NBA Digital Disciple Series: Western Conference Wrap Up

Today marks the end of a 7 week journey through the NBA's Western Conference, from a Digital Marketing Point of View. This has been an incredible journey for me, as I've had the pleasure to be inspired on a daily basis by the work that's being done out there. Next week I'll begin to apply some of those learnings into the world of College Hoops, and feel there's a monster opportunity to learn from each other in this world of basketball.

1. Be Timely

The Lakers did this to the extreme. Minutes after Ron Artest's buzzer beater, pictures were up on Facebook and a fan base was ignited. Pictures are powerful. Pictures no one else can get are even more powerful. Then add in a timely factor and you hit the Lakers Facebook presence. I am a believer that their presence is as big as it is not just because they are a popular team in a big market, but rather because they provide powerful information, now. (Maybe you should go check - you might have missed something!)

2. Generate Hope

Hope. Look no further than in the world of baseball if you wonder how powerful it could be. The Washington Nationals have caught Strasburg Mania (article here). There's a Strasburger at a local hamburger joint. You can't get a ticket when he's pitching. In short, one person ignited a town to care again.

And it's our opportunity to find that piece of hope and celebrate it. The Sacramento Kings hit us with a celebratory page for Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans. The OKC Thunder let us see the energy of their fan base as they gathered outside the arena for a Playoff game. We should all think back to that simple question: "Why do I love my team?" (or "Why should a free agent want to play here?") Now bring that to life.

3. Be Emotional

The Phoenix Suns and Portland Trailblazers built emotion into their experiences. In Portland, it was based on powerful quotes and images. In Phoenix, they armed fans with the tools to turn their social status (their Twitter Profiles) Orange. Don't be afraid to help Fans in sharing their love for your team!

4. Make it Portable

The Dallas Mavericks excel here. Not only do they have a navigation bar that makes it extremely easy to share everything you look at, immediately, to wherever you want (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email), but they also created a simple way to download the Mavs schedule to your iPhone. I don't know how many additional tickets those moves resulted in, but I do know they made quite an impact in generating reminders for upcoming games. Think about how you can make it easy for fans to bring what's important with them.

5. Don't Go it Alone

I saved the best for last. Don't try to do everything yourself. The impact you can have is so much better when you spread that around. The Minnesota Timberwolves elevated everyone who Tweeted with their hashtag right into their site. The San Antonio Spurs asked gave us a visual of everyone from the organization who was up on Twitter, in one handy spot. These are little steps that allow you to share great messages from multiple sources.

And I did just that on this feature. Working with Peter Robert Casey, who's a digital All Star not only taught me a great deal about the world of the Digital NBA, but it also helped me to build a friendship with someone who I hope to join up with for future features down the road. Either of us could have set out in this open world alone, but the impact we've had both on each other and the digital basketball world was monstrously more because we went in together.

Who is out there that loves your team? And how can you work together to impact fans in a positive way?

Thanks for reading! And don't forget you'll be able to follow along as we keep challenging the world of what's hot in digital basketball. Track us on Twitter - I'm @pawlow34 and he's @peter_r_casey.

NBA Digital Disciple Series: San Antonio Spurs, Western Conference Digital Marketing Champs

The gauntlet has been thrown down at me. Here I am, expected to weigh in with my take at the Western Conference. I need to determine who would win if it wasn't determined by the play on the court but rather by the play in the digital arena.

That's much easier said than done when you're looking at 15 squads that each excel in a different way. In basketball terms, they all have their go to move and I'm going to look at which one is the strongest.

As Peter Robert Casey stated extremely well yesterday (here), this isn't easy. It's not science, it's art and a little bit of instinct.

What can we all learn from the Spurs marketing strategy? I can boil it down into one sentence: The Fan is at the heart of everything.

Spirit in Pictures

Fans love their team. And the Spurs centered a lot of their digital marketing efforts on that fact: to help them celebrate that love. Many teams started with this insight, but none extended it as consistently as I saw down in Southern Texas. Witness these examples:

The Spurs asked fans to share why they were the most passionate fans, in the form of a photo. Side note: scary. If you don't believe they take hoops seriously, you need to click in here and check out this photo gallery. The winners were posted on the site. Amazing stuff here.

Spirit in Words

As I've covered previously, the Spurs do a great job on Twitter, linked here. But if you look deeply into what they do, you'll see that they are asking fans to not just follow them on Twitter, but to share a love for the team via Twitter. Check the post below:

It is authentic, emotional, spontaneous (you only have 10 minutes), and easy to enter. And fans celebrate the team and their passion. Oh, and the winners get elevated onto the Spurs site, shown below.

