NBA Digital Disciple Series: 5 Learnings from the Utah Jazz

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 plus one way to make that even better. Then, we'll wrap it up, pick a winner, and send you on your way.

Thus far, we've covered the NJ Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Washington Wizards,Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons, LA Clippers, NY Knicks, New Orleans Hornets, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies, and Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls, OKC Thunder, Charlotte Bobcats, San Antonio Spurs, Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trailblazers, and Miami Heat.

Are you having fun yet?

Let's take a look at the digital connections made by the Utah Jazz (link here)...

1. Carlos Boozer's Audio Blog

This is a pretty cool idea. It's just like a podcast only you don't have to subscribe, and download to your iPod in order to hear it. Simply click here and you'll see the system (or look below). Click into each link and hear from Boozer - as they put it "team performance, team drama, and everything in between."

Plus One: The experience, while super cool, also leaves a bit to be desired. I'd love to find a happy medium - make it easy for me to sign up to get these on my iPod, so I don't have to be on the desktop in order to hear from Booz. The other thing that could help is a little executive summary on what you get. For now, we have to click in to determine what, specifically, he's going to talk about. While that's fine, an overview could allow us to more easily find the exact episode(s) we want to check out.

2. Broadcaster Blogs

There's perhaps no one better suited to cover a team than their announcers. You have a couple people who are privy to inside information and access to players/coaches/trainers that we all would love to have. They are good communicators. And they travel to the same places the team goes. The Jazz deliver this in a blog headlined by announcers Craig Bolerjack, Pace Mannion, Steve Brown, Ron Boone, and David James. It's authentic, and available often. Check out the link here.

Plus One: Now that the blog is up, integrate this blog into the broadcasts (TV or radio). Get questions from readers to cover during the game, get suggestions for pre game guests, or even hold a contest to get a reader the chance to appear as a guest commentator for part of the game. Use the access for good!

3. An Elevated Twitter Page

The Jazz take Twitter and elevate it front and center to the home page via an elegant navigational style shown below. Click into Twitter and you get a visual representation of the various Jazz personalities up and available on Twitter. Strong stuff.

Plus One: The access is here. Now make it amazing. What if we could add Tweets from the arena here? A combination of using a hashtag (#jazzlive maybe?) and location based marketing could allow us to elevate tweets from fans in venue, in real time. Oh my!

4. Fans Own Facebook

The Jazz have a huge network on Facebook - over 70,000 strong. And, more than that, they have a wall that is actually dominated by fan postings, as you can see below or by visiting the page here. This is something that I think a lot of us long for -- establishing a place where you can deliver messages but where fans also feel comfy enough to post banter amongst themselves. The foundation is here, to say the least!

Plus One: Fans are itching to post and engage. The challenge here is how can the Jazz add a bit of structure to this? I'm a believer that a simple question or thought of the day around the team can allow for interaction that builds upon itself, and give fans a reason to come back. Predictions on games, favorite plays of the year/month/week, toughest matchup, best thing about the team -- the topics are pretty endless and can allow for some structure while not taking away from this beautiful organic thing!

5. Clean out the Locker Room

In a word, this is fun. Take a moment that inevitably happens -- the season ends and it's time to clean out the locker room -- and make it fun! That's exactly what the Jazz do, here. Simply fill out the form and you're entered to be one of 13 lucky fans who can go into the locker room and take away some game or practice-used equipment from your favorite player. That's pretty sweet!

Plus One: Make this more than a lottery. This should be a testament to how much you love the team. The Jazz can enable this by not simply asking you to text or complete a form, but rather to submit a picture demonstrating your loyalty to the squad. (Or a 140 character post on Twitter) This rewards not chance but passion!

That's a wrap, but this journey isn't done yet! Follow along with us on Twitter. He's @peter_r_casey. And I'm @pawlow34. Tune in tomorrow as Peter Robert Casey profiles the Boston Celtics (here).

Andy