NBA Best Practices: San Antonio Spurs and the Facebook Camera Set Up

When fans come back from a big game, there are two things that feel like they are always part of the next day: 1) tell our friends we were there and 2) post pictures of our experience on Facebook.

But how can teams help this behavior? How can they take this as inspiration and create something that a fan couldn't do on their own?

The San Antonio Spurs introduce their version of the uber-camera, the Gigapan...

The journey starts on the Spurs home page, shown below. You'll see a headline asking fans who attended Game 1 of their first-round series vs Memphis to click in. (Naturally, not the main story today)

Clicking in takes us here, to the Spurs vs Grizzlies Gigapan. (Yes, what a cool name...) This camera gives fans access to navigate to the section of the arena they sat in (or any section) and explore the stadium at a moment in time...

But, more than that, as you can see below, they ask fans to Tag Themselves on Facebook. Basically they are asking you to go in, find yourself, and then raise your hand digitally -- claiming yourself. This effect will then allow fans to share with their networks, telling all their friends they were at the game, and showing them the energy they were a part of...



And, when your friends visit this image (see below), they can hover over any of the "+" signs, and see the Facebook profiles of the fans at the game. (You can even click on to view that fan's profile, if you want!)



I'll zoom in to give you a sense for the power of the camera... Pretty cool stuff!

So what does all this mean? Fans are given a picture of the arena during the big game and the ability to share that "they were there" with their friends. Really cool, takes advantage of what fans want to do, but (like everything) it could get better!

How could this be better? This is a fantastic starting point. But there is a big question that we need to think about: Why would a fan (or their network) return to this experience a 2nd time? That first time it's cool to see what we look like and feel a part of the energy. But to get us back again, we need something that's evolving. What if fans could upload pictures of their POV -- allowing you to see the game from their perspective? Or, on a simpler level, what if fans were encouraged to have a Spurs profile picture -- since it's going to be visible on this map. Prizes go to the best profile... and these profiles are, naturally, visible to the networks of each fan.

That wraps the 30 teams in the NBA.

We're taking a week off, then we'll be back -- shifting gears to the Australian Rules Football League. Lots of learnings on how to use digital & social media from across the globe.

Watch out!

And as always, you can follow me on Twitter (I'm @pawlow34) or on Facebook (Digital Hoops Blast).

Thanks!

Andy