The organizers of the London Olympics, scheduled for July 27th-August 12th, have made a smart move by issuing a set of Social Media Guidelines for everyone participating. Considering the sheer volumes of folks involved and the instant visibility of good and bad events on a global scale this is a very well-thought out proactive move by the London Organising Committee. In addition to the 13,500 troops that will be in force on guard duty, over 70,000 unpaid volunteers are expected to help run the London Olympic Games.
The guidelines have been issued to address security issues as well as to protect the commercial interests of sponsors. According to the guidelines, volunteers are forbidden to disclose any information about their own personal role, their location or any information about athletes, celebrities or visiting dignitaries. This includes posting any pictures, videos or statements about VIPs who may be visiting athletes “backstage” as well as any images of the back stage areas itself.
They continue on to advise volunteers to avoid posting breaking news about athletes or even getting into any discussions about the games online. They are allowed to retweet or repost official postings form the London 2012 social media team of course. Will it work? One would hope but it is harder to gauge potential impact on a volunteer workgroup. Perhaps the example of Cameron Reilly, the Buckingham Palace guard who was fired last year for insulting Kate Middleton on Facebook, will keep volunteers towing the line.
Even the athlete’s themselves are subject to the International Olympic Committee’s desire to leverage social media by encouraging competitors to “post, blog and tweet their experiences” during the Olympics. However the IOC is also trying to figure out how to find that right balance to encourage promotion while protecting the commercial interests of broadcast and merchandising partners. To that end, the athletes are facing most of the same restrictions as the volunteers as to what and where they can post to essentially drive any potential audience to watch the events on television or an associated online property.
What effect do you think these guidelines will have on the London Olympics? Do you think unpaid volunteers will adhere to the guidelines?
~Jackie Kmetz
Social Intelligence Crusader
