Indiana Athletics Pumps Sounds of the Game into Facebook

Could you imagine if you went to a game and it was completely silent? If you were forced to treat a basketball or football game the same way our culture treats a golf match? Complete silence while the action happens? Naturally, we'd lose something, right? And I'd argue that is one of if not the biggest thing one misses by not being there, in person, to experience a big game.

It's also one of the most powerful takeaways a school can leave a recruit -- letting him or her experience what it's like on gameday in your stadium. Now what if you could bring this into Facebook, where you'll get more access to fans and recruits, after every matchup?

Indiana University puts us on that path. Let's start out on the Indiana Athletics Facebook Page, here, and shown below...




You'll see that first post on the image above, for Sounds of the Game, which I'll zoom into below. Side note - have you ever seen a longer sponsorship line? ("The Indiana Criminal Justice Institute's Traffic Safety Division's Sounds of the Game?") Wow. We'll get to that in a minute...


It's pretty easy to share this content, simply by clicking on the musical share button... Making this very scalable.




Most importantly, the content is fresh. It's tough to embed audio in a blog (or at least too tough for me), but it's worth checking out. You get a nice mix of IU announcers, bands, and crowd. Check it out by clicking here. Definitely does a great job of giving access to what the game felt like -- which by its nature brings emotions into the mix!

So given all this, how could we make it better? First, as aforementioned, I'd shorten that sponsorship line. Or take it out altogether in the post. While the audio content is packed with emotion, the post itself isn't and when we're trying to bring fans in, we can't forget said emotion! It's important that the copy keeps the focus on the team, not on the sponsor.

Then, what if we could actually release these in game, to draw more people into following the game? (What if we dropped an audio file at half time?) There's opportunity for a monstrous impact by mixing time and emotion!

I'll be back Monday with more best practices. Feel free to follow along via Facebook (here) or Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski, here)

Thanks.

Andy

The 2011 Digital NCAA Basketball Tourney: The First Four

Today is the first of our days unveiling matchups in this year's Digital NCAA Tourney. We'll start by breaking down the 4 play-in games for the tourney. Then we'll go region-by-region breaking down the field.

First, a reminder. These seeds were calculated using a weighted average between how the teams connect on social media, the level of access they give you to their program, the level of branding and emotion they deliver, the quality and depth of content, and (naturally) the intangibles... though it's digital so isn't everything intangible?

And finally, keep in mind that every team in this field of 68 is inspiring -- that's how they got here, to the big digital stage. And we can take great learnings from each of them.

Enjoy!

16-Hampton vs. 16-Arkansas Pine Bluff
This is a matchup of two conference champions, both of which lead by offering a clean design and a focus on getting you where they want to get you.

16-Hampton
Conference: MEAC
Website: http://www.hamptonpirates.com

How they got here: Won the MEAC's Automatic Bid by leveraging a clean design to connect directly with recruits. They hit you with a prominent "Join the Team. Get Recruited Here" call to action right from the comforts of the home page.



16-Arkansas-Pine Bluff
Conference: SWAC
Website: http://www.uapblionsroar.com

How they got here: Won the SWAC's Automatic Bid by pairing a clean design with a dynamic calendar that makes it pretty obvious when the action is happening.





16-South Carolina Upstate vs. 16- Liberty
Two teams that won their conferences show up in a 16-seed First Four game. That shows you just how tough this year's field is! Both squads find a way to add excitement around gametime, and they come at it from an entirely different standpoint.

16-South Carolina Upstate
Conference: Atlantic Sun
Website: http://www.upstatespartans.com

How they got here: Winner of the Atlantic Sun Conference's Bid. You have to dig for it, but the Spartans hit you with some great content from Coach Eddie Payne's website. Chief among the energy of this site is Traveling with the Spartans, a place where you can actually see what the team sees when they travel.



16-Liberty
Conference: Big South
Website: http://www.libertyflames.com

How they got here: Winner of the Big South's Automatic Bid. The Flames offer up an easy reminder of when the next game is, from a prominent countdown clock off the home page. They also pack together an athletics department social media widget!




15-Butler vs. 15-Indiana
This is one of those matchups I wish the NCAA Selection committee would bring out more often -- regional rivalries that don't get played in the regular season.

15-Butler
Conference: Horizon
Website: http://www.butlersports.com

How they got here: At-Large Bid. Strong play in the social media realm, as Butler does a strong job bringing their personality out across Facebook & Twitter.



15-Indiana
Conference: Big Ten
Website: http://www.iuhoosiers.cstv.com

How they got here: At-Large Bid. Indiana delivers good content, albeit tough to find inside a heavy recruiting virtual guide.





14 George Washington vs. 14-Middle Tennessee State
This matchup tells you a bit about the collective strength of the A10 and Sun Belt Conferences... or at least it tells you they have multiple bids.

14-George Washington
Conference: Atlantic 10
Website: http://www.gwsports.com

How they got here: At Large. Coach Hobbs gets you exactly what you need to understand once you hit his site -- what's the style of play? what's your philosophy? The challenge is that you have to get here to get this information.




14- Middle Tennessee State
Conference: Sun Belt
Website: http://www.goblueraiders.com

How they got here: At Large. The Blue Raiders give you easy, elegant access to their social media world. It's clean and it's clear where they want you to go.





Here's the bracket, updated.

Come back tomorrow as we dive into the first of our 4 regions...

As always, you can follow me on Facebook (here) or Twitter (I'm @pawlow34)

Andy

Big Ten Conference Best Practices: Indiana Makes You Better.

This blog is all about inspiration. We're spending 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Big Ten. 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?

Thus far we've checked out how Minnesota defines player development (here) and how Michigan State defines their brand, (here).

Let's move.

Click into

I was all set to write this post around the Indiana Basketball Recruiting Guide, linked here. The fact that the Hoosiers abandoned the notion of a print media guide and shifted to a print recruiting guide is fantastic and forward-looking. As you should be able to see below, this can be accessed from 3 places on the site -- a button in the lower left corner of the page and twice in the main menu.

Clicking in gets you to the image below, easy access to PDFs of the Guide, broken into smaller pieces by topic. The recruiting component gives access to everything you might want, from product the team gets to the uniform to the roster and schedule.



But my favorite component comes below, in the Strength & Conditioning Section. Indiana gives us a look at the physical size and athletic measurements of select members of the team, past and present. Or, to be more direct, Indiana tells us what the players were like before they showed up in Bloomington and then again, after they completed their time.

As you can note, this includes NBA alum Eric Gordon, along with current players and recent grads. Gordon gained 8 pounds during his time on campus, but also gained 5 inches on his Max Vertical, got quicker (in the 25 yard sprint), and stronger (in the bench press reps). This is literally amazing -- you see how much players changed during their time, and in what areas. Great stuff - industry leading greatness.

How could this be better? Give us the athlete's take. I'd love to hear Eric Gordon (or read Eric Gordon) on what his time was like. What did he do to make sure he improved from an athletic standpoint? And what did he think of the strength & conditioning staff?

This is really big time amazing.

That's a wrap. Next week..... the Big East.

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

College Basketball: Digital Big Ten Preview, #7 Indiana

Let's continue our digital minded journey through the Big Ten Conference, from less best to best. We know these programs are out there, waiting for potential recruits to click in. And we'll see who gets it and who doesn't. Thus far, our tour has shown us #11 Northwestern, #10 Michigan, #9 Ohio State, and #8 Wisconsin.

Here we go.

#7: Indiana

The Digital Scouting Report

Strengths: Coach Crean is a star on Twitter. Deep recruiting content.

Weaknesses: Coach Crean's Twitter is not integrated on the site. No easy ways to follow the program.

Full Scouting Report:

Indiana Basketball. One of the deepest traditions in the Big Ten, with a league-best 35 trips to the Dance - seven more than the Illinois. Clicking into the home page, here, shows you a simple home page.

If you scroll down a little deeper, you see the Hoosier YouTube channel.

Clicking into this section reveals a collection of 34 videos ranging from field hockey to basketball (seriously). It's quite a spread and unfortunately there are no individual channels. So you'll get your field hockey fix alongside your basketball fix. The videos themselves are just ok.

Back to the home page, you notice a Multimedia tab at the top. The content below serves as your gateway to the All-Access area. I'm ready to check it out.

Clicking on this takes you to a detail page. While the content here takes you to a CBS pop up window, there are a couple of interesting things: Daily Practice Reports and Behind the Scenes access. I'm very interested in this content, but if it is true, we really need to find a way to get it surfaced through the site in other areas beyond this one. That's pretty solid stuff! I just love the idea of daily practice reports...

As I move on to check out the basketball content, I was impressed by this menu. There's something about putting all the teams under the headline, "The Hoosiers," that is pretty cool. Let's dive in.

OK, clicking onto Men's Basketball takes you here, where I hope you notice that solid "IU Basketball Recruiting" button. (Very cool!) Let's stop messing around and dive right in...

Now I'm not going to lie and say this is what I envisioned. I wanted something at least a little bit more dynamic. (or dynamic at all I guess). But let's not judge too quickly. Let's explore.

First, we see a Recruiting Guide. Super cool idea. I'm sure most teams put together simple guides for all the players they recruit; this is just the first time I've come across a digital version...

... but clicking in gives you a collection of PDF's. Not exactly what I was hoping for. But the content is here.

Here's an example of the content that lies within each click. Again, this borders on information overload. But at least it offers information to overload on.

I couldn't find any places to follow Indiana online. No Twitter references on the site. Which is extra weird when you see the image below (or on this link)... Head Coach Tom Crean is one of the most active people on Twitter, with over 12,000 followers and a great job of communicating with the world on a daily basis.

I would have liked to see this in the Recruiting area. Or the Multimedia area. Or at least on Coach Crean's bio page. As you can see from the image below, this audience is growing pretty fast but Coach Crean really isn't connected into the Indiana site at all.

Thanks for sticking with us. Come back on tomorrow as we continue through the Big Ten.

Andy