I write a lot about tailoring your web experience for the environments where it is (and can) be used. That is particularly important for mobile which has its own UI needs, requirements, opportunities and challenges.

Here is the latest example.

ESPN has done a good job creating product & content for specific environments and devices. Example here. While that is an effective treatment – this is not. When ‘watching’ an ESPN Gamecast on the iPad (which is an excellent product) – it requires you to watch it in landscape mode. There is literally no content and no experience otherwise. Even if ESPN believes that landscape is the best way to view Gamecast, you would think that they would either create a light version or showcase some other content? Very strange.

You’re probably familiar with Vibram 5 Finger Shoes that have become somewhat popular. They became popular in part because they were so different, unique and noticeable. When someone wears a pair – you visually take note…. and if you’ve not seen them before, you ask what they are.

And now they are quite recognizable and popular.

Flipping through a magazine, I came across the below ad for Adidas’ new, equivalent shoe. It’s a great reminder that:

- differentiation doesn’t last forever… particularly when you succeed.

- big brands with big budgets exist… and they take notice.

- consequently, differentiation exists as long as you can run faster, further.

- think forward and about your brand more than about protection & competition

- … and when a start-up, make sure you’ve thought enough about whether you have a sustained chance to take a large enough lead (time, product, brand) before others arrive.

By now you have surely heard of P90x – the ultra-popular home workout program that become famous for the never-ending infomercials. After the success of P90x, parent company Beachbody recently released P90x 2… and in conjunction with the launch, they released an iPhone application. It’s interesting for a few reasons:

1. Fitness 2.0. It’s at the intersection of an evolving, important and fast-moving space: fitness 2.0 (for lack of a better description). What’s that mean? Applying the new web to fitness: social, gamification, mobile, etc. Note: if you’re working on something in this space, I’d love to hear from you. Contact me

2. Gamification & Social Hooks: notice that this app does more than just award badges. It is part of Apple’s Game Center.

3. Paid & Premium. You would think that they would package this application for free as a way to drive awareness / purchases of the workout system. Nope. I guess they don’t need awareness. SO they are selling it for $4.99 and include in-app purchases that are relatively expensive (videos & clips).

4. High Ratings. Achieving high ratings in iTunes is an impossible task. 4.5 stars out of 83 reviews… for a paid app? That’s impressive.

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Sports fans today got a Black Friday present: the 149 day NBA lockout is on the verge on ending.

And the result is a good thing for fans: the season will be 66 games (a better result than the normal 82!), result in greater league parity (ala the NFL), lead to a healthier league (good for everyone), and create a whirlwind December free agency period (the surprisingly great outcome of the NFL lockout).

The lockout was painful, mismanaged on both sides and generally could have been avoided… or at least handled far differently and far earlier. But the 2011-2012 season is saved and hopefully goodness comes from the ugly.

One of the most interesting and overlooked aspects was the role Twitter played in a world where:

- players couldn’t communicate with the league

- players themselves were not entirely knowledgeable of the latest events / outcomes

- both sides were feeling significant pressure from the public (pressure is a soft word here for disgust for most and hate for some)

- both sides were starved for communication outlets

So everyone took the Twitter: the league, the owners and the players. Some were trying to position themselves, some trying to save face and others trying to voice their opinion in a public manner (since it wasn’t being heard privately). Fascinating.

So why Twitter was so important here? First, the NBA and its players could feel the public’s disgust… far more publicly. In prior strikes / lockouts, the fans didn’t have as much power as they do today. And in prior situations, nobody had the outlets they do today: players and owners were able to immediately express frustration, anger, etc… and to huge audiences. The result was a very public negotiation that made many of those involved come across as confused, desperate, disjointed and/or displeased.

Nevertheless, it provided a platform for all constituents to amplify their voice… and to listen. And while that was debatably an effective / ineffective exercise – it was terrifically powerful for the fans.

Here are some examples:

Miami Heat owner Micky Arison (@mickyarison) took to Twitter to express his thankfulness to his fans. This was retweeted by the NBA (@nba). Takeaway: comes across as desperate.

NBA player Luis Scola (@lscola4) took to Twitter at a time when there was debate within the players union as to whether they should pass the league’s proposal. There players were beginning to fracture and many had expressed confusion over the proposal’s specifics. In one of these tweets, Luis asks the NBA a question directly and publicly. Takeaway: shows player disjointedness and general player confusion with process / outcome… which shows weakness.

Here’s an example of Chris Sheridan (former ESPN NBA writer) and Luis. Chris posted a critical piece about the lockout and Luis retweeted it. Takeaway: fascinating as it shows the players are reading the commentary and clearly trying to share certain opinions.

This is my favorite one. The NBA took to Twitter to do a fan Q&A session about the lockout. It was in an effort to engage fans, show appreciation and help communicate… but it was a terrible idea (and I’m shocked anyone in PR allowed this to happen). It lead to fans spewing negativity, players tweeting questions, and the league being forced to answer uncomofortable questions. Takeaway: trying to do something positive but no an intelligent move.

