So Bavaria brewery are in trouble because they [allegedly] gave free dresses to Dutch fans which got them arrested. [insert obligatory pretty girls picture]

Image from the BBC 'file name: Netherlands-fans-in-Bavaria-miniskirts.jpeg'

Those arrests got written about.

Note 'all 1078 articles'

Those writings got shared.

For the record, this is where I first read about it

Mentions of Bavaria go through the roof.

Blogpulse Trends

Mission Accomplished!

I am in NYC for a conference and planned to bring just the ipad. In a constant aim to decrease the amount of gadgets I carry across the pond, I thought hoped that the iPad could do all my blogging, reading and entertaining as I travelled.

Sadly not. Not yet. So I wrote five reasons why not. Some are hardware issues, others are interface issues but here goes..

1. No camera. To me that was the killer reason I couldn’t run it alone. I travel, I miss my family and I want to see them. For that alone I will carry another laptop. The fact that there is no camera and no iChat function are major issues. I have been advised there is an app called Camera A Camera B which can somehow wireless sync with the ipad but I haven’t tried. It all sounds a bit Heath Robinson really.

2. Poor Wifi. Even if I could iChat the poor wifi thingy means it cannot pick up the hotel network in certain parts of the room. So unless I was chained to a certain spot (which of course turns out to be the bathroom) then I can’t use it. Placing the laptop and the iPad next to each other shows me a huge disparity in signal strength which I hope is fixed in the next generation.

3. Content Creation – Typing. If you put the iPad into landscape mode you can get a relatively quick typing speed but still less than 50% of the speed I can do on the keyboard. So, when I am in a conference it is great for taking notes but not so good for long stretches of writing. I bought the wireless keyboard and a cover/stand for the iPad which means I can do proper typing – the only flaw was I couldn’t use Bluetooth on the flight so I needed the laptop for productivity in the air.

4. Content Creation – Blogging. The WordPress App has been updated to offer full iPad support which means I can write blogs and edit blogs within the app. However, if we look past the typing issue, I still have trouble with links and importing images. If I want to link to something in the article I need to have it copied somewhere, or copy it straight from the browser. But as I am not in the browser, I have to save my work, exit the app, find the link, copy it and go back to the blogging. Not conducive to deep content writing. The image inclusion is also a pain unless you already have the images uploaded to your blog.

5. You Tube management. If you don’t do much video then this isn’t really an issue. This morning I launched a video but it was still locked. I jumped onto the YouTube app and could see my video but could not edit the properties of the video. Trying through Safari gave me the same block so I had to run upstairs, jump on the laptop and fix it.

What the iPad is great for is content consumption. I am reading more than I have done in a long time, although in more silo based consumption which is a step backward, but that’s another article for another site.

I still love the iPad no question, it shouldn’t stop you buying one but as a content creation tool, it still needs work.

This was written on the laptop!

Thanks /comicsgonebad.com/

Zynga‘s announcement of the Farmville iPhone app will be seen by some as just another game release. But this is actually a very important move from one of the most important social media companies in 2010.

This is some really interesting data. I am short on time to go into much depth right now but will follow up with more thoughts and commentary over the next 24 hours.

The report, commissioned by Famecount.com picked one particular day, Wednesday 2nd June 2010 and measured the ranking (size) of following major brands achieved. The result?

Starbucks was found to be the world’s most popular consumer brand with 7.4 million Facebook fans, 901,925 Twitter followers and 6,509 YouTube subscribers resulting in a Famecount index of 69.7 percent.  The world’s top media brand was found to be Texas Hold ‘Em, a game developed by Zynga which has the world’s most popular Facebook page with 19 million Facebook Fans, plus  135,234 Twitter followers and 1,017 YouTube subscribers.

Daniel Dearlove, founder of Famecount.com comments, “This data is unique in that it gives us for the first time an accurate global ranking of the popularity of brands online,” It is interesting to see established offline brands perform so strongly. This highlights the growing importance of social media in wider marketing campaigns, as well as the applicability of these channels to established brands, which may not have had a significant online presence previously. Social networks are helping them to tap into wider audiences and strengthen communications with existing consumers.

So, this is pretty interesting. I have a bunch of questions which I will pitch later, like – did they pick up on all the official brand channels (like multiple Twitter accounts) – how did they extract non official fan pages, groups etc. as part of the methodology? I know these won’t make a vast difference to the numbers but if such results are to be measured they need to be right.

You can see more of the results on the famecount blog.

You can have a look yourself at famecount.com

I have booked a few hotels with Mr & Mrs Smith. I like the service and I like the  hotels they have found me. However, I booked a few nights at the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath through them and the hotel experience was awful. Really awful. Now in fairness this is nothing to do with Mr & Mrs Smith and all to do with the hotel.

When I received an email from Mr & Mrs Smith asking me to share my experiences in the guest book, I thought, “great, now I get the chance to share my experiences”. So I did. All of it was fair, there was no mr angry.

What I expected was that someone would have read it and thought, “ooh we best check he is OK, and, we best go and check this hotel again.” I can’t talk for the second part, but the first part I would have expected some form of follow up.

Nothing.

How does that make me feel about Mr & Mrs Smith? To be fair, I’ll still book with them when I know the hotel. When it is a new hotel I may query their research. A little note to say, thanks we’re on it, would have made such a difference.