From TV to Twitter: London Olympics Go Social

The 2012 Olympic games in London will be competitive and aggressive, but more also a time for athletes and fans to watch and celebrate. This year, social media will play a more important role in connecting people to the games than ever before.

With the games now underway, we have started to see how Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites will help to keep fans connected. Social media will also give the athletes competing to tell their story through status updates, picture uploads, and tweets.

This year, the International Olympic Committee has teamed up with Facebook to create The Olympic Athletes’ Hub (hub.olympic.org), a website dedicated to keeping fans updated on current happenings in London. The site will help to connect the average person on social media with their favorite athletes in England. You have the option of finding people by their names, sport, team, or event

Twitter is playing one of the biggest roles in updating information by the second. The five-hour time difference between Pennsylvania and London sometimes takes the fun out of watching for some people. Fans and athletes in London sometimes spoil the results and surprises that we have not had the chance to watch. This happened for the opening ceremony last night, when pictures surfaced on Twitter hours before the 7:30 p.m. start time.

Instagram is helping to put an image to everything happening at the games. The popular picture-taking and sharing application, available for Apple and Android users, is a great way to see all of the photography people are sharing on social media. The pictures, whether it is an athlete on their downtime or a behind-the-scenes snapshot, help to bring a sense of closeness for fans far and wide

Even the traditional way of watching the Olympics on TV is changing. NBC, the television host of the Olympics, will be broadcasting over 5,000 hours of the Olympics across all of their platforms. Events can be seen on NBC, of course, but also on MSNBC, CNBC, NBC Sports Network, and Bravo. NBC also has two specialty channels, one for basketball and one for soccer, that are available to cable and satellite subscribers.

One new feature to the Olympics this time around is the online streaming. NBColympics.com will be streaming every event live through the end of the games on Aug. 12. All you need to do is connect with your local cable provider and you’re in

You also have the option to download the NBC Olympic application on your mobile phone or tablet device and watching the games live there as well. On the website and also on the application, you can set up email alerts for the events that you don’t want to miss.

Here are some official Twitter accounts to follow for up-to-the-minute information:

@Olympics

@USOlympic

@London2012

@NBCSportsNetwork

@NBCOlympics