Big East College Basketball Marketing: #8 Georgetown

Hi everyone, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I'm definitely thankful to be able to check out a conference filled with inspiration from top-to-bottom in how they communicate with the world of fans and young athletes. Thus far our journey has shown us #16 DePaul, #15 Seton Hall, #14 U Conn, #13 Notre Dame, #12 Louisville, #11 Pitt, #10 Cincinnati, and #9 Rutgers.

Let's keep moving.

#8 Georgetown

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: Innovative Blog ticker at the top mixed with a solid blog/Twitter 1-2 punch.

Weaknesses: The Basketball section definitely needs a go-to-player.

Full Scouting Report:

When I checked out the Georgetown Athletics home page, here, a couple of things really grabbed me. First, the Twitter logo. Talk about out there on its own. The "make it obvious to follow you" side of me loves it. The "make it feel a natural part of the site" part of me doesn't so much. Let's click ahead...



Georgetown has a very good Twitter page, here, with 1900 followers. They do a great job of sharing original content and posts from the blog.



The other impressive thing that hit me from the home page is the header. Take a look at the image below and you'll see that the latest blog post is elevated here, in the blue bar beneath the main navigation. It's simple, powerful, and I love it!



Clicking into the Hoya Insider Blog (shown here) is really good. They add a personal touch that makes the content extremely interesting. Check out this sample, and feel what it's like to really be an Insider. Nice.

"Media day tends to be pretty hectic. After an address from the new commissioner, John Marinatto, eight schools stay in the theatre area for the first 1 hour and 15 minutes visiting with print media. Coach Thompson, Austin, Chris and Greg were pretty busy throughout, with reporters from virtually every school, as well as national reporters like Jim O'Connell from the Associated Press, Dick "Hoops" Weiss from the New York Daily News, Andy Katz from ESPN and Jeff Goodman from FoxSports.com."

OK, back up to the home page and you'll see you can also access the Hoya Insider Blog from the Promotions menu. Cool. You'll also see there's access to Social Networking, which is our next click stop.

Diving in takes you here, to a choice of following the Hoyas on Facebook or Twitter. I like this, but really wish they would elevate Facebook and Twitter into the Promotions menu as individuals, not lumped together as "Social Media." Sadly, though, the Facebook link was broken when I checked out the site.
Clicking on to the Basketball Home Page and you'll see the Hoya Vision All-Access callout on the right hand side of the page.





First, let's zoom in. Some good original video content is elevated right here, into the site. Nice!



Unfortunately, when you click in for more, you are greeted with this requirement to buy access at $9.95/month... and then (as you'll see below), there is no listing of what you actually get as it relates to basketball. I want the Hoya Vision to know I came from basketball and offer me a Basketball-Specific Insider.




As you'll see in the next two images, the Basketball site also offers access to a large amount of content on the program. I'll point out a couple of them.

First, I clicked into Hoyas in the Pros. As you can see, Georgetown offers the information but not the inspiration. I was hoping for more about the monstrous collection of amazing Bigs to come through DC, from Ewing to Mutombo to Hibbert and Jeff Green.



Clicking into the Hoya Newsletter takes directly to a sign-up form. I have no issues with having the form, but wish they'd give us a little sample first. Recall how Minnesota delivered their newsletters (link here, my review here). Georgetown could do a lot better to offer up their latest newsletter online and then allow you to sign up for the next one!



And, finally, the Hoyas offer up their Media Guide as an online magazine you can view or print as a PDF.



That's it. Georgetown has the elements to dominate. They just need to share a little more and get us more information and connection around basketball. Come back tomorrow as we move on to #7! Who's going to win this thing?

Andy