Social Media Kicks It Up at the World Cup

Twitter’s fail whale swims across my browser at least four times a day and I swear he’s wearing an overwhelmed look on his face and a soccer jersey. And it is no wonder: According to Toronto's Globe and Mail the World Cup surpassed Barack Obama’s election as the biggest event in the history of the Web, swamping Twitter each time a goal is scored, and giving FIFA’s website as many page views each day as Facebook’s. So, it comes as no surprise that fans everywhere are joining online communities dedicated to virtually celebrating the monumental event. Meanwhile, organizations and companies everywhere have created online campaigns to build their brands and leave behind a digital souvenier for everyone who is dizzy with football fever. We’ve compiled a list of just some of the popular/engaging social media campaigns, so turn off your This American Life podcast or Beach House mixtape, turn up the melodious sound of Vuvuzela radio and get caught up in the mania.

The Guardian-UK’s World Cup 2010 Twitter Replay
The high-speed replay of the games tracks the Twittersphere’s reaction in parallel with the action of the math!

CNN”s Partnership with Foursquare
Foursquare released two special CNN World Cup badges: "South African Explorer" and "Super Fan." "South African Explorer" is for those who are fortunate enough to venture to the games and "Super Fan" is for everyone back at home hopping to viewing parties and packed pubs.

Chile’s World Cup Cheer Campaign
This campaign from  Simplycit <http://www.simplycit.cl/>  aims is to connect Chilean’s from around with world in real time so they can send a collective cheer all the way to Jo’berg, using a Google Maps based microsite that allows anyone to submit a cheer for Chile. An extension of their new Facebook campaign that is trying to find and unite the worlds Chilean’s, the tool let’s you map a cheer from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr onto the Google Maps based to curate Chilean pride one cheer at a time.

NYC Game Finder
Similar concept as the cheer campaign mentioned above, the city of New York funded and released the NYC Soccer game finder so that fans from around the city could find games and each other.

Sony Ericsson UK’s Total Football Facebook Fan page and Twitter Cup
Sony beefed up their Facebook Fan page to feature excusive content from celebrity reports. In parallel they are hosting a Twitter cup, to show what the Twittersphere is saying about the games. To score points, fans tweet using #TWC and the country name. The “golden tweet” using the hash tag will win an X10 on every England match day.

VISA’S  FIFA YouTube Channel Longest Goal Campaign 
Fans upload their best “gooooal!” cheer to YouTube where all the submissions are woven into one long chant that’ll make Andrés Cantor  blush. Users who upload a video have a chance to win a trip to the next World Cup in Brazil 2014.

Budweiser’s YouTube Series
For the transmedia fan, beer Brand Budweiser launched “Bud United,” a online reality TV series that follows 32 football fans reppin’ each competing country while they stay together in a house in South Africa. As each country gets eliminated in the tournament so does the corresponding cast member, all for the YouTube audience.