Spirit via a Network of peers

The Spurs site features a navigation titled "Spurs on Twitter". Clicking in takes you not just to the Spurs official page but to a Universe of Peers you can interact with, follow, and share Spurs love with. Check it out below (and here). Gulp.

Yes, you are taken to all 27 Spurs Twitter sites, including athletes, dancers, mascots, and front office employees. If you love the Spurs, this makes it very easy to find anyone and everyone affiliated with the squad. And, as I covered earlier, you want to check often as you never know when your passion can win you game tickets.

They ask for Feedback

Here's the link, the image is below. When I saw the header, I was intrigued. Could that be a chance to tell the team how it did? Clicking in, I saw that this was not just a space to give feedback on your experience at a game but actually a forum to submit ideas. (And if you see the headline, it's pretty clear which of the two is the most important topic to take away)...

What's beautiful about this is that it shows a relationship to fans that are really unlike any other I came across. The Spurs make themselves vulnerable. They ask what you want. And that's the best chance they have of evolving to becoming a responsive organization.

There's Little Barriers to Entry

This may have been what sealed the deal for the Spurs in my eyes. The things that they did weren't extremely fancy. They didn't take a huge investment in resources. It just takes an open mind and a willingness to listen. And these are things that many of us can take and reinterpret in our worlds.

So there you have it. The Spurs win the Western Conference Digital Title. Tune in tomorrow, both here and at Peter Robert Casey's site (here). We'll take a look at that title matchup, from two different points of view. And don't forget to follow us on Twitter. I'm @pawlow34. And he's @peter_r_casey.

Tune in tomorrow as we bring this home!

NBA Digital Disciple Series: 10 Best Features in the Western Conference

It's time.

Today I throw down the gauntlet. Take the 15 squads in the NBA West, pick out the 10 most inspiring things I saw, and weave them into one list - one story we can all learn from.

First, though, let me give you a quick reference guide to each team in the West. Just click on a name for their full breakdown: Minnesota Timberwolves, Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, LA Clippers, New Orleans Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, OKC Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, and LA Lakers.

Now, let's get rolling...

10. LA Lakers & Phoenix Blog Networks

The Lakers and Suns both come at this idea of a blog network in an interesting way that works for their fan bases. In LA, it takes the shape of the Popcorn Machine Blog -- a network built around glamour -- combining players, coaches, broadcasters, media, and... celebrities into one blog, linked here and shown below. Clicking in and you'll see they have posts from Brian Billick, Matt Kemp, Matthew Berry, and that's just this month!

Meanwhile the suns build their network of players, coaches, front office, dancers, analysts, and... fans into one engine, linked here.

Naturally I was most intrigued by the inclusion of official fan blogger Adam Beechen (here). I'll zoom in a little below so you get a feel for what this looks like, and why this becomes insanely cool if you are chosen as that Official Fan Blogger!

Both of these setups are great as they eliminate a good chunk of the pressure that one person has to keep their blog up to date. Blogging is a team effort which extends beyond the court. Nice!

9. Minnesota's Wolves Twitter Integration into the Home Page

Minnesota does a fantastic job in connecting with fans. The site feels alive, and key to that is found in the image below. You can see not only the latest Tweets from the Wolves staff and roster but, as you see here, all of the fan chatter around the team. Anyone hashtagging "#Twolves" gets elevated to the home page feed. Hot.

And, as you can see at the very bottom (or here), it is synched up for a mobile experience - meaning it is really easy to track the chatter on the squad wherever you go.

8. Dallas Permanent Access to Social Networks

I was kind of dropped in my tracks on this one. You'll (hopefully -- I tried to make this large) see the navigation bar in the image below. This was so powerful that for a minute I thought it was a new feature I'd downloaded from Firefox. What you get is this translucent bar at the top of the Mavs site. The bar gives you one click access to "Like this Page", Share this page to Facebook, Tweet this page, or comment on this page... and by "This page", I mean whatever page you want. So simple, so smart.

7. Memphis and Sacramento elevate photography

The Grizzlies elevated team photographer Joe Murphy (what a cool gig, huh?) for his expertise. Murphy was asked to choose his favorite photos of the team in the 2009-2010 season. This was all covered on the site, here and pictured below, in a feature entitled "Behind the Lens." Clicking in and you get a thick gallery of shots of the squad in all facets -- locker room, weight room, in game, and in the community.

