Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Your complete social media guide to the 2012 London Olympics

Here's a look at the many ways you can stay up-to-date on what's happening

As the 2012 Olympics kick off today, don't rely solely on the TV broadcasts to enjoy the festivities: Thanks to social media, there are plenty of alternative, real-time outlets to get your fill of Olympic coverage.

Here's a look at the many ways you can stay up-to-date on what's happening, from Facebook to the Olympic Hub, Twitter, YouTube and more.

1. Facebook

The Olympics have an impressive presence on Facebook this year, with a number of pages to "like" for the latest updates.

The official Olympics page has more than 3 million likes and features a number of photos, updates, videos and shared updates from athletes. Also cool: This page has built out its Timeline, so you can browse milestones and pictures as far back as its inception in 1894.

There's also the NBC Olympics page. NBC is the Olympics' official broadcast partner. Much like the official Olympics Facebook page, you'll find updates, video, photos, questions and more.

Lastly, there are a few Facebook apps built exclusively for the Olympics. One that you should check out is the NBC Olympics app--a social reader app.

[Vancouver 2010: An Exclusive Tour of the Technology Operations Center]

2. Twitter

For the latest Olympic news, follow these official International Olympic Committee (IOC) accounts: @USOlympic, @Olympics and @London2012. On each of these, you'll find updates from events, news, results, photos and more.

The London 2012 Twitter page also has a number of lists you can subscribe to. These include lists of athletes competing (both past and present), paralympians, organizing committees and sports feeds.

3. The Olympic Athletes' Hub

New to this year's Olympic coverage is a cool site called the Olympic Athletes' Hub, a search engine-style website where you can connect to the social networking streams of athletes and events on Twitter and Facebook.

To sign up, you need to sign in with either your Facebook or Twitter account. Once you've completed the sign-up process, you can begin by searching for an athlete, team, sport, discipline or event to follow on Facebook or Twitter. You can also view all of their updates from within the Olympic Athletes' Hub.

The Olympic Athletes' Hub also has a gamification element to it: The more athletes and sports you follow on Facebook and Twitter from the Hub, the more rewards you earn, in which you unlock badges, win prizes and compete to be the "ultimate Olympic Fan."

4. Google+

The Olympics have a good presence on Google+, if that is your preferred social network. Be sure to follow the official London 2012 Google+ page, the Olympic Games page and the NBC Olympics page. While each of these has a presence on Google+, the coverage appears much more robust on Facebook.

5. YouTube

For video coverage of everything you might miss during the work week, check out the official channel of the U.S. Olympic Team on YouTube. You can browse videos of "gold medal moments," Olympic coaching tips, clips of returning veterans and more.

There's also the official Olympic Channel by the IOC, where you can sort videos by sport and country, and view the events on tap for the day. You'll also notice a link on the top of this YouTube page where you can watch the Olympics live in the U.S. on NBCOlympics.com.

Kristin Burnham covers consumer technology, social networking and enterprise collaboration for CIO.com. Follow Kristin on Twitter @kmburnham. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline and on Facebook. Email Kristin at kburnham@cio.com

Recommended

  1. The pros and cons of IT offshoring

  2. Think Tank: Managing the talent pool

  3. Think Tank: Better IT governance

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

Comments are now closed.
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Hybrid IT Service Management: A Requirement for Virtualisation and Cloud Computing
    When competition is tough and resources are limited, corporate leaders are depending on growing their existing capabilities in order to grow their business. Information technology can be a unique catalyst for business growth, delivering a competitive advantage when creatively applied to established and emerging problems. Read more on what trends are accelerating the value of IT.
    Learn more »
  • Real-Time Protection Against Malware Infection
    Malware is at such high levels (more than 60 million unique samples per year) that protecting an endpoint with traditional antivirus software, has become futile. More than 100,000 new types of malware are now released every day, and antivirus vendors are racing to add new protection features to try to keep their protection levels up. Read more.
    Learn more »
  • Securing the Road to Virtualization and Beyond
    Traditional security controls for enterprise don’t necessarily translate into the new world of virtualisation and cloud environments. When mapping out a secure virtualisation roadmap, click to find out about pave a more secure, risk free path.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.
Recent comments

Computerworld
ARN
CFO World
CMO