Let's keep moving through the Big East Conference, looking at how programs market themselves to young athletes (or fans) online. This is our chance to see how coaches and programs in a power conference stack up against each other -- and how they share what they stand for.
And then there were 2...
#2 Providence
The Digital Scouting Report
Strengths: Coach Keno Davis has a great site and comes across as one of the most active and accessible coaches I've seen.
Weaknesses: Supplementing the Coach Keno content with more content on the players and the assistant coaches would make this experience even better.
Full Scouting Report:
I played at Drake back in the late 90s and then, later, as a fan, was a part of the emotional journey Coach Keno Davis took us on in 2008, en route to a 28-5 dream season and a Coach of the Year Award... Before leaving us after a year.
As you'll see soon, Coach Davis brings a lot more to the Friars than what he does on the court.
I was still a little skittish about visiting the Providence home page, shown here. But, of course, I did and was inspired by what I saw. Which starts with a great and powerful branding feel. I love the bold Friars.com statement!
It's tough to tell in the image above (both because it's small and because I cropped it weird), but Providence offers a nice set of social media icons to follow the program. I'm zooming in below. Notice how they change this when you mouse over one. (As I mouse over Facebook, we see it shift up and the words "Follow Us On Facebook" appear.) Nicely done.
I loved what I saw on the Facebook page (here). Facebook is a fan site, why not make it about fans, right? Providence does just this. 2400 strong, the Friar Faithful talk about games and plan events. Oh and share videos and pics. Solid work. And super cool profile picture!
The Providence YouTube Channel is here, with 37 videos across all sports. They have great basketball content here, but could benefit from allowing fans to subscribe by sport. (By basketball, of course) And, as we saw in Marquette last week, they could benefit by adding YouTube into their Facebook community.
Clicking on Twitter takes you to this directory. Simple and nice.
The Providence Athletics Twitter is here, with 1400 followers, and updates (scores + news) for all sports. If you are a fan of all things Providence, it's good. If you just care about hoops, I'd stay away as it's a little much to handle... As for Coach Keno's page, hang tight a minute and we'll get there. (It's worth the wait!)
Also on the home page, you'll see the image below, which gives you a chance to connect with Athletic Director Bob Driscoll.
Clicking in to Bob Driscoll's Athletic Director blog, here, gives you a nice place to see weekly or so comments from the AD on all things Providence. I'm a big fan of AD blogs, as they by their very nature allow you to create a conversation with passionate fans on topics of your choosing. Really well done.
Let's go from here and check out the basketball home page, and you'll see the same simple and powerful branding live here. (And a better view of those icons at the top of the page!)
First, I was intrigued by the callout for 2008-09 Highlight video. It takes you to the CBS window below, but the video is free and available and cool. I think teams should do more of this -- no doubt they create highlight videos at the end of the season for Awards banquets and such... Why not hype this on the site? Cool. I would love to see it elevated even more!
Next, I clicked into the Basketball Media Guide, shown below. It is broken apart by topic and comes with a powerful visual statement (like most of Providence has, solid.) My only callout is that if you wanted the whole thing, it seems like a big pain to click on and download each of these PDFs. I'd like to see this a little more natural.
Clicking on the Providence in the Pros takes you to player stories like the one below. Where Providence excels is that they tell you the story of what each player did while they were in college (though I wonder why they include the "Last College" callout.) Austin Croshere's led the Friars to the Elite 8, and that story is told below.
Scrolling down the Basketball page takes us here, to a cool action-packed gateway!
First, let's check out the Facilities. Clicking in takes you here - to a emotional and powerful image of game day. And it offers some solid access to what the program is about - expanding the natural definition of "facility."
The Dunkin' Donuts Center image gallery shows you about the gym you'll play in - a nice photo tour...
I loved the pictures of the Athletics Facilities. Things come across first class 00 loved the wood floors, trophies, and flatscreen with ESPN pumping in the image below. And this is a symbol of what you, the prospective Friar, would become a part of.
I was surprised by the tour of Providence (the city), but clicking in made it all come together for me. I've never been to Rhode Island, as I'm sure many people haven't. And this tour shows you just how beautiful a place this area can be. Nice idea, nice execution.
OK, let's move right along to Coach Keno Davis' website, shown below and linked here. The home page is well designed as it gives you clear access to watch, listen, and follow the Coach. I love how his blog and Twitter feed are pumped into the home page. Let's click around.
Clicking on About Coach Davis takes us here, to both his Bio and the various ways to connect with him -- Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn? Smart. Let's check these out.
Keno's Facebook page, shown below and here, is a nice way of connecting with students - as we saw before Providence has an active Facebook community in general -- making this a smart move for Keno.
Next Keno's LinkedIn page (Really, with 84 connections right now) is shown below and here. I like this a lot. Why? Well, not just because college students will need to leverage LinkedIn as they hit the working world. This will eventually become a nice way to help Keno's players network and for Coach Davis to stay in touch with them once they move on from Rhode Island. I also see this as a very smart way to network with the business community - no doubt an important move for a Head Coach and Athletics Department to gain the support a program needs. Seeing it at first confused me. Thinking about it made me wonder why we don't see more of this. Nicely done Coach.
Keno is one of the best I've come across on Twitter. Shown below (and here), he's got well over 4000 followers and a style of frequent updates and lots of energy. He also tags every Tweet with his site, no doubt helping to grow traffic.
Assistant Coach Rodell Davis also is up on Twitter (here). He's really good - an authentic vibe to it, and has around 500 followers (including me).
I'm a big fan of Keno's blog (referenced earlier and linked here). It's honest, authentic, and well done. Check this sample:
"Our exhibition season is over as we came away with two victories, 97-74 over Merrimack and 91-55 over Stonehill. We were led in those games by a couple of our returning players in MarShon Brooks and Jamine Peterson. The fans attending those games saw the up-tempo type of basketball that Providence will soon be known for."Here's the visual:
Keno also gives references to Friars in the NBA. This is good, but it brought a question to my mind. All told, this site is incredible. But it is Coach Keno Davis' site, not the Providence Basketball site. So the images below to me should be players (at any school) that Keno has helped play professionally - NBA or Internationally. Just my opinion, but I think it'd be a nice touch.
The Players section is a little thin on this site (see below). What I'd love to see is a simple quote or scouting report on each guy from the coach -- maybe it's as simple as the one thing Coach Davis loves the most about each player.
The site offers easy access to donate. I understand why it is here. It just feels a little weird to me, a little out of place maybe?
And, finally, Keno offers an online Q/A with fans. I like this, as he shows his versatility in connecting with fans of all technology abilities.
That's it. A great site from a program on the rise. A site that gives you ways to follow the program, loads of insight from the coach, and a consistent brand.
Come back on Monday as we wrap up our coverage with the best in the Big East!
Andy
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