ESPN is getting closer! I have written a lot about ESPN’s usage – and potential usage – of Twitter. I have criticized and applauded. Here is an example of ESPN continuing to improve.

It’s a minor example, but ESPN has now allowed in-line actions on their Twitter modules (it used to be just one-way reading, mobile example here). You can now retweet, reply and favorite content inline. Novel idea right?!

It is getting closer: ideally this would be more expansive than a widgety module. It would be more deeply integrated, power group chats, include lists, etc… but, it is getting closer!

I am a sports nut. That shouldn’t be news if you follow me here or on Twitter / Facebook. I also spend my professional life on the web and looking at new technologies. In part because it is fun to think about – and in part due to personal frustrations – I’ll put those two together and brainstorm how the major leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB) should improve their online product.

Note: obviously there are significant issues: content rights, ownership, players unions, etc. Let’s make the (ridiculous!) assumption those don’t come into play or that everyone wakes up and agrees these are important for leagues’ future health (NBA and MLB more so than the NFL).

1. Get an online identity.

Sounds simple and the below ideas are clearly focused on helping drive an identity. But look at these screenshots from NBA.com and NFL.com. I have no idea why I would visit these sites as opposed to ESPN.com or Twitter. They are mixtures of ads, promotions, stores, and news.

These sites are highly trafficked (see August list here) – but in August (when interest is at its max) NFL.com still represents just 40% of Yahoo’s traffic and 50% of ESPN’s. The brand is obviously there but the sites are not much more than navigational hubs.

The below ideas hopefully help create an identity and a reason for fans to visit and engage with their online properties.

2. That identity should be social.

I believe these websites should have four primary goals – probably in this order:

A. Promote the league, teams, players and partners.
B. Engage the fans.
C. Covert visitors to new properties / touch points: Twitter Followers, Facebook Fans, mobile users, etc…. recognize that fan activity is far broader than on your site.
D. Drive revenue (store, ads, etc)

The best way to directly drive points ‘B’ and ‘C’ and to indirectly impact ‘A’ and ‘D’ is by fully integrating social. More on the next point. But at the highest level, this means that the league sites should look more like a robust, branded Facebook Fan Page and less like your local newspaper site. Content should be dynamic, personalized and interact-able… not flat like your a local news article.

3. View me as an individual fan. Not a pageview.

Step 1 in making the sites more social is to view users as individuals… not as pageviews. How? Lets reimagine what NFL.com could be:

- via Facebook Connect, it recognizes my identity and prompts me to Like the NFL on FB
- it then asks me to like my favorite team(s)
- by ‘liking’, I automatically subscribe to team’s Facebook page (already subscribed to NFL)
- now NFL.com can feature content specifically crafted to my preferences and to my Facebook friends
- And they can quickly translate this from league to team to players

Those 20M uniques in August are suddenly *much* more valuable as connected users. And those 20M uniques are just the tip of the traffic iceberg… why? Those users are now:

- They are viral (hello Facebook Ticker!)

- They are shareable: instantly the NFL can have massive followings on Facebook & Twitter and can share that traffic with their teams.

- They are engageable: once you have users become fans / followers, the league can more effectively / efficiently engage with fans (and market / promote).

And now content flow can go both ways: on and off NFL.com. Just look at the Washington Post Social Reader as a good example.

4. Welcome social media. Don’t fear it. In fact, mandate it.

Encourage teams and players to use social media. Hell, mandate it. In the above example, you could have a Facebook page with 10M Dallas Cowboys fans. That’s as powerful as the team makes it.

Each team should have an official Facebook Page and Twitter account that is consistently named, branded, etc. The page should aggregate / promote the Facebook / Twitter pages of its players.

Fans should be able to subscribe to entire teams through a single follow button (ie a Dallas Cowboys officially curated Twitter list).

The league and its teams will clearly worry about player etiquette on Facebook & Twitter. But: they are going to use the platforms whether or not the league likes it… and the players will listen (and behave) if they appreciate the power of building a following & brand via social media. Bring in industry leaders to give crash courses in social. Make it a mandatory part of the rookie symposiums.

The end result:

- dynamic content that is unique to each league / team (unlike their news clippings)
- bigger followings for the league, team and players
- real-time connections with fans who are now more deeply engaged
- more control by the league and team

5. View the league as a set of teams. And teams as a set of players.

Connected to the two points above, think of the league sites as a collection of teams. And while it is the league’s duty to deliver league-wide news and promotions, it is also beneficial to promote each team. The above examples accomplished:
- building a social following for the league itself
- using that to promote individual teams
- and then using each team to promote its own brand and players

ESPN is beginning to figure this out with their personalities. See example here.

And just as the league should promote horizontally – the teams should also be asked to connect to others. Lightweight ways include:

- making sure all mentions are linkable (seems simple but so rarely done)
- official pages include links to other teams (on Facebook via favorite pages, Twitter via Lists)

6. Every league & team should hire a czar.

See the above screenshot. Enough said.

