Translating the Olympic Social Media Buzz

The 2012 Olympic Games have been dubbed the "Social Media Games," the latest feats and failures never more than a click away. The relevance goes beyond the simple ability for millions of people to react and share in real time. For many, tracking the buzz of the interwebs is just as exciting as tallying the medal winners.

The social media marketing company Wildfire has been analyzing Facebook references to the Games to find out which country's fans have the most vocal presence. Jamaica's 650,000 registered Facebook users represent some of the most involved fans, contributing an average of 11.4 likes each to their athletes' pages, for a total of almost 7.5 million likes. The second- and third-place fans combined don't come close to matching. Switzerland's population offers up 4.03 page likes per user, while Russia comes in at 1.44.

When it comes to the athletes, Wildfire found that German gymnast Marcel Nguyen's performance garnered him not only a silver medal but a 574 percent increase in Facebook fans, and American gymnast Gabrielle Douglas's page saw a 378 percent increase, motivated largely by a kudos from President Barack Obama.

Not satisfied with simply quantifying the social media stream, three graduate students from MIT spent four months engineering the iconic London Eye to change color to reflect the country's collective mood, based on Twitter commentary. Tweets referencing the Games are analyzed for emotions such as fear, sadness and amazement, and for an hour each night, a light show depicting the mood of the day can be seen on the wheel.