AFL Best Practices: North Melbourne Kangaroos Elevate Player Facebook Pages

Today we'll pick up where we left off yesterday, from our question of how can a team leverage the presence of its athletes on social media. But we'll take this from the perspective of Facebook. With players up and active on Facebook, and with fans up and active on Facebook, what's a team to do?

The North Melbourne Kangaroos put us on the path.

The journey begins on the North Melbourne Kangaroos Home Page. You'll see "Facebook" on the Upper Nav bar. Hovering over reveals "Players on Facebook." Intrigued, I clicked in...

Heading in takes us here, to a visual list of which players are currently up on Facebook.

It's a visual directory of sorts with a goal of sending us quickly onward to the pages of the athletes. Clicking onward to Firrito's Page, here, and McIntosh's Page, here, reveals two great personalities who engage with their fan bases through social. They're not incredibly active, but when they are on, they resonate really well...

I'll zoom into a couple sample posts to give you a little more of the flavor...




Finally, and importantly, you'll note the left-hand menu serves as a way to show the connection between athlete & team (as in the athlete "Likes" their team). Simple, easy way to work together to grow brands.

All that said, there's opportunity left on the table.

How could this be better? The team shouldn't see itself simply as a redirect to the pages of their athletes. They should serve both as the aggregator of voice and as the curator of conversations between athletes and fans. And, perhaps most importantly, they should serve as a way to take the team with you to your network -- how about player-driven Facebook profile pictures? Or encourage fans to write on player walls/post pictures onto walls direct from the Kangaroos site? Moving in this direction increases the engagement on The Kangaroos site and gives fans a reason to return early and often.

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