Much has been said during the 2012 London Olympics about social media and its relationship to television viewership. Obviously the Olympics is a huge topic of conversation in social media and NBC viewership of the games is at all time high. Many have even tried to draw a connection between the two, concluding that lots of social media activity must equal lots of television viewers. My take it on it is a little different. I don’t think the two have anything to do with each other. Like all content, Olympic competitions are story driven and this time around, there have been some extraordinary narratives, especially in the most popular sports like gymnastics and swimming. People will gather to follow good stories. That’s it. That said, social media conversations often add context to the stories and draw attention to details that NBC doesn’t, and NBC and its advertisers would do well to pay attention to those conversations
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