Bursledon – Hamble – Warash and back : Dog Walk #3
A monster 6 mile walk – see the map. Lovely scenes some of which you can see in the photos below.
Twitter Success with BT
Last night, whilst watching the wonderful “Come Dine With Me” I twittered about the joys of the BT Vision on-demand service. The morning I was being followed by @BTCare.
Good to see BT monitoring their brand on Twitter, but did they really care?
A while back I got a Sentata Sports viewing card, however it has never worked. I wasn’t bothered to the point I was going to spend half an hour waiting on the phone to talk to someone so I let it slide. No doubt great sporting moments have passed me by in the meantime but I’m sure I’ll live.
Anyway since @BTCare had decided to follow me and comment on my viewing habits I decided to mention to them the problem I was having and a few direct messages (DMs to those in the Twitterverse) the problem was sorted, the card was working and all was good in the world.
So credit to BT for using Twitter and technology to interact and help their customers. I’ve personally always been a fan of BT and apart from a brief spell with NTHell have used their services generally without problems. Others I know have a different view but stories like will do BT no harm.
From Twitters point of view, services like this will be the ones that they will think about making money from, hopefully by the time they do the “big” firms will be fully on the bandwagon. After all, what harm can come from engaging with your customers?
Britain’s Got “Talent”?
Starting yesterday, and running all this week, sees the Semi Finals of Britain’s Got Talent, the ITV show to find an act for the Royal Variety Performance to show off their talent before the Queen.
This is another show that can be enhanced with the use of Twitter and the #bgt tag to have a conversation and last night amongst the popular trending terms were “bgt” “boyle” and “darth jackson” – three terms that may have bemused any international twitters.
“Boyle” referred to the now international star, Susan Boyle, famous for not being very good looking but being a reasonable singer. If you missed the story you could watch this video which will reveal all the details!
In fairness to her, she was one of the two actually talented acts on the show. The other being Diversity:
The rest varied in quality from a “cute” 10 year old, so the slightly mad Michael Jackson / Darth Vader combination to the utterly deranged Nick Hell and his massacistic tendencies live on ITV.
Exactly why any one would want to watch a madman with a chainsaw live on an entertainment programme is one question, how it got past the “health and safety” people at ITV is another.
It was interesting in the voting as well to see Amanda Holden pass the buck – given the choice of voting for the obviously talented Diversity, or a cute 10 year old who would have been out, she left it to Simon Cowell to give the sensible choice and make the little girl cry on prime time TV.
More talent through the rest of this week. Woo-hoo.
Exton in the sunshine – Dog Walk #2
On a stunning sunny bank holiday weekend in Hampshire we went inland to the small village of Exton for a countryside walk.
To find Exton drive up the A32 and you’ll find it eventually. Parking is possible in The Shoe, a very nice public house (pictured behind my head).
From there we wandered along the route up the old Meon Valley railway line and back through some countryside parallel to it.
View this walk on a map – click here!
All in all it’s a winner with ponds for the dog to jump in to and tree lined old railway embankments to stroll along. It shall go on the “explore further list”.
Royal Victoria Country Park – Dog Walk #1
One of the joys of owning a dog is that I have an excuse to go for a walk in the middle of the day, which weather permitting, is a pleasurable experience.
It does leave the question each day of where to go, and one venue that is always worth consideration is the Royal Victoria Country Park, in Netley.
This picture shows the Chapel in the park, the remaining feature of the Royal Victoria Hospital, a military hospital which was at one the the largest brick buildings.
The park also has a number of family friendly features, loads of open space, a cafe and also a miniature steam railway. In addition there is a shingle beach overlooking the remarkable sight of Fawley refinery.
The Apprentice – What a Shower
It’s taken me a long time to make any comment about the reality TV show, The Apprentice. I find it interesting watching mainly, like most other people that watch it, because I wonder why the collection of half witted individuals who sign up think they have any chance of actually being good in business.
The problem is the same throughout the early stages, desperate to stand out from the crowd each of the candidates refuse to listen to the others and instead attempt to drive their own agenda, leading to chaos. Also they seem every week to go off half cocked, not researching the tasks or even thinking why they’ve been set it.
Okay, I know the programme is highly edited and the show is there to entertain – otherwise there would be no good reason why Lorraine and Debra would not have been sacked already – but just some sign that the candidates actually think about why Sir Alan has set the task would be welcome.
It is another show that can be enhanced by the Internet. The BBC have an apprentice game where you attempt to predict the person who will be sacked. The game is okay, would would be improved no end if it kept track of users and had tables to compare performance weekly and across the series (there you go BBC, a idea for free – I should get a fiver off next years license for that).
Twitter too can play a part and like with Eurovision last week, following the comments on twitterfall using the tag #apprentice can provide some moments of humour.
