You might want to tweet yourself. Or at least send a direct message. To another juror. But don’t communicate with anyone on the “outside.” Otherwise, you might cause a mistrial.
In Fayetteville, Arkansas, a circuit court juror’s postings to Twitter are the subject of a possible mistrial of a $12.6 million judgment.
“Juror Johnathan” (aka Johnathan Powell) is the juror who commented on the trial via his smartphone. He sent 8 messages that said things like
Thanks to Powell’s use of Twitter during the trial, the motion for mistrial alleges that he was able to research the case and communicate with others outside the jury. It would seem that justice was served for the two investors in the company - Mark Deihl and William Nystrom - before Powell’s use of Twitter went public. Russell Wright, the principal owner of Stoam Holdings, didn’t even show up in court to dispute the claims.
I’m all about incorporating social media into your daily life, but I think taking your smartphone into a trial probably isn’t a good idea. Especially when doing so can compromise an entire trial and a huge settlement for investors done wrong.
What’s the public opinion out there on this issue? Was Powell in the wrong? Did the court drop the ball in not confiscating his phone?
I’m not trying to make light of anyone who got caught in the scam, but it seems that Twitter caught the wave of some “phishy” business over the weekend.
If you got a random direct message from someone and clicked a link that redirected you to twitter.access-logins.com/login/, DO NOT FILL OUT YOUR INFORMATION.
I haven’t been personally affected by phishing on the social sites, but my wife has received some strange Facebook messages from friends on her wall with alleged “pics” of her on sites like “barkjump.com” and “fittry.com.”
If you didn’t know, this is also a phishing scam, just on Facebook.
AriWriter has a list of the all the different .com’s that are part of Facebook phishing. The culprit behind these recent phishing scams is access-logins.com, which is based in China.
It’s been a while since my last post and I’ve started gathering a ton of information about Twitter. Call this a case study if you will.
I love trying to figure out how people are going to react / respond to certain ideas.So far 1,350+ tweeps have watched the video I made last month to say “Hi, and thanks for following me.” I knew it would work beautifully because the idea was just so simple… I think the results speak for themselves – here’s the video (if you haven’t seen it yet).
Here’s what some of my Tweeps had to say about the video…
Unexpected Effects Of Being A Twitter Rockstar
Another interesting thing happened when I took 15 minutes to create & upload the video to YouTube. YouTube (owned by Google) is a social video network, you’ve probably already heard of it. Did you know that people can subscribe to your channel? It’s kind of like adding a tweep… except on YouTube!
While my plan was to welcome and engage new followers on Twitter… I ended up with this AWESOME FREE BONUS! I’ve had 30+ new people subscribe to my YouTube channel.
That’s pretty cool, but I’ve also had well over 100+ new friends added to my Facebook / LinkedIn / MySpace / Digg / Pownce & other social networking sites thanks to FriendFeed. If you haven’t done it, go and grab yourself a FriendFeed account and add your other social networking accounts TODAY! Put it on your blog… or maybe right next to your Twitter welcome video?! This is just a suggestion, but after all, social networking sites and social media is there for us to be social, right? It only makes sense to let your twitter friends know where to find you on the other sites.
Why Should You Follow Me?
Twitter is emerging more into the main stream day by day. People online are now wondering who they should follow. Since Twitter is the answer to “What are you doing right now?” I’ve created a little site called Tw33t.me to answer the question “Why should you follow me?”
The idea for Tw33t.me is simple. Much like FriendFeed, Tw33t.me users will be able to add all of their other social networking sites & a Twitter welcome video to their profile page by using their Twitter username and password. The idea is to create a sort of “Online Social Resume.” The site is in Alpha – almost in Beta - and I’ll be updating everyone via Twitter when we “officially” launch.
Pre-Tweet. Auto Tweet. Tweet Later.
I get this question all the time as a result of my Twitter exploits - “How do you auto-reply to new followers?”
Glad you asked. The answer is a handy little site called TweetLater that allows you to pre-post, auto respond, and even auto-follow new tweeps. TweetLater is a little techy, so I decided I’d drop in this short “How To” video so you can set it up to work for your Tweeps! I did this with Gmail because I figure that most readers have a Gmail account. Take a look. Re-watch it if you need to! *If you use Outlook @Wordpresswizard already made a How To video over here
Tweet Responsibly
Now, I would be delinquent in my duties as a social media evangelist if I didn’t mention being Socially Responsible. It’s great to have thousands of followers and friends on Twitter and other social sites… but we have to remember it’s not just about numbers! These are real people your talking to, they want to be engaged in your conversation… otherwise they wouldn’t have followed you. I know that some people are just going to use the scripts to gain as many followers as they can – so that they can push whatever affiliate program or junk they’re selling on ebay… We can’t stop that. But we can make a difference by using social media for good!
When you see an injustice or something that others should be made aware of… broadcast it! I’m infatuated with “Green Living.” If I see or hear anything that I think would help… you’d better believe it’s going out on my twitter stream! Some folks are going to use my tutorials for spamming purposes. It sucks, I know! I still believe that there’s more genuinely good people out there than there are shysters.
For any of you that have ever read anything like “How to Become a Digg Power User,” etc., you probably already know that in order to get followers or have people Digg / Sphinn / Buzz Up! your topics, they have to be great topics.Guy Kawasaki had written a few weeks back about an AllTop page built to do just that – it’s called GoodTweet. If you’re looking for something to post to your tweeps and you can’t seem to find anything you consider overly exciting, dig through GoodTweet and post it up. This will make your followers think that you have your finger on the pulse of what’s going on. And hence… want to follow you and more importantly retweet ya too!
We will come back and update this post when we find something that will allow the tweeps to use something similar to the GreaseMonkey script from the first article… until then - one at a time and happy tweeting!
For the first time, a person running for the most powerful position on earth did, too. Now that the race to the White House is complete, what happens to Barack Obama’s immense social media presence?
Most of those who follow @barackobama know that the information provided by his Twitter account was never earth shattering. There was never a tweet about how bad he needed some Starbucks or rants about how frustrating it is that his internet connection is slow.
That said, will the new President-elect continue to use the power of social media in his new role? His Twitter account continues to grow today at about 3 followers per minute.
I’m not the only person wondering this. Here’s a random sample of tweets from Twitter Search this AM.
DavidStewart: Do you think Obama will stay on Twitter as President? erika_strange: @czdebel I think obama will be too busy when he’s president to update his twitter account. Thracks: @czdebel I think that it would betray Obama‘s message to let the twitter stream die. bakapetro: Will Obama use twitter after inauguration? It would be cool, but, personally, I doubt it topslakr: Since Obama was elected he has not posted to twitter. Does that mean he is done using it? I think a lot of people are hoping he stays active minda31180: So now that he’s been elected president, is Barack Obama going to continue updating his twitter?
Here’s the deal. Most of his social profiles will only require a job status update and address change come January. His Twitter account really only receives one or two updates per day, telling you where he is and what’s he talking about. Does that sound like such a difficult project to maintain?
Most Twitter users already space their tweets with other daily tasks. Millions of the people who voted for him developed their trust and support because of his use of social media. Much like Thracks and topslakr above, I think something should be done to keep his use of social media presence alive. His campaign was never 100% transparent with the use of social media to begin with, although the way his campaign used the internet was extraordinary.
So… I ask…
117,000+ Twitterers want to know… and will be following.
For some more reading on Obama and social media, Jon Burg posted a thought-provoking post on the same topic - “Where Vision Meets Reality.”
A lot of people were affected, including 
