NCAA Basketball Marketing: What We Could Learn from #13 Siena

We're in search of inspiration- things that all of us can take and apply into our worlds. Then we will apply a "Plus One" method to make each inspiring thing even better. Thus far, we've looked at top seeded Duke, #2Villanova, #3 Baylor, #4 Purdue, #5 Texas A&M, #6 Notre Dame, #7Richmond, #8 California, #9 Lousiville, #10 Saint Mary's, #11 Old Dominion, and #12 Utah State.

Let's go.

South Region #13 Seed Siena: What's Inspiring about Siena Athletics Marketing? (Link Here)

1. A very welcoming callout to social media

Sometimes, it's the little things. As you can see in the image below, Siena gives you one click access to all things social media, but they take a second to try and make it just a little more welcoming. You have to pay attention, or you'll miss it... All of the social media ways to connect with the program are housed together, in one nice image, for anyone to get at. And the copy is extremely concise but action oriented. Nice.

Plus One: Take this header and pull in the latest from each of the platforms right here. So that way I keep the simplicity and branding but also get a taste of what I'd see if I clicked ahead. As a bonus, doing this would make the site more dynamic too!

2. A call for Fan Photos inside Facebook

As you can see here, the Saints do a nice job on Facebook - leading them to a fan base of just over 5,200 strong.

It's the offseason. The time fans travel. What's an athletics department staff to do to build connection with their fan base when very little is going on? Look no further than below. The Saints are asking fans to post a picture of themselves in as exotic a location as they can, wearing fan gear.

Then, these photos will show up onto the Saints' Photos Tab -- creating a way for the page to update and get better without much work at all on the athletics team's shoulders. AND if that's not enough, this contest gets the eyeballs of the submitter's friend feed plus the eyeballs of the Siena Saints in whatever location that photo got taken. Solid stuff!

Plus One:

Elevate these photos to the front of Siena Saints.com -- thus getting more life from the idea, and hopefully more eyeballs into the contest.

3. One Shining Moment!

OK. What college hoops fan doesn't fall in love each year with One Shining Moment? (The Luther Vandross version - don't get me started.) Well click in here.... The Saints created a version of One Shining Moment for last year's squad, to the right version of the song! It's hot, and it showcases so many aspects of what goes into the team.

Plus One: How do you improve upon such a great thing? Well, I think this can be done by a couple of things. First, give us a little more access. The idea of One Shining Moment is a track of the NCAA tournament. But the Saints have more access. When I think of the line "just how hard you worked...", I want to see pre-season conditioning. The weight room. Sweat and effort. I know all of this exists, and the Saints have me going. What could this song look like if it was something the squad was preparing for at the start of the year? Plan for success, right?

What's next?

We'll be back Friday with a breakdown of #14 seed Sam Houston State.

As always, you can follow along on Twitter - I'm @pawlow34.