NRL Digital Best Practices: Canterbury-Bankstown Maximizes Their Social Profile Pictures

The profile picture.

This is the #1 thing that will pop out of the News Feed inside Facebook or Twitter. Given the fact that most of us don't visit a team's Facebook or Twitter page (we simply visit our own page and get our fix of our favorite team's news here), many teams or conferences don't fully maximize that component.

According to Pixable, one in 10 Facebook pictures is the profile. Said differently, 10% of all pictures on Facebook are profile pictures. And as you can see below, the trend is to update this more frequently -- tripling since 2006.

How should we do this?

I prefer to think about why people tend to change their profile picture. Life changes, season changes, or big moments in their life often lead to a change. But so do creativity or boredom. As you can see below, the average user has 26 profile pictures. The average team? I'm guessing one or two.

Which brings me to Canterbury-Bankstown. The journey begins inside social for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs (here and here). As you'll find on those links or in the images below is that all roads lead to the Bulldogs iPhone APP. Said differently, Canterbury-Bankstown swapped out their profile image on both Facebook and Twitter to drive fans to their iPhone APP. And every post they make brings that message to each of their followers' news feeds.

So how could this be better? Love the idea, but would love to have it feel more branded less advertising. Rather than promote the fact that it's a free app, why not promote the best thing about it (which hopefully isn't that it's free!) You can swap out benefits over time. If it's inside access, show a insider photo of a player and hype the app, for example. That way you continue to build your brand while simultaneously driving awareness and traffic to your app. But the profile takeover is a fantastic strategy for all to use.

Hope you're digging this.

I'll be back tomorrow for another day of NRL coverage. As always, you can follow me on Twitter (I'm @pawlow34) or on Facebook (Digital Hoops Blast).

Thanks!

Andy