Location-based social media monitoring is being used now more than ever to solve and prevent crimes around the world. While various law enforcement and pri
This article talks about how social media monitoring for security purposes has shifted away from keyword social media monitoring to location-based social media monitoring. Location-based monitoring gives the ability to cut through the massive amounts of social chatter and focus on local/relevant social information. It lists four ways in which location based-social media monitoring is able to improve security efforts:
1. Identification of potential risks, targets and threats
Location-based social media monitoring now gives users the ability to identify potential risks and threats through real-time alerts and trends (ex: Facebook/Twitter trends and amber alerts on iPhone)
2. Investigate crimes; find criminals and witnesses
Some social monitoring solutions allow the user to go back in time to find historical data and analyze the location of a particular crime scene more closely (ex: some idiotic criminals post evidence/pictures to their Facebook page (a woman duct-taped her dogs mouth, posted a photo of the horrific image to Facebook, the photo went viral, and she was arrested for animal abuse)
3. Engage in communication with residents
Law enforcement can use social media to discover information from nearby residents and to communicate with them. (Police can look at the criminal’s Facebook page or Twitter page and see who they interact with, where they live, etc.)
4. Ensure the stability, safety and security of neighborhoods and communities
Location-based media allows you to automatically be notified when anything out of the normal occurs (extreme weather alerts, gunman alerts, etc.)