Social Media and the Olympics

Olympics, being one of the world's biggest sporting events, is a natural fit for social media. The Olympics are already a media circus, and social media adds several extra dimensions for this. First, social media is a low cost form of media, but one where there is potential for vast reach. It is popular with consumers, and the accounts of both media and athletes attract a large number of followers.

With each successive Olympics since the advent of social media, the use of social media has grown larger and more significant. In Sochi, social media reached a new apex, in part because of a high level of athlete participation, and in part because of the strength of social media networks in other countries -- both Russia and China have their own social networks that are arguably stronger than American ones (Laird, 2014). The way that Olympics unfold is naturally built for social media.

There is a lot going on at once in an Olympic games -- numerous events appealing to numerous audiences. Television newscasts of the Games in most countries feature live event coverage, where the director jumps from one event to another in a rapid fire manner. Social media enable that level of coverage to a much higher degree, where content and audiences are specialized rather than generalized. But even mainstream media has the ability to leverage social media, and they do.

It is a low cost form of reaching the audience, and can allow media outlets to post news reports are photos with even greater speed and volume than they are otherwise capable of doing through their conventional channels. The use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in particular enable this function. For Games' organizers, or media, social media has become an important part of coverage and promotion of the Games. Yet, the relatively unfettered nature of social media poses risks and problems for both media and organizers.

Social media content comes from all over -- the media might use social media but by no means do they control it. This creates risk. The transformation over the four years between Vancouver and Sochi saw a proliferation of mobile devices and uses, such that the audience was effectively becoming reporters (Jessop, 2014). The fact that consumers were becoming reporters has implications for the value of media licenses for the Olympics.

This is occurring, it should be noted in major media markets, which either implies that there is a threat posed by citizen reporting or there is an opportunity for mainstream media outlets to form a symbiotic relationship with the citizen reporters (Butler, 2014). The media has utilized social media to this point not in that way, but as an extension of their promotional arm. Media reaches consumers via social media, and promotes their coverage, where the advertisers are.

The media has not explored nearly as much the merits of citizen reporting, though sometimes social posts will be aired. The reality is that media outlets spend a lot of money on their Olympic coverage, and as a result they are oriented towards monetizing the Games. Social media, to this point, provides only limited opportunities to do that. A network's Instagram page can deliver content, but they are not as well set up to deliver ad revenue to the network, at least not to the extent that traditional television does.

This is the next step for media usage of social media during the Olympics -- monetization. The usage is there. The consumers are fully wired into social media, but they are not able to supersede conventional media in terms of coverage. But where.