Nike Planning Live Promoted Tweets During Olympic Games [VIDEO]

During the 2012 Summer Olympics, Nike will be sending out tweets via its Jordan brand that revolve around the different competitions.

It is part of the #riseabove campaign, which includes a crowdsourced photo contest on Instagram and a short film series.

John Moonigian III, co-founder of 140 Proof, the agency working with Nike, told ClickZ, “When people who are simultaneously watching sports and tweeting, see a promoted tweet about the real-time game or score, then it’s not an ad anymore, but an information tool.”

140 Proof choose Twitter as the platform for Jordan because it is “faster, shorter, and more public,” writes ClickZ’s Joan Voight. “During the Olympic competition, the brand’s promoted tweets will be updated within seconds with timely comments that Nike first posts to its regular Twitter following.”

A study conducted by Catalyst Public Relations found that when it comes to social media and sports, usage “increases as game time draws near, and it usually peaks with postgame activity,” says Social Media Optimization’s David Wilson.

In addition, 41 percent of sports fans turn to Twitter for breaking news, which leads  national news websites (40 percent), sports radio (4 percent), and television (13 percent). The Jordan brand is targeting sports fans where they go the most.

By combining content marketing and social media efforts, Nike and Jordan will likely see more fan participation. It’s  following one of the key principles of content marketing: to use social media to generate leads while providing followers with information relating to their interests.