My overall feeling however is that The Apprentice is a tired format and, whilst I expect it to be dragged out for another series or two, has possibly run it’s course. Unless people who are actually talented in business sign up instead of candidates who are just a little too bright for Big Brother it might be time to say “Sir Alan, you’re fired.”
Twitter – my strategy
I had a Twitter epiphany the other day. I unfollowed loads of people because I never read a word they wrote, nor did I care. I’m not saying they were boring, just with so many people Tweeting the noise became too much.
Some may have in turn unfollowed me. However I really couldn’t care if they did.
Why? Good question. Let me answer. I decided to take the age old advice, control those things you can and ignore those you can’t.
I can’t directly affect how many people, and who, is following me. I can hope that my 140 character insights into events, my life and quick quips are entertaining enough for people to wait for the next one with abated breath, but if they are not I’m not going to loose any sleep over it.
What I can control is who pumps their thoughts into my computer. So I decided to focus instead on people that fall primarily into three different camps:
- People in 4Networking. From a business and social perspective it makes sense to follow and interact with these people. Some I consider my friends and all I consider potential suppliers / clients.
- Celebrities – well why not. Perhaps I am helping to massage their egos but they add a little spice.
- Local people – this was my main directional change, yes the Internet is world wide but that doesn’t mean I should follow people in Texas just because I can. Again, from a business point of view my aim is to have my company known locally. By interacting with local people that meets that aim quicker than interacting with an American.
This rather useful website was one that helped me find some local people, then by following their followers, well you know how it works.
Will this strategy prove useful in the long run – who knows. Certainly it has had the benefit that Twitter is no longer just noise, but posts that might be useful. And I am in no way suggesting that every local person is interesting enough to follow (and those that do not grab will be dumped!) but focusing what I’m looking for can only help improve the whole Twitter experience.
Perhaps the summary of this is too many people seem obsessed with the number of followers (@desperate Please RT, only 4 more to get to 1000 followers, help me get there), but it is not the number that matters.
It’s the value of them. I now value the people I follow. Do you?
So, that wasn’t a surprise
Another day of BBC News being camped out in front of the Commons. Another day of the studio based presenters passing time by playing UNO after the bleeding obvious happened after yesterdays weak performance from the Speaker in the Commons.
The was no way he could have continued and his departuature should surprise no-one. The news have of course has been obsessed with this historic day and the word unprecedented has been thrown around a lot.
It has, for a couple of days at least, given the Telegraph something other than expenses to put on the front page, I expect they still have a few more to print, just to keep the fire burning.
In other related news Douglas Hogg will be raising his drawbridge after the next election and the people of Sleaford and North Hykeham will have to look for a new MP, presumably one without a moat.
Now, the news is obsesed with who will be the next speaker, might be worth a check to check out the odds on the next Speaker. (Left – the Bookies Favourite, Sir George young)
The Speaker of The Commons
It occurred to me as I watched the events in the commons that it was all over for the current Speaker, Michael Martin. I’m just not sure he realised it.
I don’t see how you can lead and manage the Commons, when it became quite obvious, the Commons had lost all respect in him. I’m not going to dwell in this short little post about the whole expenses scandal, just this one aspect.
It was fascenating to watch. I had to refer to Wikipedia at one point after the reference to the Norway Debate but I guess by the chatter after the statement and the audible gasps that it had been a cutting remark from a usually quiet Member of Parliament.
Equally interesting was of course the medias coverage. I watched on BBC News and as is often the way, they were already scenting blood and had been building up all morning to, what they clearly hoped would be, the onslaught. The pre-match entertainment was the Conservative leader starting his campaign for Europe, but with a request for Parliament to be dissolved immediately to liven things up.
Afterwards MP after MP was dragged infront of the camera to say “the Speaker has lost touch” or “the Speaker should go” and those lone voices who suggested perhaps he wasn’t to blame were riduclaed by the BBC reporter.
Made me wonder who was driving the agenda. Parliament or the Media.
The answer I decided was the Media.
Eurovision Review
So, there we go – the UK did quite well. Norton was certainly acceptable as the “voice-over” man. The Russians did some bizarre and strange half time act with no apparant regard for any health and safety law and Norway won with an insipid song.
That really sums up the evening.
What made the evening more interesting was linking the programme with twitter. Using Twitter Fall and following the keyword #twumpet I could read (some of, there were far too many to read all) the comments in real time, re-tweat some that were interesting and contribute to an online massive dialogue.
This takes the level of viewer interaction to a whole new level. To some extend it’s a real time version of Points of View, but in real time and unfiltered. Add into that the comments of Philip Schofield, Jonathon Ross and other celebrities and it brings a different dimension to the “entertainment”.
Social Media