As you'll note at the bottom of this image is a caption that goes into the specifics of what was striking on the picture, according to Joe. "I love how the kid is peeking over to get a look at the book..." Brilliant. Captions and comments aren't available on every photo, which is too bad. But all the pictures are fantastic.

Meanwhile, the Kings created a photo blog, which publishes new photos every Thursday. See this here, and below. You can then click in and share any photo you want. Imagine the combination of these two teams' ideas -- expert photos on a consistent basis through the season!

6. LA Laker Girls Fitness

One thing was definitely shared in common - the dance squad was a part of the marketing mix. But no one got it as well as LA. The Laker Girls weren't confined to a Facebook page, but were elevated into the main navigation, shown below and linked here.

Clicking into the Laker Girls Fitness Profiles is where it gets fantastic! As they put it "The Laker Girls are more than just skilled dancers and icons, they're also incredibly fit. We asked each Laker Girl what her secret is to staying fit."

Wow.

Why is this so powerful? Because they step out of the obvious box of appealing to single men with calendars. They take the Laker Girls and are positioning them as role models for young women -- how to stay active and fit, and also excel in other places.

Amazing stuff!!!

5. San Antonio Twitter Contests

The Spurs do a great job on Twitter, linked here. The power of what they do is combine a great voice with great giveaways. There's nothing that makes a fan tune in to your Twitter channel (or radio program) like thinking they have a chance to hear/feel passion and maybe win some stuff. As you'll see in the post below, the Spurs have Twitter-only giveaways. This one is fantastic.

So they get fans to celebrate the team and they giveaway a monster prize (playoff tickets) if you act quickly (10 minutes). Fans essentially make your ad campaign for you. Brilliant. Then, as you can see below, the Spurs post pictures of the winning fans -- even showing off that fan's Twitter handle. I'm giddy on this one!!!

4. Portland and the LA Lakers give us engaging Player Pages

Player pages. I'm betting they are among the most visited pages on each team's site. So much potential to make this the center of the online universe. The Lakers take team pages and turn them into directories packed with excitement. Linked here and shown in the images below, you'll see that this starts out with a visually engaging look at the team...

And becomes the center for all things Audio, Video, Images, and Articles on each player. Solid.

Meanwhile, Portland takes the concept and applies it to Fan communities around players. This is addicting and, to be honest, a little enchanting. See below for examples of both Brandon Roy and Marcus Camby's pages. And I want to call out a couple of things we should all take note of...

• Fans can make the player their favorite, add them to their starting 5, or to their huddle. And you can see just how many fans did that for each player.
• Fans can post comments on this player's page, shown on the right hand side of the page.
• Naturally, you get access to the latest player news, photos, and blog posts.

Clicking on "My Fans" even shows you who loves each player the most... solid stuff here!


Now what if we merged these concepts? Build this into the team's official roster pages - and house all things community and all things news in one spot: the roster!

3. Dallas and the iCal

One simple move and you're connected for the season. Linked here, the Mavs make it very easy for you to click and download their schedule to your calendar on your iPhone or iPod touch. Think about that. Now your daily schedule includes not just all those work meetings that you can't avoid, but also the Mavs lineup. So each day as you plan your day you will become aware of where the squad is and, just maybe, you'll have an alert set in to let you know when the action is about to start. Fantastic.

2. Fan Posts and Art across Portland and Phoenix.

Portland and Phoenix found and elevated a pretty cool connection - basketball and art. On the official Blazers Fan site, here, the team takes an image of the player and mixes it with a post from a fan to create a visual masterpiece. Check this:


Simple, visually powerful, and something fans would want to own, it elevates the fan who made the comment. Nice!

Meanwhile, in Phoenix, the team provides guidelines on how to take your social media profile and Sun-ify it by turning it orange. Who says the internet can't be a place to ignite fan spirit? They want fans to turn themselves (the virtual versions of themselves) orange. Check it out here or below -- the Suns give you a step-by-step guide to making yourself Orange... and then branding it!

What if we combined these -- give fans a way to create artistic expressions or posters around moments in time? That'd be insane!

1. San Antonio's Game Night Feedback Loop

This is not just a space to give feedback on your experience at a game but actually a forum to submit ideas. (And if you see the headline below, it's pretty clear which of the two is the most important topic to take away)... I believe nothing connects a team to fans more than the request for ideas! Here's the link, that image is below.

That's it!

The journey continues tomorrow, as Peter Robert Casey breaks down the East, and gives you a feel for who'd win if things weren't determined on the hardwood but rather in the world of digital marketing. I'll be back to do the same in the West on Thursday. And you can follow along on Twitter. I'm @pawlow34. And he's @peter_r_casey.

