Could the iPad Transform College Basketball Marketing... and Recruiting?

Can the iPad transform everything in NCAA Basketball marketing (and thus in recruiting)? Maybe it’s the timeliness of the news of the new Apple iPad (read here), combined with the fact that I’m on a plane with no wifi, it’s late at night, and my mind's racing (yes, I posted this after landing). But I feel the announcement of the new Apple iPad may forever change the landscape of college basketball recruiting as we know it.


Bold statement? Yes. So I’ll refute this guess with a series of questions and a few hopeful answers that have been swirling in my head…

Isn’t this just a big iPod?

Maybe.

But what if it isn’t. What if it’s really a smaller, better computer?

My guess is that when you look at this $499 product, it will not become something compared to a $199 iPod but rather to a $999 (or more) laptop. Think about that. Why?

Size. It’s way too big to be something you have with you at all times, like your phone or iPod. But it’s also a lot lighter and thinner than a computer.

Functionality. So this is going to enable you to do about everything you can on your iPod touch or iPhone from a non-talking on it standpoint. It’s got wifi capability, it’s got a beautiful 9.7” screen that makes it much easier to use but you’re still swiping and pinching like you do on an iPhone.

Newspaper. What? OK a general way of looking at this. But to me this could be the closest thing we’ve gotten yet to that amazing Daily Prophet from Harry Potter. You know (see below) the image of looking at the newspaper on a flat screen that also allows you to watch videos and listen to messages.



I think this actually might help the newspaper business but that’s another topic.

Use. So what do most young people do on a laptop? Go online. Download music. Then they have to use their iPod touch or phone to mess around with apps. This does it all.

We’ve seen how Texas A&M and South Florida take their media guides and turn them into Online Guides. (images below)





Now imagine what this will do for the “Media Guide", beyond just changing what we call it!

Does this affect college basketball?

Over time, I think it will. I am not advocating dropping everything you're doing to head out and plan for the iPad. But I think this should impact the way we think about where things are going. And how people will interact with the things we are creating now. So I’ll answer that question with a lot of questions.

• If you have the ability to add movies (videos) into the newspaper/magazines, how does that change things?
• Now if someone is using an internet connected device, how could that change things?
• What if you are active on Twitter and Facebook and the same kid is looking at your guide. Could that change things?
• Could live in-game blogs like Marquette does (here) evolve differently if a kid is looking at your site on an iPad during a game?
• And if this iPad has a GPS App on it, does that change things? (I’m betting the answer there is yes… in a big way)
• How does this change live game streaming? Or archived game viewing, like Illinois State does?

And... breathe.

So this whole question of the iPad is going to take some time to answer. But it's giving us a lot to think about, and I can't wait for the ride!

College Basketball: The West Coast Conference's Digital Presence

Going through the ACC (link here), Pac-10 (link here), Big Ten (link here), Big 12 (link here), Big East (link here), and SEC (link here) gave me context. Now we'll have a sense for not just what the Mid Majors do well, but also how they stack up against the rest of the conferences.

We covered the MVC here. Now it's time to turn our attention out west, to the West Coast Conference.

Let's go.

What's Good about the WCC Experience? Loved seeing the Commish on Twitter, plus nice job of leveraging YouTube into their site.

What Could Be Better? Really need a deeper basketball experience, to elevate the success this conference has had in the postseason.

Let's dive in...

Plowing into the West Coast Conference's website, here, and you get greeted by a scrolling window of ways to follow the program: the Commish is up on Twitter (killer), and you can follow the conference itself on Twitter and Facebook. I love the way these are worded (it's very action oriented: Become a Fan, Follow the WCC, Follow the Commish." On the other hand, I'm pretty distracted by the gigantic Zappos banner at the top of the page. I get why you do this, it just feels a little over the top. But let's get back to the good stuff.





Clicking into the Commish on Twitter takes you here. I'm excited at this in general. I'm not sure why more conference commissioners aren't doing this, because it's a fantastic way to have a nice forum with fans. Commish Zaninovich has 77 followers, but that number will grow as he gets the word out and keeps up with his style. Check this excerpt:

"Great day 4 WCC MBB. 4 for 4 incl. a big nat'l TV win for Zags over Illinois on "neutral" crt. UP, SCU & USF all undefeated in 2010 as well!"

It's simple but powerful. He's fairly regular and shares updates on the teams in the conference and where he is personally. Solid.



