Twitter: 5 Things NCAA Programs could steal from the NBA

We've spent the past 7 weeks or so checking out the best digital marketing practices from the NBA. The question for this week is simple but powerful: what does this mean for college basketball marketing? What are the best practices we've seen at the NBA level, that college programs should take into consideration?

I'll do my best to answer this question over the course of a few posts. Here's the 3 part plan of attack:

Monday 6.14: Websites (Posted here).

Today: Facebook (Posted here)

Friday 6.18: Twitter

Then, next week, we'll return to our breakdowns of the NCAA Tournament landscape.

Ready?

5 Things NCAA Basketball Twitter Pages could steal from the NBA

1. Be Authentic

When you click into the Dallas Mavericks' site, you get an enormous but beautiful billboard 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. What I'd like to hone in on though is their 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 note below that other Mavs accounts (from the mascot to the web team) are up on Twitter and available to connect with you. The tone is very non-corporate - very much a feeling that you are joining the authentic Twitter sites and you are getting valuable info.

NCAA Impact: Who all is available to cover your team? Think a little outside the box - beyond coaches and the team sites. Now put them all into one forum and tell the story of why a fan (or recruit) should follow.

2. Get Followers Involved

The Spurs do a great job on Twitter, linked here. The power of what they do is combine a great voice with great giveaways in a way that is easy to get people involved. (You don't need to be a web developer to play a role in this!)

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.

NCAA Impact: Find easy ways for fans to share their love for your program. Contests are addicting, and will bring out the emotion-- which is what you want that recruit (or fan, of course) to feel!

3. Give hype to the experts

The Phoenix Suns deliver quite a visual experience around Twitter, here. This page (shown below) elevates players and official sites, in a visual way that lets you see and digest the thoughts of the experts, in one spot. Fantastic!

NCAA Impact: Elevate all your Twitter streams into one page, like this one! Fans don't have to go into Twitter, and your site becomes alive by stealing this visual masterpiece from Phoenix.

4. Use the hashtag

The hashtag. A word that didn't exist before Twitter, and one that many of us (including me) are struggling to figure out. The Minnesota Timberwolves get it. If you click into their site, here, you'll see that they are elevating everyone who Tweets with their hashtag (#Twolves) right into their site.

NCAA Impact: To do what Minnesota did, it takes two big steps: 1) identify a common tag that you and your fan base could do and 2) get all of your internal and media partners to start doing it. If you can start internally, fans will catch on and you'll start creating quite a network of energy around your program.

5. Make it Fun

Who says the internet can't be a place to ignite fan spirit? The Phoenix Suns 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! And, then they do this to their player and official pages -- meaning if you turn your Twitter image Orange, you'll be tying yourself more closely to the team you love!

NCAA Impact: Make it easy for fans to turn their Twitter profile pictures close to your program. What if a recruit announced his decision not by Tweeting but by changing his Twitter picture to your logo? What if there was a wave of fans who were visually posting, tied to your program? You can choose a color update like Phoenix or simply have a lot of imagery available for fans to take and apply to their own network.

That's a wrap.

We'll shift back to covering what's hot in the world of college hoops next week, and we'll be applying a lot of what we learned to recognize what's inspiring.

Don't forget to follow along on Twitter - I'm @pawlow34.

Andy