I have a BA in Criminal Justice. My interest in the justice system started in high school, when I took the Government class required by the state of Ohio in order to graduate. The class was taken by seniors, and it had a reputation for being incredibly hard. I went into it without a lot of knowledge or interest in the subject, but I left the class wanting to be a Government teacher. I found the subject matter engaging and interesting, and I often got As on my work. I did the extra credit assignments that the teacher regularly gave because they sounded interesting, not because I needed the credit. When I got to college, I quickly changed my major to Criminal Justice. My aim was to become a lawyer, and I went as far as to take the LSAT and apply to several law schools. Ultimately, I decided to “take a year off” (famous last words), and never went back. But I’ve never lost my interest in government and specifically in the court system.
My work is now in social media and online communities, and some would say there’s some overlap there. So it is with interest that I read this article by Kathy Ossian about the use of social media by jury members, and how that can and cannot affect the impartiality of the jury and ultimately, trial outcomes.
Juries are typically instructed not to access, discuss, or read any information about the case or the subject matter of the case while they are assigned to the jury. Where this would be difficult-to-impossible, juries are sequestered. That’s pretty rare though — most jury members serve during the day and go home at night. But access to social networking, and even the web at large, is starting to play a role in motions for mistrial.
While two of the three cases that Kathy Ossian cited are in regards to jury members accessing informational websites (United States vs. Hernandez, and United States vs. Siegelman), but she also cites a civil case in Arkansas where a court determined that a party was deprived of the right to a fair trial when it was found that a jury member sent messages via Twitter indicating that he was biased against one of the parties.
As services like Twitter grow in popularity, courts will have to face this more and more. Mistrials are expensive and time consuming. As jury members, it’s important that we abide by the directions given to us by the judge, and refrain from seeking information about the case or discussing the case with anyone — including Facebook friends and Twitter followers.
I really do believe that social networking and online community can open up lots of avenues of communication, but there are some avenues that need to remain closed for the sake of fairness and justice.
I don’t have one of those jobs/lives where I travel with great frequency. I’m not on a plane every week or anything. There have been times when I’ve been on a plane once a month, though. My father used to take two planes each week, going from our home in Cincinnati to his work in Grand Rapids and coming back again at the end of the week. I learned all the basics of travel from him. As I’m preparing to make 3 separate trips in 3 weeks (2 personal, 1 business), I thought I’d share my simple tips and rules for fast and efficient travel.
Never Check Bags
This is my #1 rule. You will save so much time and worry. Your luggage will never be lost. You don’t need to shove everything you might need during your travels into a big computer bag. You don’t need to stand in baggage drop-off lines. You don’t have to pay extra fees. You never have to waste time standing at baggage claim ever again. Shall I go on?
The first thing you need to do is…
Get the Right Suitcase
The right bag can set you free and make carrying on your stuff a snap. The wrong bag can make you miserable.
Here’s what I look for in a bag:
4 wheels, each that turn 360 degrees. This makes moving through the airport so much easier because you can move your bag in any direction without it toppling over. Also, you don’t have to pull your bag if you don’t want to. Leave it standing upright and use the telescoping handle to push it along side you through the airport. It’s so much easier on your arms, shoulders and back.
Polycarbonate shell. Poly is light, which is good since you’ll be lifting this thing over your head a couple times. Poly is durable (unlike fabric, which can be punctured, ripped or torn). Poly is hard, which means your stuff won’t get crushed.
Efficient use of space. Too many pockets and compartments, and you won’t be able to pack what you need in the space. Too few, and packing just becomes a jumble. You need the right mix of space and pockets.
Not black. Not only is black luggage boring, it looks just like everyone else’s. When you’re trying to get your stuff from the compartment and get off the plane, you want to make sure you have your bag and not someone else’s (or that someone else doesn’t take your bag). Your bag can still look professional without being black. Find another color.
It is light. It is (mostly) polycarbonate. It is expandable. It has great use of space. It has 4 spinning wheels. And it is blue. It’s just about the perfect carry-on bag. (It is available in other colors, including red.)
A bag like this costs more. But it’s worth it. And it will last a lot longer than the cheap bags do. Also don’t forget the hassle that you’re saving yourself, as well as all those checked bag fees.
Speaking of bags, there’s your laptop bag to be considered here. There are lots of options here. I always look for a bag with a pass-through sleeve in the back so I can slip it on top of my carry-on and take them both together as one unit. Helps save my back and arm strength from toting them around all day.
Now that you have the right bag, it’s time to…
Pack Efficiently
The easiest way to fit all your stuff in the bag is to not take as much stuff. Eliminate anything you can live without for your trip. Look for things that can do double (or triple) duty. For example, I try to take as few shoes as I can possibly get away with, because shoes take up lots of space. I try to pack no shoes, and just wear what I wear on the plane the entire trip. Bust sometimes I need dressy shoes, so I take one pair of neutrally colored shoes that go with everything.
Once you have everything picked out for your trip, you need to pack it. Not all packing methods are the same. Some people like to roll, some people like to fold. I find that folding and using dry cleaning bags to keep everything snug helps save room and eliminate wrinkles. I learned this method from the Manager Tools podcast and it works really well. I fold my pants lengthwise twice, and put them next to each other inside the dry cleaning bag. Then fold the excess part of the bag inward, put a third pair of pants on top of the pair at the top, then fold the first and third pair (at the top) over the second, so you have 3 pairs stacked. You can do the same thing with shirts. I generally don’t do this with casual clothes, but I do with business/dress clothes.
Don’t Buy Travel Sizes (If You Can Help It)
Many people get tripped up by the restriction on liquids in your carry-on. But you can save money and space with just a few tricks.
First, know that medicines don’t count against you. Put them in a separate bag. So if you need your Flonase (like I do), you don’t need to put that in your toiletries bag.
Second, figure out what you really need. You might use a lot of stuff at home that you could go without for a couple days.
Third, don’t buy travel sizes. Make them when at all possible. Find some small containers (the smaller the better) and just use your existing stuff to fill them. In the case of things that the hotel usually provides you (soap, shampoo, lotion, etc), just use theirs. There are some things I haven’t found a way around yet — a good way to store and dispense contact lens solution, for example. So I do buy travel sizes of that. But I am always looking for a way around it. (Ideas?)
Put all your containers in a zip-top bag (I call this the “wet bag”) and put it somewhere easily accessible when you’re in the security line. You don’t want to open up your luggage just to get to it later.
Dress for Security Success
Gone are the days when people got really dressed up to get on an airplane. I’m never surprised to see people basically in their pajamas, especially on a red eye. Unless I have a business meeting when I get off the plane, I travel casually — jeans and a T-shirt.
Think about what you’re wearing on the plane. Is there any metal on it? Is it excessively complicated? Metal will cause problems with the detector and you may get singled out for further screening. Think about jewelry, belts and watches. (Rivets on jeans usually don’t cause a problem.) The TSA requires that you take off coats, jackets, and sometimes sweaters, if you have something on underneath. Are you wearing something that you might have to take off, then spend time putting back on? If so, re-think.
What kind of shoes are you wearing? Lace-up shoes just require more hassle to get off and time to get back on. I like slip-on shoes, like Vans. They are easy to get off and on. Oh, and I always wear socks with whatever shoes I’m wearing. I don’t want to walk through security barefoot.
Security Efficiency
The whole point of this is to do everything you have to do in the least amount of time and with the least amount of hassle. Some planning ahead will really help here. You’ve already got a security-friendly outfit on, so you’re well on your way.
I always check in the night before, print my boarding pass, and put the boarding pass and my driver’s license in an easy-to-reach pocket of my computer bag. That way, I don’t have to fumble in the security line or stop before I get there to get my pass and ID ready. It’s already ready. Just pull it out and show it to the agent.
Once you get in line for the screening, start getting ready. Your wet bag is already easily accessible. Your shoes come off easily. Grab a couple bins and put your laptop in one (it has to go alone) and your shoes, coat, and wet bag in another. Then feed your computer bag and your carry-on into the x-ray machine. You still have your pass and ID in your hand, so you’re ready to walk through the metal detector and hand it over.
BE NICE TO THE TSA AGENTS. I cannot stress this enough. Put yourself in their shoes — they have to deal with cranky, nervous, tired, anxious, self-centered travelers all day. I’d be in a pretty bad mood, too. And they can totally ruin your day (or worse) if they are so inclined. A smile, a thank you, and generally being super nice and cooperative will go a long way in helping the process flow smoothly.
