For you kids that didn’t catch the original Mission Impossible Series or Tom Cruise’s more recent MI movies, Mr. Phelps, (played by Jim Graves), started with a self-destructing tape. On it, Phelps would be always have the option to reject his mission. He never did of course. And it seems the only thing 23-year-old Michael Phelps is rejecting is his opponents.

Phelps on the Boards

No. He hasn’t switching to diving. But on the Bulletin Boards / Forums, he’s become a hot topic real fast. Neilsen BuzzMetrics’ Blog post has the blogosphere temperature rising on Michael Phelps as well.

You can see how quickly Michael Phelps has heated up the discussion pool across the forums with this Buzz Chart from Twing.com

(Click on the chart for the full size version.)

Find out what people saying about Michael Phelps on the boards. This is likely to only heat up more later today as he goes for Gold number 7. (As I write this, it’s Friday, 8/15 2:00 PM EDT, so by “today” I mean in Beijing where it’s already Saturday.) If he wins the 100 m butterfly, then all that’s in his way is the 4 x 100 m Medley Relay, where he’ll have to rely on his teammates as well has himself as he did in the past two relays. As we know, those turned out to be Olympic Gold and world record efforts.

Scott

Most brand managers are thrilled when some celebrity du jour gets candidly caught brandishing their company’s bling or soft drink or whatever. But what about when the celebrity doesn’t quite match the brand. It’s bad enough, (from Disney’s perspective) for 15-year-old Miley Cyrus, (a.k.a. Hannah Montanna), to be part naked in a photo shoot. (History here.) But at least in that case, Disney can say, “Hey kid, you wanna’ keep earning the big $$$, chill on the Paris wannabe.

These days, between WhateverTube and Twitter and this and that, anyone can be Paparazzi. And anyone can be a spokesperson. Leaving aside outright hoaxes, (like the Janet Hoax where Janet is not really an Exxon representative on Twitter), there’s other real issues.

Porno & Parmigina

The Wall Street Journal has recently recounted the story of super hottie Kendra Wilkonson’s love for the Olive Garden.  The WSJ article subhead, Olive Garden Has Mixed Feelings About Its Biggest Celebrity Fan, says it all. In essence, the company isn’t thrilled given it’s family orientation. Still, it’s not like they want to say, “hey, we don’t want people being happy about our product.” More likely, this is just an annoyance to PR people who answer the call “Hi, what’s your position on this Kendra thing.” The answer, initially, was probably something like, “What Kendra thing.” Or… maybe they were monitoring their brand online and saw it coming.

Now, if they had been using Twing Forum Search to search for Oliver Garden in the forum space, maybe they would have had an earlier heads up. So regardless of how they’d choose to respond, it not only wouldn’t be a surprise, but they might get a sense of what people thought of this.

They might have even noticed a July uptick in their relative popularity and clicked in deeper to see what was going on if they were using Twing’s Buzz Charts.

The Lessons Continue

It’s all very simple. Be aware of your brand in social media or be surprised. It’s always better to have an early read on what’s going on and be able to respond rather than react.

Bottom Line: Your customers are talking. It’s just not always to you.

Scott

So for whatever reason I’m up late and surfing some press Twing has gotten over the past few months. There’s one comment in particular that just strikes me as being right in line with our message. It’s from Craig Stoltz at Web 2.Oh…really? in his post on Twing: Searching the Deep Web. Here’s what he said towards the end of his blog post:

“But Twing has shown me this: That whole creating communities-of-shared-interests thing? That whole power-of-collective wisdom thing? That whole long tail thing? You know, that whole web 2.0 thing?

It’s been under our noses all along. We just forgot where to look”

The thing is, this is what I’m trying to get across to everyone in the media when I get a chance to discuss things with them. It’s funny to me that it was Craig as a media person who’s expressed so perfectly what I try to get across.

Forums have been for years, and remain among the best places for group communication. There’s just something fundamental about the forum / threaded discussion user experience that’s best for this kind of thing. This is probably why forums, which maybe feel a bit retro compared to the newer, sexier web tools du jour, are gaining ground. Besides ongoing use by hobbyists and various special enthusiast folks, companies are adding them both for public support and private user feedback as well as internal company discussion.

So Thanks Craig. Thanks for not just “getting it,” but expressing the value so well. We’ll try to live up to the responsibility of helping to make these venues more accessible to everyone through the Twing Community Search & Discovery Engine!

Let’s play a quick game of word association: We say “Memorial Day,” you say…what do you say?

For most Americans Memorial Day means, first and foremost, the unofficial start of summer. It’s about parties, grilling, roadtripping, the running of the Indianapolis 500. It’s when pool clubs finally open, the school year winds to a close, and we can once again fashionably wear white.

But, of course, this United States federal holiday is more than  just an excuse for a long, relaxing weekend. The last Monday in May has been set aside to commemorate the many thousands of men and women who died in military service to their country. Memorial Day traditions include flying the American flag at half staff  from dawn until noon, and a national moment of remembrance that takes place at 3 p.m. Eastern time. War monuments and cemetaries experience an influx of visitors paying their respects, and at U.S. National Cemeteries (there are 39 across the country with the most famous in Arlington, Virginia just outside Washington,  DC), volunteers place an American flag beside each grave.

Whether your Memorial Day observance leans toward patriotism or pleasure (or both!), these twing search results can help you plan:

• Travel Forums
• Barbecuing and Grilling Forums
• Military Forums
• Veterans Forums
• American History Forum

This week’s news headlines make it hard to ignore the impact of Mother Nature. In China, an earthquake has claimed more than 8,000 lives and trapped 900 children inside their school. A tornado wiped out a 20-block area of Picher, Oklahoma and created environmental concerns so serious that rebuilding may not be an option. Meanwhile, the death toll in Myanmar (Burma) is still rising two weeks after a cyclone tore through.

How can you even begin to understand the science behind such natural disasters? A Twing search connecting you to meteorology forums is a great place to start.

You might argue, in fact, that all the most recent headlines focus on disasters of one sort or another — like the unending war in Iraq, the democratic party’s deepening Clinton v. Obama divide, or the autism epidemic and its devastating effect on so many children.

Whatever current affairs peak your interest, a simple Twing search can connect you to forums full of people exchanging ideas. Here are just a few topics to check out:

• Major league baseball
• Real estate
• Alternative energy sources
• Air travel