Rio 2016 Goes Social

Snapchat was the first non-NBC platform to ink a deal to share the network’s Olympics coverage, and now NBC has gone two steps further in its social sharing campaign.  Just last week, NBC announced that it will be sharing video and photo content with Facebook and Instagram.

For a Summer Games that has been plagued by problems and bad press, this is an unprecedented move by the U.S. network to “‘engage with new audiences around the spectacle and pageantry that occurs when the world comes together for the Games in Rio,’” according to an article on AdWeek.  For a network that has been notoriously proprietary about its content, publishing on social platforms is a big step in reaching that wider audience.

The Younger Cohort

Marketing is now a key vertical for sports, and social media is a huge part of that.   The Portland Timbers have been leading the way in professional sports marketing for years, and NFL teams now have chief technology officers, and MLB teams even have Match.com pages..  The reason?  Younger fans.

According to this resource from the University of Southern California’s Online Applied Psychology program, social media usage is highest among Millennials.  There are also more Millennials in America than Generation X or Baby Boomers.  It behooves any organization involved in sports to market via social media.  NBC’s Olympics coverage is no different.

The network is going so far as to partner with social media influencers in order to draw in Millennial viewers.  A relatively new phenomenon, social media influencers carry a lot of weight with Millennials, who identify more with individuals like them than they do with traditional brands or teams.  These influencers are tasked with making social connections between young audiences and Olympic athletes.

The Athletes Themselves

Those Olympic athletes, many of whom are Millennials themselves, or even younger, are also being tapped directly for NBC’s social media efforts.  NBC’s Olympics Facebook page links directly to many U.S. athletes, including newly crowned flagbearer Michael Phelps.  Phelps and other athletes partnering with NBC’s social efforts have linked their own pages and accounts directly to the network’s.

Phelps and his fellow athletes are social media influencers in their own right.  Phelps’s Facebook page is followed by nearly eight million other users.  The NBC Olympics page has yet to break two million followers.  Athletes like Phelps bring fresh eyes to NBC’s social coverage, which is being created to attract viewers who are not traditional TV watchers.

Millennials spend the least amount of daily time watching TV.  Because of this, they are changing the way everyone watches sports.  The more both athletes and networks like NBC can leverage social media to engage younger fans, the better for both athletes and the sports they play.

Today’s athletes are both synonymous with their sports and separate from them.  LeBron James is a perfect example of this effect.  His star power alone pays dividends for his team.  This only increases the visibility of his sport to younger viewers.

For a traditional TV network such as NBC to offer social media content, including video, is a huge step for sports.  Add in the influence of social media stars and athletes, and NBC will have made this year’s Olympics coverage its most comprehensive yet.