NBA Digital Disciple Series: 10 Best Features in the Western Conference

It's time.

Today I throw down the gauntlet. Take the 15 squads in the NBA West, pick out the 10 most inspiring things I saw, and weave them into one list - one story we can all learn from.

First, though, let me give you a quick reference guide to each team in the West. Just click on a name for their full breakdown: Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, LA Clippers, New Orleans Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, OKC Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, and LA Lakers.

Now, let's get rolling...

10. LA Lakers & Phoenix Blog Networks

The Lakers and Suns both come at this idea of a blog network in an interesting way that works for their fan bases. In LA, it takes the shape of the Popcorn Machine Blog -- a network built around glamour -- combining players, coaches, broadcasters, media, and... celebrities into one blog, linked here and shown below. Clicking in and you'll see they have posts from Brian Billick, Matt Kemp, Matthew Berry, and that's just this month!

Meanwhile the suns build their network of players, coaches, front office, dancers, analysts, and... fans into one engine, linked here.

Naturally I was most intrigued by the inclusion of official fan blogger Adam Beechen (here). I'll zoom in a little below so you get a feel for what this looks like, and why this becomes insanely cool if you are chosen as that Official Fan Blogger!

Both of these setups are great as they eliminate a good chunk of the pressure that one person has to keep their blog up to date. Blogging is a team effort which extends beyond the court. Nice!

9. Minnesota's Wolves Twitter Integration into the Home Page

Minnesota does a fantastic job in connecting with fans. The site feels alive, and key to that is found in the image below. You can see not only the latest Tweets from the Wolves staff and roster but, as you see here, all of the fan chatter around the team. Anyone hashtagging "#Twolves" gets elevated to the home page feed. Hot.

And, as you can see at the very bottom (or here), it is synched up for a mobile experience - meaning it is really easy to track the chatter on the squad wherever you go.

8. Dallas Permanent Access to Social Networks

I was kind of dropped in my tracks on this one. You'll (hopefully -- I tried to make this large) see the navigation bar in the image below. This was so powerful that for a minute I thought it was a new feature I'd downloaded from Firefox. What you get is this translucent bar at the top of the Mavs site. The bar gives you one click access to "Like this Page", Share this page to Facebook, Tweet this page, or comment on this page... and by "This page", I mean whatever page you want. So simple, so smart.

7. Memphis and Sacramento elevate photography

The Grizzlies elevated team photographer Joe Murphy (what a cool gig, huh?) for his expertise. Murphy was asked to choose his favorite photos of the team in the 2009-2010 season. This was all covered on the site, here and pictured below, in a feature entitled "Behind the Lens." Clicking in and you get a thick gallery of shots of the squad in all facets -- locker room, weight room, in game, and in the community.

As you'll note at the bottom of this image is a caption that goes into the specifics of what was striking on the picture, according to Joe. "I love how the kid is peeking over to get a look at the book..." Brilliant. Captions and comments aren't available on every photo, which is too bad. But all the pictures are fantastic.

Meanwhile, the Kings created a photo blog, which publishes new photos every Thursday. See this here, and below. You can then click in and share any photo you want. Imagine the combination of these two teams' ideas -- expert photos on a consistent basis through the season!

6. LA Laker Girls Fitness

One thing was definitely shared in common - the dance squad was a part of the marketing mix. But no one got it as well as LA. The Laker Girls weren't confined to a Facebook page, but were elevated into the main navigation, shown below and linked here.

Clicking into the Laker Girls Fitness Profiles is where it gets fantastic! As they put it "The Laker Girls are more than just skilled dancers and icons, they're also incredibly fit. We asked each Laker Girl what her secret is to staying fit."

Wow.

Why is this so powerful? Because they step out of the obvious box of appealing to single men with calendars. They take the Laker Girls and are positioning them as role models for young women -- how to stay active and fit, and also excel in other places.

Amazing stuff!!!

5. San Antonio Twitter Contests

The Spurs do a great job on Twitter, linked here. The power of what they do is combine a great voice with great giveaways. There's nothing that makes a fan tune in to your Twitter channel (or radio program) like thinking they have a chance to hear/feel passion and maybe win some stuff. As you'll see in the post below, the Spurs have Twitter-only giveaways. This one is fantastic.

So they get fans to celebrate the team and they giveaway a monster prize (playoff tickets) if you act quickly (10 minutes). Fans essentially make your ad campaign for you. Brilliant. Then, as you can see below, the Spurs post pictures of the winning fans -- even showing off that fan's Twitter handle. I'm giddy on this one!!!

4. Portland and the LA Lakers give us engaging Player Pages

Player pages. I'm betting they are among the most visited pages on each team's site. So much potential to make this the center of the online universe. The Lakers take team pages and turn them into directories packed with excitement. Linked here and shown in the images below, you'll see that this starts out with a visually engaging look at the team...

And becomes the center for all things Audio, Video, Images, and Articles on each player. Solid.

Meanwhile, Portland takes the concept and applies it to Fan communities around players. This is addicting and, to be honest, a little enchanting. See below for examples of both Brandon Roy and Marcus Camby's pages. And I want to call out a couple of things we should all take note of...

• Fans can make the player their favorite, add them to their starting 5, or to their huddle. And you can see just how many fans did that for each player.
• Fans can post comments on this player's page, shown on the right hand side of the page.
• Naturally, you get access to the latest player news, photos, and blog posts.

Clicking on "My Fans" even shows you who loves each player the most... solid stuff here!


Now what if we merged these concepts? Build this into the team's official roster pages - and house all things community and all things news in one spot: the roster!

3. Dallas and the iCal

One simple move and you're connected for the season. Linked here, the Mavs make it very easy for you to click and download their schedule to your calendar on your iPhone or iPod touch. Think about that. Now your daily schedule includes not just all those work meetings that you can't avoid, but also the Mavs lineup. So each day as you plan your day you will become aware of where the squad is and, just maybe, you'll have an alert set in to let you know when the action is about to start. Fantastic.

2. Fan Posts and Art across Portland and Phoenix.

Portland and Phoenix found and elevated a pretty cool connection - basketball and art. On the official Blazers Fan site, here, the team takes an image of the player and mixes it with a post from a fan to create a visual masterpiece. Check this:


Simple, visually powerful, and something fans would want to own, it elevates the fan who made the comment. Nice!

Meanwhile, in Phoenix, the team provides guidelines on how to take your social media profile and Sun-ify it by turning it orange. Who says the internet can't be a place to ignite fan spirit? They want fans to turn themselves (the virtual versions of themselves) orange. Check it out here or below -- the Suns give you a step-by-step guide to making yourself Orange... and then branding it!

What if we combined these -- give fans a way to create artistic expressions or posters around moments in time? That'd be insane!

1. San Antonio's Game Night Feedback Loop

This is not just a space to give feedback on your experience at a game but actually a forum to submit ideas. (And if you see the headline below, it's pretty clear which of the two is the most important topic to take away)... I believe nothing connects a team to fans more than the request for ideas! Here's the link, that image is below.

That's it!

The journey continues tomorrow, as Peter Robert Casey breaks down the East, and gives you a feel for who'd win if things weren't determined on the hardwood but rather in the world of digital marketing. I'll be back to do the same in the West on Thursday. And you can follow along on Twitter. I'm @pawlow34. And he's @peter_r_casey.

Thanks for sticking with us!