Social Media in Sports

Everybody is talking about sports; Olympics,cricket matches,PGA Tour,its all happening right now. Leading national dailies that would have four pages dedicated to sports today have seven or eight of them. Sports is a conversation starter, a trigger for heated arguments and also a test for awareness in the present day scenario.

That takes me to the question,where are these conversation really happening ? They are happening on the phone, in the metro,in buses,in office... and just about everywhere you could think of.However,the most popular platform for these conversations is the internet.The increasing popularity of social media has opened up a completely new dimension to conversation around sports.

London 2012 :The most social sporting event ever

The social media madness can be judged by the  9.66 million tweets were sent out during the opening ceremony of the Olympics 2012.The London 2012 Facebook and Twitter accounts boast of over 1.2 million likes and over 13 lakh followers each.Its only for reasons such as these that have made London 2012 being refered to as 'the most social sporting event ever.'While a lot of the social media success of the games is organic,initiatives of the International Olympics Committee such as the players hub cannot be ignored.

The 5 W's and 1 H of why London 2012 was a social success

When I asked a bunch of social media enthusiasts on what makes them 'like' a Facebook page or 'follow' a certain twitter handle,the answers were quite similar to the constituents of this years Olympic games.Its exciting,larger than life,full of big names and interesting stories that anyone would spare lives precious moments to listen and acknowledge. 

Voula:Banned for a 'social media offence'

Talking of stories, Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou was the first athlete to be banned from the games on account of 'social media offense.' There is also a story of countless Indians who have been held captive in their offices while their favorite sport is being broadcasted. Fans or sport enthusiasts like most of us use social media platforms to stay updated with latest results and expert predictions around the games.Other stakeholders including the marketers, organizing committee and the athletes themselves have felt the impact of social media to a great extent.

Impact of social media on the stakeholders of sports

What will be really interesting to see is what other sporting bodies do to create conversations in the social media space and what is the impact this would have on the future of sporting events globally.