Kill the buzzkill – some common sense and you, too, can kill it in social media

How to get into social media? Here’s how, and take it from late-40s Michelle Chai, Chief Operating Officer of the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), who before Tokyo 2020 would readily have described herself as an un-expert in social media: “We had been communicating what we,” meaning the National Olympic Committee, “wanted to communicate, rather than what the fans wanted. Just basically flipping that,” what the NOC did at the Tokyo Games, to huge effect. “Which for me was common sense.”

An ANOC Digital Accelerator Programme workshop assessing Tokyo performance from 204 NOCs reveals that the OCM ranked No. 1 overall — with a 488 percent growth rate. Absolute growth: plus 44.5 thousand.On Facebook, the OCM ranked No. 1 (that is, it had the highest growth rate); Instagram, No. 2; Twitter, No. 7.

Raw numbers, before Tokyo and after:

• Facebook: 8,880 - 59,300 
• Instagram: 1,500 - 16,500
• Twitter (2,800) - 6,200 

Is a 488 percent increase a number you can happily talk to sponsors about? The question answers itself.

The OCM Tokyo strategy: focus on the 30 Malaysian athletes, with schedules, results, quotes and, key, videos. “Our looks at our gymnasts were our biggest hit,” Chai said. “That brought out the stories of the athletes as human beings.”

The project made use of ready-to-plug templates. Say, an athlete won a medal. The template — something like, Malaysia wins! — could be layered immediately on a photo or video.A common-sense insight: the NOC could go where even accredited media could not. That is, behind the scenes. That’s exclusive content and insight. That’s what fans really want. What did all this cost? One mobile phone. A tripod. That’s it.

Two local university students did a lot of the back-end work. They 1/ were prepared to understand social media to begin with because they are of the media generation and 2/ were only glad to help out. A big chunk of the pictures and videos from Tokyo? The NOC covered the airfare for two accredited photographers. 

“We didn’t have the resources,” Chai said. “We had to become more creative. We squeezed every bit out of the stone, as we say.”She noted that ANOC social media workshops “really helped us.” And, for those who might note that every NOC is different — surely Brazil is different from Senegal is different from Malaysia — of course, no quarrel: “But when you see what other NOCs are doing, you can take a little bit here and a little bit there.” 

Here and there, no matter where, the basics are the basics: it’s about the athletes and storytelling. “People were not convinced we should be changing our ways,” Chai said, meaning before Tokyo, when social media output tended toward rote OCM announcements rather than where the numbers from the Games make crystal clear the output should have been for them and for every NOC, a focus on the athletes and their stories. “It was great to have the results back it up. To say to those who doubted — we tried a different way. And it was successful.”