LiveCity Yaletown

When the cauldron was lit and the games of the 2010 Olympics were declared open, HatlingFlint was there at the Opening Ceremony, tweeting live. And we weren’t alone. Turns out there were lots of tweeters inside BC Place, around Vancouver, and all over the world who were sharing their Olympic experiences from where they were at that moment. This may not seem that unusual, but looking back only four years ago to the last winter Olympics, social media was virtually unknown. Today, social media is playing a very big role in connecting fans with athletes, teams, countries, and the overall Olympic experience.

It is for this reason that the US Speedskating team has added two members of the HatlingFlint team to their Olympic delegation, for the sole purpose of managing their social media campaign. Many of the athletes such as Apolo Ohno, Allison Baver, Jordan Malone, and Katherine Reutter, just to name a few, were already veterans of social media, but for the team as a whole, it was new.

Members of the US Speedskating team skating in Vancouver

The purpose of this new social media campaign that is still in its infancy, is to bring the Olympic experience of the team to fans of Speedskating, and continue with a sustaining program after the Olympics are over. Despite the well-publicized sponsorship of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert of the US Speedskating team, after the Olympics are over, his involvement will be complete, so the team continues to seek a new gold-level sponsor who will take the torch from Colbert. Having a sophisticated social media campaign in place will be attractive to any future sponsor, and can serve as an additional means by which to get this message out.

The primary components of the campaign include:
Facebook fan page – updated several times per day with photos, race updates, and of course, daily medal counts. Fans have also engaged by adding their own photos of them wearing their Colbert Nation caps, historic photos of Olympics from the past, and posting questions about where  to get tickets to events.
Twitter – most popular are the live tweets from the venues as the races unfold. Even though some of the events are not broadcast or delayed, fans can choose to follow the action immediately. Two times per week, a trivia quiz keeps fans coming back to answer a question and go into a drawing for a cool prize.
YouTube – new videos are uploaded showing many different sides of athletes from competitions, practices, goofing around, and their opinion on brussel sprouts.
Blogs – daily monitoring allows us to comment on every blog that mentions Speedskating in some way; so far there have been over 100 blog posts to date and growing. Featured bloggers are added to the facebook page which helps give them even more exposure.

So take advantage of this new phenomenon and join in the fun. Engage with the US Speedskating team online and we’ll keep you up to date on every possible moment we can, now through the Olympics, and well into the future.

US Speedskating Logo

With only a few weeks before the opening ceremonies for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, HatlingFlint has been chosen by the US Speedskating team to implement a social media campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to build a following of fans and encourage fundraising for the sport leading up to and through the Olympic games.

The US Speedskating team is a source of national pride, being the team that has won the most Olympic Gold Medals for Team USA. Some of the legendary Olympic Gold Medalists of the sport include Eric Heiden, Bonnie Blair, Dan Jansen, and Derek Parra. The 2010 Olympic team will once again include medalists Apollo Ohno, Shani Davis, Chad Hedrick, plus Olympic Medal hopefuls Katherine Reutter, Trevor Marsicano, and more.

When the news that Dutch bank DSB, the US Speedskating team’s major sponsor went bankrupt in the fall leaving them without sufficient funds going into the Olympics, Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s Colbert Report took up the cause. Within the first few weeks, he has raised over $250,000 for the team. The social media campaign that HatlingFlint is implementing will encourage individuals to lend support to the team with both their heart and finances.

You can follow the US Speedskating team by becoming a fan on Facebook, following them on Twitter, watching them on YouTube and the Colbert Report on Comedy Central.

Go Team USA!

Chad Hedrick

Heather Richardson