Increase Business Intelligence and Identify Threats Early By Adopting This Technique

Increase Business Intelligence and Identify Threats Early By Adopting This Technique

Increase business intelligence? Identify threats earlier so you can mitigate or intercept them before they happen? Yes, it all becomes much more attainable once companies pay attention to information in front of them. This is accomplished by adopting a social media monitoring and/or social listening program. It’s time to jump on the bandwagon because leveraging social media is one of the most effective ways to gather security details. It’s so effective that the global social media security market is expected to grow by $1,970.6 million by 2023 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.1% during the forecast period.

What is social media monitoring/social listening?

Social media monitoring or social listening is the act of monitoring social media activity to gather data from the public across multiple networks to identify potential threats, harmful users, and mitigate risk of attack. In the cyber age, companies often use social media to respond to questions and comments from their audience and community. This is called social media monitoring, which gives companies a direct channel to talk to clients, gather feedback, and better understand their market.

Social listening is more of an overarching approach without the direct to consumer (D2C) aspect. Social listening takes a broader look at the behavior of users on social media to better understand trends, regional preferences, and consumer patterns. Listening tools compile data from a range of networks to form a big picture view of events, regions, demographics, or other criteria.

They are different in approach, however social monitoring and listening are both integral parts of a complete social media data gathering process.

Why is this important?

Social media monitoring tools are critical for security teams and public safety professionals in every aspect including handling event security, executive protection, asset management, and retail loss prevention. In executive protection, the number one priority is always to protect the principal. At an event, it’s essential to monitor the crowd, surroundings, as well as your principal, and assign roles ahead of time so each team member understands what they need to do prior to the event. By implementing a social listening program, security specialists may be able to identify threats and gather important details to improve safety for themselves, the team, and the principal. Paying attention to details that people provide on social media provides a more in depth and educated approach to security.

Social media monitoring and social listening are even beneficial when it comes to help manage corporate travel risks. When organizations are operating globally, they can use social media to provide an instant window onto what is happening in a particular place, and whether or not their people or their organization will be impacted.

How to implement this into your business

When building a social media presence online, it’s essential to ensure that all content is on brand and is relayed in a professional manner. Designate one person or group to handle social media so the content is consistent and in line with corporate goals. Brands can be tarnished by defamatory, threatening, fraudulent, or inappropriate content, so maintaining consistency across social media is essential in actively cultivating a strong brand voice and identifying potential threats. When delegating a person or team to handle social media, verify that they do indeed understand social media concepts and tools. If no one on the team has this expertise, consider employing a consultant, hiring an expert, or opting for continuing education specifically for social media management, monitoring, and listening. Understanding the noise from social media is a core part of understanding the business landscape.

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Effective security and fraud prevention experts cannot treat social media independently from other digital channels. Users who are deemed to be potential threats use the interconnectivity of today’s digital world to increase their reach by using multiple channels to conduct fraud, distribute malware, and carry out other abusive activities. By identifying and analyzing threats across social media channels along with other web and mobile data, security teams can establish comprehensive coverage of digital threats.