The Big Ten's Social Media Footprint

Today we'll continue our look into the Big Ten. We will review their social media presence -- what they do and where they could improve. And I'll plot it all in one spot on a Social Media Report Card.

Then, we'll finish the week out by looking into the 12 member institutions and elevating the best digital features I've uncovered.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Let's start.

Social Media Exposure

The journey always begins with the conference's weight to social media. There are always stories, teams, and schools weighing in for home page worthiness. But the question I start with is... how easy is it to follow the conference? That doesn't necessarily mean quantity of places. But it does mean exposure to ways to follow the conference.

Hit the Big Ten home page and you catch in an instant that Twitter is king. There's a nice tout with the Twitter logo on the home page, along with the description of, "The Big Ten has several feeds available on Twitter. Follow along the newest way to get current info..." Solid.

Then I click in and we get the image below, which tells us that not only can you follow one of four feeds on Twitter but you can also become a fan on Facebook.



I like the ability to have a Facebook page and am ok with merging it with Twitter. But there is definitely a loss in that the conference advertises Twitter but not Facebook. This needs to be addressed through imagery or copy -- maybe even giving both their own button on the home page!

Social Media Roster Depth

As we stated above, Twitter is king. The Big Ten breaks Twitter into 4 feeds to follow the conference. @BigTenConf is the primary feed, covering all sports with 8,321 followers. @BigTenChamps is home to the conference championships, with 528 followers (and no activity since May). @BigTenScott goes deeper on key sports of basketball and football (1169 followers). Finally, @BigTenVal goes deeper on the other sports to her 566 followers.

Here's a quick peak. Big Ten Conf acts as the glue that keeps everything together. They are pretty active in retweeting news around the world of Twitter (including all Big Ten feeds). You'll find them included on 506 lists.

BigTenChamps is pretty inactive now -- on 46 lists, but no activity since May.

BigTen Scott is up on 92 lists, but probably leads the Big Ten Twitter reel in terms of energy. Definitely something you feel when you plug in...

And, last, BigTenVal is included on 42 lists. I'd say the energy and emotion is pretty strong here, though she's not as active as Scott...

As you can tell, there's quite a list of people up on Twitter. That's good and bad. The key question is how well do they work together? It seems like they try to be aware and re-tweet but to me there's a lot missing. Especially when you consider that those who follow all 4 won't get a collective view of the Big Ten (as everything will fall into the mix of other feeds).

How could this be better? The hashtag. Using a consistent hashtag, or two, could really get us going. #BigTen and #BigTenChamps should cover us. Then look for ways to aggregate that feed into Big Ten Sports.com -- thus elevating the energy of Twitter without relying on the fan to follow everyone. The bonus here is that doing this will allow fans to actually become a part of the conversation.

Here's my metrics take on things:

1. 6.1% of the time that a fan subscribes to the main Big Ten feed, they put the conference into a list. That makes 506 lists. Note the energy and emotion Scott and Val have might lead to a higher percentage of times listed. (7.9% and 7.4%, respectively)
2. The Twitter equivalent of student-to-teacher ratio: Tweets per Subscriber. The conference has tweeted just over 1600 times -- or 0.20 per subscriber.
3. Activity is inconsistent. Very often for the Big Ten feed, almost never for the Big Ten Champs site. Scott and Val are in the middle.
   
   

Facebook serves as a place for the latest news on the conference, and it doesn't always originate from the conference. Clicking into the Big Ten on Facebook, here, you'll see something unique. The 10,000+ fans get a feed not just of the latest official releases, but fans are sharing articles on the conference, recruiting, and individual teams. That cumulative energy really has potential to get big.

How could this be better? Fuel this tendency. Reward fans for sharing links on the team. Silly as it sounds, this could be the Facebook equivalent of the radio station promo... we see your car with our bumper sticker on it and we might reward you. This would create a more rich area for fans while taking off some of the responsibility from the conference. Solid.

Buzz.

To gauge buzz, I did a quick search for #BigTen on Twitter. There were over 70 mentions in the past 24 hours, along with references to the ESPN Big Ten feed. Meaning there's a lot of energy in this space and it's a great one for the conference to steer.