When you are done with screening, just put your computer back, your wet bag back, slip your shoes on, grab your stuff, put your boarding pass and ID in your pocket (you can put it back in your wallet later), and off you go.
Extra Tips
Here’s a few things that didn’t seem to fit anywhere else.
Bring all confirmation numbers, record locators, and other travel details with you. I use Evernote to help me store my travel details on my phone, but I also put it in my calendar just in case. You never know what can happen, and having a confirmation number at your disposal can solve a lot of problems.
Always have a snack on you. Who knows what could happen — you could get stuck on the tarmac, all the food in your terminal could be terrible, or you get hungrier at the end of the flight than you thought you would. It doesn’t have to be a full meal — a small bag of trail mix will do the job just fine. But always have a snack on you just in case.
Invest in an eye mask. Mine has totally saved me from sleepless flights and sleepless nights. It, and some headphones, can make the whole world go away. I never take a flight without it.
Take public transportation if possible. Avoid parking fees and remembering where you parked. If you need to drive and park though, take a photo of where you parked or text yourself the location.
If you’re in hotels a lot, text yourself the name of the hotel and the room number. Or take a photo of the door to your room (with the door number) and store it in Evernote.
I hope these tips were helpful. If I missed your favorite, pleas share it in the comments.
Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/candiedwomanire
I’ve been thinking about starting a PhD. This is the point where everyone who knew me while I was working on my MBA starts shaking their head. Being a full-time grad student while working full-time wasn’t easy, and I’m sure being a PhD student while working full-time is even more difficult. Outside of the time, money, and sanity issues involved, I have another problem. I don’t know what to study. There are really no degrees in social media or online community. I already have a degree in business and marketing. (Also, criminal justice, which some might say comes in handy at times too.)
I had never really thought much about anthropology until I saw this video of Michael Wesch speaking at the Library of Congress about the anthropology of YouTube. It’s a long video (55 minutes), but if you haven’t seen it and you’re at all interested in culture and social media, I highly recommend it.
Culture is one of my favorite things to speak about at conferences or when talking to people about their online communities. A lot of “behavioral” issues with members boil down to culture issues. Have a troll wreaking havoc on your forums? He’s violating your community’s culture. Your users are all being mean to the new people? They’ve gone off on their own and formed their own culture and norms. Culture is one of the most overlooked things in setting up and forming community.
It’s easy to think of the internet as having one culture (how many times have you heard the phrase “internet culture”?) but it’s not really true. The internet is full of smaller groups, each with their own distinct culture. For example, the behavior that is expected on LinkedIn is different than what is expected on I Can Has Cheezburger.
Because of my interest in the cultural differences on the internet, I read this article an Microgeist with much enthusiasm. The walkthroughs of society, culture, norms, language, values, status, roles and other anthropological items in relation to social media is fascinating, and so true. I agree wholeheartedly with the conclusion — when dealing with the mostly-impersonal internet, it’s easy to forget that you’re still just talking about people and behavior. We should all keep this front-of-mind as we build, manage, and maintain communities. Because it’s what community is ultimately all about — people, behavior, and relationships.
The article states that communities and social media have not received a lot of anthropological study. I really wonder why, because it seems both timely and absolutely fascinating. I am so inspired by Michael Wesch’s videos and work. Maybe I should think seriously about that PhD again.
As the discipline of community building and community management continues to grow, several specializations are starting to emerge — brand communities, company-internal communities, and communities of practice just to name a few. I’ve been building brand communities for over 10 years. Mostly in the entertainment industry, but I’ve done some work with non-profits and packaged goods companies, too. I’ve been on both the vendor side and the client side. I’ve helped build lots of communities, and I’ve seen things that work and things that don’t work.
Guy Kawasaki recently posted 10 tips for building brand communities from Dave Balter, CEO of BzzAgent. I thought they were good, but I have a few elaborations and extras of my own to toss in.
Focus on your customer’s needs. Major brands have realized they can aggregate hundreds of thousands—even millions—of customers, but real engagement and meaningful interaction are still unattained goals. Focus on answering the question, “Why would consumers form a community around our brand?” rather than “How many people can we sign up?”
