OK> why do I keep pointing you to Mashable? Well, Pete Cashmore finds out about lots of stuff before I do. Just in case you missed it:
Check out this post which amplifies what I’ve been saying in this blog lately: sport social networks are already here - and now is the time for all good teams and all good leagues to get with the program, before fans get used to using other systems.
Who’s with me??
Fans are already used to using other systems. There are tons of unofficial message board communities which are just like social networks that are almost always way more popular than the official ones.
I get that, but I don’t see any groups out there for the Colts, specifically, that are more popular than colts.com or the Colts forum. Do you?
Most, if not all, social networking sites are built around the idea of the network. Nodes = personal page. Links = friendship connections (not always mutual). The currency is designed to be the link in.
Traditional forums are built around the topic. Nodes = Posts. Links = replies (almost always restricted to one thread at a time). The currency is designed to be the posting activity.
The problem with both systems, as built, is the lack of intimate conversation space. In both cases, the conversation is node-specific. The former has it tied to the personal page, and the latter to the massive topic domain. There isn’t any place to welcome new entries while strengthening small niches through shared conversation.
Maybe it is a hard sell to design a forum that seems to keep people split up. From the organization’s perspective, it might seem better to view the forum as one big system. But from the participant’s perspective, the strength of the connection to a small, accessible group of people is what is desired.
OK, Kevin, you’ve confirmed an assumption I’ve made but perhaps not expressed, that while there a lots of Colts fans - and that all these people have something in common (they are all Colts fans) - we must discover ways these fans differ (sub groups) - and cater to those niches. This is the way we’ll form tighter bonds with our fan base AND provide access to sponsors who want to reach them.
[...] Pat has several projects afoot. He endorsed the I Choose Indy! blog, which is filled with testimonials about why people chose to live in the area. (Pat was a Bears fan first, so I wonder where his heart will be when Chicago takes on Indy in Miami this winter.) He has also spent quite a while leading a website redesign for the football organization and is trying to launch a new social networking site — MyColts Fan Network. That is deserving of a separate blog post at a later time. Also, Pat just previewed a Colts widget that will be released into the wild soon and then tracked to see how it spreads. [...]
sports social networking sites are so much fun compared to the myspace type junk that is just cluttered.
I make it real simple for myself when selecting a site by asking,”if this was a bar, would I go in and introduce myself?” I would at a place like Sportsgist.com and would not even go into a place packed with degenerates.
[...] Pat Coyle has invested a lot of resources in a website redesign for the football organization. In trying to launch a new social networking site — MyColts Fan Network — Coyle is putting the Colts in a good position to become the most widely recognized NFL team in the world. This is a byproduct of appropriating the Web 2.0 perspective. [...]
these sites are popping up all over the place. Just found fanzak.com and rootzoo.coom. Fanzak has a really nice news aggregation service.
rootzoo.com is by far the best one that I’ve been to as far as the overall user experience goes. I think a lot of the other sites mentioned in the article aren’t even around anymore, which goes to show something. The good ones will grow.