College Basketball: Digital Pac-10 Preview, #10 USC

As I get ready to start diving into the PAC 10, I want to set our journey up again...

It's hard to imagine any young athlete making his or her choice on their college without taking a glance at their website. Now I know websites aren't the only factor... I'm not saying a kid will turn down a chance to play at North Carolina because they liked the website of East Carolina better. But what I am saying is that websites and digital marketing levels the playing field. They create an opportunity for coaches and teams to share what it means to be a part of a program. To get you fired up. And to connect. There is no window of time that coaches can't connect to prospective players (or their families) online. The internets are always on.

That's what makes this journey exciting.

And that's what I'm going to do -- break down the PAC-10 from a digital point of view, from less best to best. There's no science here, just my impressions. I'm pumped for the challenge and hope I can make this journey a fun one to come with me on.

It's somewhat ironic that I'm starting this off in a weird place, with a site that is amazing... But not from a basketball standpoint.

#10: USC

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: From a football standpoint, this site is amazing. Coach Carroll is one of the best at connecting with young athletes and you'll see how here. The website itself has powerful visual stories. Think this is enough of a reason to say digital is an enabler for recruiting?

Weaknesses: The only real hoops content is set up as content you have to pay for. If you are a basketball player who wants to watch football, cool. Else, you are not going to feel the love here.

Full Scouting Report:
A visit to the USC athletics page, here, hits you with a powerful image. And I'm even a fan of the call outs across the top of the page: Sports, All-Access, Blogs, Tickets, Shop, Support the Trojans, Fan Zone, Recruits. It's simple, direct, and covers the basis of everyone who might hit this site. As you know by now, I love seeing recruits called out. You'll also note the icons at the very top of the page -- an easy way to hit blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. Solid!

So I couldn't resist, I quickly clicked on the blog icon, accessible by clicking here. You see at the top of this page, there are quick links to Football Head Coach Pete Carroll's Twitter feed (and 41,000 followers) here and Facebook page here. The combination of ease of following Coach Carroll, his active posting, and the fact that it's interesting content is leading to a huge amount of followers. By the way, for a football blog, you have to love the name "Ripsit Blog". Nice.



OK now I'm going to dive into the navigation. The recruits button is amazing. Click on this and you get what might be one of the most visible, simple, and just cool recruit gateways I've come across. OK it is the best I've seen. So far I'm feeling USC despite the football heavy-feeling.


Clicking on the Traditions tab gives you a nice little USC wikipedia-like navigation of USC stars and history. I like it.... but it is all football. And now I'm starting to really wonder about the hoops presence.

Drilling into the Fan Zone, you'll see a couple things to call out: Kids Club (cool for the little ones), USC on Facebook and USC on Twitter.


These link to the USC athletics pages on Twitter, here, and Facebook. The Twitter site for athletics has 4,800 followers and 4,500 following. This is one of the places where I'll start to call out the importance of following the right people. It can be tough - some will say you should follow those who follow you. But I honestly don't agree in this case. Many people are using Twitter as an organic web flow. The people USC Trojans_com follows should all be affiliated with USC athletics -- current teams, coaches, and former players who have made it to the next level. Hit people with that power, not a random collection of 4,500 images!



Here's their Facebook All Access page, which (side note) is confusing as the All-Access part of the site costs money. This is free to join. More on this confusion later.



OK, on to the Blogs tab. I click in and see this image.... AMAZING! There is a football blog (covered earlier) and a Men's Basketball Blog. I am now starting to feel USC again.



Until I clicked in and saw this image.


If I'm a lenient grader, I might give USC an "Incomplete" grade. But this image really drove things home for me. Basketball feels like the sport they will get to when they can get to it. We all have those things on our list that we know we should do, we want to do, we vow to do, but it just isn't easy to get them done. This feels like that to me...

So I went ahead and drilled into the Men's Basketball page, shown here.

The page really isn't that dynamic. There are no easy ways to follow the program. No Twitter, No Facebook, No Email, No RSS... (you get the idea). But I did see a basketball link that called out the history of the Program. That excited me -- USC has had some good history, and recently turned out one of the better young shooters in the NBA in OJ Mayo. So I clicked in... and got this image. (I didn't click any further)


Finally, I clicked on the All Access button (what I referred to above). This looks to have some good content - organized around live games, past games, podcasts, and TV shows among other topics... but you have to pay to get this.


And that's the irony of USC. They have an amazing football program, a dynasty almost, with a coach that gives you an intimate look into his program and philosophy. And it is all free. Then you have a hoops program that has had some issues and needs to build a fan base. And all this content costs you. I just hope Coach Carroll and Coach O'Neill are tight, as that may help USC reach it's potential as a program, not as one team!

Stay tuned for #9 tomorrow!

Andy