The 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London have largely been anticipated as the first social media Olympics. Athletes, fans, and the media shared their voices online during the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, but this time in London, even the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to adopt a full-fledged social media strategy. Starting with the Athletes’ Hub – fully integrated with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — fans can keep track of all their favorite Olympians. The IOC has also created official accounts on Tumblr and Instagram. Meanwhile, NBC continues to announce partnerships with social platforms, which now include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Storify. All of these social media channels provide countless ways for viewers to fully immerse in the Olympic experience.
We also saw the ugly side of social media this week, as Greek athlete Voula Papachristou was promptly removed from the Games for posting a tweet that was deemed as racist. But hopefully, the vast array of social media options will carry out their intended function in the next two weeks – that is, to allow everyone involved in the London Olympic Games to share more of their stories and thoughts in more engaging ways. And to help you navigate the Games’ endless flow of exciting content, the following list compiles the best resources across the Web.
SPECIAL SITES AND PAGES
Animal New York’s Medal Count Tracker page
Huffington Post’s Olympics page
Sports Illustrated’s Olympics page
TWITTER LISTS
Automated Results from the Games
NBCOlympics’ Summer Olympics List
NY Times Olympic journalists list
2012 Great Britain Olympic Athletes
TWITTER FEEDS
London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics
FACEBOOK PAGES
OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNITIES
Instagram: @olympics
Google+: IOC’s Olympics page
Google+ search for Olympics (Thanks Jay Brashear Sr.)
Pinterest: NBC Olympics
Quora: 2012 Summer Olympic Games
Storify: 2012 Summer Olympic Games by NBCNews
Tumblr: IOC’s Olympic Moments Tumblr
London 2012’s Explore the Ceremonies Tumblr
Youtube: London 2012
PHOTOS
Flickr’s 2012 London Olympic Games pool (in a slide-show below)
VIDEO
MOBILE
BLOGS AND ARTICLES
10 Bold Predictions for the 2012 Summer Olympics at CBSSports.com
30 must-follow Olympians on Twitter at Greatist.com
London itself is something of an Olympic Village at LA Times
London Olympics: This time, Summer Games are about the athletes at LA Times
Marketers to spend big in social media during Olympics at USA Today
Missteps at the 2012 Olympics at Washington Post
Twitter Crashes Day Before Olympics at PC World
Twitter Embraces Olympics to Train for the Big Time at WSJ
US Olympic Committee wants Olympics footage out of campaign ads at LA Times
NYC-2012: The Legacy of Losing the Olympics to London at WNYC
Team NYC Olympian Tracker at WNYC
Go For It: Life Lessons from Girl Boxers at WNYC
If you know an Olympics resource that should be on this list but isn’t, please share in the comments, and we’ll add them!
Jenny Xie is the PBS MediaShift editorial intern. Jenny is a rising senior at Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying architecture and management. She is a digital-media junkie fascinated by the intersection of media, design, and technology. Jenny can be found blogging for MIT Admissions, tweeting @canonind, and sharing her latest work and interests here.
