Thumbs are furiously slapping mini-keyboards and tiny screens as Olympic fans turn social media into an unofficial sport.
The Games have become a hub of social media, with thousands of tweets being blasted out every hour.
Raul Pacheco-Vega, who blogs at www.hummingbird604.com, has seen a spike in his Twitter followers and blog visits.
“It’s just a matter of getting the right content to people,” he said. “Not to promote, but to say, these are the things that I’ve done during the Olympics and these are worth checking out.
“Content will always be king in social media.”
Even social media maven Rebecca Bollwitt, aka Miss604, is finding new people to follow on social media sites such as Twitter, Flickr and Facebook.
“Everyone wants to share their story of the Games,” she said. “I’m noticing on my Flickr group, people who I’ve never heard of before or seen in the social media scene are adding photos.
“It’s not just bloggers and podcasters in the city. It’s everyday [people] who are documenting the Games and sharing that online.”
Pacheco-Vega predicts the trend will continue after the Games are gone.
“People are going to ask what is the legacy of the Olympics and a lot of people are going to turn to Flickr for photos and YouTube for videos,” he said. “I think this will provide the raw data to account for the Games.”
Sidebar
Top 5 athletes to follow
1. Ryan Blais: @airblais
Ryan has been my favorite athlete to follow since the start of the games. He is constantly posting pictures of Olympic events, medal cermonies and the streets of Vancouver. This is one athlete that is truly providing a first hand snap shot of the Olympic experience!
2. Lindsey Vonn: @lindseyvonn
The highly touted American down hill skier is supposed to be the Michael Phelps of the winter Olympics. However a week before the games she revealed she had suffered a serious shin bruise that might prevent her from participating. She was able to overcome the injury to win gold in her first event. Was the injury a PR move? As one friend said athletes usually play down injuries not sell them. Either way it’s interesting to follow her and see how this plays out.
3. Julia Mancuso: @Juliamancuso
The lesser known team mate of Lindsey Vonn, Julia is 2 for 2 with two Silver medals in her first two events. Her tweets are frequent and fun…making her enjoyable to follow.
4. Kikkan Randall: @kikkanimal
Kikkan is a US cross country skier who tweets about race prep and life in the Olympic village, i.e. “kitchen staff went crazy when Crosby scored shootout goal for Canada”
5. Hayley Wickenheiser: @wick_22
Hayley is the highest scoring female hockey player in Olympic history. She provides great insight to Team Canada, the womens tournament and what its like playing in front of the home town crowd
