The Gold Goes To…NBC
The event we’ve longingly waited four whole years for is upon us, the Winter Olympic Games. Taking place in the midst of the social media craze, the 21st Winter Olympiad had little choice but to embrace the trend. Social media offers the games a bevy of opportunities to penetrate our lives through various mediums. This prospect of opportunity was something the television networks could not afford to ignore.
NBC Universal has really taken the opportunity to extend the games into social media and run with it.
Just prior to the opening ceremony, NBC, in partnership with Apple, released the “NBC Olympics Mobile App”. This application can be downloaded to any iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch and allows subscribers to view updated medal tallies, results and even video highlights from the events one may have missed on TV. With the games being held on the West Coast, much of the Olympic activity occurs during odd hours for East Coast sports fans. Lots of events fall during the workday or take place late at night, when many people aren’t able to tune into the television broadcasts. Having results and video updates sent directly to your mobile phone makes up for what is missed on TV, and also allows NBC to make events that they did not air available to would-be viewers.
Host country, Canada, has joined the social media frenzy as well. In a similar fashion to NBC, CTV, the Canadian Television Network is offering live streams of Olympic game coverage on its website.
For an event of this magnitude, NBC could not ignore the possible benefits of utilizing Twitter and Facebook to connect with fans. On nbcolympics.com, a page has been designated for “Olympic tweets”. This page includes a continuous list of tweets made by USA Olympic athletes, keeping fans up-to-date on their experiences throughout the games.
Fans are also encouraged to voice their opinions online on NBC’s “Get in the Games” page. “Get in the Games” is a segment of NBC’s website that serves as a forum for fan blog posts and mediated discussion regarding the Vancouver games. This is a great addition to the involvement of social media in the Olympic games. Although being given the ability to read about the athletes’ experiences through their personal Twitter account and blogs is great, fans want to have their voices heard as well. These social media sites serve as an excellent forum for people from all over to connect and share their thoughts and opinions about everything dealing with the Olympic games.
Now, more than ever, fans are able to constantly remain in the loop regarding Olympic activity. Social media has proven to be an invaluable compliment to the NBC television network. Television, itself, is incapable of showing every event but with the advent of social media updates, fans are more aware of happenings at the winter games than ever before. Not only that, but social media has also helped the fans feel more connected to the 21st Winter Olympiad than any other games that have preceded it.
That’s really interesting. Just the other day, I was grocery shopping with a friend, wondering how the scores turned out for a particular event. I don’t know if it was through this app, but she pulled out her iPhone and quickly found the results with highlight videos. Within another ten seconds, she had posted a tweet about it. It’s just really incredible to me that just two Olympics ago, the majority of us were taping events or making sure we were near a TV to watch, then simply talking to others in the room about the games, or using scores as conversation topics at school and work the next day. Now, even in the middle of Food Lion, it is incredibly simple to not only see the sports and get updates, but to share with friends as well.
Wow there really is an app for everything!!! It is extremely convenient for Winter Olympics fans to be able to receive updates so in case they don’t have time to watch the results will come to them instead. Even CTV can receive more viewers by keeping olympic updates on their website. The fact that nbcolympics.com is using Twitter for athletes to use to share their daily experiences really provides a better connection between those athletes and other Twitter users. It is also great that NBC has a forum on the website for fan blog posts and mediated discussion so that fans can talk to each other about the olympics.
I think that NBC as well as Apple is doing a great job at using social media as a way to enhance the convenience factor to their consumers’ lives. The application that Apple added is perfect for people who are on the go and don not have time to watch the olympics as well as people who just want to keep up to date with every little detail that is happening. The NBC Olympic webpage is doing an outstanding job at keeping the viewers connected with the athletes as well as with Winter Olympics as a whole. For an avid fan, a fellow athlete, or even an Olympic hopefull, there is nothing like following the Olympic athletes on Twitter. It gives a feeling of connectedness and in turn adds value to the Olympic games.
It seems like NBC took all the necessary steps to get fans involved in the social media aspect of the Olympic games. The Iphone application was a great idea. Apple users could view so much of the games just through using their phone. Apple has an application for almost everything, so it is no surprise that they would have one for the Olympics. The application is also very convenient. As seen in the video you can narrow your search and search for specific events, athletes and results. The Get in the Games forum was also a great idea. This social media technology allows for feedback from fans! This along with Facebook and Twitter greatly enhanced conversation about the much anticipated games!