Thanks for sticking with us!

NBA Digital Disciple Series: 5 Learnings from the LA Lakers

We've taken you on a 5 week journey, covering the NJ Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves,Washington Wizards,Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons, LA Clippers, NY Knicks, New Orleans Hornets, Indiana Pacers,Memphis Grizzlies,Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls, OKC Thunder, Charlotte Bobcats, San Antonio Spurs,Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trailblazers, Miami Heat, Utah Jazz,Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic, Dallas Mavericks, and Cleveland Cavs.

It's time to bring this home.

Let's take a look at the digital connections made by the Los Angeles Lakers (link here)

1. The Popcorn Machine Blog

The Lakers have a brand name built around glamour. And they bring that to life in their blog, appropriately called the Popcorn Machine blog. Linked here, it combines players, coaches, broadcasters, media, and celebrities into one engine. Intrigued? Me too. Clicking in and you'll see they have posts from Brian Billick, Matt Kemp, Matthew Berry, and that's just this month!

Plus One: Give a VIP package (courtside seats and a handshake with a couple players) to a celebrity in exchange for a post on the blog about their experience. It connects the team and the glamour while connecting the posts more tightly to the team!

2. Team Player Pages

The Lakers take team pages and turn them into directories packed with excitement. Linked here and shown in the images below, you'll see that this starts out with a visually engaging look at the team...

And then clicking into a player reveals not just a bio but also access to Audio, Video, Images, and Articles on the player right here in this central spot.

Plus One: Let fans subscribe for their favorite player. And track how many subscribe to each player. This keeps fans coming back while also creating a monstrous platform for contests. Imagine only Shannon Brown subscribers have a shot at joining a chat session or winning a signed Michigan State jersey.

3. Timely photography in Facebook

The Lakers have an enormous footprint on Facebook, here, with nearly 1.1 Million fans.

But it's not the size of the group that's powerful it is how the Lakers leverage it. As you can see in the images above and below, they keep this updated with imagery and videos in real time (Artest's game winner in photos appeared right after the game, shown above). It's timely and intimate and amazing.

Finally, they take Lakers podcasts and drop them into the Facebook page as music tracks, shown below. I love that you can check out podcasts right inside Facebook -- no need to run over to NBA.com to find it!

Plus One: Release tracks here, first. If you could let fans get access to podcasts before they roll onto the site, you take what's great about the video and photo content and blow it out to another level!

4. J Peezy's Playlist

Lakers reserve Josh Powell records a podcast breaking down the music scene, here. I like this for many reasons - not the least of which is it shows a different side of a player, and builds connections between fans and a role player on the squad. Really solid stuff!

Plus One: Elevate Josh to the role of defining music in the arena, and then have him blog or record podcasts that go into why this music is timely for the squad. I think there's so much that can be gained by letting fans in on who the squad is listening to in order to get amped up, and why!

5. Laker Girls Fitness Profiles

Many NBA teams get exposure from their dance squad. But perhaps no one gets more than the Lakers, with their Laker Girls elevated into the main navigation, shown below and linked here.

Clicking into the Laker Girls Fitness Profiles is really interesting! As they put it "The Laker Girls are more than just skilled dancers and icons, they're also incredibly fit. We asked each Laker Girl what her secret is to staying fit."

Wow.

Why is this so powerful? Because they step out of the obvious box of appealing to single men with calendars. They take the Laker Girls and are positioning them as role models for young women -- how to stay active and fit, and also excel in other places.

Amazing stuff!!!

Plus One: Develop related content. I think we could see favorite recipes and favorite restaurants as easy messages that would really add onto this experience. And look at how they could provide fitness programs to help women and teens get in shape.

That's it. 30 teams. Now it's time to shift into the next phase: What's all this mean? Tune in on Monday as Peter Robert Casey hits us with an Eastern Conference Wrap (here). And then I'll take you through the West on Tuesday. You can follow along with us on Twitter. He's@peter_r_casey. And I'm @pawlow34.

Andy

NBA Digital Disciple Series: 5 Learnings from the Dallas Mavericks

30 teams. 7 weeks. 2 bloggers. 1 mission: to share our learnings of how NBA teams uniquely leverage digital tools to build fan community.

As students, or disciples of the game, we'll supply you with the doctrine - 5 takeaways per team plus one way to make that even better. Then, we'll wrap it up, pick a winner, and send you on your way.

