Unplugged: 5 Ways Teams Could Explode their Social Brands Through Midnight Madness

Tonight is Midnight Madness: the start of college basketball season.

It's also the day when a geek like me daydreams about what teams could do to leverage technology and social media to be different. I won't take on the season itself, but instead I will dive into the day itself.

So why Midnight Madness? There's so much potential. College basketball fans, students, and recruits have been aware of teams but this is the moment when you start to think about what could be. When you start to dream of what it'd be like to play for a school or when as a student/fan you get to first experience what watching a team would be like. It's an unveil moment for a brand. And thus it's super critical to treat it as such.

If you're unfamiliar with the idea of Midnight Madness, click here and you'll find an endless flow of videos around this date.

So, with all this energy, all this hype, all this opportunity it becomes a moment for conversation... and thus a moment for social media. Here's 5 ideas of how teams could take it to another level on this day.

1. Offer early access to their Facebook Fans.

I love seeing teams enter their arena and connecting, physically, with fans. It kind of reminds me of the Presidential State of the Union addresses, when everyone shakes hands with the President as he enters Congress. There's something magical about that, and it sets the tone for a game (or speech).

What is the Social Media equivalent? I'd love to see teams allow Facebook fans in an hour early. Imagine that. If the game starts at 8, let Facebook fans enter at 6 and the general public at 7. The team then has a captive audience of their socially-connected fans and can build an experience accordingly. Oh, and the socially-connected fans see your team first. Early access has value.

Here's an example of the player entrances I referenced above...

2. Drive RSVP+ for key games through social.

Recognizing that this is a moment for your team, it's also a moment to allow fans to RSVP for future games via social. RSVPing is powerful as it has a viral affect - announcing to their friends that they are attending your game. But we should go beyond an RSVP. That could mean viewing parties for road games and tailgate or tent parties for home games. That's why I'm calling it RSVP+ -- it's not just about getting people to sign up to attend a future game. It's about creating extra value for doing so.

3. Reinvent the highlight reel.

What if we could reinvent the highlight reel every game through social media? By that I mean what if the fans of your team could impact what message got broadcast in the arena, on campus, or at pregame rallies. It would change every game based on the voice or photos of your fan bases. That builds an amazing connection between you and your fan bases and offers something no one else can do!

4. Crowdsource the scouting report for media.

I've written before about the media guide and how I am not a huge fan. But what if you took the idea of a pregame scouting report and opened it up to your fan base to create it. Let your fans write the things they love or admire about each player. And this will change through the season, when you can get fan reactions to each game. Imagine that -- if fans broke down each player's impact on games and that was what you handed out in Press Row. Not only do you offer something unique to the media... but you also get the Media to think socially about your program. That wouldn't suck if they said, on air, "how about what this team is doing through social media..."

5. Use this as a stage.

Big announcements should happen at this time. The season is starting - think about what message you want fans to take away. I'd definitely integrate as many visible ways as I could to get fans to follow along via Facebook or Twitter. And I'd make it clear that there was value for being active and engaging with us. It's your chance to make a first impression -- use social to do just that!

Thanks for hanging with me today. As always, you can follow along on Twitter (I'm@andypawlowski, here)... or on Facebook (here).

Talk soon.

Andy

Unplugged: Thinking Different is the Key to Digital Success in College Sports

Today I'm going to take a little different approach. As you no doubt know, I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time checking out digital and social media best practices across the college sports landscape. I do it to help and to inspire (and hopefully I do!)

So today I'm not going to highlight a single best practice but rather I'm going to talk more philosophically. I'm going to put myself in your shoes and talk a bit about the digital landscape and how I would try to approach things if it was up to me. By doing this, I'll no doubt be dead on about some things with your program and way off on other things. And you know what? I'm cool with that. I simply hope this challenges you, makes you think, and gives you confidence or inspiration to try something new.

