SEC College Basketball Marketing: #12 Alabama

Let's continue our journey, looking at how programs are communicating to young athletes (or fans) from a digital point of view. Websites and digital marketing are the great equalizer -- a place where every program can 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.
Let's keep moving.

#12 Alabama

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: I'm a big fan of the branding in their Media Guide... and they have a very passionate Facebook community

Weaknesses: Need ways to follow the basketball program, and stat.

Full Scouting Report:

You have to love the URL for Alabama's Athletics page, RollTide.com (link).

The top of the page features Multimedia icons for Facebook and Twitter updates, which I'll zoom into now.

Bama's Facebook page (here) is home to a passionate community of 32,000. It's tough to say this is football focused, as it's only natural to be that way when your squad is about to compete for the national title.

I do like that they post upcoming events on the page, with all sports covered. And, the fan base goes crazy for Gymnastic Updates... Seems like there's a big opportunity to leverage this energy for good, huh?

The Athletics Twitter page, here, has roughly 3400 followers. They cover all sports, and I think it is mandatory to end every sentence with either "Roll Tide", "Roll Tide Roll", or "RTR". Hmm. I love the energy, but (maybe because I'm an outsider) it feels a little weird, like when someone ends every sentence with an exclamation point. What they do well though is ignite fans and compel them to show up and support. So that's solid.

Moving on, if you click on the Multimedia button, you get access to another level of ways to follow the Tide.

Tidecasts (nice name and branding) is the collection of Alabama Athletics podcasts. As you can (hopefully) see in the image below, they are a little behind here, having no new podcasts shown in this window since 2007. Love the idea and the branding, just needs the consistency to finish the job.

Alabama also offers Tide TV - a CBS Sports window of original content, including coaches shows and game highlights across all sports. It's a mix of free and pay content. Good content, but I'd much rather see it inside the Roll Tide site.

Moving on to the basketball home page, I want to draw your attention to the light grey bar between the red and black bars... I'll zoom in, don't worry.

As you can see (kind of anyway), Bama pulls in easy access to info and stats on the most recent games right here.

Moving around the page, you have access to this year's Media Guide, which you can download or flip through on the site. I love the branding here - very solid colors, very powerful statements.

This statement extends into the guide, as Head Coach Anthony Grant states his vision for the team, stated boldly as "To Play for Championships.... There will be no one that will work harder than me." Nice. Sign me up Coach.

After each game, photos post onto the site in this gallery. I'd love to see this imagery blown out a bit more (as we have seen Bama makes good use of powerful photography.)

And, lastly, you get access to a list of players who left the Tide and made it to the next level. I wish they told more of their collegiate stories, and found it entertaining that they list the College each of these players went to. (Hmmmm.)

What isn't hooked into the Basketball site is any way to follow the program. Twitter feels like the biggest miss. That said, Assistant Coach John Brannen just started on Twitter. Watch out for him -- his first 10 tweets show signs of getting it: personal and interesting. He even tweeted about his 3 year old daughter saying "Roll Tide."

That's it. A solid start, but definitely lacking in ways to follow the Tide Basketball team. Come back tomorrow as we keep moving.

Andy