I absolutely agree with this one. There are some companies and industries that community will naturally form around. Gaming is certainly one — television shows and television channels are another. Companies in this industry don’t have to work very hard to get lots of people to come to a brand-oriented community. But it’s often the companies that don’t have to work hard for the people that forget they still need to do something with the people once they get there. Think like a member of your community and create tools, features, and interactions that a fan would be really excited about.
Foster many-to-many relationships. A brand community is not a one-to-many relationship—that’s brand autocracy. People need to interact with each other and not simply “the brand” if you want to create a successful brand community. Therefore, build peer-to-peer communication into your structure.
Agreed. People come to communities to form relationships with other people who are into the same things they are. If they just wanted to learn what you have to say about your brand, they’d read your website. American Idol fans don’t just want information about the show and the contestants, they want to talk about the performances and predict who is going to get the most votes. They want to connect with each other.
Think local. Brand communities are not just for companies or products with huge budgets. It’s just as valuable for your local favorite ice cream shop or funky costume store to create a vibrant community as it is for a major brand. You never know: with a successful brand community, you may become a major brand. Isn’t that the goal?
Local brands, unless they have a cult following in a major metropolitan area, are going to have a harder time than most because their reach is limited. But that certainly doesn’t mean that it’s impossible. It also doesn’t mean that they need to create their own communities. For example, there’s a local ice cream shop in San Francisco that I love, called Bi-Rite Creamery. Their ice cream is organic, locally made, and totally yummy. (Try the honey lavender, if you get a chance.) They often have a line around the block, especially on nice summer days. They have over 1500 reviews on Yelp and great word of mouth. Community can be formed around local brands, but they probably won’t do it in the same way, or use the same tools as bigger companies.
Don’t create “more.” Massive amounts of information is being created about your brand and distributed across the web everyday. Rather than spend time asking people to create more content, make it easy for people to enjoy and engage with the stuff that already exists.
I agree, but not entirely. Sometimes, enabling and encouraging the community to create content is absolutely the right thing to do. It just depends on your brand, product, community and goals. But I do agree that making it easy for people to find and discuss content that already exists is a good idea.
Foster peer celebrity. Whether your brand community is for Oscar Mayer or Lego, advocates love it when others recognize their expertise, experiences, and passion. Find ways to cheer members who give a little extra. And nix the anonymity – if someone’s a true advocate, they’ll want to be known for it.
Your brand probably already has advocates. But even if you don’t, you can build them. Make them moderators, single them out on your blog, ask them to lead a discussion, or ask them to create content. I would also note that “ditch the anonymity” doesn’t necessarily mean “have them use their real name”. Many people who are used to being in communities are happy to be known by their username.
Say “hey.” Advocates want to know you’re doing more than just silently observing them or commercializing the relationship with coupons. Instead share “insider” information and offer a preview of what new products are being developed.
Absolutely. If the surge of businesses doing well on Twitter has taught us anything it is this. Users crave interactivity with their favorite brands. So often, when I’m following back people from the Sega Twitter account, people tweet about how excited they are to have us following them. And that’s before I’ve returned a reply saying hello.
Let your advocates advocate. The only way to inspire your best advocates is to let them work their magic without interference except in issues of ethics and legality. Your advocates are not pawns—they are your partners, so treat them that way.
Agreed, you can’t treat advocates like they are your minions. If you do, they will stop being inspired to advocate your brand, and they’ll use their community power against you. It’s a lose-lose.
Don’t merely moderate. Creating advocacy is more than providing a place for consumers to congregate. If your primary job is deleting “f-bombs” and ‘keeping things clean’ you won’t inspire advocacy. Don’t be afraid to get deep into the dialogue.
This is so important. It may be the most important point here. Community managers and content moderators are NOT the same thing. I’m not saying that moderators and moderation is not important — it absolutely is. But your community manager needs to be in your community, leading discussions and creating relationships in the community. People can form attachment and loyalty to brands, but they don’t form relationships with brands. They form relationships with people at those brands. And community is all about relationships.
Keep it simple. Just because you can add a feature, doesn’t mean you should. Centralize on enhancing single most important reason people keep coming back. Offering the hodgepodge of polls-messageboards-blogpost-videoplaylist-statusfeeds-avatars can lead to brand – and advocate – schizophrenia.
I agree that you shouldn’t use tools you don’t need. but I don’t think that there’s any one tool that can meet the needs of most communities. Not every community needs a message board, a blog, or a wiki. It varies so much with the companies, the products, and the goals. I just don’t think everyone can centralize on one tool. But adding something just because it’s the newest, hottest thing isn’t always right either.
