Come the end of this month, the Olympics will be played out for all to see on NBC, but social-savvy fans and sponsors are set to connect with audiences on various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (Not to mention, NBCOlympics.com will live stream every single event and the network will provide two different apps for mobile devices.) With nearly everyone toting a smartphone, the main sporting event will spark record-level engagement on popular social networking sites; it’s not a conversation everyone had access to during previous Olympic games. Web access has increased greatly since the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China. According to the International Telecommunications Union, there were approximately 1.5 billion Internet users worldwide (23% of the world’s total population). By July 27, that number will jump to about 2.3 billion users—an average of 33% of the total population. With the games fast approaching, Mashable outlined how the popular networks stack up today:
