Thousands of social media platforms are home to billions of users around the globe. And information online can be elusive. How can you be sure you turned over every social media stone and looked in every corner of the web? How do you know when your search has been exhaustive? The truth is, you don’t know what you don’t know.
What you might not know:
You may be familiar with popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. But there are thousands of different social media platforms and 4.9 billion global social media users. It’s nearly impossible to filter through and discover relevant information without expert help and technology. You need to know where to look to get the right information.
What can you find?:
Social media has a plethora of information. And the information surpasses posts with photos and videos. Participation on social media platforms provides insight into a person’s day-to-day activities, connections, opinions, and cultural beliefs or practices. By looking in the right places for information about a subject, we can uncover a deeper understanding of the subject’s personality and inner circle. Evidence can be linked to mutual friends or connections, conversations in chat rooms, or linked in hashtags.
Sometimes, subjects hide information:
Some subjects of an online investigation hide their identity by using alternative identities often called aliases. It can be tricky to verify a person’s identity when he or she conceals or changes personal identifiers like a name, date of birth, phone number, and address. And, as AI becomes more popular and integrated into social media, a subject can alter his or her image making photo identification a challenge, too.
Don’t worry, we can help:
SMI Aware has the expert knowledge and proprietary technology to locate and collect information from social media and the web. Our analysts study and understand open-source intelligence practices to develop strategies in finding and preserving online insights. As a third party firm, our searches are ethical and compliant with federal regulations. Unlike our competitors who sell software subscriptions, we find, organize, and deliver insights based on scope-driven research.
At SMI Aware, we know where to look and how to find data and insights online. Contact us to learn more about our products and services or to schedule a demo.