Intangibles

Synergy. I'm looking for the total impact the conference has across social media to be higher because the pieces work well together. In this case we need it, and the impact has the most potential by bringing the pieces together within Twitter. Big time potential, but we need to bring things together.

Report Card

Strengths: Twitter Depth + Exposure, Buzz

Weaknesses: Intangibles, Facebook Exposure

Neutral: Depth of Roster

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Breaking Down the Big Ten Conference Online

Each week we will break down a different conference across the D-1 landscape, giving you a look into how they are connecting with fans (and recruits) across their website and social media. Along the way, we'll elevate a few things in each conference that are best-in-class: what we can learn from the schools that make up each conference.

As a reminder, we break down leagues based on how squads finished last season. Thus far we've checked out the ACC (here). Thanks to Michigan State's Final Four appearance last season, we'll turn our attention to the Big Ten linked here and shown below. You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Today, we'll start with a look into the Big Ten Conference Official Website. What's to love about the Big Ten?

The Conference Made PSAs cool.

Really.

The best take something that, by definition, is just not cool and flip it around completely. And when I saw this, I did a double-take. It's a rebranding effort that would make even the best movie director proud... The Big Ten built their brand around the idea that you get the chance to play on TV, in big moments, at schools that will help you academically. That was pulled together under the theme of "Big Life. Big Stage. Big Ten." But apply this to a PSA? The official release (here) said that the Big Ten Conference now has a soundtrack for their season, featuring artists Public Enemy, De la Soul, and JJ Grey. As you can see in the video below, the conference took the concept and applied it to pictures in a way that we not only get the concept, but also get inspired.

How could this be better? Pump these up more. I had to go to the Big Ten YouTube page, and do a search for the campaign. These are great statements on what the league feels like... and that's a fantastic message to publish!

A smart and authentic blog powers the Big Ten Site.

Blogs. A good one can act as the oil that keeps all the parts of a conference website engine working together. And the Big Ten has a solid one, here. The image below comes from the home page -- and positions the conference blogs as a key Feature (I'd agree).

Clicking in and you get a feed of the latest posts (which right now lean heavy to football).

You are one click away from sharing the posts to just about any site you could want...

Then hit the basketball page, below, and you'll see this same blog is now reinterpreted. There are 3 entry points to the basketball version of the blog from the Hoops home page.

Click in and you get the same blog, but now it is filtered directly for your sport...


The beauty of this is that we can use one engine that powers all sports. So, in effect the investment the conference makes to support basketball or football can also help tennis or wrestling. Nice.

How could this be better? It's a simple touch, but starting each post with the 2-3 letter abbreviation isn't as effective as it could be. Yes, it is communicative but it could be more inspiring or emotional. I'd look to find ways to build the brand of each sport and carry this through the writing style.

The conference delivers the ultimate team audio library.

Clicking into the Big Ten's multimedia section, here, is a bit overwhelming at first. There's a lot to take in...

But you'll note they have a section titled 2009-2010 Big Ten Coaches Teleconferences. I clicked on Purdue's... and behold. We get an amazing archive of a year of coach soundbytes for the Boilermakers. It's sleek, easy to listen in, and really it's easy to explore. This is great on another level, as it is something most schools don't have the infrastructure in place to create for themselves. So the conference has created a resource to support their schools.

How could this be better?

Tagging -- rather than simply say which games the coach is talking about, give us themes that are relevant to the coach. For example, "Coach Painter talks about the importance of defensive intensity in the upcoming games..."

From a school level, partner with each of the 11 programs to air this audio on their sites. I think you could really create a great resource for the schools by simply helping them package the content!

That's it.

What's up next? Big Ten week continues tomorrow. We will take a peak at how the Big Ten is leveraging social media. Then, we'll wrap the week up with 3 peaks into things I found fantastic across the 11-team Big Ten Conference landscape.

Don't forget, you can follow along via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Horizon League Best Practices: Milwaukee's Scouting Reports

This blog is all about inspiration. We're in the midst of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Horizon League. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let's move.

Thus far our Horizon League journey has shown how Butler ties your Facebook identity to the Bulldogs, here, and how Green Bay encourages their articles to share inside Facebook, here. Today, we turn to Milwaukee.



Scouting Reports.

When you get to college as a student athlete, they are a big part of your preparation for the game. They tell you things to focus on, who to key on. It's your crib sheet for the big game. And Milwaukee has a take on that that'll open your eyes... Hit the Milwaukee "Unofficial" Student site, Panther U (here), and click onto the Pick and Roll Press. That will take you here (shown below). That's where the fun begins.

You can click onto any matchup from this past season and learn more about the opposition. Let's dive into a preview from last year's Butler Matchup -- viewable here.

This is a very good, high level look at the opponent. You see an overview (above) and a list of suggested crowd cheers (below).

And, as you can see in the image below, they pick a player on the opposition and isolate him as a person to taunt, complete with the reasons to do so. It's enough to make the crowd not just tough to face but also well informed... After all, who wants to be this week's Bench Baby?

Finally, the reason I dig all this is that it is fun. That's what college is all about. As a student athlete (or recruit) you see that fans care and they are going to do what they can to make things hostile for the opposition. Nice.

How Could This Be Better? This is fantastic, but it is 100% opposition-centric. I'd love to see this taken to another level -- let us see the same scouting, but also the same level of emotion around the Panthers. Doing this will not only get fans more connected to the team, it will also make players (and prospective players) feel like playing at Milwaukee is big. Very big. Take that level of excitement and you have the ultimate guide to Milwaukee Hoops: Emotional, Passionate, Real-Time, and Fun.

One other suggestion. I love the crowd chants but feel like they could learn from Bill Simmons and how he coordinated crowd chants against the Cavs via Twitter (story here). Feels like Milwaukee could use Twitter to get things going even further in real time. Fun stuff!

That's a wrap.

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Horizon League! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Horizon League Best Practices: Green Bay Taps Into Facebook to Like Each Article

This blog is all about inspiration. We're in the middle of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Horizon League. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Yesterday, we covered how Butler takes your social profile and attaches their program to it, here.

Let's keep moving...

Thus far our Horizon League journey has shown how Butler ties your Facebook identity to the Bulldogs, here. Today, we turn to the Green Bay Phoenix. Hit the home page, here, or below and then dive into any article on the site....

As you can see from the image below (or by clicking in here), the Phoenix have developed a system to make each article they post have viral potential. Look to the bottom of this image below...

I'll zoom in to make it easier to see. Every article takes advantage of Facebook Connect -- letting you easily Like or comment on the article via Facebook. The beauty, of course, is that every time a fan comments or Likes an article, that action gets shared across their Facebook wall. So, in effect, their endorsement of that feature gets shared to all their friends.

How could this be better? Make it more prominent. The concept is magical, we just need to find ways to encourage people to share this across their profile. It's also pretty powerful when you see an article with lots of "Likes"... So posting these articles into Facebook could help that number as well! (Of course, things only get liked if they are original, fantastic content!)

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Horizon League! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Horizon League Best Practices: Butler Makes Sharing Bulldog Love on Facebook Easy

This blog is all about inspiration. We're going to spend 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Horizon League. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let's move.

Click into the Butler University Facebook page, here, and you'll find the home of Hink the Butler Bulldog and his 2,800+ fans.

Scroll down the wall (shown below). and you'll see how Butler makes showing your Bulldog love cool and easy. The image at the bottom of the shot below, with the header "Add some Butler to your Facebook page" is where we'll turn our attention.

Let's click forward (scroll down or click here). You'll see a gallery of images. But, unlike the vast majority of images, Butler strategically wanted to use their Facebook photos for good. The mission: Get fans to tie Butler to their identity. As you can see below, Butler has taken shots of the program, campus, the mascot, and your home state and turned it into a collection of images for you to take with you.

Click in on one of the images (I chose Missouri, since that's my home state), and you'll see that you have a quick and easy way to show that there are two big parts of your identity: your home, and your love for the Butler Bulldogs. It's very much like a personalized license plate or bumper sticker strategy, and I mean that in a good way. You can have something that is both true to your home and true to your school. Love it! And for the rest of us, why not steal this best practice?

How could this be better? This is an amazing first step. Now let's build on it. Much like the

contests to submit a photo wearing your school tee in far reaching places, I'd love to see rewards given (via contests) for fans who have adopted Butler for their profile picture. The idea is in place. Fans are willing to apply Butler to their identity... now use this for good!

Solid, huh?

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Horizon League! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

The Horizon League's Social Media Footprint

Today we'll continue our look into the Horizon League. We will review their social media presence -- what they do and where they could improve. And I'll plot it all in one spot on a Social Media Report Card.

Then, we'll finish the week out by looking into the 12 member institutions and elevating the best digital features I've uncovered.

As a reminder, you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Let's start.

Social Media Exposure

The journey always begins with the conference's weight to social media. There are always stories, teams, and schools weighing in for home page worthiness. But the question I start with is... how easy is it to follow the conference? That doesn't necessarily mean quantity of places. But it does mean exposure to ways to follow the conference.

Hit the Horizon home page and you'll see a nice callout for Social Media about halfway down the page on the right-hand side under the header "Join the Conversation".



As you'll see in the image below, the Horizon League elevates their latest Tweets and the size of their Facebook fan group to this home page level.


How could this be better? I love the branding here, with the call to participate (Join the Conversation). What I'd love to see here is an elevation of fans joining the conversation. It could be an exercise like we see with the Minnesota Timberwolves and their Hashtag system (discussed here) that would allow for fans to participate alongside the conference. Or it could be a moderator-voice who creates destination events on the Horizon site.... Tweet through the game with us.)

Social Media Roster Depth

Facebook leads the way for the Horizon League, from a Social Media standpoint. As you can see here, and below - the conference has 607 fans. But it's not about the size of the base but rather the infrastructure in place. Let's dive in.

First, it's very evident that Priority #1 for the conference is driving fans to Like them. (see the landing page below). The second you click on the Horizon's Facebook link, you end up here. I'm a fan of being clear in what you are after - making this effective. That said, I believe that we are now in an age where romance is key. It's not a straight funnel to Like something, but rather explain why you should. Liking is the result of delighting fans, not the result of simply asking for it...

When you click on the wall, you'll find an active fan base that's asking for inspiration. There's only been 6 conference-driven wall posts in 2010 -- but all 6 have driven action (likes or comments) from fans...


The Horizon League also adds a tab for polls, with the latest shown below. Love the idea, love elevating polls to a tab. Just wish this was more up to date...

How could this be better? There's an active fan base. Most leagues would LOVE to have this. But we need a consistent conversation that lives up to the call to action on the Horizon League website ("Join the Conversation...")

There is a hidden and powerful Following strategy in play on Twitter. Checking out the Horizon League on Twitter, here, my attention turned to those the conference followed, shown in the right hand side of the image below. I see a mix of basketball sites (NCAA Stats), sports sites (Deadspin), conference sites (Cleveland State hoops), and media sites (Key Milwaukee). This isn't directly played out in their Twitter behavior (which I'll discuss in a minute), but it does show that the conference is positioned well to get at the heart of the conference.

I'll zoom in to make it more clear...

As a whole, Twitter is leveraged predominately to share information -- either features posted to the Horizon site or announcements of success at the school level. Let's look at a couple of numbers to help gauge activity levels. (Beyond the Horizon's 602 Twitter followers, here)

1. 6.5% of the time that a fan subscribes, they put the conference into a list. That makes 39 lists.
2. The Twitter equivalent of student-to-teacher ratio: Tweets per Subscriber. The conference has tweeted 731 times -- or 1.21 per subscriber.
3. Activity is inconsistent. Of the 731 tweets, only 17 have come in 2010 (2.3% of the postings)
   

Buzz.

To gauge buzz, I did a quick search for @horizonleague on Twitter. There was only a single mention in the past month. Meaning to maximize the power of social media, there's going to be some leg work from the conference.

Intangibles

Synergy. I'm looking for the total impact the conference has across social media to be higher because the pieces work well together. In this case we need it. I mentioned yesterday that a person could curate that interaction from the home page. Most likely, this would drop in easily into the conference's blog system.

Report Card

Strengths: Twitter Integration, Exposure

Weaknesses: Intangibles, Fan Engagement, Consistency

Neutral: Depth of Roster

Hope you enjoyed this tour! Come back tomorrow as we start elevating best practices in the Horizon League!

Don't forget, you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Breaking Down The Horizon League Online

Each week we will break down a different conference across the D-1 landscape, giving you a look into how they are connecting with fans (and recruits) across their website and social media. Along the way, we'll elevate a few things in each conference that are best-in-class: what we can learn from the schools that make up each conference.

As a reminder, we break down leagues based on how squads finished last season. Thus far we've checked out the ACC (here).

Thanks to Butler University's dream season, we'll turn our attention to the Horizon League, linked here and shown below.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Today, we'll start with a look into the Horizon League website.

What's to love about the Horizon League? (link here, shown below)
The Horizon League is a digital innovator. They put a serious investment out there, which inspired me to discuss the league previously, here.



The second you get here you feel it. The home page is alive. In fact, consider the image above and the image below together to give you a complete feel of the home page. As you can see below, they give us a well designed, easy to manage inventory of the news -- be it from the campus sites (Newswire, on the left), the conference office (Official Releases, in the middle), or social media (Twitter, on the right hand side)...

It's a lot of information but, thanks to the layout, you don't feel it. What we also have is a system that allows multiple parties (the conference office, member schools, and those on Twitter) to keep the home page dynamic. Nice stuff here.




This extends to the sport specific sections really well. As you can see below (or here), the Horizon League takes the same combination of Official Releases and Campus News (plus videos) and filters them down by sport. This doesn't just hold true for men's basketball -- it applies through everything, like cross country and tennis. NICE!


How could this be better? The framework is fantastic, as you can tell. That said, there are 2 opportunities to really take this to another level. First, look at customizing the Twitter offering by sport by leveraging hash tags. (More social media to come tomorrow) And, most importantly these pieces, albeit fantastic, are segmented. There's an opportunity for a moderator to bring those pieces together so that the page is less a summary of what's out there and more a dialogue on the sports.

Athlete Blogs are a world class framework.
As you can see below, the Horizon League offers us an opportunity to view a full world of blogs crafted by student athletes. The big thing to pay attention to is the left hand part of this image. You have the opportunity, at a click, to filter this down by school, by sport, or by a combination. Want only Valpo Basketball, you've got it. Brilliant. It's not just having student athlete blogs that's great, it's putting these into a very digestible and usable model. Check them out below or linked here.


How could this be better? Once you have filtered in by school and sport, make it easy to get updates. Don't make fans come back here again to customize and see their team/sport. Doing the hard work for them can be accomplished via a subscribe engine!


Video applies the same framework, plus sharing.

The Horizon League takes the same filtering method we saw earlier and applies it into the world of video with one big addition: they give you a short URL to copy, or a simple click to share each video via Facebook or Twitter. Really powerful, really simple. Check it out here.

How could this be better? Love the videos, love the organization. I would just love to see a schedule. It'd be great to know what's dropping, when, so that we can build anticipation.

Finally, take a peak at the Horizon League's approach to Championships, here. We see Championship portrayed in both videos and in words. As you'll note on the left hand side of the page, the videos have been filtered to show us "Championship Videos." Then, scan over to the far right and note the power of a collection of logos under the header "Reigning Champion." Nice.


How could this be better? Right now, there really isn't a way to go deep by sport. The sports are listed vertically, in order of their place on the calendar. But there's more opportunity here. Apply the same filters, bring in student blogs from their championship runs, pull in applicable videos, and conference releases. The info is all here, we just need to apply it.

That's it.

What's up next? Horizon week continues tomorrow. We will take a peak at how the Horizon League is leveraging social media. Then, we'll wrap the week up with 3 peaks into things I found fantastic across the 8-team Horizon League landscape.

Don't forget, you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Atlantic Coast Conference Best Practices: Duke's Coach K Video Blog

This blog is all about inspiration.

This is our 3rd of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Atlantic Coast Conference. We broke down how Duke leveraged the mouse type on the bottom of their site to make a brand statement, here. And we looked at how Maryland elevated Twitter into a recruiting weapon, here.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let's move.

I had hoped to share 3 schools worth of innovation. But I took another look at Duke. As you'll see in the release below (or here), Duke unveiled a video blog series starring Coach K. They set this up really well.

"Coach K will share his thoughts on the season, provide some updates on the latest news in the Duke Universe, answer questions from fans, talk to our Sixth Man, and share whatever is on his mind."

I'd argue the last point is the most powerful of all.

Diving into this blog, the Coach K Passport, here, you'll see a collection of videos that span this past season. The videos are simple - shot with a FlipCam (or similar), but that takes nothing away from how authentic this is.

Strategically, the content is also well executed. It's loaded to YouTube then embedded into the site, thus making it even easier to see, share, and delight in. Here's one of the videos (feel free to click here to check them all out!)

How could this be better? Consistency. The posts are fantastic, the content heartfelt and authentic. The challenge is the content is a little unpredictable. To me, the full power can't be realized until we know when the latest installment will come. (Imagine if the Office wasn't on every Thursday but rather occasionally on Thursdays and then other times on Mondays without a published schedule. The content would still delight you but it'd be less anticipated. And anticipation = powerful.)

Up next? Horizon League week starts Monday!

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Atlantic Coast Conference Best Practices: Maryland Uncovers the Connection between Twitter & Recruiting

This blog is all about inspiration.

We're going to spend 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Atlantic Coast Conference. And then we'll talk about how to make that even better...

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let's move.

It seems fitting that today is here. Yesterday, we covered the details at the bottom of a website (check what Duke does, here)... And today we will flip that around with the top navigation. Let's move to the Maryland Athletics website, here. As you can see in the image below, they hit us front and center with a For Recruits header.

That's where the magic happens.

First of all, let's zoom into that menu, below:


Maryland Positions Twitter as a Recruiting Tool. We have long identified that Twitter offers the potential for prospective student athletes to stay in contact with coaches. But if you look at the majority of sites, they instead offer Twitter under "Fan Zone" or "Multimedia" or, maybe, "Social Media". And I'm a believer that you identify your audience and speak to them. Maryland makes this very clear.

I clicked into Twitter, and come to Coach Gary Williams' page, here. Coach Williams does a great job here - he's up fairly often, and is conversational and relevant. Scroll through it and you'll see he gives props to former players (Greivis Vasquez, Steve Blake, and Landon Milbourne recently) -- signaling that he doesn't forget you once you leave Maryland. Just solid all around.

How could this be better? Make this the first thing on the menu. Twitter crashed the recruits menu, the mission now is to move it to the first thing we see.

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the ACC! And, don't forget,

you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Atlantic Coast Conference Best Practices: Duke & the Power of URLs

This blog is all about inspiration.

We're going to spend 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Atlantic Coast Conference. And then we'll talk about how to make that even better...

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let's move.

Hit the bottom of the Duke Blue Planet website (linked here) and you'll see something we have never covered on this site: the mousetype. Duke leveraged this to showcase the power of the relationships that are a deep part of their program.

Let me say this one again... Duke took something often forgotten and transformed it into a brand statement! Take a look at this image.

Now, let's zoom in further on that mousetype at the bottom.

5 pillars: GoDuke.com, CoachK.com, Duke University, Nike.com, USABasketball.com. Together, they make a powerful combination. I love the pure simplicity that singles out these 5 with Duke University in the middle. I love that this is boldly sitting at the bottom of the page. And I love the subtleness of putting all 5 in Duke Blue. They are all a part of Duke, and it's pretty evident.

Think about this. What are the 5 pillars your program could elevate? This is not one of those best practices that is only for those with the big marketing budgets. It's one we can all learn from.

Well played Duke.

How could this be better? Click into any of the 5 and you realize that this is simply a redirect to each of their home pages. For 3 of the 5, that makes sense. But we have a much bigger opportunity for Nike and USA Basketball. Give us more. Let us see how Duke is impacted by Nike and USA Basketball. That's the opportunity. Nail it and you create something truly overpowering.

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the ACC!

And, don't forget,

you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

The Atlantic Coast Conference's Social Media Footprint

Today we'll continue our look into the Atlantic Coast Conference. We will review their social media presence -- what they do and where they could improve. And I'll plot it all in one spot on a Social Media Report Card.

Then, we'll finish the week out by looking into the 12 member institutions and elevating the best digital features I've uncovered.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Let's start.

Social Media Exposure

The journey always begins with the conference's weight to social media. There are always stories, teams, and schools weighing in for home page worthiness. But the question I start with is... how easy is it to follow the conference? That doesn't necessarily mean quantity of places. But it does mean exposure to ways to follow the conference.

The ACC offers the ability to follow them in 3 ways (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube) which are promoted in a flurry of ways. As you can see below, they give you access at the top of the site, inside the Fan Zone and inside the Digital Network. So it's very easy to stumble onto a way to follow the conference -- I'd almost argue that they should stick to one area in the menu (either Fan Zone or Digital Network... or rename one of them to Social Media!)

Home Page Header

Fan Zone Menu

Digital Network Menu

All 3 roads point to the same places, which we'll check now...

Social Media Roster Depth

Twitter Leads the ACC from a Social Media Standpoint. At a Glance, We See the Twitter Lineup. Shown here and below. It's a powerful statement to not just give us a list, but rather let us see what we get from each of the Twitter Feeds (the ACC, ACC Championships, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, and Football). But then again, it can be a lot to take in and digest -- there's a lot going on.

How could this be better? Focus. The more the ACC could simplify, the better impact this could have. This could be done via the ACC Twitter being the only one shown here, assuming that Twitter feed could become the moderator -- retweeting relevant posts from the other 4 and interacting with each one in a playful way. And it could be accomplished by giving us a deep look into one and let us know what we can get in each spot (through a simple description).

Twitter Integration into the Championships Section is World Class. Click into ACC Championship Central (here), and you'll note the Twitter feed on the right hand side of the page. I love this for many reasons. First, elevate Championships. That's the aspirational point for every sport in every conference. Yet few do this section as well as the ACC does it. When you add in a Twitter feed customized for the Championships, you create an engine that is updated in real time during the matchups, year round. Love this.

I'll zoom into the Twitter feed, here.

How Could This Be Better? Bring in two things: 1) a hashtag (#ACCChamp, for example) and 2) leverage experts, media, and school sites to leverage this tag during the matchups. Combine these things and the dynamic section becomes very addicting.

As a whole, Twitter is leveraged predominately to share information -- either features posted to the ACC site or re-tweets of news from school sites. Let's look at a couple of numbers to help gauge activity levels. (Beyond the ACC's 5270 Twitter followers, here)

1. 5.9% of the time that a fan subscribes, they put the conference into a list. That makes 310 lists.
2. The Twitter equivalent of student-to-teacher ratio: Tweets per Subscriber. The conference has tweeted 3,981 times -- or 0.75 per subscriber.

The ACC Taps into the power of YouTube Playlists. They show us that by organizing a slew of videos into manageable bytes, we end up with a very impactful impression. The YouTube page (here) has 385 subscribers -- a metric I don't like sharing because it seems to be against user behavior and thus lowers the potential impact these are making. The beauty of YouTube videos are their simplicity to view and share - to post to your own blog, Facebook page, or to simply share via email or Twitter.

Diving into this page, we see lists for Men's Basketball, Football, the ACC Championships, and special features such as the ACC Hot List. All are updated fairly regularly and seem to carry good content inside.

How could this be better? Make sure these videos are seen. With only 385 subscribers, I believe the ACC should not only post these videos inside the ACC site, but also offer them up to school websites and key bloggers to gain visibility for the goods.

Finally, the ACC on Facebook, here, checks in at just over 12,000 fans. The Facebook page is purely utilized to share information -- missing a chance to tap into some passionate fan energy at each school.

Buzz.

To gauge buzz, I did a quick search for @acc on Twitter. There have been 20 mentions over the past 3 days. Plus a callout for the ESPN ACC Feed as well, which should be good to leverage. After all, ESPN = Playing Under the Spotlight!

Intangibles

Synergy. I'm looking for the total impact the conference has across social media to be higher because the pieces work well together. An ACC Blog has the potential to do just this -- act as the glue that connects everything. Big opportunity here!

Report Card

Strengths: Twitter Integration, Exposure, Buzz

Weaknesses: Intangibles, Fan Engagement

Neutral: Depth of Roster

Hope you enjoyed this tour!

Don't forget, you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.