Social Media and Mobile Marketing Lessons from the Olympics

What your business can leverage from the Olympics?

It’s been a few days since the 30th Olympiad had a fantastic closing ceremony in London. It was exciting to see the Fierce Five, Gabby Douglas, Michael Phelps, Misty May Treanor, Kerri Lee Walsh and many others win gold medals and accomplish new records. While many of the athletes are starting new chapters, there are many lessons and takeaways that made these Olympics games different from any other. One of the biggest differences at these games was the engagement of fans using social media. When the last Olympics were held, Facebook and Twitter were fairly new. Today there are over 900 million Facebook and 500 million Twitter active users. Over fifty percent of those on Facebook are global users.

Social Media and Mobile Marketing gets a Gold Medal for Engagement

There were many social media and mobile marketing lessons that I’ve seen during the Olympics, here are a few standouts:

• Leverage Hashtags– I sent several tweets during the games to congratulate the winners using the hashtag #olympics. Twitter had more than 150 million tweets sent during the 2 weeks of the games. They featured several commercials highlighting key events that were very effective to drive engagement online. Businesses can use hashtags during conferences, webinars and other events to bring more awareness and encourage engagement among attendees and their followers.
• Status Updates – If you were sharing updates on Twitter and Facebook, consider integrating both applications. Since posting manually on Facebook and including a photo gives you more credibility in the rankings on your fans news feed this can save you time by posting on Facebook and the status will also appear in Twitter. To integrate, go to your Facebook page and click the Edit Page button. Then select the Resources options from the left hand menu and choose Link your Page to Twitter. Follow the rest of the prompts and you’ll be all set.
• Mobile Apps and Usage –The BBC had reported 12 million viewers watched the Olympics via mobile phones and tablets. Also the Gartner Group predicts that in 2013 the number one way people will access the Internet is through a mobile device. With the large audience activity, it’s no surprise that companies were utilizing mobile marketing, including Coca-Cola which introduced the Move to the Beat app that let users remix the Olympics song ‘Anywhere in the World’ and used rhythms from athletes. If you’re looking to create an app for your business two plug and play options include Mobile Roadie which you can create apps for smartphones and tablets or for no coding required and to build your app for free AppMakr is another good choice.

While we have to wait until 2014 for the next Olympics, many of the social media and mobile marketing lessons from the London Olympics can be leveraged today. What other social media and mobile marketing lessons have you’ve seen from the Olympics?

Cynthia Gedemer is a Digital Marketing Strategist and Business Coach with over 15 years of experience in growing revenue with innovative marketing programs for Financial Services, Insurance, Retail, Telecommunications, and Healthcare industries.