Many of the athletes with the highest profiles in the world are diving headfirst into social media. Lance Armstrong, for example, sometimes doesn't speak with reporters after a bicycle race but, as his 1.3 million Twitter followers know, will typically send a message, picture or video out almost as soon as he hops off his bike.

Former Utahn Levi Leipheimer, also a top contender at this year's Tour de France, similarly pulls out his iPhone as soon as he hits the team bus after a stage to post his thoughts and feelings.

The reasons for this are myriad.

Armstrong, as much a corporation as an athlete, is able to control the message when he is both author and distributor.

It also provides the athlete with a way to directly interact with fans and friends in a very public way. As part of the Tour de France, Armstrong and his Livestrong foundation have created a simple function that places one of the familiar yellow bands across a Twitter user's avatar.

Twitter, an Internet-based bulletin board type service, lets users post their thoughts or Web links in short messages limited to 140 characters or fewer. Those who subscribe to the Twitter feed receive those messages in different ways. For most, logging on to Twitter will pull up a list of real-time messages posted by those the user chooses to follow.

Others, especially if they have a strong interest in a particular team, school or athlete, will set up their accounts to have those messages sent to their cell phones immediately via text message.

That has business savvy individuals thinking of ways to drive traffic — and dollars — with social media.

For Locke, it's a matter of promoting his radio show.

For Westminster sports information director Josh Fisher, it's an effort to sell a few more tickets or get students more involved with campus activities.

"It makes perfect sense. It's an easy way to market our events to a lot of people," Fisher said. "We have a very small budget and with things like Facebook and Twitter it means I can instantly get ahold of people that are in our target audience. And all it takes is a few seconds to send out a message."

Chris Cooley, the former Utah State football player and current Washington Redskins tight end, has grabbed hold of the technology world with both hands and appears to be having a lot of fun doing it. His Twitter feed is updated often and frequently includes links to videos or pictures of him at practice, goofing off at a rodeo in Wyoming or selling autographed posters.

Media outlets, such as the Deseret News, are also hopping aboard the Twitter express.