NBA Digital Disciple Series: Western Conference Wrap Up

Today marks the end of a 7 week journey through the NBA's Western Conference, from a Digital Marketing Point of View. This has been an incredible journey for me, as I've had the pleasure to be inspired on a daily basis by the work that's being done out there. Next week I'll begin to apply some of those learnings into the world of College Hoops, and feel there's a monster opportunity to learn from each other in this world of basketball.

1. Be Timely

The Lakers did this to the extreme. Minutes after Ron Artest's buzzer beater, pictures were up on Facebook and a fan base was ignited. Pictures are powerful. Pictures no one else can get are even more powerful. Then add in a timely factor and you hit the Lakers Facebook presence. I am a believer that their presence is as big as it is not just because they are a popular team in a big market, but rather because they provide powerful information, now. (Maybe you should go check - you might have missed something!)

2. Generate Hope

Hope. Look no further than in the world of baseball if you wonder how powerful it could be. The Washington Nationals have caught Strasburg Mania (article here). There's a Strasburger at a local hamburger joint. You can't get a ticket when he's pitching. In short, one person ignited a town to care again.

And it's our opportunity to find that piece of hope and celebrate it. The Sacramento Kings hit us with a celebratory page for Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans. The OKC Thunder let us see the energy of their fan base as they gathered outside the arena for a Playoff game. We should all think back to that simple question: "Why do I love my team?" (or "Why should a free agent want to play here?") Now bring that to life.

3. Be Emotional

The Phoenix Suns and Portland Trailblazers built emotion into their experiences. In Portland, it was based on powerful quotes and images. In Phoenix, they armed fans with the tools to turn their social status (their Twitter Profiles) Orange. Don't be afraid to help Fans in sharing their love for your team!

4. Make it Portable

The Dallas Mavericks excel here. Not only do they have a navigation bar that makes it extremely easy to share everything you look at, immediately, to wherever you want (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email), but they also created a simple way to download the Mavs schedule to your iPhone. I don't know how many additional tickets those moves resulted in, but I do know they made quite an impact in generating reminders for upcoming games. Think about how you can make it easy for fans to bring what's important with them.

5. Don't Go it Alone

I saved the best for last. Don't try to do everything yourself. The impact you can have is so much better when you spread that around. The Minnesota Timberwolves elevated everyone who Tweeted with their hashtag right into their site. The San Antonio Spurs asked gave us a visual of everyone from the organization who was up on Twitter, in one handy spot. These are little steps that allow you to share great messages from multiple sources.

And I did just that on this feature. Working with Peter Robert Casey, who's a digital All Star not only taught me a great deal about the world of the Digital NBA, but it also helped me to build a friendship with someone who I hope to join up with for future features down the road. Either of us could have set out in this open world alone, but the impact we've had both on each other and the digital basketball world was monstrously more because we went in together.

Who is out there that loves your team? And how can you work together to impact fans in a positive way?

Thanks for reading! And don't forget you'll be able to follow along as we keep challenging the world of what's hot in digital basketball. Track us on Twitter - I'm @pawlow34 and he's @peter_r_casey.