NBA Digital Disciple Series: 5 Learnings from the Dallas Mavericks

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.

We've taken you on a 5 week journey, covering 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,Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls, OKC Thunder, Charlotte Bobcats, San Antonio Spurs,Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trailblazers, Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns, and Orlando Magic.

Let's take a look at the digital connections made by the Dallas Mavericks (Link here)

1. The world's largest Twitter banner

Everything's bigger in Texas, huh? That's definitely the case when you take a look at the callout for Twitter, shown below and linked here.

Clicking in, you are given easy access to the Mavs on Twitter, layed out by Team, Dancers, Front Office, and Players. I especially like the description, "Want to follow the Mavs on Twitter but don't know what Twitter accounts are official? Following these insiders will give you information before anyone else..."

You'll also note below that other Mavs accounts (from the mascot to the web team) are up on Twitter and available to connect with you. This whole set up has a feel of inclusiveness. Solid.

Plus One: I love seeing the Mavs on Twitter called out into the black and blue box on the left. If we could somehow also see the latest Tweets from the rest of that lineup, it could be extremely powerful. Don't make us click into each of them to see what's behind the door, so to speak. The layout is here to make this an incredible experience for any fan.

2. Social navigation is permanently there.

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. That's just a crazy thing. Nice work Mavs!!!

Plus One: Now that we can Like Pages, that becomes a powerful tool. Can they apply this to the way stories populate the home page? (Could the most liked stories get elevated?) Or could this apply to original content? (As in the most liked storylines get developed deeper?) This engine is really powerful, and if we can ignite it with an actual impact on the site.... wow.

3. A very personal approach to Facebook

The Mavs as you might guess are pretty active on Facebook. Their fan page is home to 108,000 passionate fans, click here. But what I was drawn to wasn't the size of the fan base but rather the personality and emotion in the interactions.

Take a look at the post below. "A story from Marc Stein that everyone who cares about the Mavs should read..." They aren't just sharing links, they are sharing insight and a little emotion. And the fans (50 of them) liked this.

Plus One: This style is just amazing, and so simple. Now add in the fact that fans are likely scrambling to find anything they can on the team, on their own. That's a lot of eyes... The Mavs should ask fans to share things they see on the wall. If this page can take the style that exists by the Mavs sharing insights and articles and then apply it to that fan base, wow.

4. Mark Cuban's Blog

Most of you are likely aware that Mavs owner Mark Cuban is active on Twitter and on his blog, linked here. What you may not be aware of is that this blog is linked right into the News set on the Mavericks site. There's something just powerful about the person at the top making themselves available to the fan base that is addicting and connecting. Nice.

Plus One: The blog is elevated and by default makes ownership available, but it's not just basketball focused. I wonder if there's an easy way to develop a filter that puts the Mavs/basketball posts higher up on the docket? There's an opportunity to really connect with fans through the personal side of the owner, if we can elevate something we all have in common (love for the Mavs, basketball, sports, etc.).

5. Mavs 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.

Plus One: Now that the Mavs get people to download this calendar, they have a direct connection into the daily life. I wonder how we could take this to the mind blowing level... What if the Mavs could use this system to invite specific (random) fans to lunch with the front office, or dinner before the game? Create some buzz by not just telling me when the games are but also access to things no one else can get to!

That's it. We're getting close to wrapping this! Now, it's time to shift gears to the one-seeds.

Follow along with us on Twitter. He's@peter_r_casey. And I'm @pawlow34. Tune in tomorrow as Peter Robert Casey profiles the Cleveland Cavaliers (here).

Andy