The World Cup's Social Media Evolution

July 13, 2010— -- Kaka, one of the world's premiere soccer players, is using his Twitter account to connect with fans and do things like share a pair of songs that were written for him.

During the last World Cup in 2006 Kaka -- or any other player, for that matter -- couldn't have connected with fans in that way because, well, Twitter didn't really exist.

This year's World Cup has an unprecedented volume of social media outlets and initiatives from Twitter feeds to Facebook fan pages, viral videos to mobile apps and more. With so much access, it's easy to lose track of where all this social media goodness actually came from. Below is a brief look at how the World Cup and social media have evolved together.

"Social media" as we know it now (complete with Twitter, Foursquare, etc.) did not exist in 2002, but the World Cup still found ways to connect with fans. (Hey, even at the inaugural World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, fans could use the technology of the day -- telephones -- to connect to one another!)

In 2002, the Korea/Japan World Cup was one of the first to utilize the Internet by creating homepages for teams and multiple websites for the tournament. However, social media outreach was still limited in scope. "In '02, I can't remember anything, any social media methods with that world cup," said Sports Illustrated producer Bryan Graham. "… I don't even think the word 'social media' even existed."

By 2006, social media sites were starting to pick up steam. Facebook had launched but it was still restricted to college and high school students.

Similarly, Twitter was still in its beta-stage and hadn't yet caught on; MySpace was the most popular social networking site in the US. Companies like Adidas, Nike and Puma were early adopters with campaigns that included print ads, television spots and online sites.

Nike in particular teamed up with Google to create "the first social network for soccers fans worldwide," Joga.com, allowing users to create profiles, view video and connect with fellow fans.