SOCMINT (Social Media Intelligence) is the collection and analysis of information from social media platforms, and it sits as a sub-discipline within OSINT.

* SOCMINT in the intelligence family — a sub-discipline of OSINT touching several others. *

SOCMINT overlaps heavily with OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) because social media data is publicly accessible, but it's specialized enough to be considered its own field.

The main intelligence disciplines:

SOCMINT is visually placed at the intersection of OSINT and other disciplines because social media content can reveal locations (GEOINT), images (IMINT), personal networks (HUMINT-adjacent), and communications patterns (SIGINT-adjacent).

Tip: Think of SOCMINT as the "social media lens" through which you can access multiple intelligence types at once — a single Instagram post might give you imagery, geolocation, network connections, and communications all in one.

Go deeper:

• Social media intelligence (Wikipedia) — the dedicated SOCMINT reference.
• Open-source intelligence (Wikipedia) — the parent discipline SOCMINT sits within.
• List of intelligence gathering disciplines (Wikipedia) — HUMINT, SIGINT, GEOINT, IMINT and the rest of the "-INT" family.

Because social media users voluntarily share identities, locations, movements, finances, and intentions — exactly the information intelligence agencies traditionally had to work hard to obtain.

* The categories a single social-media profile can expose — the "gift that keeps giving." *

The full quote from Omand (2017): "For intelligence agencies around the world seeking to know more about their human targets, their identities, locations, movements, financing and intentions, the Internet is the gift that keeps giving."

What makes social media so valuable for intelligence:

• Identity: Real names, photos, biographical details
• Location: Check-ins, geotagged photos, location metadata
• Movements: Travel posts, timeline of activities
• Financing: Lifestyle indicators, purchases shown
• Intentions: Posts about plans, opinions, affiliations
• Networks: Friend lists, interactions, group memberships

This is a foundational concept: people are effectively conducting their own surveillance and publishing the results. Unlike traditional intelligence gathering which requires warrants, agents, or technical interception, much of this data is freely volunteered.

Go deeper:

• David Omand (Wikipedia) — the former GCHQ director who introduced the SOCMINT concept and wrote this quote.
• Social media intelligence (Wikipedia) — how organisations mine volunteered social data.