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With the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics on Friday, Facebook has begun a new campaign to cash in on the global appeal of the sporting event. The social networking giant is now letting you add a custom frame to your profile picture with the frame featuring the official logo of Rio Olympics alongside your country’s flag. Although, this isn’t the only effort Facebook will put in during the course of the tournament.
While the Profile Frames initiative is a result of a tried and tested approach to allow passionate fans to participate, an app named MSQRD, which was acquired by Facebook not too long ago, is also letting fans add virtual masks of their country’s flags on their pictures and is also letting them upload such pictures to Facebook. Given that a large number of fans who live thousands of miles away from Brazil won’t be able to attend the Olympics, such initiatives will let them show their personal support for their teams and cheer them on in various creative ways. If you are such a fan and want to stay updated at all times, you will also be able to view details of Olympic events, their schedules, live videos and conversations on Facebook if you click on a message named ‘Excited for the Games?’ at the top of your News Feed. Facebook’s new initiatives come at a time when social media rival Twitter has also begun letting fans access Olympic news, interviews and predictions around the clock.
Not surprisingly, Google has also taken a number of steps to catch fans’ attention ahead of the opening ceremony. The company has introduced a number of accessible features on YouTube, Maps, Search and other apps to help keep users stay up to date with the latest information. Fans will also be able to make use of YouTube livestreaming which was launched recently to watch events in real time if they aren’t in front of their TVs. With stiff competition to grab eyeballs coming from the likes of Google and Twitter and obviously from a large number of broadcasting networks, streaming apps and sports-related apps in the coming days, Facebook is looking to ensure fans stay connected through their services to access all Olympics-related information.