College Hoops: Digital ACC Preview - Team #7 Wake Forest

We continue our journey through the ACC in search of the best digital program. This is a chance for coaches and teams to share what it means to be a part of their system. To get you fired up about the program. To believe and to connect. We last left the story here, talking through #12 Boston College, #11 Miami, #10 Georgia Tech, #9 Virginia Tech, and #8 NC State.

Let's keep moving.

#7. Wake Forest

Starting again with their digital scouting report:

Strengths: Video content in basketball section makes it feel alive. 3 coaches on Twitter. Personal feeling blog. Interesting desktop app brings content to fans.

Weaknesses: No celebration of the program's tradition. No link to Twitter feeds on the site. Limited ways to stay in touch with the basketball program.

The Full Scouting Report:
Wake Forest's program is one I was excited about touring. Chris Paul. Tim Duncan. This has the potential of really getting you pumped... but you'll have to find that information elsewhere, as I couldn't find it here. (sigh) Upon visiting the WF athletics site, here, you'll see a Multimedia button on the top of the site, which is where most of their action starts.

One of the pieces you get access to, as we've seen in other sites, is the athletic department's podcast series, in this case, "Deacon Podcasts". It looks to be fairly regularly updated, but is not focused in on any one sport. Again, hitting you with a "I know you came here for hoops, but take all the other sports with it" message. (Feels a lot like a cable TV package to me -- I know you want ESPN, but here's Animal Planet...)

Wake Forest also delivers a Desktop Communicator application from this Multimedia section (image below). This is pretty cool, as it essentially puts an icon on your desktop that pulls the latest stories from Wake Forest athletics down to your desktop, along with scores or other updates. Interesting as it is a simple way to subscribe... though from what I could tell you really don't have a lot of customization here either. But I definitely love the ability to send you updates in ways that don't require you being logged into the WF athletics site.

Wake Forest also gives you quick access to their blog, here. The blog is pretty solid in that it feels very personal (even updating you on student athlete birthdays). Like many other aspects of the site, it provides potential to give you personal access into each program. While maintaining separate blogs for every sport may be a bit out of reach, I found an example I'd love to see Wake leverage. EA Sports has a similar challenge (loads of games, not loads of blogs), and their solution is here. Just click on the Show All Posts button and select the game you're interested in. Pretty simple but helps you focus your time on what excites you!

Drilling into the basketball section is what puts Wake a bit ahead of the other schools we've reviewed thus far. You'll see the video player in the site, giving you quick access to basketball-specific videos from the WF Basketball page. Sounds simple, but it really changes how alive and connected to the program you feel.

If you want even more access to the Wake program, you need to turn to Twitter. It's tough to find, as none of these are connected to the Wake Forest athletics site (from what I could find anyway). The following Twitter feeds give access into the program at some level: Wake Forest athletics (albeit all sports) with 873 followers and 821 tweets, Head Coach Dino Gaudio, (with only 4 tweets but 477 followers), Assistants Rusty LaRue (128 followers) and Jeff Battle (only 3 followers thus far). While none of the coaches have been super active, a quote from Coach LaRue here shows how they are using it -- largely to monitor scouting sites... but they recognize that as more recruits tweet that may change.

And, as you can see, they are setting themselves up for it.

Thanks for reading.... Stay tuned for tomorrow's reveal of team #6!