The WCC on Twitter takes you here, to a feed of score and standings updates across all sports. The WCC does provide us with links to new content (that's how I learned about the Road to Las Vegas original programming which is super cool). In total, they have 422 followers and probably need a bit more original insight to take this to the next level.


The WCC's Facebook presence lands you here. With 375 fans, there is a lot of energy in every post but those posts aren't very often. I'd like to see the conference get a little more engaged with fans here. Perhaps interact with WCC school Facebook or athletics Facebook pages. Just feels like something is missing.



OK, moving back to the athletics home page. On the right hand side you'll note a nice box that delivers Podcasts right here into the site. This is great, as you're able to check out podcasts right from the main page. The content itself is organized as a stream of consciousness list, rather than by program or sport though. I think a little branding here would help.



Also in this box is original video content. The WCC produces a weekly show, "The Road to Las Vegas," which chronicles each team as they push towards the conference tourney in Vegas.



Great to see this, and it gets better as they make it easy to share -- check the image below where this content is posted onto YouTube and then embedded into the WCC site.



All of this content and more is accessible from the main menu, Multimedia tout, shown here. (Side note: I've noticed this a lot. Would you call Twitter multimedia? More importantly, would a high school recruit? I'm not sure about that one.)


The WCC on YouTube, linked here, is just getting moving. They only have 14 subscribers, and have been sharing content once every week or two. As I mentioned before, I think they are doing great things in posting videos here and then pasting them into the WCC site. It just feels like they need to get a little more active and rally around a couple of consistent programs (like their Road to Las Vegas). Simply put, let us know what's coming and when and make it easy to follow you.




Clicking into Podcasts takes you to a really nice directory of WCC broadcasts, although they are still all included as one grouping (not by sport or by show) and it appears they stopped recording last May. Still, a nice foundation here.



Finally, I went to the hoops section, here. There really isn't much content outside of what we've already shared which is both good and bad. It's good that you can get to everything from the home page. It's bad if you consider people may click right into the Hoops section and thus miss a lot of the story.



To conclude this, here's my Pre-Looking at Anything Rankings.

1. Gonzaga
2. St Mary's
3. Portland
4. Santa Clara
5. Loyola Marymount
6. Pepperdine
7. San Diego
8. San Francisco

Come back on Monday as we'll start rolling through the WCC!

Andy

College Basketball: The MVC All-Twitter Team

To conclude our analysis of the MVC Basketball marketing, it's time to name our All-Twitter team. This is not simply a list of the most followed or most active on Twitter. That's not why you come here. This is a chance to recognize those who are doing an amazing job of sharing original insights. I'm looking for that perfect balance of quality and quantity. This is a recommendation on who you should follow. And it's open to any coach, school, or conference official.

Before I get going, click here if you'd like to follow everyone in MVC Basketball on Twitter. (Everyone I've been able to find - all the coaches, programs, and insider blogs). If you see someone who isn't included, please let me know and I'll get them dropped in.

Moving along, here we go. I hope you dig it...

MVC First Team All-Twitter. To make the First Team, I have to be willing to follow them myself. Sounds fair, huh?

Wichita State Assistant Coach Chris Jans.
The MVC Twitterer of the Year is the second Assistant Coach to be named the best in a conference on Twitter (following Nebraska Assistant Coach Jim Shaw and his Big 12 Title here). Coach Jans is killing it (click here). He's got 291 followers but it is his style that takes him to this level. He brings a personal style of sharing articles on the squad and updates on what he's up to personally (movies and family). Solid.



Bradley Head Coach Jim Les
He has just shy of 500 followers, here. He isn't active enough, but he's really good. check this.... and imagine playing for a coach like this...

"Bring "swag" to NIU-not that we have arrived..but we have proven to ea other-commit to play hard/together/focused on D/reb..wer a good team"

Go Shockers
The Wichita State Athletics on Twitter is here. With 360 followers, this is an under appreciated site. They do a nice job of sharing what's new on the WSU athletics site or on YouTube, and there is some personality to it. Solid.



Northern Iowa Basketball Operations Coach Derrik Netten
Basketball Operations' Derrik Netten, here, proves title doesn't drive this list. With 162 followers, he is active and really solid - infusing a little bit of personality into his connections on the team or sports in general. Check this one:

"Just touched down here in Carbondale....never thought 27 degrees would feel tropical, but it does!"

Saluki Media
Saluki Media (Tom Weber) is my favorite SIU rep on Twitter, here, and one of the best in the MVC. He's only got around 75 followers (including me). What's great here is that there's a solid amount of updates and they all have a feel of authenticity and let you feel like you are close to (or a part of) the squad. Check this example.

"Salukis on the bus and headed for Bloomington. Everyone in good spirits after last night's amazing comeback."

Honorable Mention MVC All-Twitter Team
Here's a couple that barely missed the cut.

Southern Illinois Head Coach Chris Lowery
Coach Lowery is up on Twitter, here, with just over 900 followers. Coach Lowery brings a nice mix of personality - covering family, music, recruiting, and of course the squad. Just fun.




Bradley Assistant Coach Kyle Vogt.
Click in here. With 112 followers, he does a nice job, but hasn't posted much since November. When he does post, he's great - covering the team, practice thoughts, and even the Packers. In short, he seems like a coach you could hang with.



Northern Iowa Assistant Coach Ben Johnson
Assistant Coach Ben Johnson is here. With 154 followers, he's funny - reporting on the team and in a recent case his bet with Assistant Coach Green to eat nothing but fruit for 24 hours. To me his Twitter site makes him feel like he's one of the guys... a prankster.



That's it. If you want to get all these Digital Team updates, click here to follow me on Twitter.

Come back tomorrow as we take our first look at the West Coast Conference...

The 10 Best Digital Marketing Features in MVC Basketball

Today's going to be fun.

It's the chance to recap what we've seen in the Missouri Valley Conference. I'll start with a summary of the order of finish and then I'll conclude with the most inspiring pieces, regardless of team. And you'll want to come back tomorrow, when I'll hit you with the MVC All-Twitter Team.

First, let's recap how the MVC squads finished.

1. Wichita State - Best Basketball strategy across Facebook and Twitter
   
2. Illinois State - Good video strategy and great Facebook strategy
   
3. Bradley - Nice Recruiting Guide Content needs to pump into the site
   
4. Southern Illinois - Be a Saluki is the heart of this site
   
5. Missouri State - Well architected site needs basketball depth
   
6. Northern Iowa - Deep presence on Twitter
   
7. Drake - Twitter and Blog powers the Bulldogs
   
8. Indiana State - Nice photo tours of their new weight room
   
9. Evansville - BIG YouTube depth
   
10. Creighton - Does good photography sound like I'm reaching at all?
    

Now, as promised, here are my 10 favorite things about the conference. If you've just stumbled upon this blog, this is where it gets extra fun. This is the collection of most inspiring things across the 10-team MVC basketball marketing landscape. Let's go!

10. Wichita State's Basketball Facebook Page. I'm a fan of doing this in general. Why not provide us with a way to have a fan network of your team? This is an active site - pumping in video to a rowdy group of roughly 1300 fans. Click in here.


9. Become A Saluki and See How. I have to say combining the idea of Becoming a Saluki and Strength & Conditioning together inside a Recruits world is brilliant stuff. Southern Illinois both plants the idea of becoming a Saluki and they show you how they are going to help you reach your athletic potential.





8. Check out the Wichita State Program in 360 degrees. The Shockers give you interactive virtual tours just like you might get when you check out a new house online. You can check out the Koch Arena plus their Weight Room, Training Room, and Practice Facility in depth. Nice.






7. Illinois State's Former Player Blogs. This is just smart. Former Redbirds Emmanuel Holloway and Champ Oguchi are blogging on the ISU hoops site (link here and here). Not only do you, the fan, get to follow along with success of grads but you, the recruit, get a chance to connect with former stars. Love this - it proves you can leverage your former players even when they aren't in the NBA.




6. Drake's National Exposure. This is a nice touch. Drake made monster news in 2008 with their run to a 28-5 record and the NCAA tourney. They take this exposure and pump it into the basketball site, proving you can still get legs out of big time press even if it was a couple of years ago. (Here's to hoping they can add to this list!)



5. The Bradley Recruiting Guide. I'm not a fan of Media Guides. But I love the idea of a Recruiting Guide. This one has great branding throughout, including looks at their facilities, national exposure, and how they develop players. It's a really nice message and putting it here adds big time to the reach.







4. Follow the MSU Bears or the WSU Shockers Boxes. Missouri State and Wichita State take all the ways to follow their program and put it into a simple to follow box. MSU puts theirs at the top of the site, Wichita puts theirs further down on their home page. Love the simplicity and the power of having it all together.




