AFL Digital Best Practices: Gold Coast Suns Leverage Social Media for Fan Questions

Social Media does two things really well -- it connects people and it gives you the chance to have access into another person, team, or brand's life that you just didn't have before. When you combine those two, consistently, you get a person, team, or brand that excels in this space.

The Gold Coast Lions show us a glimpse of the power this combination can deliver.

Hit the Gold Coast home page and choose "2011 Season"...

From here, click into "Suns Social Network", which takes us to the hub of interaction, here....

It's a bit tough to read, so let's highlight the key messages:

1. They ask you to provide a question and the name of the player you want to interview and "we'll take care of the rest".
2. The best questions are rewarded with a prize from Campbell Brown's locker...

Love the strategy -- fans ask questions of players and the best get rewarded, not just by their questions being asked (which is pretty amazing on its own!) but by a team prize. So wait... I love the team and you're giving me more access and a prize? Wonderful stuff.

How could this be better? A couple of questions come to mind with an end goal of making this an incredibly personal experience. Can we bring the fan into the interview? Meaning could the player reference the fan who asked the question when giving their answer? That personal touch could have a mammoth impact.

Finally, could the prize be contextual to the player of whom you were interviewing, rather than always from one specific player? I love the strategy laid out here and believe it'll be the details that transform the concept into one that's addictive and viral.

Come back tomorrow for more AFL Best Practices! As always, you can follow me on Twitter (I'm @pawlow34) or on Facebook (Digital Hoops Blast).

Thanks!

Andy