If you have ever searched social media - Twitter, the blogsphere, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest - for your favorite topic (I'm guessing it's baby penguins or monster truck racing), then you know that it can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Imagine how law enforcement officers feel: They are searching for crimes on social media.
Jodi Blomberg tells Anna Brown, in an interview with Inside SAS Global Forum, that law enforcement have it tough when searching for their topics. It's not as easy as working for a marketing agency for Macy's or SAS where you look for terms like #Macy's, #sasgf12. Criminals don't advertise their work with terms like #moneylaundering or #carder. (Twitter users use # to identify what they are talking about at the end of a 140-charactor Tweet.)
In this interview, Blomberg tells how law enforcement uses social media analytics to locate crimes and criminals.
Imagine how effective social media analytics would be at finding baby penguins. Blomberg's paper, Twitter and Facebook Analysis: It’s Not Just for Marketing Anymore, goes into more detail about how you can use this in your organization. Let me know if you have questions. There are many more resources available for you.