Cleveland Browns Celebrate Their Fans with Fanographies on Facebook

Is it possible to elevate some fans in a way that makes other fans want to participate?

That's an interesting question I've thought about often (yes, I know I am a nerd). But there's depth there -- meaning when you elevate one fan, you have potential to do it in a way that makes other fans want to be a part... or you can do it in a way that turns other fans off.

I was pretty impressed with how the Cleveland Browns went after this concept. It starts with a visit to the Browns Facebook page, here. Click on "Fanographies" (weird title, I know), which will take you here...

You need to "Like" the Browns to see this content. Normally I'm not a fan of that strategy -- just get the content out there. But with something like this, it's only going to appeal to a fan of the team... thus, it makes complete sense. Once you've liked the team, you get to the page shown below.

You'll see the Browns have elevated 5 fans and, as you can see from the comment above, they are making an impact by doing this. In case you can't read the comment, I'll add a bit of it for you right here.

"I've probably watched it at least 20x, and with each viewing I'm smiling and get the chills... Thanks for showcasing my story. I'm proud to be a Browns fan!"

Yes, that comment got 17 likes as of now. Which is powerful as it shows that fans are engaging not just with the video itself but with the comments about said video.

If you want to add your story? Click the call to action on the page (or here). As you'll see below, it's pretty easy. Add words, pictures, and video and submit. The Browns staff then picks stories to go deeper with and celebrate as a Fanography.

How could this be better? What if this wasn't asking fans to submit this and wait around but rather it created your personal Fanography -- mixing together what you write or upload with comments/videos/pictures of the team. Then it posted to your wall so that your own personal Browns story could be viewed by your full network of friends? That impact feels much greater than the beautiful stories produced by the Browns... which, by the way, they should keep doing!

My only other suggestion is to make it easier to share the great Fanographies created by the Browns. Possibly by loading the videos to YouTube and embedding them here -- so they can both be shared quickly and found organically through YouTube search!

Fantastic idea here though... I got chills and I'm not even a Browns fan!

Thanks for hanging this week. I'll be back Monday with more best practices. Feel free to follow along via Facebook (here) or Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski, here)

Thanks.

Andy