies, and private investigators, but the reasons that each of them order an SMI product is what I find most interesting. Just about every industry looks into social media on their prospective persons of interest. I’ve processed orders on professional athletes, prospective jurors for high profile cases, individuals filing suspected false insurance claims, background checks on prospective employees, and other variations of the like. My work here has showed me that most people are on social media, and most people care about what is on social media.
Now that I’ve been here full time for over a month, I know what each client needs and why they depend on SMI’s quality products to meet those needs. Large law firms typically use Deep Reports to dive into a person’s online past to ensure they know every possible thing that could be brought up in their cases. Our Social Reports are mostly used for private investigators and employment screeners who want to skim the surface of an individual’s online persona to dig deeper on their own. Finally, all clients can benefit from our Export product, which captures all available information from an internet page so the content is preserved forever and can’t be deleted.
Working as a SOSINT Analyst with SMI ensures that there is never a dull moment in my workday because each client needs different things, and those are always changing.