Observe the 1-9-90 rule. This new rule, pioneered by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li in their seminal book Groundswell, is quickly becoming a standard: 1% of your population will create content, 9% will comment or engage with it, and 90% will just browse. Voyeurs rule the online world, so keep this in mind.
This rule is becoming a standard for good reason. Voyeurs will rule, but you can’t focus on them to the exclusion of the 9 or 90. Just because 90% are read-only doesn’t mean that 90% of your effort should be focused on them. That 1% is incredibly critical — without them, the other 99% don’t have anything to engage with or read. You have to put more than 1% of your effort into finding, retaining and nurturing them. They are the backbone of your community.
As this blog continues on, I hope to provide many of my own tips about starting and sustaining brand communities. I’m happy to address situations or questions directly. If you have specific topics you’d like to hear about, or situations you’d like tips on, please leave them in the comments.
As an online community manager, I long ago came to terms with the fact that my personal life and professional life will overlap. The tools that many of us use in our personal lives (such as Facebook and Twitter), I also use in my professional life. You can try to keep your personal and professional worlds separated, but that only goes so far. There is inevitable overlap — your co-workers will friend you on Facebook, your community members will find your Twitter, and your boss will look you up on LinkedIn.
Perhaps community managers just faced this problem earlier than most people. After all, we were using these tools for business long before everyone else. However, now it’s become more common for people to mix the business with the personal on social media. Companies are starting to see all of their employees as potential spokespeople — with all the positive and negative things that come along with that. Companies can choose to focus on the positive benefits of that, or to focus on the negative implications. Both are inherently there, it’s just a difference in point of view. Think of it as “glass half full” vs. “glass half empty”.
Two things happened last week to drive this point home to me. First, I was on a panel at Community 2.0 with Kelly Ripley Feller from Intel, who shared Intel’s social media guidelines for their employees. Second, I read an article on Mashable about the Wall Street Journal’s new social media policy. To me, the difference between the two is striking. And the first indication of how they differ is right there in the name — guidelines vs. policy. Guidelines are the bumpers on the side of the road — you have a wide road to go down, but the guidelines will nudge you back on track when you stray. Policies are hard lines that must not be crossed.
Intel’s Guidelines
Intel’s guidelines come from the position of assuming that their employees will participate, and encouraging that, but wanting to provide some ground rules and best practices for doing so. In other words, Intel is focused on how employees participating in community and social media can help the company, and how to equip them with the best knowledge and practices for doing so.
Many of Intel’s policies are straightforward and should be obvious — respecting proprietary and confidential information, not spamming or posting offensive remarks, for example. But there are other guidelines that are maybe not as expected from a large public corporation.
“Be Transparent” is probably not something you’d expect to hear from Intel. Of course, this is not to say that employees are encouraged to disclose company secrets… but they are expected to use their real name, identify that they work at Intel, and be clear about their role.
“It’s a Conversation” is another guideline that a lot of companies could learn from. Intel encourages people to show their individual personalities, to encourage comments, and talk to readers like they are talking to real people. So many companies have their blogs and social media participation incredibly sanitized, approved, and PR-ified. Intel gets that showing the personalities inside the company is showing off some of their best differentiating assets.
Other guidelines, such as adding value and creating excitement, are also something you don’t see in most policies. But they’re really important parts of an open and engaging social media program.
Wall Street Journal’s Policy
WSJ’s policies come from a place of grudgingly accepting that their employees are going to participate in social media, and wanting to protect themselves against anything bad that might happen. They are not interested in helping their reporters and editors be more engaged in social media with best practices. They simply provide guidance on what not to do — unlike Intel, there’s no corresponding “what to do” advice.
Again, some of the things included are obvious. Most people know not to use a false name or to recruit friends and family to promote or defend their work. But there are other guidelines here that seem… well, antiquated.
Reporters and editors are not allowed to discuss how an article was reported, written or edited. They cannot discuss articles that have not been published, meetings they’ve attended or plan to attend, or interviews they’ve conducted. They are not to mix “business and pleasure” on sites like Twitter. I can understand needing to protect proprietary information about workflow and competitive information such as sources and upcoming articles. But surely that can be done in a way that doesn’t forbid all communication about it across the board. By flatly disallowing all conversations about these items, the WSJ is missing huge opportunities for their reporters and editors to connect with their readers, and for their readers to make deeper connections to their reporters, editors, and the WSJ brand.
