MUMBAI: Twitter is buzzing and while one thought it was only for the ongoing elections, the social networking site has now partnered with the Indian Premier League (IPL), taking its 2013 partnership one step ahead. Through this association the duo will unveil a new gold standard of live, interactive and conversational experiences for cricket fans globally. The partnership will be seamlessly integrated on-air, on-ground and online.

A few initiatives include:

Twitter IPL Calendar

Through this fans can set reminders for their favourite matches, by simply tweeting @IPL with the hashtag #Calendar; they will then receive calendar entries for each IPL match on their mobile phone, which will remind the fan of the match's starting time, 10 minutes before the start of each game.

IPL Pulse

Audiences will also hear the story of IPL-7, as told through Twitter Data, with "IPL Pulse" data visualizations depicted in broadcast highlighting the most buzzing players, conversations, and trends. IPL Pulse will also be available to view on the IPL website during the season. Fans at the stadium can tweet with #PepsiIPL as well and experience the visualization growing larger-than-life on the giant screens.

Best Tweets and Hashtag Battles

As they could last season, fans will continue to have the opportunity to see the best tweets on screen, and vote for their favourite teams and players in the team and player hashtag battles, whose results will be showcased in real-time, throughout the match.

#IPLSelfie

In keeping with the phenomenon of the selfie that has spread from Twitter throughout popular culture, fans tweeting with #IPLselfie this season will have their photos featured on the IPL website.

#IPLMagic

At the end of every match, fans will be able to receive a personalised photo message with an iconic image from every match of IPL-7 when they tweet to @IPL with #Magic. This will be personalised for every user, with a message by the captain of the team featured in the photo. This will be a global first interactive experience for a sports league at this scale.

@IPLSpiderCam

Exclusive behind-the-scenes content from the IPL will get a new twist this year, with the SpiderCam turning into a first-person tweeting object, bringing never-before-seen images from the cricket field into the timeline of cricket fans in real-time, through the @IPLSpiderCam Twitter account.

#TwitterMirror

This season will also see the debut of the autographed #TwitterMirror, where players and the members of the winning team will have the ability to share candid messages with fans through customized photos, which will be tweeted out from @IPL. The story of the IPL will also be told through six-second Vine videos through the 2014 season.

Twitter Q&As

Between matches, the @IPL Twitter handle will be regularly taken over by players and commentators to interact 1-on-1 with fans.

“IPL has always set the bar high for fan engagement. This next phase of our partnership with Twitter will ensure that fans can not only take in the action this summer but participate in the fun in real-time with unique interactive experiences,” IPL Governing Council chairman Ranjib Biswal.

Twitter India market director Rishi Jaitly said, “Twitter is the world's leading mobile information network where users follow, share and experience content that is live, public and conversational. This partnership represents yet another watershed moment at the intersection of Twitter and sports. By bringing together Twitter best practices and innovation at such scale to a global audience, IPL is again truly connecting to the pulse of today's cricket fans. We congratulate them for giving fans around the world meaningful opportunities to discover content, converse and self-express as part of the live, public conversation that is IPL.”