A few weeks ago, we wrote about maximizing your training experience. Part of that discussion covered the need for individuals to look for free sources of information. When you are looking to expand or narrow the scope of your open source Internet-based intelligence and investigations solutions, there are three main open sources you can use to help you make those decisions: social media content, blogs and news sources, and research.
Social Media Content
As social media content has
become an integral part of online research, it becomes increasingly important
to stay abreast of social media trends. One quick way to identify new sources
of information is to look in content feeds. Many social media sites and
applications connect with one another to push and pull data. As an example, we
can use a Twitter feed. On Twitter, many people push Facebook, Foursquare,
Instagram, Tumblr, and Vine posts into their Twitter feeds. By watching these
sources of information, you can easily identify new social media sites to
incorporate into your investigations.
Blogs and News Sources
Often, blog and news-based
content are some of the first places to see emerging trends in social media
use. The best way to organize the influx of data is to be selective about the sources
you use and to use an RSS reader like Feedly. Feedly allows users to subscribe to any written source with an RSS
feed and to organize these sources into categories. When building out your
reader, adding investigation, intelligence, and technology sources are greatly
beneficial to keeping abreast of emerging trends. This information will not
only help you identify new sources of information, it will also help you
understand which types of individuals are using the technology and how they are
using it.
Research
Similar to blogs and news
sites, many research entities discuss the changes in the social media
landscape. A major issue is that most research is scholarly in nature and costs
money to access. However, there are two free research sources that provide
excellent data: Pew Research Center and Nielsen. Both organizations study changes in technology usage and social media
trends and release reports on a routine basis. You can even add their RSS feeds
to your RSS reader. By keeping up with their findings, you can stay on pace
with changes in society at large.
In the dynamic social media
environment, investigators and analysts cannot afford to fall behind. By using
these three sources, you can easily cultivate basic knowledge of the changing
social media landscape. This allows you to update your practices, improve
research and analysis, and add value for clients.
