A cybersecurity analyst observes a surge in posts across various social media platforms promoting an exceptional offer on their company's products. The promotion is accompanied by a link using a URL shortening service and is not part of a known marketing campaign. What should the analyst do FIRST to investigate this anomaly?
Conduct a malware analysis on endpoints to identify if any recently detected threats are related to the postings.
Increase the number of external intelligence feeds focused on identification of branded hashtags to check for similar patterns.
Expand the shortened link to discern its actual destination and verify whether it points to a legitimate source or a potentially harmful website.
Review recent records of inbound network traffic to determine if there has been any unusual activity that matches the social media surge.