The Mountain West Conference Online: A Powerful Blog Powers Everything

Another week, another conference.

Each week we will break down a different conference across the D-1 landscape, giving you a look into how they are connecting with fans (and recruits) across their website and social media. Along the way, we'll elevate a few things in each conference that are best-in-class: what we can learn from the schools that make up each conference.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

We break down leagues based on how squads finished last season. Thus far we've checked out the ACC, Horizon, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, Atlantic 10, MVC, Pac-10, Ivy, and WCC. It's time to keep moving... Up next, the Mountain West Conference -- thanks to New Mexico and BYU hitting the NCAA 2nd Round, we turn next here.

Let's move.

Diving into the Mountain West's home page, here, and turn your attention smack dab in the middle of the browser. You'll see it: Inside the MWC.

I'll zoom in for a second because I want you to grasp exactly how they are positioning themselves: Current. Compelling. Accurate. It is a position of the source of information around the 9 member schools. Let's move in.

Clicking in takes us here, shown below. As you will note, there is a wonderful mix of information sharing and personality/tone. The MWC feels extremely approachable, and there's enough information here to more than arm you for the water cooler... or to give you a sense for what's going on right now. They do this by leveraging the skills of Mitch McGrane, an excellent writer who is also an alum of the conference. It's passionate and just makes you connect with the league.

Check this sample, around volleyball and feel the style of this blog:

"If you can't make it out to your favorite MWC volleyball arena for a match or want to see how other teams are doing, you can be one of the many fans watching along at home on The Mtn., CBS College Sports or BYU-TV. Thursday, Oct. 7 at 6:30 p.m. (PT), Wyoming is at UNLV on The Mtn. ... If you have DirecTV, that's channel 616 or check with your local cable operator for the channel listing in your area ... The MWC ranks second in the nation with 19 nationally-televised matches this season.

Three MWC student-athletes are among the 30 candidates for the inaugural Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. New Mexico's Jade Michaelsen, TCU's Christy Hudson and Wyoming's JennaRae Jester are on the list for their excellence on and off the court, and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence - classroom, character, community and competition. This list gets narrowed down to 10 in the next few weeks. Congratulations, Jade, Christy and JennaRae!"

Here's the visual:

Every article is closed with the ability to share to just about any place you might want to share it. Simple, but very impactful.

Finally, the blog is organized to easily allow you to filter down to the sport(s) you care about. Simply click on your choice from the menu, shown below.


How could this be better? Two things jump to my mind. 1) make it easy for me to subscribe. If it was as easy to subscribe as it is to share, I think we'd see a big increase in impact. 2) Get fan participation. When the style of this blog is so personal, it feels a natural to get connection with fans. Perhaps dedicate a day per week (to responding to fan questions/observations).

Big things await this week.

Mountain West Conference week continues tomorrow. We will take a peak at how the conference is leveraging social media. Then, we'll wrap the week up with 3 peaks into things I found fantastic across the 9-team conference landscape.

Don't forget, you can follow along via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy