A big part of the recent Twitter-NBC Olympics partnership was that they would be bringing back the Twitter Tracker they used back in 2008, but in a bigger way on devices. The tracker can be accessed within the NBC Olympics iPad app and it’s proving to be one of the best ways to discover what games are worth watching at the moment, and here’s why.
The tracker, which can also be accessed on the regular web via NBCOlympics.com/twitter-tracker is powered by Austin-based Mass Relevance and includes the following features:
– Live Twitter conversations from athletes
– A Twitter Tracker that will track Tweet volume and conversations
– Dynamic trending topics, sports, key ‘moments’ and athletes
– The Mass Relevance Mad Lib and Poll modules, inviting participation from anywhere around the world
– Cumulative data collected over the course of the 2012 Games displaying the most mentioned sports, most mentioned athletes, and top Retweets
– Hashtag battles on NBCOlympics.com where people can vote and support for specific athletes
While at first it might seem that the Twitter.com/#Olympics page would be competing with the Twitter tracker, they seem to complement each other more. The Twitter page is better for editorial coverage through tweets and the tracker is better for discovery. The “Tweet Sheet” component seems to cross over into the editorial moments the most.
While the idea of visualizing Twitter to show off which TV programs are trending isn’t new, with an event like the Olympics it’s especially useful. There are tons of games going on, it’s hard to figure out which NBC linear properties are airing which games at the moment, but you know for sure that there are tons of games going on.
While the tracker helps discover which sports are heating up the most at the moment, it was confusing to figure out how to actually tune in. There’s no clear information on where one can watch (although the Live Extra app just has everything). When you tap “Results & Schedule” it first asked if I wanted to download the apps (which I already have and was on one of) and then finally took me to NBCOlympics.com (but not directly to a permalink page for today’s date). After scrolling down to today’s date it does show the games on now with a “watch live” button, but instead of taking me directly to the app it asks me if I want to download it.
Both apps and the tracker have been extremely useful but it would be nice if they can work together a bit more seamlessly.