Let the games begin!

This is going to be, without a doubt, THE most social Olympic games to date! There are a number of social media platforms that have evolved since the previous Olympics, making it easier to follow your favourite athletes, sports, and commentary.

We have come across many helpful tools to aid in staying connected through this years Olympic Games. It is going to be almost impossible to not find information about the games.

Let’s take a look at some of the best apps and interactive websites where you can connect to other fans as well as keep up to date with event times and venues.

 The Olympic Athletes Hub

The Olympic Athletes Hub connects your Facebook and Twitter accounts to this hub where Olympic athletes also contribute. You can only connect with athletes who have social media accounts themselves however it is still a great function for you to take a peek at…besides, who doesn’t have a Twitter or Facebook account these days?

Facebook

Facebook of course, has its own portal that includes timeline profiles of some of the biggest names in the games. You can find specific athletes, teams, and sports. It even includes a section on where to watch coverage and gives credit to the sponsors of the games.

VisitBritain

This national tourism agency has decided to display the flow of conversations on various social networks by using a social media monitoring initiative tool from Visible Technologies

 YouTube

The Official Olympic Channel contains playlists from previous Olympic years as well as featuring some of the current Olympic moments you may have missed or just want to replay.

 NBC 

NBC has always aired the Olympic Games on their network, but this year they have joined with Facebook to facilitate the travel of information to their interested fans. NBC and Facebook will even be airing some of your comments on television. There’s even an NBC Olympics Facebook App that you can obtain for your account.

If you prefer Twitter to Facebook, NBC has created the NBC Olympics Twitter Tracker. This allows you to track “the real-time Olympic pulse through Twitter.”

Who to follow?

As if these aren’t enough interactive platforms for you to be well connected, become a fan of the Olympic Games Facebook page and @Olympics on Twitter. If you are searching for some interesting athletes to follow check out Business Insider’s 25 recommended follows article.

If you are a mobile person and want these very same updates direct to your handheld device, here are some smartphone apps to help you stay in the know. For detailed descriptions of the functionalities of each app, take a look at the article, “London 2012 Olympics – The essential apps”

1.     London 2012: Official Join In App for the Olympic and Paralympic

Games

Users can get live updates with news, photos and commentary from the games. They can plan best routes to competition venues. Filter and search tools will prove useful to find out what’s happening nearby

 2.     London 2012: Official Results App for the Olympic and Paralympic Games

The Official Results London 2012 app features live updates, results, calendar schedules, details of all 36 sports and more covered during the Games

 3.     Reuters Olympics London 2012

This app archives of some of the best Olympics pictures taken by Reuters’ photographers

 4.     PlayUp

PlayUp promises live action for 17 days across 26 sports, 39 disciplines, 302 medal events at your fingertips

5.     Olympic 2012

This Windows Phone app lists a full schedule of the event by venue, sport and date. Users can access country specific details, medal tallies and the latest news. Latest News can be further refined country, sport and athlete wise

6.     BBC Sport Olympics App

The app will provide up to 24 streams of live coverage, schedules and results section and daily news snippets. In addition, the app will feature full live streaming, catch-up coverage and highlights, and facts, statistics and information for every athlete, country and sport.

Furthermore, there are a few great infographics that are interesting to look at comparing a number of factors. For example, you can see Which Olympic Event is Winning on Social Media all the way to Which Olympic Sponsors Are The Most Talked About On Twitter.

There’s a plethora of platforms you can utilise to optimise how you stay up to date with the latest events. With all these resources, there’s no way to fall behind. We would love to hear from you on Twitter or Facebook about what apps and platforms work best for you and which ones you find interesting!