This infographic is the last one in a series on the Social Olympics, looking at the volume of social media mentions of the top four sponsors and efforts they have used to generate the excitement around their brands.  We have put it together using the latest data from Gorkana Radar, our social media monitoring and analysis tool.

Was the #StageTaken by Adidas? Join the discussion on #gorkanasocialympics to let us know.

If you want more information on Gorkana Radar contact us online.

This infographic is the third in a series on the Social Olympics, looking at how the incredible efforts of the Olympic athletes helped sponsors to increase their UK social media buzz. We have put it together using the latest data from Gorkana Radar, our real-time social media monitoring and analysis tool.

Join the discussion on #gorkanasocialympics to let us know which hashtag campaign in your opinion deserves the Social Olympic Glory.

If you want more information on Gorkana Radar contact us online.

With the Olympics in full flow, which sponsors deserve a gold medal when it comes to social media coverage and who is joining forces for better results? Gorkana Group is tracking the Social Olympics risers here.

This infographic is the second in a series on the Social Olympics, looking at how effectively sponsors are utilising UK social media buzz around the Games. We have put it together using the latest data from Gorkana Radar, our real-time social media monitoring and analysis tool.

Join the discussion on #gorkanasocialympics to let us know which themes and topics you want us to explore deeper.

If you want more information on Metrica Radar contact us online.

For the Olympics sponsors, the Games will be their biggest test yet of whether they can ride the massive wave of social chatter around the event without getting lost.

Of course, around half of the 55 sponsors have chosen not to really bother with social media and it seems unlikely that will change now.

Sponsors including British Airways, McDonald’s, Adidas, Coca Cola, Samsung and BT have been among the most successful in grabbing attention on social, be it through concerted social campaigns or just general buzz.

As we enter the Games themselves, it will be interesting to see is if these or any other sponsors will be daring enough to launch any new campaigns during the Olympics or will simply attempt to maintain their current social presence with the onslaught of wall-to-wall Olympic coverage.

The Twitter Olympics

London 2012 has been rightly dubbed the first Social Olympics, but it could, by rights, be simply called the Twitter Olympics.

Twitter has dominated all other social media platforms as the Olympic channel. Metrica Radar shows that, over just the last couple of months, tweets have accounted for more than double the number of mentions about the Olympics or the Games’ sponsors than all the other social media channels combined.

Exploiting the potential of such a powerful channel clearly has to play a cornerstone part of any sponsors’ (or non-sponsors) strategy and, with it, the hashtag.

#AGoodHashtagIsHardToFind

A good hashtag is difficult to create, but it must ultimately catch people’s imagination, be memorable and simple. The hardest step to achieve, and one sponsors cannot control, is seeing a hashtag become one that people seek to use of their own volition and not simply as part of a retweet.

Among the Olympics sponsors, there have been some prominent hastag campaigns: British Airways’ #HomeAdvantage, P&G’s #ThankYouMum, Adidas’ #TakeTheStage, Coca Cola’s #MovetotheBeat and Cadbury’s #Cadbury2012.

Of these particular hashtags, the clear winner is Adidas’ #TakeTheStage, followed by British Airways’ #HomeAdvantage, with both managing to find the tipping point where they have been taken up by tweeters of their own accord.

Part of this can be explained by the fact that Adidas has been running the TakeTheStage hashtag for quite a while across multiple events, not just the Olympics, so allowing time for it to gain traction. BritishAirways, by comparison, has successfully tapped into the UK’s national pride.

Yet, both appeal to the sense of occasion that comes with the Olympics, perhaps explaining more than anything else why they have proved successful for the sponsors. Whether this is sustained during the Games themselves, only time will tell.

#Olympics

Two hashtags that are likely to trample all others in their path are #Olympics and #London2012. Olympics chatter is naturally soaring (it’s a tweetball people!), so much so, that Twitter appeared to collapse under the pressure of Olympic mentions last night*, with the site down for almost an hour. Not even its Fail Whale page was able to muster up an appearance.

Perhaps it was fortunate it happened the day before the opening ceremony, because, with Twitter such a vital platform for the Games, no one wants such a collapse to happen during, say, the men’s 100m final.

Regardless, the next two weeks will be a site to behold for everyone.

All that’s left to say from me is: Go #TeamGB #OurGreatestTeam!

*This is not actually true according to Twitter, but a funny coincidence that I’m helping to erroneously associate with the Olympics.

With the 2012 Olympics just a week away, things are hotting up for the official Games sponsors in the social space, but which sponsors are using social media best and what stories are driving social media chatter in the UK? Gorkana Group is tracking the winners and losers in the share-of-voice race here.

This #Infographic is just one in a series on the Social Olympics, looking at how sponsors are faring across UK coverage. We have put it together using the latest data from Gorkana Radar, our real-time social media monitoring and analysis tool.

Let us know which themes and topics you’d be interested in us delving deeper and mining all that social media data!

If you want more information on Metrica Radar contact us online.