Horizon League Best Practices: Milwaukee's Scouting Reports

This blog is all about inspiration. We're in the midst of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Horizon League. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let's move.

Thus far our Horizon League journey has shown how Butler ties your Facebook identity to the Bulldogs, here, and how Green Bay encourages their articles to share inside Facebook, here. Today, we turn to Milwaukee.



Scouting Reports.

When you get to college as a student athlete, they are a big part of your preparation for the game. They tell you things to focus on, who to key on. It's your crib sheet for the big game. And Milwaukee has a take on that that'll open your eyes... Hit the Milwaukee "Unofficial" Student site, Panther U (here), and click onto the Pick and Roll Press. That will take you here (shown below). That's where the fun begins.

You can click onto any matchup from this past season and learn more about the opposition. Let's dive into a preview from last year's Butler Matchup -- viewable here.

This is a very good, high level look at the opponent. You see an overview (above) and a list of suggested crowd cheers (below).

And, as you can see in the image below, they pick a player on the opposition and isolate him as a person to taunt, complete with the reasons to do so. It's enough to make the crowd not just tough to face but also well informed... After all, who wants to be this week's Bench Baby?

Finally, the reason I dig all this is that it is fun. That's what college is all about. As a student athlete (or recruit) you see that fans care and they are going to do what they can to make things hostile for the opposition. Nice.

How Could This Be Better? This is fantastic, but it is 100% opposition-centric. I'd love to see this taken to another level -- let us see the same scouting, but also the same level of emotion around the Panthers. Doing this will not only get fans more connected to the team, it will also make players (and prospective players) feel like playing at Milwaukee is big. Very big. Take that level of excitement and you have the ultimate guide to Milwaukee Hoops: Emotional, Passionate, Real-Time, and Fun.

One other suggestion. I love the crowd chants but feel like they could learn from Bill Simmons and how he coordinated crowd chants against the Cavs via Twitter (story here). Feels like Milwaukee could use Twitter to get things going even further in real time. Fun stuff!

That's a wrap.

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Horizon League! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Horizon League Best Practices: Green Bay Taps Into Facebook to Like Each Article

This blog is all about inspiration. We're in the middle of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Horizon League. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Yesterday, we covered how Butler takes your social profile and attaches their program to it, here.

Let's keep moving...

Thus far our Horizon League journey has shown how Butler ties your Facebook identity to the Bulldogs, here. Today, we turn to the Green Bay Phoenix. Hit the home page, here, or below and then dive into any article on the site....

As you can see from the image below (or by clicking in here), the Phoenix have developed a system to make each article they post have viral potential. Look to the bottom of this image below...

I'll zoom in to make it easier to see. Every article takes advantage of Facebook Connect -- letting you easily Like or comment on the article via Facebook. The beauty, of course, is that every time a fan comments or Likes an article, that action gets shared across their Facebook wall. So, in effect, their endorsement of that feature gets shared to all their friends.

How could this be better? Make it more prominent. The concept is magical, we just need to find ways to encourage people to share this across their profile. It's also pretty powerful when you see an article with lots of "Likes"... So posting these articles into Facebook could help that number as well! (Of course, things only get liked if they are original, fantastic content!)

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Horizon League! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Horizon League Best Practices: Butler Makes Sharing Bulldog Love on Facebook Easy

This blog is all about inspiration. We're going to spend 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Horizon League. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Cool?

Let's move.

Click into the Butler University Facebook page, here, and you'll find the home of Hink the Butler Bulldog and his 2,800+ fans.

Scroll down the wall (shown below). and you'll see how Butler makes showing your Bulldog love cool and easy. The image at the bottom of the shot below, with the header "Add some Butler to your Facebook page" is where we'll turn our attention.

Let's click forward (scroll down or click here). You'll see a gallery of images. But, unlike the vast majority of images, Butler strategically wanted to use their Facebook photos for good. The mission: Get fans to tie Butler to their identity. As you can see below, Butler has taken shots of the program, campus, the mascot, and your home state and turned it into a collection of images for you to take with you.

Click in on one of the images (I chose Missouri, since that's my home state), and you'll see that you have a quick and easy way to show that there are two big parts of your identity: your home, and your love for the Butler Bulldogs. It's very much like a personalized license plate or bumper sticker strategy, and I mean that in a good way. You can have something that is both true to your home and true to your school. Love it! And for the rest of us, why not steal this best practice?

How could this be better? This is an amazing first step. Now let's build on it. Much like the

contests to submit a photo wearing your school tee in far reaching places, I'd love to see rewards given (via contests) for fans who have adopted Butler for their profile picture. The idea is in place. Fans are willing to apply Butler to their identity... now use this for good!

Solid, huh?

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the Horizon League! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

The Horizon League's Social Media Footprint

Today we'll continue our look into the Horizon League. We will review their social media presence -- what they do and where they could improve. And I'll plot it all in one spot on a Social Media Report Card.

Then, we'll finish the week out by looking into the 12 member institutions and elevating the best digital features I've uncovered.

As a reminder, you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Let's start.

Social Media Exposure

The journey always begins with the conference's weight to social media. There are always stories, teams, and schools weighing in for home page worthiness. But the question I start with is... how easy is it to follow the conference? That doesn't necessarily mean quantity of places. But it does mean exposure to ways to follow the conference.

Hit the Horizon home page and you'll see a nice callout for Social Media about halfway down the page on the right-hand side under the header "Join the Conversation".



As you'll see in the image below, the Horizon League elevates their latest Tweets and the size of their Facebook fan group to this home page level.


How could this be better? I love the branding here, with the call to participate (Join the Conversation). What I'd love to see here is an elevation of fans joining the conversation. It could be an exercise like we see with the Minnesota Timberwolves and their Hashtag system (discussed here) that would allow for fans to participate alongside the conference. Or it could be a moderator-voice who creates destination events on the Horizon site.... Tweet through the game with us.)

Social Media Roster Depth

Facebook leads the way for the Horizon League, from a Social Media standpoint. As you can see here, and below - the conference has 607 fans. But it's not about the size of the base but rather the infrastructure in place. Let's dive in.

First, it's very evident that Priority #1 for the conference is driving fans to Like them. (see the landing page below). The second you click on the Horizon's Facebook link, you end up here. I'm a fan of being clear in what you are after - making this effective. That said, I believe that we are now in an age where romance is key. It's not a straight funnel to Like something, but rather explain why you should. Liking is the result of delighting fans, not the result of simply asking for it...

When you click on the wall, you'll find an active fan base that's asking for inspiration. There's only been 6 conference-driven wall posts in 2010 -- but all 6 have driven action (likes or comments) from fans...


The Horizon League also adds a tab for polls, with the latest shown below. Love the idea, love elevating polls to a tab. Just wish this was more up to date...

How could this be better? There's an active fan base. Most leagues would LOVE to have this. But we need a consistent conversation that lives up to the call to action on the Horizon League website ("Join the Conversation...")

There is a hidden and powerful Following strategy in play on Twitter. Checking out the Horizon League on Twitter, here, my attention turned to those the conference followed, shown in the right hand side of the image below. I see a mix of basketball sites (NCAA Stats), sports sites (Deadspin), conference sites (Cleveland State hoops), and media sites (Key Milwaukee). This isn't directly played out in their Twitter behavior (which I'll discuss in a minute), but it does show that the conference is positioned well to get at the heart of the conference.

I'll zoom in to make it more clear...

As a whole, Twitter is leveraged predominately to share information -- either features posted to the Horizon site or announcements of success at the school level. Let's look at a couple of numbers to help gauge activity levels. (Beyond the Horizon's 602 Twitter followers, here)

1. 6.5% of the time that a fan subscribes, they put the conference into a list. That makes 39 lists.
2. The Twitter equivalent of student-to-teacher ratio: Tweets per Subscriber. The conference has tweeted 731 times -- or 1.21 per subscriber.
3. Activity is inconsistent. Of the 731 tweets, only 17 have come in 2010 (2.3% of the postings)
   

Buzz.

To gauge buzz, I did a quick search for @horizonleague on Twitter. There was only a single mention in the past month. Meaning to maximize the power of social media, there's going to be some leg work from the conference.

Intangibles

Synergy. I'm looking for the total impact the conference has across social media to be higher because the pieces work well together. In this case we need it. I mentioned yesterday that a person could curate that interaction from the home page. Most likely, this would drop in easily into the conference's blog system.

Report Card

Strengths: Twitter Integration, Exposure

Weaknesses: Intangibles, Fan Engagement, Consistency

Neutral: Depth of Roster

Hope you enjoyed this tour! Come back tomorrow as we start elevating best practices in the Horizon League!

Don't forget, you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Breaking Down The Horizon League Online

Each week we will break down a different conference across the D-1 landscape, giving you a look into how they are connecting with fans (and recruits) across their website and social media. Along the way, we'll elevate a few things in each conference that are best-in-class: what we can learn from the schools that make up each conference.

As a reminder, we break down leagues based on how squads finished last season. Thus far we've checked out the ACC (here).

Thanks to Butler University's dream season, we'll turn our attention to the Horizon League, linked here and shown below.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Today, we'll start with a look into the Horizon League website.

What's to love about the Horizon League? (link here, shown below)
The Horizon League is a digital innovator. They put a serious investment out there, which inspired me to discuss the league previously, here.



The second you get here you feel it. The home page is alive. In fact, consider the image above and the image below together to give you a complete feel of the home page. As you can see below, they give us a well designed, easy to manage inventory of the news -- be it from the campus sites (Newswire, on the left), the conference office (Official Releases, in the middle), or social media (Twitter, on the right hand side)...

