The Ins And Outs Of Tweeting

Though the initial, pressing Twitter question a while back wasn’t “what are you doing?” but “what’s the point?” people are finding lots of uses for it. In this installment of the ongoing what-Twitter-is-good-for news brigade, we’ll focus on how people are tweeting their way out of some things and into others. Ready?

Good.

How to Tweet Your Way Out of Jury Duty

Just as a federal judge in Florida had to declare a high profile drug case tweeting from the courthouse, discussing the case they’re hearing and giving updates. One Philadelphia juror went all citizen journalist by telling his Facebook friends to stay tuned for a big announcement on Monday. In another case, a lawsuit, one juror tweeted about giving away $12 million of somebody else's money.

So, no need to pretend to be a crazy Star Wars fanatic to get out of jury duty. Just be busily texting the entire selection process. Be sure to text the prosecutor you think tattoos are hot.

How to Tweet Your Way Out of a Job

Ok, I totally stole the title from the conducting an interview with Sen. John McCain via Twitter. After some painful repetition and some digital geezer what-was-that-sons, Stephanopoulos proved it’s probably better to get a politician to say nothing on TV instead.

Have an embarrassing Twitter tale? $50,000 advance from HarperCollins to put that tweet collection into book form. His biggest I’m-not-a-sellout challenge is to include only premium tweets of sufficient hilarity.

Well, it’ll be a good book for those with short attention spans anyway. If HarperCollins doesn’t put out a toilet paper roll version, they’re missing a golden opportunity. If you have a “twitticism” you’d like to contribute or if you just want to make Nick’s editing life hell, you can submit your best tweet to Tell us your story

Guy Kawasaki, former Apple evangelist, and entrepreneurial web marketing all star has TwitterHawk, an app that follows the Twitter conversation listening for mentions of things like coffee or shoes and then throws a promotional message at them. TwitterHawk charges five cents per message.

It would seem Kawasaki and company don’t consider this spam because of the great big Report Spam function where TwitterHawk promises to “follow up” with the offender. Is it spam? You be judge.

How to Tweet Your Way Into the Stock Market

recommend Twitters to follow as well.

Know of any really useful Twitter apps? Twellow yet? Twellow is a directory of Twitter users, like the yellow pages. Users can search for specific people on Twitter, or search for people in specific categories, or browse by industry. Registered users can claim their profile and add a bio. It’s a great way to find people who share your interests.