We've taken you on a 5 week journey, covering the NJ Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves,Washington Wizards,Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers, Golden State Warriors, Detroit Pistons, LA Clippers, NY Knicks, New Orleans Hornets, Indiana Pacers, Memphis Grizzlies,Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls, OKC Thunder, Charlotte Bobcats, San Antonio Spurs,Milwaukee Bucks, Portland Trailblazers, Miami Heat, Utah Jazz, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns, and Orlando Magic.

Let's take a look at the digital connections made by the Dallas Mavericks (Link here)

1. The world's largest Twitter banner

Everything's bigger in Texas, huh? That's definitely the case when you take a look at the callout for Twitter, shown below and linked here.

Clicking in, you are given easy access to the Mavs on Twitter, layed out by Team, Dancers, Front Office, and Players. I especially like the description, "Want to follow the Mavs on Twitter but don't know what Twitter accounts are official? Following these insiders will give you information before anyone else..."

You'll also note below that other Mavs accounts (from the mascot to the web team) are up on Twitter and available to connect with you. This whole set up has a feel of inclusiveness. Solid.

Plus One: I love seeing the Mavs on Twitter called out into the black and blue box on the left. If we could somehow also see the latest Tweets from the rest of that lineup, it could be extremely powerful. Don't make us click into each of them to see what's behind the door, so to speak. The layout is here to make this an incredible experience for any fan.

2. Social navigation is permanently there.

I was kind of dropped in my tracks on this one. You'll (hopefully -- I tried to make this large) see the navigation bar in the image below. This was so powerful that for a minute I thought it was a new feature I'd downloaded from Firefox. What you get is this translucent bar at the top of the Mavs site. The bar gives you one click access to "Like this Page", Share this page to Facebook, Tweet this page, or comment on this page... and by "This page", I mean whatever page you want. That's just a crazy thing. Nice work Mavs!!!

Plus One: Now that we can Like Pages, that becomes a powerful tool. Can they apply this to the way stories populate the home page? (Could the most liked stories get elevated?) Or could this apply to original content? (As in the most liked storylines get developed deeper?) This engine is really powerful, and if we can ignite it with an actual impact on the site.... wow.

3. A very personal approach to Facebook

The Mavs as you might guess are pretty active on Facebook. Their fan page is home to 108,000 passionate fans, click here. But what I was drawn to wasn't the size of the fan base but rather the personality and emotion in the interactions.

Take a look at the post below. "A story from Marc Stein that everyone who cares about the Mavs should read..." They aren't just sharing links, they are sharing insight and a little emotion. And the fans (50 of them) liked this.

Plus One: This style is just amazing, and so simple. Now add in the fact that fans are likely scrambling to find anything they can on the team, on their own. That's a lot of eyes... The Mavs should ask fans to share things they see on the wall. If this page can take the style that exists by the Mavs sharing insights and articles and then apply it to that fan base, wow.

4. Mark Cuban's Blog

Most of you are likely aware that Mavs owner Mark Cuban is active on Twitter and on his blog, linked here. What you may not be aware of is that this blog is linked right into the News set on the Mavericks site. There's something just powerful about the person at the top making themselves available to the fan base that is addicting and connecting. Nice.

Plus One: The blog is elevated and by default makes ownership available, but it's not just basketball focused. I wonder if there's an easy way to develop a filter that puts the Mavs/basketball posts higher up on the docket? There's an opportunity to really connect with fans through the personal side of the owner, if we can elevate something we all have in common (love for the Mavs, basketball, sports, etc.).

5. Mavs iCal

One simple move and you're connected for the season. Linked here, the Mavs make it very easy for you to click and download their schedule to your calendar on your iPhone or iPod touch. Think about that. Now your daily schedule includes not just all those work meetings that you can't avoid, but also the Mavs lineup. So each day as you plan your day you will become aware of where the squad is and, just maybe, you'll have an alert set in to let you know when the action is about to start. Fantastic.

Plus One: Now that the Mavs get people to download this calendar, they have a direct connection into the daily life. I wonder how we could take this to the mind blowing level... What if the Mavs could use this system to invite specific (random) fans to lunch with the front office, or dinner before the game? Create some buzz by not just telling me when the games are but also access to things no one else can get to!

That's it. We're getting close to wrapping this! Now, it's time to shift gears to the one-seeds.

Follow along with us on Twitter. He's@peter_r_casey. And I'm @pawlow34. Tune in tomorrow as Peter Robert Casey profiles the Cleveland Cavaliers (here).

Andy