According to recent estimates, people send 31.25 millionmessages on Facebook; send 347,222 tweets on Twitter; view 17,361profiles on LinkedIn; post 48,611 pictures on Instagram; upload 300hours of video on YouTube; and upload 1,041,666 video loops on Vineevery minute. Given that there are 1,440 minutes in a day, theamount of content shared in the social media universe isastonishing. If investigating a claimant's social media sites isnot a routine part of your claims or litigation defense strategy,you are overlooking scores of potentially valuable evidence.

The best social media evidence is discoveredearly

There are countless ways in which a claimant's social mediaprofiles, activities or updates can be disastrous to his or herclaim. Claimants' counsel are keenly aware of the real dangersocial media poses to potential claims. It is now common practicefor counsel to instruct claimants to limit social media use,increase privacy settings to the highest levels, decline any new"friend" requests, or simply delete the entire social mediaexistence.