On November 3, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) launched a new Olympic Athletes’ Hub app in order to connect fans with Olympic athletes like never before. With a searchable directory of all athletes and their various social network feeds, fans can find their favorite stars on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Another unique feature within the app is the ability for verified athletes to text each other or the IOC from within the framework of the app.
More than 5,000 verified Olympians have already signed up for the Hub app, and it’s likely that number will grow as we get closer to Sochi 2014. Each day, the app will showcase a special section of content that is the best of the day.
Using a social rewards program, users of the app can “unlock” secret training tips from famous Olympians of yesteryear. Joannie Rochette (figure skating, CAN), Steve Messler (bobsleigh, USA), Mark Spitz (swimming, USA) and Stéphane Lambiel (figure skating, SUI) are a few of the famous athletes’ tips that are featured. Users unlock these tips by “liking” things on Facebook or following various athletes on Twitter. Prizes are awarded in a Gold, Silver, and Bronze podium to keep the Olympic message consistent.
The app will also help facilitate live chats with athletes in the Sochi Olympic village. After seeing success with the launch of live-athlete chats in London, the app will make it simple for fans to ask questions and interact with the athletes.
With all that said, here are the top three features from within the app:
1. Easily Follow Your Favorite Athlete
The Olympics are such a unique sporting event compared to other competitions that take place in a variety of ways. First, it is one of the biggest unifying experiences in sport today. People get behind their counrtry’s respective athletes like never before, and this app allows users a very easy way to see behind-the-scenes glimpses from those athletes.
Consider this screenshot from Lindsey Vonn’s page. It aggregates all of Vonn’s content from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram into one easy place. Vonn’s fans can see how she is preparing for the skiing events and easily Tweet, Like, or Comment for any of the social networks.
2. Social Rewards Encourages Interaction
The social rewards section of the app is the most unique part of the whole experience. It is also a great strategy by the app developers to drive social traffic to various Olympic-related social media accounts. Users of the app get rewarded by unlocking secret tips from great Olympians in the past based on the number of times they share and like things within the app. The key here is to make the unlock-able content compelling enough to make users feel like it is worth sharing everything. The beauty of the Olympics is the passion that exists within fans for support their country. Therefore, it is likely that this social rewards program will gain a decent amount of traction and help drive traffic to the various profiles of Olympians and the social media accounts of National teams.
3. Searchable Feeds for Athletes, Teams, Sports, and Games
The app has five different search options within its main tab. Users can organize social content from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram based on:
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Team (USA France, etc.)
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Athlete (any athlete name)
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Sport (Skiing, Curling, etc.)
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Games (London, Athens, etc.)
This search function allows users of the app to cut through the clutter that often exists in the social media world by ensuring the only content they see is from verified Olympic athletes. When doing a normal search on a social network for content related to the daily lives of Olympic athletes, there can be a lot of distracting noise that takes away from the most important information.
In summary, the Olympic Athletes’ Hub was a great idea by the International Olympic Committee in order to better connect the athletes of the 2014 Sochi Games with fans all over the world. Behind-the-scenes content is what people love, and this provides that type of view into the world of more than 5,000 Olympians.