Title: The evolution of Twitter communication by Youth Olympic Games organising committees

Authors: Michael L. Naraine; Milena M. Parent

Addresses: Deakin University, 70 Elgar Road, Burwood, Victoria, 3125, Australia ' University of Ottawa, 125 University Private, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada; Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Norway Postboks 4014 Ullevål Stadion, NO-0806, Oslo, Norway

Abstract: The purpose of this paper was to examine Youth Olympic Games organising committees' Twitter communications to determine: 1) what communication is being presented to stakeholders by using this social media platform; 2) whether communication habits vary across multiple organising committees. Examining Twitter feeds for the first four editions, findings indicated: 1) while retweets were important for Youth Olympic Games organising committees' Twitter accounts, organising committees' focus remained on original content; 2) promotion-related content dominated organising committee tweets, more than information and reporting-related content; 3) themes evolved and structure was refined over time from the 2010 to the 2016 editions.

Keywords: Youth Olympic Games; YOG; promotion; social media; sports events; sport communication; Twitter.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMM.2017.087439

International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 2017 Vol.17 No.4/5/6, pp.403 - 425

Received: 26 Oct 2016
Accepted: 04 May 2017
Published online: 15 Oct 2017 *

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