The 2012 Olympics are being touted by many as the ‘socialympics’, with organizers expecting the upcoming Games to be the most tweeted, liked and tagged sports event in history.

Networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will play an unprecedented role in how information is disseminated from London, driving the global sports conversation and offering fans a never before seen insider’s view of what many are calling the Social Media Olympics.

Unparalleled Access

Mobile phones have become smarter, laptops lighter and tablet devices much more common – meaning that many fans, whether watching on television or inside the Olympic stadium itself, will almost constantly be online.

“In Sydney (2000) there was hardly any fast internet, in Athens (2004) there were hardly any smartphones, in Beijing hardly anyone had social networks,” said Jackie-Brock Doyle, communications director of London organising committee LOCOG. “That's all changed. Here, everyone has all that and will be consuming the games in a different way.”

The 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver offered a small glimpse of what’s to come. “Vancouver was just the first snowflake,” said Alex Hout, the IOC’s head of social media. “This is going to be a big snowball.”

Athletes’ Hub

The IOC has created an online portal, called The Olympic Athletes’ Hub, which will collate posts from their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

With already 760,000 Twitter followers and 2.9million fans on Facebook, the IOC will host live chats from inside the Olympic village with athletes, allowing the public to ask questions using social media accounts.

LOCOG’s Alex Balfour told the BBC there is a perfect storm of technology that allows a rich experience for fans around the world. “We want to make sure our Games is available to that new audience of digital consumers.”

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Foursquare, Tumblr and Instagram all have official Olympic pages, while Ninemsn is running with Social Games, an online game where cash is awarded to fans who share the most articles, photos and videos via social media.

An Inside Look

The IOC has encouraged the 10,500 athletes whom London will play host to later this month to connect with fans via social media while adhering to specific guidelines that have been set.

Under IOC rules, athletes are free to post, blog and tweet provided that it is not for commercial and/or advertising purposes, and should be written in a “first-person, diary-type format.”

“Letting people know what I’m eating, how I’m sleeping, what the venues are like – people want to know what we’re going through,” said Olympic American gymnast Johnathan Horton.

IOC member Mark Adams has admitted that the IOC had been slow to adopt social networking, but was now ready to embrace it for London 2012.

“The way I like to think about the IOC and our relationship with social media is that the Olympics is one of the oldest social networks that has ever been.

Everyone has an experience and shares that experience with their friends and their family – everyone has an emotional attachment to the Games. We’re just digitising that experience.”

The 2012 Olympic Games begins on July 27.