Pilot meltdown, Sally Bercow, and PG Tips

British summertime is officially here (thank god!) but if that good news isn’t enough, the Siren Social Media round up is sure to raise a smile. Grab your sunnies, sit back in your oversized deck chair and catch up with what’s going on in the social media stratosphere this week.

The instant news value of social media was thrust into the spotlight again this week as passengers on board a JetBlue Airways’ flight 191 on Tuesday night took to social media channels to post comments and footage of the captain having a ‘meltdown’ and ‘shouting about a bomb being onboard’. The company took to social media to direct users to their corporate blog with answers to the most frequently asked questions about the incident. The JetBlue Twitter feed states that the company is ’doing our best to share the facts through all channels of communication’.

And finally, Sally Bercow caused controversy on Twitter again after posting that she wants to try legal high ‘mexxy’ aka methoxetamine before it’s banned. The Speaker’s wife told her 45,000 followers that she was ‘obsessed with the stuff’ despite assuring them that she wouldn’t actually buy it. Those in search of more fascinating insights from the tiresome self-publicist Bercow should remember to grab a spot at the ITT Conference in Barbados this June, where she is a guest speaker.

Old school social media site Friends Reunited rebranded this week to go back to its roots and focus nostalgia in an attempt to keep up with other mainstream sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Users will now be invited to create ‘memory boxes’ where they can share memories and photos from events or places they have been rather than just school and work related memories and the site security has been ramped up.

‘Draw Something’ continues to take the world by storm as smartphone and tablet users rush to download it this week. The game, which has been compared to an online version of Pictionary, has been downloaded over 35 million times in just seven weeks and the company which created it, OMGPOP, has been sold in a massive $180 million deal. Just make sure your deadlines are complete before you rush to download it yourself – it is extremely addictive.

Think before you tweet! Ex-New Zealand cricket captain Chris Cairns was awarded £90,000 this week after the first Twitter libel trial in England took place. The offending tweet was posted by the former chairman of the Indian Premier League, Lalit Modi, accusing Cairns of match fixing in January 2010. Cairns said that the accusations were ‘wholly untrue’ and damaged his reputation as well as putting a strain on his marriage.

Tea topped the social media polls this week as a survey about the effect of social media on business results was published by industry analysts, Prospect. PG Tips came out on top of the ‘Engagement Index’ which included high end brands such as Apple and Jaguar, with an engagement level of 16.3% for their Facebook page. The measurement is based on the amount of likes, shares and comments posted by users.