Social media guide to the Summer Olympics

Let the games begin! The 2012 London Olympics begin with the opening ceremony Friday and continue through August 12th.

There are nearly a billion options for keeping track of the Olympics online, on TV, and through social media. I’ve narrowed the list down to my top five suggestions for staying connected with the athletes and events during The Olympics.

1. The Olympic Athletes Hub. This connects Facebook and Twitter accounts into a platform that allows you to track athletes who have social media accounts. The top followed athlete is – I wouldn’t have guessed – LeBron James with more than 17 million fans, followed by Kobe Bryant and Roger Federer. There will also be chat opportunties once the games are underway.

2. NBC also has an Olympics Twitter Tracker. There you’ll find tweet streams for every Olympic sport and athlete on Twitter and provides complete bios, videos, photos, and news stories about the sports stars. Here’s Hope Solo’s page, for example, from Richland, Washington. You can find out who or what is trending, and see how many tweets per minute are coming in.

3. YouTube Olympic coverage. The IOC has created the Official Olympic Channel. It features playlists from Olympics past and will offer your favorite current Olympic moments, too.

4. Websites and Apps. Not social, but when you just want quick information the top Olympic-specific websites are London2012, and TeamUSA. Tumblr will be an interesting source for user-generated content and photos. The apps I’d download are “London 2012: Official Results” for realtime results and schedules, available for Android and iPhones, and both platforms have free Olympic Medal counters.

5. KING TV’s Olympics Zone. KING 5 will be the only local station covering the Olympics and they have links to local athletes’ social media pages, videos and interviews with locals too. Find reports from Allen Schauffler and follow him on Twitter – @schauffKING5.

Bonus Seattle Times local Olympians tracker. Their interactive tool helps you explore how Olympians with ties to Washington state are doing in the 2012 Olympic Games. Hover over the icons for information about specific events

By LINDA THOMAS

Photo, courtesy Tunblr, Matthew Micham