NBA Digital Disciple Series: 5 Learnings from the New Orleans Hornets

30 teams. 7 weeks. 2 bloggers. 1 mission: to share our learnings of how NBA teams uniquely leverage digital tools to build fan community.

As students, or disciples of the game, we'll supply you with the doctrine - 5 takeaways per team - and then raise you one enhancement suggestion for each learning that's highlighted. (One way to make the great even greater)

Then, we'll wrap it up, pick a winner, and send you on your merry way to spread the gospel.

Cool?

Thus far, we've covered the NJ Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Washington Wizards, Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons, LA Clippers, and NY Knicks.

Our full schedule is available here.

Let's move.

Let's take a look at the digital connections made by the New Orleans Hornets (link here)

1. Photo Gallery from the fans for the fans

The Hornets build all of their fan engagement into their fan site, SwarmCity.com. Clicking in here, I was intrigued by the Photos button at the top. Clicking into it, here, gives you access to a full download of Hornets fan user-submitted photos. Solid.

Plus One: While it's great having all these photos in one place, the Hornets should consider moving this one place to be their Facebook fan photo gallery, here (shown below). Doing so would give us a couple of key things: 1) it would be very easy for pictures to be shared and 2) fans could easily tag themselves (giving some viral power to this gallery!) and add additional photos to the gallery...

2. 30 Days of Prizes for Renewing Season Tickets

This is pretty sweet. For a period of 30 days, the Hornets gave fans who renewed their season tickets a chance at winning a prize. You can check it out here and see it below -- a calendar of prizes ranging from food to tickets to electronics.

Plus One: Fans get season tickets for one big reason: they LOVE the team. So why not consider rewarding season ticket holders not with electronics or food, but rather with access. After all, you can get a TV from anyone. But who can give you access to the locker room or a private tour, or to watch the game with the GM? That could get insane...

3. Saying Thank You to Fans adds up.

Sticking in the zone of appreciation, the Clippers pulled together a YouTube video simply to say "Thank you" to their fan base. If you check this video (shown below, sadly it wouldn't let me embed this one), you'll see that while simple and heartfelt, they have opportunity for so much more...

Which leads to my Plus One: Get more personal! Rather than simply saying "Thanks", have players talk in a little more depth what they think about their home court. How much the fan presence means to them!

4. It's Easy to Share Tweets, even if you aren't on Twitter!

One of the biggest arguments against using Twitter is the statement that not everyone is up on Twitter and, thus, not everyone could participate in this. As you can see in the link here, the Clippers get after this in a very innovative way! Pay close attention to the Share button.

Essentially, the Clippers take their Twitter feed and pull it into a tab inside their Facebook page. Then every Tweet comes with an accompanied "Share" button. So you simply click "share", you get access to your list of friends with whom you can share the latest.

Who would have thought there'd be an easy way to effectively re-Tweet inside Facebook?

Plus One: The engine is here, now we could consider having destination events. For example, set up times for players to meet up with fans for a Twitter+Facebook chat. If they can do this, they create a cadence of people coming here and sharing what they see with their friends.

5. A Day in the Life of DC

Hornets cameras take you inside a day in the life of rookie Darren Collison, linked here (choose the Video Feature by using the scroll bar. I guess that life might start out at a Krispy Kreme, much like many other non-athlete types...

Plus One: Here's a case for uStream. I love the day in a life style of videos. It's access that you just can't get elsewhere. But why not make it even bigger via uStream? This would allow fans to watch DC in realtime -- and in the process shift this from being a one-way conversation into a two-way conversation.

That's all.

I hope you're enjoying this ride. Check out Peter Robert Casey on Monday (here) as he takes on the Indiana Pacers. And click here to follow me on Twitter.

Andy