Search Marketing Sage

U-S-A! U-S-A! The U.S. swam, jumped, ran, dived, flipped, skip hop jumped, and volleyed away with the most overall medals in the 2012 Olympics in London, England. But now that the Olympics wrapped up last night, I don’t know what I’m supposed to watch tonight! (Actually, I plan on watching Shark Week!!)

The best I can do is reflect on how the games went in terms of social media as this was the world’s largest social media sporting event. It was a “conversational” Olympic games, according to Forbes.com. Guidelines were made and broken. Social media growth for athletes and fans was recorded and tracked.

The International Olympic Committee set up IOC Social Media, Blogging and Internet Guidelines (Guidelines) for participants and other accredited persons at the London Olympic Games that encourage the use of social media, but with limits to how social media may be used. The social media used could not be for commercial or advertising purposes and must be in first person in a non-journalist style. The athletes could not comment on competition or include audio/images from events at the Olympics Venues. It was great to see how much social media engagement occurred and how the athletes were able to grow their fan bases as they competed and won medals. You probably agree with me, though, that tape delay and social sharing did negatively impact several events as the outcomes were already publicized, but overall it was amazing to see how much social use occurred during these games.