It's a lot of information but, thanks to the layout, you don't feel it. What we also have is a system that allows multiple parties (the conference office, member schools, and those on Twitter) to keep the home page dynamic. Nice stuff here.




This extends to the sport specific sections really well. As you can see below (or here), the Horizon League takes the same combination of Official Releases and Campus News (plus videos) and filters them down by sport. This doesn't just hold true for men's basketball -- it applies through everything, like cross country and tennis. NICE!


How could this be better? The framework is fantastic, as you can tell. That said, there are 2 opportunities to really take this to another level. First, look at customizing the Twitter offering by sport by leveraging hash tags. (More social media to come tomorrow) And, most importantly these pieces, albeit fantastic, are segmented. There's an opportunity for a moderator to bring those pieces together so that the page is less a summary of what's out there and more a dialogue on the sports.

Athlete Blogs are a world class framework.
As you can see below, the Horizon League offers us an opportunity to view a full world of blogs crafted by student athletes. The big thing to pay attention to is the left hand part of this image. You have the opportunity, at a click, to filter this down by school, by sport, or by a combination. Want only Valpo Basketball, you've got it. Brilliant. It's not just having student athlete blogs that's great, it's putting these into a very digestible and usable model. Check them out below or linked here.


How could this be better? Once you have filtered in by school and sport, make it easy to get updates. Don't make fans come back here again to customize and see their team/sport. Doing the hard work for them can be accomplished via a subscribe engine!


Video applies the same framework, plus sharing.

The Horizon League takes the same filtering method we saw earlier and applies it into the world of video with one big addition: they give you a short URL to copy, or a simple click to share each video via Facebook or Twitter. Really powerful, really simple. Check it out here.

How could this be better? Love the videos, love the organization. I would just love to see a schedule. It'd be great to know what's dropping, when, so that we can build anticipation.

Finally, take a peak at the Horizon League's approach to Championships, here. We see Championship portrayed in both videos and in words. As you'll note on the left hand side of the page, the videos have been filtered to show us "Championship Videos." Then, scan over to the far right and note the power of a collection of logos under the header "Reigning Champion." Nice.


How could this be better? Right now, there really isn't a way to go deep by sport. The sports are listed vertically, in order of their place on the calendar. But there's more opportunity here. Apply the same filters, bring in student blogs from their championship runs, pull in applicable videos, and conference releases. The info is all here, we just need to apply it.

That's it.

What's up next? Horizon week continues tomorrow. We will take a peak at how the Horizon League is leveraging social media. Then, we'll wrap the week up with 3 peaks into things I found fantastic across the 8-team Horizon League landscape.

Don't forget, you can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

Horizon League Launches Ridiculous Website, Blows Me Away

As I continue down the track for amazing college sites, I came across the news that the Horizon League had launched a new site around high-quality game coverage online and social connection among fans. (Full press release here).

So I HAD to dive in, and I had to cover it for you. This is real-time, hot college news... Here's the link. Of course, I'll break it down below. But you really should check it out first. Here's another chance to click in. Don't worry, I'll still have the breakdown of the experience ready for you when you're done!

As you'll see, the site is super clean and easy to follow -- you'll see a nice blog feed hitting you right in the start. But look around, you also have the latest message board posts and tweets about the Horizon League pumping through. So this site is going to change, early and often.



Now look towards the bottom -- Flickr photos of the Horizon League pop through as well. The press release says we should expect fan participation on this in the tourney times. That's just amazing, especially if Butler is hot this year!



I drilled into the blog next. It's simple, but also easily (see checklist on the right) morphs to just the team (or teams) and sport (or sports) you want to follow. Nice!

The site has one of the best Twitter feeds I've seen. Everything posts here, but you again can filter down to the team or teams you want. This is even better than I'd have imagined... I would have been happy to allow me to narrow it to one team. But now I can adapt this however I want. Huzzah!

Also note on the right the black box "Tweet this page". From any place on the site we are able to click and share it via Twitter. That's tweet the exact page, not the site in general. And it is persistent through the site. What a great use of Twitter!

You'll see the channels icon on top as well. Clicking here allows you to change the content in every area (blog, video, news, message boards, and tweets) to your team. You basically have full control. Wow.



And last but DEFINITELY not least, check out how the conference plans on leveraging interaction in game. From the screen below you'll see the window where we will see high quality live streams of the games... But you'll also notice there's a Facebook icon. You are able to use Facebook Connect and follow the game alongside your Facebook friends (or the friends of your team through this site). I can't wait to join this during a big game this year!!!


I've made it my mission to cover great work in the digital side of College Hoops and this is just mind boggling. It's unexpected (I saw the release and didn't really plan on covering it). It's powerful, and it is a role model for teams and conferences to follow!

Stay tuned as I continue my roll through the Pac-10 next week!

Andy