These
Olympics,will be the Social Media and online games, if ever there was one, because Social
Media has exploded since the last games in 2008.
Facebook alone has gone
from 100 million users to 900 million. Tweeting had really only started
too, Pinterest didn't exist and Mashable was a proper blog, back then.
Already Twitter has claimed its first victim and they don't even start until today.
Greek triple jumper, Voula Papachristou, (above) has been exited from The Olympic Games.....because of a tweet.
She tweeted "With so many Africans in Greece…at least the West Nile mosquitoes will eat homemade food!!!” yep, hilarious. But she wasn't notified before or after, the committee just issued a press release and that was that. If your life revolved around training and preparation for the games, it's a pretty big deal to be banned.
It also had the knock-on affect of her fellow team members being told that they were not to use Social Media except to talk about the games, not themselves.
But if you're looking out online for the games, here's some places that you might like to start with.
The IOC Olympic Athletes Hub (http://hub.olympic.org/) is a good place to start. Good search features, great updates and an easy list of tweeters to follow.
Broadcaster NBC has its own Olympic Channel (http://www.nbcolympics.com/) which looks really good including live streaming. So you'll see lots of video here but the real focus is on the USA team obviously.
I actually liked Yahoo's version - very Social and seems to have lots of stuff going on (http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/) plus a nice piece on Beach volleyball, "its popularity explained". Which somehow they've managed to make a story out of rather than just posting a pic.
The Storify site is a little more upbrow and less Social, but possibly quite cool (http://storify.com/topics/olympics). Lots of video so it makes it worth a browse but not at the same content level as say NBC or the IOC Hub.
Sports Illustrated, the real insider here, is terrific (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/olympics/2012/) but will lack the events coverage. Still, if you want the inside track, go here. Nice pics too....
The Telegraph, probably the greatest newspaper on the planet, has really good local insights because the games are in its home town (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/). Also has a nice blog and twitter feed so this is where I'll be going for sure.
Facebook have a hub of course (https://www.facebook.com/pages/olympics) but frankly, I find it boring. Still if you're on Facebook no harm in liking it I suppose. But it just looks a bit dull and dreary...so far.
And the ESPN site, not to be forgotten (http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2012/) is pretty good as you'd expect offering lots of interactivity.
Mashable also have suggestions regarding the top 25 competitors you should follow on Twitter ( http://mashable.com/2012/07/24/olympic-athletes-twitter/).
And an interesting one from left of centre is Zoomph (https://www.zoomph.com/Events/london2012/default.aspx) with geolocation. Actually it's pretty smart.
Athletics was never my thing but it's clear these games are going to offer brands lots of opportunities online. Social Media will be really ramping it up and perhaps bring in a new audience whom previously, mightn't have been bothered.
As they say at the start of most Agency creative meetings and it's not funny anymore - Let the games begin.
