Is There More to a Social Media Investigation Than Just Looking Online?

A social media search can be an invaluable tool for any litigator. Whether your case lies in family law, personal injury, medical malpractice, judgment satisfaction, or even criminal defense, a thorough social media investigation can reveal data vital to your case. You can uncover damning evidence about the opposing party–such as posts demonstrating the limits of their claimed “injury” or proof of expenses despite a claimed inability to pay–as well as conduct due diligence on your clients.

But, do you actually need a professional investigator to conduct a social media investigation? Can’t you just run some searches on your own across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter? Below, we discuss the value of a social media investigation and how a social media investigation conducted by the Millennium Intelligence Agency (MIA) requires more than simply searching through live posts online.

Not Everything Online Is Easily Accessible or Searchable

Conducting a thorough social media investigation requires more than searching across current posts still living across modern social media sites and apps. Archival data can be just as useful and is often more valuable because it shows what certain parties tried to delete. You do not need a court-ordered subpoena aimed at Google to find archival data on the internet, but neither is it easy to find or work through.

There are databases and other sources for old internet content and archival posts that require more know-how to find and operate. Many of these databases are source-specific, meaning you may need someone to comb through archival data specific to Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc. A professional social media investigator knows how to find these sources and work through them efficiently and methodically in order to find the data you need.

Efficiency and Methodology Matter

Knowing how to search is just as important as knowing where to search online. You can spin your wheels for hours on various social media platforms without finding anything useful or dealing with the opposite problem–finding far too much data that is predominantly useless to your case.

A professional social media investigator knows how to efficiently but thoroughly sift through all social media. Our investigators know how to work through duplicates, identify key search terms to find useful information, and quickly work through the mountain of raw data that social media searches can unearth. At the end of the day, you’ll get the data and evidence you need, customized to your case, without having to spend hours wading through online databases by yourself.

Get All and Only the Data You Need

A professional social media investigator does not just search online; they provide you with results. Sifting through thousands of pages of raw data is a waste of your time and your client’s money. A social media investigation report from a professional investigator provides you only with the data relevant to your matter, in a digestible form that allows you to evaluate what you need.

We provide the level of detail you need tailored to your matter. We can provide the results of a preliminary search first, letting you dictate whether a high-level search is sufficient or a deeper dive is necessary. Should you need additional details or foundational evidence, you can request as much.

Admissibility Matters

If you plan to use social media evidence in your case, you’ll need to provide a proper foundation. Establishing a proper foundation, with relevant documentation, takes professional care. A professional social media investigator can ensure that you have what you need to get social media evidence admitted into your case, as well as to preserve results found early on in order to identify any untoward spoliation or alterations down the line.

Hire a Professional for Your Social Media Investigation

Whether you are looking for general information about a client, party, witness or event, or if you have specific goals and questions to answer, a social media investigation can play a critical role in gathering the information you need and delivering relevant data in a professional format you can use. Call Millennium Intelligence Agency at 213-986-9888 for a consultation regarding a social media investigation or other intelligence-gathering services.