Brand advertising on Twitter

I'd like to talk about Twitter and advertising/brand promotion.
This may sound very random, but it's something I've been thinking about recently. I obviously don't have anything to sell or promote - I'm just me. Other people however do. Companies and brands have twitter accounts and a lot has been made in the press recently about bad PR from certain brands.

Now before I really get into it, a quick Twitter lesson for you. Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here, but it's important (IMO), and some people don't seem to get this. To me it's one of the most important aspects of Twitter.
When you tweet something, anyone can see your tweet by looking at your Twitter Feed. As can anyone who follows you - they get it straight on their main feed.
If you start the tweet off addressing it to another user, it will only appear on your followers feed if they also follow the other person.
Lets say you follow me, and I tweet Burts Crisps (@BurtsChips) or Pataks Curry Club (@PataksCurryClub). You will only see that if you also follow them.

So I could say "@BurtsChips Your crisps are amazing, I love them" which is great PR for them, except only someone who already knows about them (because they're following too) will see it. And they will know I'm right.
However, if I tweet "Hey @BurtsChips, you're crisps are amazing", then all my followers will see it.

Why would I do this? Because it helps Burts. I've just opened them up to an audience of 200+ people.
Maybe one of my followers is in a shop one day, spots a packet on the shelf and thinks "Ah ha! That's what John was on about! I'll try me some of them!"

Naturally I don't get any financial reward for this. However to reward us, brands often ReTweet our tweet. 
So now I get advertised to 5000 people. maybe a few of those may look at my feed and like what they see and maybe follow me.
Of course, I don't gain anything for gaining new followers, apart from a mini ego boost.

But that, in a nutshell is how to help brands you like. My advice is don't go overboard on spamming your followers with everything you like, but a couple a day can help :)

Doctor Who - In The Name of the Doctor. Some thoughts about that ending!

I'm going to try and get my thoughts in order regarding the amazing ending to In The Name Of The Doctor. 

So, the Doctor goes by the name “The Doctor” because he helps people. In an ironic twist, an earlier episode showed us that medical doctors are called Doctors in honour of The Doctor. Anyway, I digress. 

As we know, the Doctor regenerates. Somewhere down the line one of his regenerations did something bad. So evil that it wasn't “in the name of the Doctor”. This regeneration has been shunned by the others, and doesn't use the name "Doctor". So Matt Smith is still the 11th version to go by the name Doctor, but the 12th Regeneration.

Now, as we've seen all the regenerations bar one, there is only 2 explanations left: 

1: John Hurt's Character was the original version, who then regenerated into William Hartnell, or 

2: John Hurt is between McGann and Ecclestone (the only regeneration we haven't seen on screen) 

If it's 1 then we can assume that whatever he did caused Hartnell to steal the TARDIS and run away from Gallifrey in the first place 

If it's 2 then we can guess that maybe Hurt was responsible for ending the Time War. 

In the episode "The Beast Below" (the second episode of the Smith Era), the Doctor runs through his options. 

"Three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name 'cause I won't be The Doctor anymore."

So we at least have form for him knowing sometimes you have to make the hard choices... I guess we'll have to wait till November 23rd to find out!

(And for those new viewers who didn't realise, 23rd November 1963 was the air date of the first episode - An UnEarthly Child)

Orphan Black - New Series coming to BBC3

Imagine seeing yourself one day. Not just someone who looks like you, but You. Except it's not. 

That's exactly what happens to Sarah, our streetwise Orphan hero in Orphan Black. Sarah finds another “her” and slowly a mystery unfolds.

Who is Beth? Why are they the same? Are there any more?

Part thriller, part comedy, part sci-fi (in the sense that it's fiction based on Science – not flying spaceships or things). Orphan Black is coming to BBC 3 in the UK.

Despite having a great cast it's not an ensemble production. The show belongs to the main star – Tatiana Maslany. You've probably never heard of her before, but by the end of the first episod alone I guarantee you won't forget her! Each character is unique and distinctive from the others, and what really shows is when one character is impersonating another. They look the same (of course), but you can tell from the mannerisms that it's x being y.

The mystery unfolds for us viewers at the same pace as it does for Sarah, learning piece by piece what's going on. Sometimes it can be frustrating; wanting to know slightly more than we're told, but the nuggets of information are placed before us to find.

Characters are mentioned and introduced quickly, the return later on like old friends stopping by on their way past. The supporting cast are great with not a bad actor or actress among them.

The only one niggle I have with the whole premise is how someone can impersonate someone else so well that even work colleagues can't tell the difference. That aside, the show has got me totally hooked, and I'm glad it's already gained a second season!

You can follow Orphan Black on Twitter, at @OrphanBlack