Conference USA Best Practices: Memphis Gets You Ready

Want to get to the next level? How are you going to get there? And can you prove it?

Memphis does just this.

(Wait a minute? Three straight days of chatter about Memphis?)

Yes. I think this learning will prove its worth and then some!!!

Hit the Memphis University basketball page and enter the Tiger Hoops Experience (from the right-hand side of the page).

That takes us here, to "This is Tiger Hoops", shown below.

Drill through this guide and you'll hit the Strength & Conditioning segment.

Player Development.

I love this quote as a setup about Richard Hogans, Memphis Basketball's Director of Performance Enhancement (bad title)...

"He shows them the "Before" and "After" photos of the Physical Development of previous Tigers. No longer is college basketball about developing better jump shots and improving ball handling skills. To play at the elite level where Memphis is, the strength and conditioning program is a vital cog in the Tigers' deep postseason runs in March."

That quote is great for a plethora of reasons. It talks about the game evolving. It positions Memphis as elite. And it connects this part of the program to March. Love it. Oh and the pictures... Scroll below.

Wow. You can see how this could make an impact on a high schooler!

How could this be better? What's the story here? I'd love to hear from CDR on how Memphis helped him, pushed him, maximized him. I'd love to hear from the Coaches about how they worked with him, analyzed where he was, and what potential they saw. And I'd LOVE to see this story more deeply connected to March. How are they developing for March? I get it that strength helps and I get the visuals here. But there's a story, an insight, a truth that could position Memphis as the key to getting you there!

That's it for Conference USA. Come back next week as we dive into another league!

And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy

Conference USA Best Practices: Memphis Travels in Style

Travel is a certainty.

When you are a D-1 athlete, you know you'll play a lot of games on the road. And I'm a believer that many teams don't take advantage of this in their recruiting. Where do you go? What do you do when you go? Where do you stay? Traveling with your friends, your teammates, can have a huge impact on the type of enjoyment you get out of your college experience.

Memphis takes a great step in this direction.

Hit the Memphis University basketball page and enter the Tiger Hoops Experience (from the right-hand side of the page).

That takes us here, to "This is Tiger Hoops", shown below.

When you drill through the site, you'll see Traveling in Style, a look at the Tigers on the Road. You'll see that the Tigers are one of the only teams to Charter flights to all their games. You'll see a glimpse into the inside of said plane. (nice)

And, as you'll note below, you'll see the places the team stays are pretty nice -- the Intercontinental in NY, the Hilton in Houston. Are those great hotels? I don't know. But I do love the positioning that they are.

How could this be better? We have facts. What I'd love are emotions. How can we get there? Photos of the team on the road. What did you do? Where did you eat? What was the funniest thing (or the scariest) that happened when you traveled? I'd love to see the personality come out from the platform that's been created. (Oh, and like we mentioned yesterday, make this easier to get to and share!)

That's it. Come back tomorrow for a final look into the best practices across Conference USA Digital.

Don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy

Conference USA Best Practices: Memphis Maximizes the Player Introduction Videos

That opening video.

Across all sports it's the thing that fires everyone up, fans and players alike. And I'm guessing it's one of the things that makes for a lasting impression for a potential student athlete.

I love these because they set the tone. They get the team hyped. They get the fans hyped (which gets the team hyped and the band hyped and the cheerleaders hyped). Essentially, do them well and they can aid in the creation of the home court advantage you seek. And which draws recruits to you... And then (normally) they get thrown away after just one year of using the video?

Memphis has an answer to this.

Hit the Memphis University basketball page and enter the Tiger Hoops Experience (from the right-hand side of the page).

That takes us here, to "This is Tiger Hoops," shown below. I'm normally not a fan of the digital yearbook. (And I'm still not a fan, as it takes the good pieces and puts them all together in a slow-to-load online catalog). But the content is great. And there are learnings here.

First, the video. Known in Memphis as the Ontro Video, the Tigers include videos all the way back to 2002-2003. Think a hot video of the past can't make an impact today? Guess again. I love this for many reasons. They're great videos. They raise the bar (you don't want to allow this year's video to be less exciting than last year's!) And they add up to a statement for what the team is about.




This year, Memphis took it to a new level. They created two videos, airing one on the home opener and the other before the second game. The top vote getter wins... So they involved the fans into the process to hype the team? Love it!

How could this be better? The energy is too bottled up for me. I couldn't easily share these videos with you as they are not set up for easy sharing. I'd love to see Memphis take the excitement they have developed and architect it in a way that makes it easy to take with you. To watch via mobile, wherever and whenever you want.

The risk? That the videos and content lose context and don't appear in the setting of a Guide to Memphis hoops. The upside? That they get seen exponentially more. This is a great case to put the energy in the fans who want it most!

That's it. Come back tomorrow as we continue our look through Conference USA Best Practices.

And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy

Conference USA Heroes their Facebook Fans

Hero your fans. Make them feel special and they'll connect more deeply with you.

After just being personal, it's the best advice I have for someone in Facebook. And Conference USA started to do just this... but stopped. Let's check it out.

Hit the C-USA Facebook page (here) and then you'll need to click into Notes.

That takes you here.

Let's look closer into the description for the Facebook Fan of the Month...

"Conference USA wants to recognize and honor fans that are actively involved with the C-USA fan page and plan to do so with the Facebook Fan of the Month Award.

To get your name etched in stone amongst the greatest fans ever to grace the coeted seats at arenas and stadiums throughout the land..."

They list past winners from November and December 2009 and then stop. (Doh!)

What do we have here? We have a connection between the conference and the fans of the league. The C-USA heroed two fans, elevating them to a pretty high place. But it must not have worked well, as it was suspended...

So, How could this be better? First, I'd love to see them find fans at games and then recognize them in Facebook. Arenas always have fans of the game. Take a photo of the raucous fans and then hero them. Second, tag the fans in your note. This will allow them to easily find it... and for your award to get into their News Feed! And third, be consistent. Come up with criteria and then stick with it. Sometimes it takes time but this is a great initiative that builds connections and also positions the league as very personal!

Tune in tomorrow as we take another peak into the best practices of Conference USA.

And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy

Conference USA Pumps In (and Up) the Campus Energy

Conference USA Week Starts Now.

One way I view conferences is that they are the happy parents with their numerous children (up to 16 in some cases) to celebrate. But many conferences don't take the time to really pump their teams up.

Hit the Conference USA Home Page and look towards the bottom left-hand side of the page for the peak into school logos...

I'll zoom in here, because I really want to dial into this.

"On Campus"

I love seeing the logos paired with stories. In a single glance, we get everything - what the hottest read is in each school. And, from here, you can click in to go deep on that school. As an added bonus, the site becomes alive and the conference shows love to their schools.

Sweet.

How can this be better? What if this wasn't simply a list of 12 articles but rather a pull of 12 Twitter feeds? Those feeds could either be the school's athletics feed OR it could be a separate account, set up by the conference to pull in the right updates. (All they have to do is set up an account, lets say "@SMUCUSA and then set this site to pull in everything that account Re-Tweets. Then they go out to all SMU accounts (Or relevant bloggers) and find those posts that give you the feel of each campus!

Tune in tomorrow as we take another peak into the best practices of Conference USA.

And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm@pawlow34.

Andy