The Vitrue Blog

Well, if you're the state of Missouri, a lot. Next week (September 8th) Missouri kicks off their 2nd annual Tour of Missouri International Cycling Race. This year the tour will include an online social community where fans, tourists, teams and Tour personnel can upload and share content. The social network is called Fanzone and is integrated with the Tour's main site. The social community includes photo and video uploading, commenting, member profiles, and member messaging. Mobile upload is also available and obviously important to an event based social experience like the Tour or Missouri.

"We will be providing video cameras to Tour personnel and each of the 15 teams in the race in order to capture behind-the-scenes footage, which is usually never seen by the public. Team footage could include views from caravan vehicles following the race or team strategy sessions," said Steve Brunner, president of KOM Sports, which markets the event. "The partnership with Vitrue has been trailblazing from the beginning. They have been incredible to work and brainstorm with. They've been able to mold the site to the needs of the race."

Oh yeah, I didn't mention the fact that Tour of Missouri's Fanzone is a Vitrue powered site. Read the press release if you want the details...

I'm personally excited about the Tour's combination of event marketing, social media and mobile upload. I can think of numerous events from my past that could have been significantly enhanced with an online social community. This isn't our first time bridging live events to online social communities, and it surely won't be our last.

Are you attending the Tour of Missouri? Have you engaged an online social community built exclusively for a real world event? Want to participate in a dialog about social media strategies? Sound off in the comments below. We're listening!