95% Of Social Media Users Watched The Olympics

Sites include Facebook.com , Twitter.com . Published on August 23rd, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

The Olympics is the largest sporting event to grace the world’s stage every four years and since the emergence of the internet and social media, the games have taken on a more global meaning.

A recent survey tried to find out how engaged today’s social media users are with the Olympics. Turns out 95% of social media users have watched the Olympics at some point in their lives. Now bear in mind the greatest pool of social media users are young people so this ‘life span’ that we are talking about here is no greater than say 4 Olympics, if that.

Engagement for the games being staged in London this summer turned out to be pretty high with 93% of social media users watching it on one platform or the other. But some social media users were rather clueless about the Olympics.

Only 34% correctly stated that the word Olympiad means ‘4 year period’. Only 56% guess that orange was not one of the official colors of the Olympic rings. Most knew however who Michael Phelps is and what sporting event he participates in. The Olympics was also more of a preferred watch over the Presidential debates—something which isn’t surprising.

At the end of this Olympiad, social media would have played an even greater role in keeping the momentum and the spirit of the games at sustainable levels. Facebook and Twitter especially have helped the online conversation to stay at a fever pitches and London should be grateful.