Big East College Basketball Marketing: #11 Pitt

Let's keep moving in our journey through the Big East Conference, looking 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.

Thus far our journey has shown us #16 DePaul, #15 Seton Hall, #14 U Conn, #13 Notre Dame, and #12 Louisville.

Let's keep moving.

#11 Pitt

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: An active Facebook page and a cool 1-2 Media Guide/This is Pitt punch.

Weaknesses: That 1-2 punch is weakened by serving up another school's material.

Full Scouting Report:

Checking out the Pitt home page, here, and you're definitely dropped into a well-branded space. Let's start by driving into the Fan Center button in the middle of the home page...

As you can see, the Fan Center gives you access to Pitt on Facebook and Basketball Game Day Central. I think you can guess where I want to go first...

Sadly, Basketball Game Day Central is very much a guide to how to get around on game day. Where to get tickets or park. I was hoping for a lot more - like ESPN's Game Day coverage is on TV. Yes, a lot to ask, but the idea of Game Day Central really had me revved up! Let's move on.

Meanwhile, the Pitt Panthers Facebook page is really good. It's a nice combination of a 12,000 or so active fanbase and frequent posts by the Athletics Department - game updates, summaries, previews, and events. And the community participates on those postings. Granted, it is across all sports, but it's pretty good. Link here.




OK, let's move next to the Multimedia section (shown here). As you can see, this offers another place to connect into Facebook while also offering other ways to connect with the program.

Clicking on Twitter takes us here, to a well designed map of Twitter connections. Really simple, really nice.


Coach Dixon is up on Twitter, here, with roughly 2000 followers. He was pretty good and active over the summer, then stopped posting. I'm following him now, hoping that will help drive him to get active again. Come on Coach!




The Pitt Podcast Network is shown here. It's very similar to what we've seen in a lot of programs -- giving you access to lots of programs across lots of sports, but without that ability to customize what you are getting...



But when you visit the Pitt iTunes page (shown next), you can see they have a very well branded experience. Really classy. Now if you can only add a way to focus in on basketball, we're going to be in a solid place!

Which means it is time to check out the Basketball home page, below. I like the layout, as it draws your eyes quickly into the coaches, rosters, and history of a great program.

Scrolling down the page shows you access to additional program areas, shown here. As you can tell, they are elevating Coach Dixon's Twitter page inside the basketball page, which is solid. They also raise another way to follow the program on Twitter, Men's Basketball News. Solid (but somehow absent from the Pitt directory we saw earlier)...


Shown below is another way to get your Pitt Panthers Basketball Twitter fix. Athletics Media Director Greg Hotchkiss keeps up a site. He's active, which will grow his 100 follower base, but right now he's just sharing links and feeds. That's all good, I'm just waiting for the personality and original content to hit us!

Moving on, I checked out Pitt in Pro Basketball. As you can see, it is more of an Excel-like table, which links out to NBA.com. I'm glad they have the info, I just wish they offered us a glimpse of what impact these players made on the Pitt program, what they learned, and how Pitt helped them get to the next level.

Next, I clicked on "This is Pitt", which is an online recruiting magazine. Solid! I love this idea, as it shows the guide they'd likely walk a recruit through - beyond the basketball program to the city and the culture. Solid.

What I was scared to see was the related content on the right hand side. Let me zoom in for you... Yes, the related content is actually a Michigan State Guide? That's not ideal. At all.

And, lastly, here's Pitt's Media Guide. Like many programs, they offer the ability to flip through it online. Like no one else, they have "Related content" that is definitely not related. (see the images on the right. Yikes.

That concludes our look at Pitt. They have a lot going for them but have some critical details that need to be addressed.

Come back tomorrow as we continue our Big East trek.

Andy