Will there be a social media pitch invasion when the World Cup finally kicks off on Friday?  Before a ball has even been kicked, fans,  players, bookies, sponsors, the media, tourism and footballing bodies have ignited the web, blogosphere and Twitter with World Cup news, chat and campaigns.  This year’s tournament could break all social media records. 

Here are a few examples of the mentions of the World Cup and social media that we’ve picked up in the past week.

There are 400 million active users on Facebook and 50 million tweets are sent each day.  YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have become the lions of social networking.  A post by Daryl on the World Cup Blog (1/6) claimed that the final England team selected for South Africa was, in a round-a-bout way, first announced on Twitter.  Journalists tweeted reports on the players not selected hours before the official team statement at 4pm on 1 June.  Earlier that morning, the husband of a worker at Heathrow posted information that Theo Walcott had checked in for a flight to the Caribbean. (cowboymartin on 606 1/6)

Football’s governing bodies, already engaged with social media, have ramped up campaigns for the tournament.  On 1 June, the FA launched its biggest social media campaign to date, which sparked a buzz on Twitter.  The Association rolled out its Facebook app for fans to join the ‘Official England Squad’.  Head of marketing Simon Freedman explained: “We want to win the (first) unofficial social media World Cup on Facebook, and drive greater connection with our consumers,” (Campaign 1/6).  The app, created by Dare, was launched to let supporters create their own shirts to use as profile pictures.  Stephen Fry took number 30, Nick Clegg 67 and Ray Winstone 25.  Rooney et al had shirts 1 – 23.

On the flipside, there was also comment on the FA’s decision to stop players from using social media during the tournament.  (TigerTwoTiger 1/6) 

Gavin Bloys tweeted a link to an early discussion on CNN.com (4/5) on whether the World Cup will drive unprecedented social media traffic.  Matt Stone, FIFA head of new media said: “There will be so much more media consumed, used and published in 2010 than in 2006. Social media can bring fans closer together and give fans more opportunity to communicate with each other.” (CNN.com 4/5)

The site also reported that FIFA, with 1.6 million followers on its social networking service ‘The Club’, planned to add Facebook Connect for fans to share websites on the site.  Followed by an official Twitter account with tweets from people in the “top eschelons” of the organisation.

However, the FIFA official website has attracted early criticism.  Adam Vincenzini on theCOMMScorner (6/6) concluded that it ‘almost seems like FIFA are ‘anti’ social media’ after a quick tour of its site. Vincenzini pointed out that there wasn’t a link to FIFA’s Twitter account or Facebook page. Nor was there a link to an official Twitter hashtag.  In contrast, the blogger thought the sponsors got it right. (Social Media Influence 1/6)

South Africa Tourism (SAT) set up a blog, Twitter account and two Facebook pages for travellers from Australia and New Zealand.  SAT general manager, Australasia, Bangu Masisi explained: “Globally, South African Tourism has had a presence in the social media space for some time, however we are very excited to be able to provide relevant news and updates on South Africa specific to the Australian traveller using this platform”. (Marketing, 3/6)

The World Cup made it into eighth spot in Mashable’s Twitter Trends for the week ending 4 June. The scene has been set for a social media pitch invasion.  Watch this space for our 360-degree analysis of the impact of social media on what has been touted as one of the greatest sporting events on earth.