3. Illinois State Brings Twitter & Music to Facebook. This is one of those "Why didn't other schools think of it?" things. Twitter is pumped into the Facebook site, allowing those who don't have Twitter accounts the ability to see their updates, right here. So powerful.
And, this image is powerful. Why not create a music player of the best radio highlights of your program and pump it into the Facebook page? Amazing concept!


2. Wichita State Takes a YouTube spin on the News. In the spirit of maximizing what you have, Wichita takes their news stories and posts them onto YouTube. Then they embed those videos into their athletics site. So everything is easy to share, favorite, and subscribe to. Maximize it all. And there's something youthful about news as YouTube.



1. Illinois State Full Games on Vimeo. Imagine pumping all of your games into the site. So all your highlights are now fully visible to family and friends everywhere. For Free. In the era of $9.99/month subscription services, this is refreshing. It makes players stars, which is what they want... and this makes ISU a role model for other programs.


That's it.

Come back tomorrow and we'll unveil the MVC All-Twitter Team. Oh, and (shameless plug) you can follow all of these updates on Twitter, here.

Andy

Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Marketing: #1 Wichita State

It's time to conclude our journey through the Missouri Valley Conference, 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. And I'd argue all of this is even more critical for the Mid Majors out there. Smart marketing can help build that connection that gets you the athlete you need.

Thus far our journey has shown us #10 Creighton,#9 Evansville, #8 Indiana State , #7 Drake, #6 Northern Iowa, #5 Missouri State,#4 Southern Illinois, #3 Bradley, and #2 Illinois State.

#1 Wichita State

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: Outstanding presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Weaknesses: Need to elevate Basketball Facebook and Twitter presences.

Full Scouting Report:
Hitting the Wichita State home page, here, and boom. You'll have a prominent branding feel and see the highlights pumping in on the right hand side of the page. Let's zoom in.


As you can see here, WSU gives you get a chance to watch the latest Shockers highlights, by game. (Nice!)

Scrolling down the home page and you'll get access to follow the Shockers on Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube. I love this access, I'm just not a fan of rotating these into one space -- if all 3 are big guns, show them all off!






Let's tackle these one by one.

Clicking into the Shockers on Twitter takes you here. With 360 followers, this is an under appreciated site. They do a nice job of sharing what's new on the WSU athletics site or on YouTube, and there is some personality to it. solid.



Clicking on the WSU Facebook tout takes you here. With 1,274 fans, they do a nice job of driving excitement across all sports. Again, WSU shares things that happen elsewhere with this community - posting photos of games, and links to interactive gameday chats. Cool.



WSU's YouTube page takes you here. It covers all key sports and is very active -- posting postgame press conferences on the same day of games (within hours). Pretty nice work.


You'll also see that the home page's latest headlines, are posted on YouTube and then pulled into their site as news items. Very smartly done.



Going back to the home page, the side menu gives you access to Recruits. As you can see below, this gives you the ability to take a tour of campus and learn about the university. It's solid - I'd like to see Twitter pumped in as well.

Clicking in on Facilities gives you a motherload of 360 tours. The gym, practice gym, weight room, and training room.



As you can see below, all of these are great and give you great access.

Koch Center:

Weight Room:


Training Facilities:


Moving on to the Men's Basketball page here, extends the feel and energy of the home page here.



WSU gives you Photo Albums of current and past seasons. (OK I guess for now it is all past seasons). In any case I like the photo access, just wish they allowed you to share these to Facebook.


Like we've seen in Creighton, Coach Marshall's page allows instant access to call or email him. Simple, but important.



The things I wish you had with WSU Basketball (access to the program) are there, but they aren't pumped into the site. First, you have WSU Basketball on Facebook, link here. With 1,065 fans, they are pretty good here as well. It's all simple stuff - posting updates on games that are coming up, sharing articles on the Shockers, and posting quotes from the media (like this one from Andy Katz) as notes:

"The Shockers didn't have Clevin Hannah in a loss to Pitt. He was suspended and the Shockers lost. But that's their only loss. Their homecourt advantage is one of the best that never gets discussed, as Texas Tech found out this weekend when it got removed from the ranks of the unbeaten."

Assistant Coaches Chris Jans and Marty Gross are up on Twitter, here and here. While Coach Gross is just getting started (108 followers but only a couple of Tweets), Coach Jans is killing it. He's got 291 followers and brings a personal style of sharing articles on the squad and updates on what he's up to personally (movies and family). Solid. I'd like to see this pumped into the Basketball site - elevated so people know how to follow the Shockers.




That's a wrap. Come back tomorrow as we review the 10 best features in MVC Basketball Marketing.

Andy