From Facebook and Twitter to apps: The Internet is ready as FIFA World Cup kicks off tomorrow

The FIFA World Cup starts tomorrow and given that this one is being held in the age of social media, there’s no escaping the fact that every major social media company is prepared for it. Brazil 2014 is expected to be the first real World Cup where a majority of the audience engagement will be on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The smartphone is expected to be the preferred second screen to the TV, and you’ll probably have to mash that mute button a lot if you are averse to the World Cup.   Twitter is usually known to dominate the live events space – remember the famous Oscar selfie? – but this time around Facebook is banking on sheer volume of its 500 million-strong football-loving user base. Calling itself the ‘biggest stadium in the world’ Facebook has launched Trending World Cup, a dedicated hub for fans to follow the tournament as it unfolds. It includes the latest scores and highlights from matches, a special feed with real-time posts from friends and updates from relevant players and teams and an interactive map that shows where fans of some top players are located around the world.   [caption id=“attachment_225562” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Facebook brings player-wise fandom maps[/caption]   In addition, starting tomorrow, when the first match starts users can share the specific match by selecting “watching” in the post options, and if you are in the US, UK, India, Canada, or Australia, you can get to the special page by clicking World Cup, which will be a permanent fixture in the Trending section. Within Trending World Cup, Facebook has introduced something called The Ref, which it calls Facebook’s ‘official’ official of the tournament. Like The Ref’s page and you will see “colorful commentary and updates” about matches. Facebook is also planning a bunch of data insights during the tournament.   [caption id=“attachment_225563” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  The Ref’s page[/caption]   Facebook’s arch-rival Twitter is also busy trying to get marketers to develop advertisements as matches progress. It is believed to be working on a trial by asking advertising agencies to create promotional content using World Cup videos.  The platform is trying to cash in on the millions of fans who will take to Twitter, and also plans of providing real-time updates for FIFA 2014. A GlobalWebIndex report points out that 90 percent of UK Twitter users will tune in to watch the 2014 FIFA World Cup. And, that’s just one region. So, we can definitely expect a month-long tweet-a-thon from football fans.   With a combined user base of well over a billion and a half, Twitter and Facebook should be the primary drivers of conversation around Brazil, but these days our online communication is spread across more apps and services, with the big two being the focus. So naturally, there’s a lot of attention on World Cup-specific features here too.   Ahead of the World Cup, Nimbuzz reached out to football fans among its users to understand their expectations. Nimbuzz’s Pulse of the Nation initiative pushed out a string of questions everyday through the Pulse of the Nation Chat Buddy that appeared as a regular contact on over 25 million Nimbuzz users’ contact lists across the country, and collated their opinion into the Football League special report. Some interesting insights: Most Nimbuzz users thought Lionel Messi most likely to get the Golden Boot award for the best player of the tournament. Neymar Jr from Brazil was picked most likely to get the Golden Ball, while Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo was picked as the most fashionable and the most likely to become a favourite amongst Indians.   Showing that the World Cup goes beyond football, Nimbuzz also asked its users to pick the player who they think will have the best hair during the month-long tournament. Italy’s Mario Balotelli was the one with the most votes. Russia was the winner in the underdog category, while most Nimbuzz users want to see Kate Middleton in the stands (strange one, that), followed by Leonardo Dicaprio.   We can expect a barrage of stickers and limited-edition features on the many messaging platforms. Facebook, WeChat, Viber, BBM, Line have stickers support in their apps and we will start seeing these stickers pop up within the next few days, hopefully for each country, so there are no accusations of bias.   One study suggests that 58 percent of UK football fans intend to use their mobile phones to follow the World Cup. UK is believed to be significantly ahead of the global average of 48 percent of smartphone-using fans who plan on checking in during matches, reveals a survey by Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and  On Device Research. Unsurprisingly, footballing nations dominate the list.   The study further shows that 94 percent people in the UK plan to share content or discuss the World Cup on social media, the third highest in the world, behind users from China and Mexico. Unfortunately, there’s no similar data for India.   FIFA may not exactly be on the ball when it comes to its own management, but it has been doing its bit to strengthen its digital presence. There’s a FIFAWorldCup account on Instagram now, which will supposedly give fans exclusive images from Brazil. A bit late we would say, but kudos for getting there. Matt Stone, FIFA Head of Digital said, “We look forward to seeing how the fans are enjoying the event worldwide and sharing the best highlights across the official FIFA digital platforms.”   [caption id=“attachment_225564” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  FIFA makes belated Instagram debut[/caption]   Besides maintaining a presence on Facebook and Twitter, FIFA also spruced up its official smartphone app in recent months, making it one of the best apps in the business. In April, FIFA’s Facebook page had reached over 280 million users while the World Cup page now has over 20 million fans. Similarly, it has more than seven million FIFA followers on Twitter, but when it comes to Twitter, there are literally more options than we can count.   There’s no dearth of non-FIFA apps for Android and iOS either. We have already taken a look at some of the **must-have apps for Android and iOS** . But even Windows Phone users have a host of new apps to choose from, besides following the action from the official Sports app. FotMob,  ESPNFC and Onefootball Brasil are three we recommend.   If you are a football fan or not, in 2014 there’s really no escaping the World Cup. Even those who love the game could get saturared. It’s going to be so omnipresent, that we shudder to think what 2018 will be like. It’s best to just join the herds having fun, and if you are not, rest assured in the fact that it only happens once every four years (for now, but we really can’t tell with FIFA).