Introduction to Social Media Investigation

Book excerpt: If you're interested in using social media as an investigative tool, Introduction to Social Media Investigation will show you how! Social networks and social media, like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare, are some of the most popular services on the Web, with hundreds of millions of users. The public information that people share on these sites can be valuable for anyone interested in investigating people of interest through open, public sources. Social media as an investigative device is in its infancy and not well understood. This book presents an overview of social media and discusses special skills and techniques to use when conducting investigations. The book features hands-on tutorials and case studies and offers additional data-gathering techniques. - Presents an overview of social media sites, information types, privacy policies, and other general issues relevant to investigating individuals online - Discusses the special skills and techniques needed when conducting investigations using social media - Includes hands-on tutorials and case studies using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social media sites using proven investigative techniques - Shows how to gather additional data using advanced techniques such as crowdsourcing, data mining, and network analysis