The Olympics is the most diverse of all sporting events with over 10,500 athletes competing in 301 events across 33 different sports. Some of these Olympians are giving big brands a run for their money when it comes to Facebook fan engagement.

For instance Usain Bolt currently has 7.3 million fans, with this figure set to rise when he hits the track again later this week. However, this is dwarfed by non competing athlete David Beckham’s 20million fans. Read More »

Some interesting examples here of how both sides are using social media in the battle for Syria.

Particularly striking is how Instagram is being used the the opposition to document the fighting.

In the previous Arab Spring uprisings  in Egypt and Libya we saw much less of that and more of  Twitter and Facebook — particularly in the former. Read More »

Usain Bolt’s victory in Sunday night’s 100 meter final saw twitter reaction peak 33 seconds after his lightening 9.63 second Olympic victory with 2,360 tweets per second.

Tweets per minute peaked at 105,000 – four times the peak level witnessed during the opening ceremony according to Starcom MediaVest Group’s analysis using EchoScreen. Read More »

Google+ is like a remote tropical island. Glorious white sand, perfect clear waves lapping against the shore… and yet, to ships sailing by, seemingly deserted. While I probably wouldn’t include myself in the tribes of natives that seem to have really embedded themselves at home on the platform, I do feel it’s a tool with some smart design behind it — and an initiative that’s working really hard to create a meaningful role in people’s everyday lives.

But while I’m a firm believer that the success of Google+ (neé Emerald Sea) is about more than just creating a Facebook-like newsstream product, I do believe there’s a factor here shackling the potential growth of this feature. And it’s the factor that causes G+ to be an almost literally separated and isolated entity. Read More »

One of Twitter’s most talked about and followed MP’s Louise Mensch, the Conservative member for Corby and East Northamptonshire, has suddenly resigned this morning.

The Northamptonshire Telegraph broke the story earlier this morning.

The MP, who was only elected in in 2010,  is stepping down from her role as she said she found it increasingly difficult to juggle family responsibilities with her political career. Read More »

While we’re still looking at the figures for “Super Saturday’ gold medal bonanza we have been looking at Gold Rush Wednesday”;  “Wiggold”; and “Golden Girls” were just some of the headlines that adorned Thursday’s papers as Team GB, led by Helen Glover, Heather Stanning and Bradley Wiggins, secured its first gold medals of the Olympic Games. However, in the wake of this being the first “Social Olympics”, who were the big winners of the last couple of days on social media, both in Team GB and beyond?

Naturally, Bradley Wiggins was one of the big winners of Wednesday (and, of course, the year), but not just in the men’s time trial. This week alone, he has seen his Facebook fan Likes increase by 38 percent to over 50,000 likes, whilst his Twitter followers have soared by 43 percent to more than 425,000 (at 5pm on Thursday). Read More »