Research Guide Social Media | Sunlight Research 3/3

Twitter/X

Description:

Use Twitter’s advanced search to find specific terms in an individual’s tweets. You can narrow searches by time frame and search for tweets from a specific user that mention another user. Some tweets have geolocation tags, which can help track an individual’s movements over time. Explore these features to look for patterns in an individual’s Twitter activity.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

https://twitter.com/home

Valital

Description:

Valital is a paid resource that searches publicly available information. Using it, you can extract, filter and analyze online media on people and organizations you’re researching. It creates a well-organized clip search that makes it easy to know where to start with your research.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://www.valital.com/

Venmo

Description:

Review any publicly available payment history on an individual’sVenmo account. If you are unable to find an individual’s Venmo account using their name, try searching with their phone numbers and email addresses.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Social Media, Associated People

https://venmo.com/

Yahoo Image Search

Description:

Use Yahoo Image Search to find visuals such as photos, vectors, screenshots and icons.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://images.search.yahoo.com/

Yandex

Description:

Yandex is a suite of internet search tools hosted by Yandex, LLC, a Russian technology company. This site indexes networks and pages on the internet outside of the West and is useful when searching for information about individuals in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Professional History, Political History, Civil Litigation and Criminal Cases, Nonprofits, Campaign Finance, Personal Finances, Social Media, Associated People

https://yandex.com/

YouTube

Description:

Use YouTube to find videos of press conferences, campaign rallies and other content an individual may have posted. Use the transcript, available at the bottom of most videos, to read and search the words spoken on a video.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Social Media

https://www.youtube.com/

ancestry.com

Description:

Use this genealogy research site to find historical documents and photos of individuals and to identify their family members. This is a paid resource.

Resource Type:

Media and Other Open Sources

Area of Investigation:

Background and Family, Educational History, Social Media, Associated People

http://ancestry.com/