Casey Anthony defense team tweaked tactics in response to tweets.

mandalay:

A consultant for Casey Anthony’s attorneys analyzed more than 40,000 highly-charged opinions — negative and positive — on social media sites and blogs, and used them to help the defense craft their trial strategy.

Whether it worked or not is difficult to gauge, but a jury last week found Casey Anthony not guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie.

Although a defense attorney should use everything s/he can to defend his/her client, THIS IS REALLY SCARY. Also, a great argument against cameras in the courtroom.

When someone talks about the potential of social media, they should be thinking of this. Real time focus groups, without the bias and misinfo that come with putting people under a direct microscope.

Imagine doing this for a brand, or a celebrity. Adjusting your approach in real-time based on the information available to you.

Hell, imagine doing it for yourself, with a team of people or algorithms feeding you advice based on the shifting seas of quantitatively analysed qualitative data.

There’s a lot of potential, there. Some of it, unnerving.

mandalay