Big East Conference Best Practices: Rutgers Elevates Dance.

This blog is all about inspiration. We're going to spend 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Big East. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Thus far we've checked out how U Conn directs recruits, here.

Let's keep moving.

When I clicked into the Rutgers home page, here, I was caught off guard. One of the most prominent site elements was Cheerleading & Dance? Then I thought about it. Cheerleading & Dance! A key to good marketing is knowing your target consumer and elevating what they most want to have. And I found it really interesting that Cheerleading & Dance was elevated to the prominent slot after Schedules & Multimedia. It was even easier for me to find this than the sport sections... Let's click in.

The Dance home page, here, gives us an image and information on the squad and, most importantly, access to the Roster.

Clicking into the roster shows us the full squad (by first names) and easy access to share this page, as shown in the upper right-hand corner of this image. There's something about only listing first names that makes it feel even more personal. As if the prospective student-athlete is already on first-name speaking terms with the dance team. Nice touch...

No section like this would be complete without a nice photo gallery, available here and pictured below.

I think the concept is brilliant. Dance squads are definitely a factor that plays into the teenage mindset. Both because boys are boys and because it's a reminder that you are now on the big stage. I like that this is done online and that it is done subtly. Well done.

How could this be better? This is a great start. Give us a little more info on the members of the squad -- like we would find on a basketball site. Where are they from? What is their favorite sport? Why do they love Rutgers? Find ways to really highlight this area, and it will help prospective student athletes feel like this is a place to play with a pro-like, high end atmosphere!

That's it for now. Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Big East! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Andy