Social media means no one misses out on Rugby World Cup

To many people New Zealand might seem like the end of the earth, but organizers of the
Rugby World Cup  - which runs from September 9 to October 23 - have tapped into the wonders of social media to ensure the whole planet can keep up with all the action, on and off the playing fields.

"This is an unprecedented opportunity for New Zealand to place itself in front of the world," says Rugby New Zealand 2011's Bridget Abernethy, the group's project manager for business engagement.

"...[W]e have all been keen from the very beginning to make the most of all platforms of social media as means of reaching out not only to all the people who are coming here but to those who for whatever reason could not make the trip."

Facebook, Flickr and Twitter accounts have all been fired up and there'll be daily videos posted on YouTube so those staying at home won't miss a thing. Just how much access the respective nations actually involved in the World Cup will allow their players remains a mystery at this point, but the reaction to what has been made available has already been astonishing, to say the least.

The official World Cup Facebook page has 1.2 million "likes" (and counting) while organizers had to establish a full-time Twitter crew due simply to the attention the event was generating. Meanwhile a nationwide, 30-day tour of the Web Ellis Trophy saw more than 25,000 rugby fans pose with the prized piece of silverware - and then see their images posted on Flickr.

RNZ 2011 estimates around 40 percent of ticket sales so far have been generated by social media and it's the potential for that sort of action that originally spurred the organization to establish special platforms which allow visiting businessmen to link up with organizations in New Zealand, which in turn can showcase what they might have to offer to the world.

"We think that no event before has made use of these social media developments to such an extent," says RNZ 2011's CEO Martin Snedden. "People from all over the world have found they can get total access to what we are doing here."

New Zealand is expecting more than 90,000 visitors to attend some part of the World Cup and to top the more than four billion viewers from 238 countries who tuned in at some stage to RWC 2007 in France - a figure organizers claim puts RWC behind only the Olympics and football's World Cup and European Championships in terms of viewer numbers.

It has been claimed that 4.7 billion viewers across the planet tuned in for at least part of Beijing's Olympics in 2008 - one-fifth more than the 3.9 billion estimated to have watch Athens in 2004.

And world football's governing body FIFA claimed that during last year's World Cup more than 3.2 billion people - or almost half the world's population - watched live coverage for a minimum of one minute.

Here's how you can keep up with RWC 2011:

Just for the fans
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com
http://www.facebook.com/rugbyworldcup
http://www.youtube.com/rugbyworldcup
http://twitter.com/#!/rugbyworldcup
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rugbyworldcup

And for those looking for a little bit more
http://www.nz2011.govt.nz
http://www.nz2011.govt.nz/experiencerealnz
http://www.facebook.com/realnzfestival
http://twitter.com/#!/realnzfestival
http://www.youtube.com/realnzfestival

MS