In terms of mixing business and pleasure on Twitter… well, frankly, that’s one of the things that I like best about Twitter. Celebrities and other well-known figures (if they’re doing it right, and doing it themselves) mix professional and personal posts that give their readers some insight into the personality and real life of the poster. For example, I know that:
I could continue on and on with examples. The point is that none of these posts would pose a threat to the companies they work for. And they all give me, the reader, some behind-the-scenes info on them as people. Rightly or wrongly, I feel that I know them better because I have this information. This makes me feel more connected to them on a personal level. And having employees/celebrities with large fan bases is a boon to any company that employs that person.
What You Can Do
Does your company have a social media policy? I don’t think it’s a must for every company, but it is necessary for many. If you don’t, and you think you need one, make sure that it encourages and guides people to participate in positive ways instead of just telling people what they can’t do. If you don’t have any community or social media experts in your company, there are plenty of independent consultants in the field that can help you draft good policies. Think about how to empower your employees to show their personalities, be thought leaders and subject matter experts, and create positive experiences around themselves and the company’s brand.
If you have a policy that is more closed than open, talk to your company’s social media expert (or your boss/executive, if you are the company’s expert) to make some changes. You know your own situation and restrictions best, but take every opportunity to educate and train your people on the best practices for contribution, instead of just giving them a list of things they can’t do.
What policies are in place in your company that you love or hate? Know of other companies with particularly good or bad guidelines and policies around social media participation? Let me know in the comments.
I haven’t spent too long in the gaming world, but one thing I learned right away is this: everyone thinks they could design a better game. Practically every time a trailer or game gets released, someone makes a comment about how they would have done something different/better. I suppose it’s just human nature.
So it seems pretty natural that a company would allow users to create their own levels in games. They can make, tweak, and play their own levels to their hearts content. It’s a happy marriage of gaming and user generated content. Right? Well, don’t get out the rice and bubbles just yet.
According to boingboing and Elder Game, users aren’t designing complicated, creative levels. They’re designing incredibly easy levels to get themselves lots of rewards as quickly as possible.
When City of Heroes released its user-created mission generator, it was mere hours before highly exploitative missions existed. Players quickly found the way to min-max the system, and started making quests that gave huge rewards for little effort. These are by far the most popular missions. Actually, from what I can tell, they are nearly the only missions that get used. Aside from a few “developer’s favorite” quests, it’s very hard to find the “fun but not exploitative” missions, because they get rated poorly by users and disappear into the miasma of mediocrity.
This was not what the designers hoped for. Somehow they had convinced themselves that the number of exploiters would be relatively low — certainly not the vast majority of the users. But they were wrong, and now they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. They feel they must counteract these abusive quests, “for the sake of balance”. But how? Well the first step is to ban people who make cheaty content. But what’s cheaty? Do they explicitly list every possible exploit condition? What if they miss one? Nah, then the problem would start all over again. Instead, how about if they just issue blanket threats that they’ll ban missions that seem “exploitative”, without actually explaining what is and isn’t “exploitative”? They went with the latter.
Even with the mis-judgment about the type of levels that would be created, there’s another lesson here that’s applicable to everyone creating a space for user generated content. And that’s rules. Call them rules, standards, guidelines, or whatever else you like — setting the expectations for the user at the beginning of the content engagement is crucial.
Even if the developers only thought that a few people would design exploitative levels, having rules in place at the start that laid out what was acceptable and what was not would have eliminated a lot of hassle. Of course, some exploitative content would have been created anyway, but it could have been dealt with quickly, effectively, and consistently. The middle of a crisis is no time to be thinking about your guidelines and rules of engagement.
Setting the ground rules from the start is good for your users, good for your community managers, good for your moderators, and good for your community as a whole. We want to believe that people will always behave appropriately, but any community manager can tell you that that’s a pipe dream. Don’t wait until the crisis happens in your community. Get your rules in order now.
So it is with interest that I read this article by Kathy Ossian about the use of social media by jury members, and how that can and cannot affect the impartiality of the jury and ultimately, trial outcomes.
