We dive into this because websites and digital marketing create an opportunity for coaches and programs to share what they stand for. The internet is always there, and always on. And, as they do on the court, the best programs take advantage of opportunities.
So let's keep moving. Thus far our Big 12 journey has shown us #12 Texas Tech, #11 Colorado, #10 Texas, and #9 Kansas.
#8: Oklahoma State
The Digital Scouting Report
Strengths: Really good Twitter site. I was pleasantly surprised to see Coach Ford had a site.
Weaknesses: There's a definite need for video to pump into this site.
Full Scouting Report:
When I hit the Oklahoma State home page, you're hit with a pretty bold picture and the OSUTube All-Access video player. The tone is set. I'm hyped and ready to dive in...
The first thing I came across is the Promotions Callout on the Upper Menu. As I mouse over it, you see a pretty sweet collection of ways to check in on the Cowboys. Twitter and Facebook are here. Let's keep clicking.
A double click on the Twitter Tab takes you here - to a directory of ways to follow the program on Twitter, set to the look of the Cowboys. As I mentioned with Texas Tech, I am actually a fan of this -- it's simple but it sends a message that we're going to get a nice feel of Twitter pumped into Oklahoma State, rather than Oklahoma State pumped into Twitter. Subtle, but nice.
The other thing that's super cool is the Twitter feed of OKState.com is actually pumped in. Now I wish this was pumped all the way into the home page. But I like the fact that it takes the guesswork out. Like what you see? Sign up to follow. Or just click in. Again, simple but powerful.
So I know the suspense is killing you. You need me to click in. Consider it done. (Click along here if you want)... They have over 1600 followers and a regularly updated site that feels of a live blog - with posts throughout football games. It's seeing things like this that are blowing me away in advance (I am anticipating these live blog style sites will be everywhere once Hoops season starts)... What is weird though is the boxes of who OSU Athletics follows. I'd love to see a directory of OSU sites - academics and athletics. What I do see is a bunch of sites including Fox Sports Ohio?
I also clicked on the OSU Athletics Twitter site, here, and found a site that is much simpler, with a pretty cool graphic pattern of the Cowboy and the Twitter logo. The site has around 1600 followers but isn't updated nearly as often.
Coach Travis Ford is also up on Twitter, though he isn't active yet. Still I was excited to see he's out there... and he's already over 700 followers.
OK. Let's move on to the Facebook section. Clicking in takes you to OSU's Group shown below and here. As you can see, they have passionate fans -- upwards of 1500 here - this had a feel to me of being a fan community, rather than a deep Cowboy experience.
Alright. We'll back out of here and move on to the Multimedia section of the home page, shown below. As you can see in the list, OSU has an iPhone app. Let's dive in.
You get hit with a pretty solid preview of what's available to you. If I'm a Cowboys fan, I'm willing to pay the $4.99 to get streaming audio or video. Does that mean I can watch OSU basketball on my phone all season? I might want to buy this anyway. That'd be incredible!
Moving on to the Basketball home page, you again are hit with a powerful visual attack. But while I'm pumped at this visual (what a crazy place to play!), I am drawn to the text in the lower right - CoachTravisFord.com. Let's check that out.
The other thing that's super cool is the Twitter feed of OKState.com is actually pumped in. Now I wish this was pumped all the way into the home page. But I like the fact that it takes the guesswork out. Like what you see? Sign up to follow. Or just click in. Again, simple but powerful.
So I know the suspense is killing you. You need me to click in. Consider it done. (Click along here if you want)... They have over 1600 followers and a regularly updated site that feels of a live blog - with posts throughout football games. It's seeing things like this that are blowing me away in advance (I am anticipating these live blog style sites will be everywhere once Hoops season starts)... What is weird though is the boxes of who OSU Athletics follows. I'd love to see a directory of OSU sites - academics and athletics. What I do see is a bunch of sites including Fox Sports Ohio?
I also clicked on the OSU Athletics Twitter site, here, and found a site that is much simpler, with a pretty cool graphic pattern of the Cowboy and the Twitter logo. The site has around 1600 followers but isn't updated nearly as often.
Coach Travis Ford is also up on Twitter, though he isn't active yet. Still I was excited to see he's out there... and he's already over 700 followers.
OK. Let's move on to the Facebook section. Clicking in takes you to OSU's Group shown below and here. As you can see, they have passionate fans -- upwards of 1500 here - this had a feel to me of being a fan community, rather than a deep Cowboy experience.
Alright. We'll back out of here and move on to the Multimedia section of the home page, shown below. As you can see in the list, OSU has an iPhone app. Let's dive in.
You get hit with a pretty solid preview of what's available to you. If I'm a Cowboys fan, I'm willing to pay the $4.99 to get streaming audio or video. Does that mean I can watch OSU basketball on my phone all season? I might want to buy this anyway. That'd be incredible!
Moving on to the Basketball home page, you again are hit with a powerful visual attack. But while I'm pumped at this visual (what a crazy place to play!), I am drawn to the text in the lower right - CoachTravisFord.com. Let's check that out.
Coach Ford's home page, shown here, delivers an equally powerful first impression. I like the player roster image (James Anderson) in the upper right. That's pretty sweet. I also like the general life of this site. It just feels like this is an exciting place to be. Let's click around a little.
Diving into Players takes you to a roster page that doesn't offer the same amount of life as we see on the home page (shown below). Clicking in on any of these players (from the text list) just takes you to the player's standard bio page. I guess I was hoping to see the same treatment we see of Anderson on the whole site. A bigger opportunity to give a feel for the team.
Going back to the basketball main page, there are a couple other things to check out. First, the Cowboys' new Media Guide is up and active on the site, as a virtual click through catalog. It's pretty simple, but I was glad to see it up and visible - without making me download it and print it out to view it. (I wonder how many of us actually have printers available with our laptops?)
Oklahoma State lists players who've made it to the next level here. As you can see, it is something that could be a much better experience. I'd much prefer to see a list of players rather than have it sorted by teams with comments like Charlotte's below ("No Players"). Rather than telling us about what teams don't have Cowboys, tell us more about the Cowboys that have made it!
And that sums it up. OSU has a lot of simple, powerful pieces. And they have a few pieces that need to be focused in. Doing a few things a little better can really add up to a complete Cowboy experience online.
Come back on Monday as we continue our trek through the Big 12!
Andy
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment