Follow the London 2012 Olympics through Social Media

 

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Amidst the spirit and celebration of the start of the London 2012 Olympics, there has been some frustration here in the U.S. NBC chose to broadcast the games from London not in real-time, but during prime-time hours. It is one thing to DVR your favorite competitions, however, in this day and age fans are used to the most up-to-date information being available at their fingertips at the click of a mouse or tap on their smart phone. The frustration with the network has lead to gushes into Twitter’s News Feed using the hashtag #NBCFail. Luckily, if NBC has not met your Olympic-viewing expectations, social media has stepped up to fill in those gaps. If you can’t get enough of London 2012, you’ll want to check out these Olympic social media hot spots. Not only can you cheer to your hearts content, but these information-rich sites are chock full of everything you want to learn about the athletes and events surrounding the Games.

NBC Olympics Twitter Tracker 

If you can’t watch the Games in real-time on TV, you can track the action on NBC’s real-time Twitter Tracker, which is averaging nearly 2000 Tweets per minute. The site shows trending sports, trending topics, trending athletes, polls, Twitter stats, games and links to blogs, athlete sites and Twitter accounts. You can watch videos on the site, find schedules and even local information or an Olympic workout. The thing that sets this site apart from the others is the “Tweet Sheet”. The Tweet sheet features a selection of Olympic Tweets that you can sort by experts or athletes. It’s a nice, clear way to take in athlete’s musings and experts opinions. A win for NBC, considering the backlash they are facing concerning their broadcasting schedule.

Explore London 2012 On Facebook

Where is the first place we go to connect these days other than Facebook? The social networking site has done a great job of providing a simple and easy way to connect with all of your favorite athletes from the London 2012 Olympics. Connect with athletes, sports, teams, countries, where to watch and partners from this Olympic hub. Following your favorite team is sure to infuse some enthusiasm into your News Feed!

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The Olympic Athletes’ Hub

The Olympic Athletes’ Hub pulls in all the social media connections to their athlete-focused site that will have you feeling like you won the gold medal for enthusiasm. They also feature games, such as The Olympic Challenge. This site is a little different, since you need to sign in through your Facebook or Twitter account to use it. It mirrors the games in a way that you can earn badges and rewards based on your participation on the site. It’s easy to search and connect with your favorite athletes and the added awards and competitive games liven up the experience and appeal to the sports fan personalities.

The sites are a very clever way to add to the surge of followers the athletes are expecting during this first Olympics when social media is an integral part of how fans experience the Games. It seems social media is more inline with what people expected from the coverage of the games than our NBC broadcast schedule. However you choose to tune in, these sites will give you loads of information anytime you want it, which is a win-win for everyone.

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from Sociality Squared, become a fan

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