The 10 Best Digital Marketing Features in Big 12 Conference Basketball

I'm super excited for today's topic. It's a chance to recap what we've seen in the Big 12 Conference. I'll start with a summary of the order of finish and then I'll conclude with the most inspiring pieces, regardless of team. And you'll want to come back tomorrow, when I'll hit you with the Big 12's All-Twitter Team.

As a whole, the Big 12 has been the deepest conference, top to bottom, that I've reviewed thus far. Here's how they finished.

1. Texas A&M. Great branding and a nice Virtual Guide to Aggie Athletics. Plus the first player blog I've come across.
2. Baylor. The best use I've seen of a strength and conditioning coach yet.
3. Nebraska. A team of Twitter superstars and a fantastic basketball blog.
4. Oklahoma. Coach Capel is active plus a motherload of video.
5. Kansas State. Coach Martin site is well done and focuses you on life beyond Manhattan.
6. Iowa State. Smart use of Facebook.
7. Missouri. Need to infuse the energy from the media guide into the website.
8. Oklahoma State. Coach Ford site has foundation, needs furnishings.
9. Kansas. Hey, they are #1 in the Big 12 on the court.
10. Texas. Top 100 moments feature is cool, but UT energy is needed.
11. Colorado. Nice Twitter ticker, wish the rest of the site was as fresh.
12. Texas Tech. They have social media branding, just need to back it up with content.
    

Now, as promised, here are my 10 favorite things about the conference.

10. Oklahoma Basketball Directory's Branding. Many programs offer access to their site through text. Oklahoma kills it -- take a look at this image and tell me you don't feel excited to click around. Click in here.



9. Big 12 Conference has iPhone App Fever. I know there's a fever for everyone to get an iPhone app. But seeing these gets me excited. Because we aren't that far away from a day when all of us get most of our information from our phones. And the Big 12 seems to be ahead in this area. Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Missouri all have them.






8. Kansas State's smart integration of NBA branding into their Coaches section. Frank Martin Basketball (link here) does an amazing job of making it super simple to see and feel how these coaches can help you get to the League. I love this.



7. The Baylor Basketball Experience. I was surprised by this one (link here). I guess I didn't have a full image of the Baylor Experience in my mind but they nailed this one. Soak in the branding on the images below. I especially love how they elevate players who have been All Big 12 under Coach Drew. They took what they had and did a brilliant job of branding it.

Oh and pay attention to how they turn the spotlight on their strength and conditioning staff via image and video. Nice!






6. The Virtual Guide to Aggie Athletics (link here). I was a little uncertain when the first page (shown below) had a little bit of a PowerPoint feel to it (no offense, Microsoft). But when you dive in the combination of visuals, text, and video is powerful. Very powerful. And, as you'll see in the images below, they highlight some areas recruits are going to want to know about: Assistant Coaches, Practice Gym, and Dance Squad. Smart.






5. The Texas A&M Aggie Twitter Directory. As you can see in the image below (or by clicking here), the Aggies not only offer up a very simple, organized list of who is up on Twitter, but you can see the latest post just by mousing over a name. That's simple, smart, and just made me feel like exploring around.



4. Iowa State on Facebook. It was the first time I'd seen a program go a little deeper with Facebook. They didn't just tell you they have a Facebook page. They told you why you should go. If you become a Fan of ISU on Facebook, you can win prizes. They've done this by asking fans to describe their favorite player and memory. Click here to check it out (or maybe win a prize?)



3. Colorado's Twitter Ticker. This was super cool. Notice the little Twitter posts right below their home page navigation (below or clicking here). It really made their site feel alive, and I think we should see more action like this.


2. Texas A&M's Player Blog. Senior Guard Donald Sloan is posting his insights going into the season (link here). He does a nice job of being honest and insightful and reading this made me feel instantly more connected to the program.



1. Nebraska Coach Directory. I wanted to hug this page (link here). It's so simple, but literally a bulldozer's worth of power (that's a lot, right?) I haven't seen anything like it, but now, at a glance, you see the coaches and can email them or follow them on Twitter with a click of your hand. And it proves that some of the world's best things aren't incredibly fancy - just really smart.


That's a wrap. I hope you've enjoyed this. Come back tomorrow as I unveil the Big 12's All-Twitter Team.

Andy