Social media plays huge role in London Olympics - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

We've never been so connected to the Olympics. Facebook, Twitter and all sorts of apps have put the games into our hands. NBC's Olympic Zone offers live streaming of the games, plus replays any time you want.

Social media has changed the London games and many times you may hear the results before you see them.

From Friday through Sunday, 12 million tweets about the Olympics were logged.

"Social media has really transformed the fan experience, whether it's here at home in Indianapolis or whether it's in London," said Mitch Frazier, ExactTarget.

Michael Phelps is on top of world with his record win. Frazier says he's one of the most tweeted athletes.

President Obama tweeted his thoughts to Phelps by saying, "Congrats to Michael Phelps for breaking the all-time Olympic medal record. You've made your country proud."

Phelps replied, "Thank you Mr. President!! It's an honor representing the #USA!! The best country in the world!!"

"The way we see Twitter fueling this level of hyperconnectivity is unlike anything we've ever seen before," said Frazier. "The amount of access is really what drives Twitter."

Diners at Union Jack Pub in Broad Ripple are watching the Olympic story unfold on TV. It's real-time viewing with no spoilers.

Max Thomas was trying to avoid social media spoilers.

"I'm kind of hesistant to go on at times because sometimes I want to see them live but at the same time I want to know what happens in case somebody else tells me what happens," Thomas said.

If you can't catch the action but want to know the results, Twitter is one way to keep up with the medal count. So is NBC's Olympic Zone app.

"It's more real time. You get to be with the crowd and know things instead of five hours later," said Leah Shattuck.

Catch the Olympic spirit wherever you are, whenever you want.

From the opening ceremonies to Twitter chatter over the weekend, more than 12 million tweets were sent about the Olympics.

As the numbers continue to come in, the amount of tweeting about the games is a marathon in itself.

Note from the editor: After receiving feedback about the way the women's gymnastics result was handled Tuesday, we listened to our viewers' requests and are now posting social media updates with the words "spoiler alert" in them, and we're making the user take action to see the result. We're also being careful in our headlines not to reveal the results. But we do take the view that if you're online, you're accepting that news organizations have an obligation to report the news as it happens - and you might come across results that you don't want to see.