Big 12 College Basketball Marketing: #3 Nebraska

Let's continue our analysis of the Big 12 Conference. We're going to look at how programs are communicating to young athletes from a digital point of view.

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, #9 Kansas, #8 Oklahoma State, #7 Missouri, #6 Iowa State, #5 Kansas State, and #4 Oklahoma.

#3: Nebraska

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: Best Twitter presence in the Big 12, by far. Incredible blog. Best Coaching Directory I've seen.

Weaknesses: This blog and Twitter craziness should dominate the Huskers basketball section!

Full Scouting Report:

I never would have dreamed Nebraska would stand so strong in the Big 12. Hitting the home page here, makes me feel (as you'd expect given the time of year and the program) that it is a football heavy place. Another game day blog, giving us all hope come December! Stay patient though, you don't have to wait til December for your Hoops Goodness.

We start at the Nside Menu, which gives you access to Podcasts and Video -- though I'm not sure why we have to use the word "Free" everywhere. Was that a problem before? Just putting that word makes it feel less good to me.



The video area, shown below, is a pretty long list of clips across all sports. It's good depth, just lacking inspiration and organization. Let's click into one...

As you can see below, the video player is a pretty good area. Feels much better than the last screen we saw. You can browse other videos from this popup. Nice, just wish it was a part of the NU site.

The "Free" Podcasts section takes you here, to a really nice directory of Podcasts - starting with the AD Tom Osborne and moving into each sport. This is really good, a step a lot of programs don't do, and I think it is really smart. Well done Huskers.

The bottom of the Huskers home page offers a callout for the Nebraska Facebook page - cool. Though the phrasing "Network with Nebraska" isn't exactly inspiring. Let's click in.

As you can see here, the Huskers do a nice job of updating. Leveraging Facebook as a place where they can post new updates inside a group of NU fanatics. Good stuff.

OK, let's get serious. It's time to move into the Nebraska Basketball section, here. You'll note a nice callout for following Coach Sadler on Twitter. We'll get there in a minute. First, I want you to check the box to the right of the main window -- "More in Men's Basketball." We'll dive through a couple things.

There's a section for Recruits (though, as I've written before I find it ironic we'd try to focus a recruit in on a part of the site that is very basic, shown below). Still, I like the link in there on how to contact a coach - it's simple, but important, and we don't see that often. Nice idea.



The Pros section is also a simple, yet smart area. As you can see in the image below, Nebraska is recognizing not just those who made it to the NBA but also those who've left Lincoln to play Internationally. That's smart.

And, my favorite thing in this area, is here: The NU Men's Basketball Blog. I love this. They do an amazing job of updating everyday, in a very personal way. In fact, they actually leveraged the blog to develop a Twitter design for Coach Sadler's page. Check this comment:

"Practice is obviously up and running and there has been a lot of instruction going on as coach Doc Sadler was basically without a voice yesterday. If you’re following his tweets, you saw Tuesday morning that he thought the players would love him since he had no voice, and then after the morning practice, he said it was the “Best practice we have had. Probably because I can't talk.” That’s a funny dude and if you’re not following him on Twitter, you should. He’s been tweeting at least once a day (and in some cases up to four times) and plans to continue to do it to reach out to the fans.

If you haven’t seen Doc’s Twitter page in the past few days, when you go there you’ll notice a new look to it. We received a number of good designs for part of Doc’s Twitter page design contest and we’ve started posting the best ones. The fifth-place design is up now and will stay until Nov. 15. Each month we’ll change it until the winner gets his put up Feb. 15 through the end of the NCAA Tournament. The winner was Dustin Tomes, who lives in Boulder, Colo. He’ll get pair of tickets to a home game, which by his choice will be the Oklahoma game. Congrats.

Amazing.

It's a sample of how the Huskers use their blog to connect people to their Twitter page. Nice.

Of course, you can follow the NU Hoops Blog on Twitter like I do, here. This is one of the best Twitter sites in the Big 12 - with only 550 followers but a serious original content punch. Definitely worth a click of your time.

Innocently, I clicked on the Coaches Tab. I was not expecting to see what I found below.

Oh my.

As you can see, at a glance we get not just each coach, but one click access to email them or follow them on Twitter. Really, this is great stuff. I'll of course give you a quick tour of each coach's page.

Coach Sadler is up first, here. He's got it all going - frequent updates, over 3000 followers, and an honesty that you don't find in a lot of coaching sites. He'll tell you if the practice wasn't great, he'll tell you when it was. Just what you want: original content that is truthful.



Assistant Jim Shaw is one of my favorite Twitterers. He's only got around 200 followers, but he's active - even tweeting during a practice. Worth a click!

Assistant Chris Croft is up as well, with around 225 followers. He leverages Twitter to share articles on the squad.

Finally, Coach Walter Roese is here, posting to his 250+ followers in two languages.


I'll close this with a look at the Nebraska player pages. As you can see in Sek Henry's page below, NU posts related video content onto each player's profile page.

That's a wrap. As you can see, Nebraska does a nice job of leveraging what they have. This is a really nice site, and a great program to follow.

Leaving us with two squads: Baylor and Texas A&M. Who's got the best digital marketing presence in the Big 12? Tune in on Monday and we'll keep rolling.

Thanks for reading,

Andy