Social media is a great way of communicating to large groups and varieties of people as well as spreading information. An excellent example of how social media is utilized in such ways is the Olympics. Throughout the 2014 Winter Olympics social media used multiple platforms to advertise and keep people updated on the Olympics. YouTube, Twitter and Facebook were some of the more popular ways that people followed the Winter Games. YouTube is full of videos with broadcasts, specific clips, and slide shows/pictures from the Olympics. These videos make it possible to see things that could have been missed and provide general overviews. Twitter also has various accounts that keep people updated as well as promote the players and the games. By following the Olympics on twitter that person is constantly aware of what is happening just by checking his/her news feed. Facebook has an entire page (and several other) dedicated to the Olympics where specific information about the Olympics is included. Information such as the dates of the Olympics, what rank a county is and so on can be found on this page. The goal of those who run these platforms is to get as many people involved in watching and following the Olympics as possible. They want to spread awareness and popularity of the Olympics. They also promote the athletes involved and attempt to create fans. The most important aspect of these social media platforms is how easy they make it for people to have access. There are an extremely high number of social media users. Events such as the Olympics are able to advertise so well through social media because it is simple to reach them. Most people do not want to go through a difficult process in order to keep up with the Olympics. I believe that social media is a big part of the Olympics. It is difficult to keep track of things with how busy we become but social media keeps it easy and is so popular it almost forces us be aware. Would the Olympics be as popular/well known if it wasn’t for social media?