Today I'm not going to dive into Social Media -- don't worry, there will be time for this over the next few weeks. I'm instead turning attention to the topic of your website...

1. Don't make your sponsors an equal focus to your consumer. Focus relentlessly on about your brand. This is a tough dynamic to get to. I understand that many of you earn a good share of revenue by offering banners on your sites for partners. But I ask you to step back a second. Step back and ask yourself, "Is this really valuable for our sponsor?" My take is that, no, it's not. If a consumer hits your website it's not highly likely that they suddenly will feel the urge to get a car insurance quote. Sure, you may have some metrics that show a certain number of eyeballs that see an advertisement is worth a certain amount. But I would challenge you to get rid of all advertising on the site. Make it 100% about your brand, about driving people into an experience. Car Insurance companies invest with you because they want to identify with your brand. So build that brand and make them want to align even closer. Then work on ways to smartly connect them to content you create.

2. Simplify your focus to one word: Access. The content you create is about access. As the marketing team, you have more access to the squads, the coaches, the campus, the gyms, and the stories. Don't lose your focus on this point, as it is the #1 thing you can control and the #1 thing that builds your brand in the eyes of your consumer, whether you consider your consumer the High School kid thinking about your program, an alum, a current student, a booster, or a sponsor. Now Access doesn't mean you go overboard and you take away privacy for your teams. It simply means that when you go after content, go after content that only you could create. Content that reinforces who you are, what you stand for, and why you win.

3. Throw away the Media Guide. Stop doing things that expire and aren't hitting your target consumer. I was sitting in a media room of an NCAA Game a few years ago talking to an SID. He was worn out, and I talked to him about the landscape. The trouble is, he had started out as a traditional guy, working on media guides when the internet came about. Now he was both a traditional guy and a digital guy with the same expectations on one side and new ones on the other. He had no additional budget and no additional help. No wonder he was jammed!

So that got me thinking on Let's start with a simple question: Why do you create a media guide? Please don't let the answer be that we've always done this or everyone else does this. Those are my favorite times in life to shine. When everyone else does one thing, think differently.

I see lots of challenges as it relates to media guides. They don't really hit your target consumer. Sure they have information inside it that benefits reporters covering a game. Check. But that information is often expired by the time game two comes. More importantly, they take serious investments in time & sometimes money to create. I'm definitely a believer that marketing is about choices. We can't do everything. So that means if I'm in your shoes we aren't doing a media guide. We are going to create a content strategy and roll it out through the year. And I bet you we get more coverage for this than we currently get for our traditional guide.

4. Ask the team what do you want to be famous for? I talked to a commissioner of a D-1 Conference who told me that they knew fans came to their site first and foremost for the standings and schedule. Thus, that needed to be the most prominent feature. I would ask us all this question: Do you really want to be famous for the schedule and scores? Anyone can deliver this information, and do it as well as we can and maybe even faster as the competition for coverage includes the likes of ESPN and CBS Sports. Think differently. Rather than thinking about a schedule, think about what your school's point of view on what a schedule really is. I'd much rather see quick blog entries, photo galleries, or interviews around a practice report preparing for a game rather than the calendar itself. Meanwhile, I would make the calendar easy to download to the mobiles of our fan base. (It's much, much better to look at your mobile and see when teams play than it is to go to a website and hunt for a schedule). This isn't to say that I would not offer the schedule on the site. It is to say that isn't my top priority in building our brand.

5. Be a bulletin board. Express emotion, rather than reporting news. Let the AP wire report the news. From a college perspective, having a system that lets us upload a powerful, emotional image (or lots of them) with a bold headline draws people in and often times gets them to share your message socially. Reporting the facts simply gives them information. I don't mean a bulletin board from the standpoint of belittling anyone or antagonizing an opponent. I do mean it from being personal, emotional, and expressing your positive energy on your program. Don't be afraid to show love!

Thanks for hanging with me today. As always, you can follow along on Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski, here)... or on Facebook (here).

Talk soon.

Andy