In a blog post I wrote recently, I discussed the role of smartphones in this year's Olympics. Smartphones have grown 456% in the last four years. When Safecount surveyed panelists (US internet users 18-44), 74% of smartphone owners say they actively participate in social media on their phones. 34% say they will follow Olympics coverage on Facebook and 17% will follow on Twitter. I find these numbers amazing since the last summer Olympics probably had far less activity on social platforms. I wonder if viewers will be following specific fan pages on Facebook, specific athletes pages, or just simply interacting with friends about the Olympics. Michael Phelps has close to 5.5 million likes. The US Olympic Team page itself has about half that at 2.2 million likes.
Regardless of how Olympic fans will be interacting with content on Facebook and Twitter, they will certainly be multi-tasking. While watching coverage on TV, 43% say they are also likely to follow coverage on Facebook at the same time (18% on Twitter).
