Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Chalkbot: Tour de France + social media

If you've been watching the coverage of the Tour de France and noticed the yellow statements written on the road course in chalk and assumed it was nothing more than the fans writing statements of support to the riders, you would be mistaken. What you're witnessing is the newest form of social media in action.


Chalkbot is the newest endeavor of Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong foundation and Nike's Wear Yellow campaign. The concept is simple, tweet a 40 character message to @Chalkbot or text "Livestrong" followed by your message to 31001 and this is what happens:


Per @lancearmstrong






Yes, this is exceptionally cool. Your tweets and texts can be seen by the riders and spectators at the Tour de France. Isn't this the goal of social media? Being able to communicate with people on a global, yet personal level?


What is Chalkbot?






How does it work?