Amman, Jordan, December 15, 2021: The Jordan Olympic Committee has started a campaign to prevent cyber-bullying of athletes on social media, Secretary General Nasser Majali revealed at a webinar on Tuesday, December 14.
Presenting a case study on how the JOC developed its social media strategy during the ANOC Social Media Webinar, Majali said the JOC had initiated a campaign during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to stop cyber-bullying of athletes.
“Part of the solution is to educate the general public on how tough it is to be an athlete,” said Majali, responding to a question on how to stop athletes being insulted on social media.
“We have faced this situation - our athletes and coaches being insulted because they didn’t win medals. It is a no-no on social media and our immediate response is to delete such posts.
“We are also starting a campaign against cyber-bullying of our athletes. It is not only for us but for all Arab countries, and it will be an Arabic campaign,” Majali told the audience at the final NOC Social Media Webinar of 2021 hosted by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).
The JOC is the top-ranked NOC in Asia for its reach on social media. Its 1.1 million Facebook followers, when taken as a percentage of the country’s population, is 10 percent - higher than any other NOC in the world.
Majali explained how the JOC had developed its social media strategy following the launch of the country’s National Strategy in 2017 and was designed to meet specific objectives. The JOC put a greater emphasis on producing in-house content with a focus on Jordanian athletes across all forms of social media to increase and engage audiences.
During Tokyo 2020, the JOC delivered live coverage, interviews with athletes pre and post competitions, daily highlights and facts about the Olympic Games and Tokyo. This led to 157 unique posts with a total reach of 8.5M and 2.7M engagements. An Arab campaign also allowed the JOC to boost its reach to 5.5M in the Arab community.
During the interactive session, Majali answered a number of questions from other NOCs, mainly revolving around how to build a social media structure similar to that of the JOC.