Olympic organizers dubbed the 2012 Summer Olympics in London as the first ‘Social Media Games’ or better yet, the ‘Socialympics‘. With Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and a variety of other social media platforms for athletes’ voices to be heard, the International Olympic Committee had the unduly task of regulating and monitoring competitors’ comments.
However, when the dust settled, both fans and athletes alike utilized the numerous social media outlets to offer up their opinions, create their own Olympic memories, and interact with other users. Perhaps the most memorable use of social media by an Olympic athlete was by U.S. swimmer Tyler Clary as he live-tweeted NBC’s tape-delayed coverage of his gold medal finish in the 200m backstroke.
Below are some noteworthy facts from the Summer Olympics along with an informative Infographic detailing why organizers referred to London as the ‘Socialympics’.
- The number of global Twitter users increased from 6 million in 2008 to 140 million in 2012 while global Facebook uses increased from 100 million to 845 million during that same time span.
- The most social age group were those individuals between 21-35 (47.6%).
- At the beginning of the Olympics, the top followed athletes were Lebron James (17.4 million fans) and Kobe Bryant (13.6 million fans), both U.S. Olympic basketball players.
- In the weeks leading up to the ‘Socialympics’, there were 6.9 million social media posts just mentioning the Olympics alone.
The World’s First “Social Games” Infographic
