It is quite obvious that
Corporate has an opinion on how and when members of an organization react
during a big event. During the London 2012 Olympic Games Twitter, Face book personal
blogs and other Social Media, are becoming a more important part of the
promotion of the individual sport performer. The International Olympic Comities
are trying to form rules of engagement for the individual performer to make
sure that corporate (The Olympic concept) will be respected.
But can you
make rules from Top management (IOC) and is it the proper way to control or try
to control social media?
"The International
Olympic Comity (IOC) objective is to secure that each of the athletes treat each other
respectfully and live up to the Olympic ideals perceived as restrictive."
In my opinion there is no
problem in advising your employees or Athletes in how corporate want to be
presented in the public room. If you are
part of a corporation or an athlete in the Olympic Games you have to apply to
the rules as long as these rules do not limit the individual’s freedom of
speech and expression. The rules made by
IOC do not in my opinion limit the athlete’s right to express them self. All
athletes are encouraged to use Social Media to tell their fanes about
themselves and how they progress in the games. The
rules/objective made by IOC; is do not use Social Media to express your feelings about
other athletes and do not report directly from the competitions.
These simple rules will
not destroy the power of Social Media but just prevent the media to be abused
in the way to create hate towards officials and competitors. The idea with
Social media is not to use it as a smearing media not in the Olympics nor in
corporate context. When a corporation or
and individual uses social media it is important to take into consideration
that you have the proper content in the right context. Social Media is about
creating communication and interaction among the creator of an activity and the
fans you have as an athlete. So every initiative you as an athlete or an
employee create should, at a minimum, track three key social metrics:
- Activity is the amount of outbound activity you as an athlete or your company brand share, publish and communicate with online users.
- Reach serves as the measure of how large a community you as an athlete or an employee are reaching through your social media activity
- Engagement represents the overall interactions you as an athlete or an employee are experiencing in social channels.
If the athletes in the
2012 London Olympic Games look upon the IOC Social Media engagement rules it
should be easy to aligned their own Social initiatives with the IOC objectives -
that each of
the athletes treat each other respectfully and live up to the Olympic ideals
perceived – and herby secure that the athletes do not have any
limitations in their ability to express themselves freely.
