Because people willingly put so much personal information online, social media are a key field for a private detective to investigate. The amount of information that can be gathered from a thorough search of a person’s social media is enormous. Because most people aren’t always careful about what they post – some people can be astonishingly sloppy – social media can often paint a comprehensive picture of where a person was, where the person is now – and with whom.  It can also provide clues on a person’s character and culture.    Because people are who they hang out with or a “product of their own environment” many of their friends posts will offer you insight into the world in which they exist.

Businesses are not exempt from social media, either. Think only of Yelp: not only does a business paint a picture of itself on the service, but other people’s reviews can reveal much about what is happening with a company at a given time.

At SIA Investigations, we’ve created our own special protocol for social media searches. We’re thorough and innovative in our approach: a professional social media search is a lot more than checking out someone’s Facebook page. (We do, of course, check Facebook – but we make an in-depth search of every corner of Facebook in which information a subject might be found.) We also can commit the time necessary to search long Instagram and Twitter accounts to gather intelligence about a person’s upcoming calendar (i.e. celebrities and public officials).  As many people don’t want to get caught making a thorough study of someone’s social media presence, turning the job over to a private investigator ensures a covert confidential search option with the trained eyes to analyze a person’s lifestyle, activities and behaviors.

Some of the most common sites we search are: