NRL Digital Best Practices: North Queensland Cowboys Give Permanent Access to the Latest Social Posts

Happy 4th of July everyone!

One of the biggest challenges we face is bringing new people into the social media funnel. Said differently, how do teams convert site visitors into social media followers or fans? And how do they do this without overwhelming them with messaging that they just aren't looking for? It starts with access, the right kind of access when you need it.

The North Queensland Cowboys give us a great starting point to look at. Let's begin on the Cowboys home page, here, and below.

You'll notice (I hope) a toolbar at the bottom of this image.




I'll isolate the toolbar, here, but for some reason I've had trouble enlarging it!




As you'll see in the image below, this toolbar remains with you no matter where you are on the site - it's fixed at the bottom of your web browser...





So what does this mean? As you'll see in the next series of images, you have the ability to not just access their Social Networks, but to also participate, and of course follow right from this window. No pop up windows, no taking you away from what you're already doing (surfing the Cowboys site). It's a really nice system.

Here's Twitter:




Facebook is here, which includes the ability to see the individuals who already LIKE the squad. (I'm guessing if your friends LIKE them, they will appear here)...




Finally, YouTube videos can be browsed right here as well.



Pretty inspiring thinking, huh?

How could this be better? The danger of having social media built into an always-on framework is that, by it always being there, regular visitors may not notice it. The challenge becomes, how do you gently remind people that this exists, without turning the web experience into a digital version of a Vegas casino. In the end, I'd love to find a happy medium - find a way to enable the site visitor to turn on the latest feed of social buzz around the Cowboys. Let's call this a "LIVE NOW" button. This could aggregate their three feeds (Facebook, Twitter, & YouTube) and combine it with commentary/posts/activity from fans, players, and experts. This would allow fans who want more to get it without requiring everyone to see it.

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