Unusual Uses for Social Media Monitoring

As more and more companies start monitoring the web, we’ll start seeing some creative uses emerge. For example, did you know that lenders and debt collectors are monitoring social media to help them track down delinquent payers and conduct credit checks?

Andy Beal, the owner of Trackur, told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette that many companies–among them, credit lenders and debt collectors–are now using social media monitoring services to “match online profiles with real world identities.”

The online Lending Club, for instance, scans loan applicants’ social networking profiles in addition to performing the usual credit and income checks. What this means, the Post-Gazette reports, is that creditors are realizing how social media profiles can provide unique insights that a traditional credit history cannot.

As an individual, do you know what they’d find if they conducted such a search on you? With our Trackur Free plan, you can easily–and freely–keep an eye on any site that discusses your name. That could come in handy, the next time your friend blogs that you and he took a day of work to go fishing.