Among Olympic athletes, there may not be a more effective — or by-the-bootstraps — user of social media than runner Nick Symmonds . How's this for — as the phrase goes — “leveraging social media”? In January 2012, Symmonds held an eBay auction for the rights to his left shoulder. Symmonds would apply a temporary tattoo of the winning individual or corporate bidder's Twitter handle to his shoulder for every competition of the 2012 track and field season, including the London Olympics. The marketing company Hanson Dodge Creative eventually shelled out $11,100 for Symmonds' real estate offer, but he's been forced to cover their handle with a piece of tape for many events and will have to do so in London as well.

Symmonds says he started the promotion in part to raise money and awareness of himself as an athlete heading into an Olympic year, but most of all to call attention to the sponsorship restrictions placed upon track athletes by many of the sport's governing bodies.