7. Go mobile.

The leagues are getting quite good at standalone apps (particularly MLB). But the same approach to social should be applied to mobile:

- There should be league apps.
- There should be standardized team apps.

Note: why team apps? for starters, the experience is better within a single app and the team can more proactively tailor content and brand. Secondly, traffic will be better (app store findability, promotion through team fan pages, etc).

- Those team apps should feature dynamic content beyond the box score (everyone has that).
- Leverage the above points to showcase team and player content
- Allow users to engage directly: follow, post, like, Q&A, etc.
- Deliver push notifications: alerts from favorite player. Scores. Injuries. Etc.

Those stand-alone apps should also pertain to in-stadium experiences / promotions. That obviously requires 3G and/or wifi to work in stadiums… which is a leap of faith today.

8. Make content available.

Figure out how to get around the rights issues and make as much content available as possible. Leverage the league website, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Full game coverage: allow me to subscribe to a team or league as I can with MLB At Bat (a perennial top grossing application.

Clips: make clips available and let users remix & share them. It’s a viral dream. You can even protect branding by controlling the experience either onsite or as a Facebook app.

Highlights: The NBA is great at releasing Top 10 Plays from Yesterday on their Facebook page. This becomes more powerful as their presence grows… and even more powerful as the team presences grow. My willingness to share a specific clip from my favorite team / player is far greater than from across the entire league.

9. Engage. Don’t just push.

Content is now a two-way street. Build experiences that encourage interaction by fans. And encourage personalities to be interactive. Learn from CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell – who really phenomenal on Twitter.

10. Welcome ESPN and the new media.
11. Similarly, concede what you won’t win.

Figure out strategically where it makes sense to leverage other properties and brands. In many cases, collaboration / aggregation will create a better product (again, see Washington Post’s Social Reader which incorporates content beyond WashingtonPost.com).

In other cases, it will allow the leagues to redeploy resources, focus elsewhere and still roll out better products. For instance, is the NFL really going to win fantasy sports? That’s ESPN’s domain. Work together and build ancillary products that support the experience and league.

More reading:

- ESPN Brings Twitter into Fantasy Football App. Getting Closer.
- Much to Learn from the NBA’s Facebook Fan Page
- My Response to Mark Cuban’s: Does ESPN.com Have a Twitter Problem?
- ESPN’s Mobile Application Strategy (and Ad Campaign to Match)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

In April, I wrote a response to Mark Cuban’s “Does ESPN.com have a Twitter Problem“. My premise was that Twitter is a huge, (relatively) under-utilized platform for ESPN to break news, engage with fans and share unique content. ESPN doesn’t have the perfect solution yet -but Twitter is clearly an opportunity and not a threat.

Here is a screenshot from ESPN’s fantasy football app (which I used quite a bit this week – it’s a big improvement over last year).

It is worth showing because it demonstrates the value Twitter can bring to ESPN properties … and the fact that great integrations take work.

Twitter is perfect for ESPN’s numerous analysts to break and deliver fantasy related news: injuries, predictions, chats, etc. And it happens at a speed and in a format that translates better here than in article format.

However, ESPN (and other content publishers) need think about more than delivering the tweets. As important as having users read is having users interact. Each of the ESPN personalities should be clickable and ‘follow-able’ directly in line. Readers should be able to reply, retweet, interact and promote ESPN (hash tags, @ replies, etc). Users reading this content are already paying attention – it’s an opportunity to turn attention to engagement. And to turn one reader into a follower and so on.

Great, timely email from ESPN for several reasons =)

I am both excited and proud to announce that beRecruited (the sports recruiting network I founded way back in 2000) has acquired Fanvibe (a former Dogpatch Labs and YCombinator company).

I have known Vishwas Prabhakara (now CEO), Art Chang and Joe Pestro for several years and am thrilled about what they bring to beRecruited and it’s 1,000,000+ users:

As I mentioned to TechCrunch, “beRecruited is far and away the largest recruiting network on the web — and it has consequently become a really great business. With the Fanvibe acquisition, we are thrilled to move headquarters to San Francisco and have Vish, Art and Joe lead the business into its next phase. They are perfect fits as they all have strong backgrounds in sports, product and social web.”

The most satisfying part about being involved with beRecruited is the daily emails we get from successfully recruited athletes (and their families). With the Fanvibe team leading beRecruited’s next stage, the volume of those emails should soar…. and that’s exciting for everyone!

Here’s a fun infographic the team put together. It does a good job outlining beRecruited’s scale – we have athletes in 81% of all high schools and 68% of NCAA coaches. Between the two sides, we have now made 26.5m connections.

Yesterday, Li Na won the French Open and became the first Chinese tennis player to win a Grand Slam:

Li Na is a Nike-sponsored athlete – and immediately after her victory, Nike launched the “Li Na Collection” / storefront. The announcement was made on Twitter and Facebook:

Nike has long been savvy about real-time promotion and leveraging social media to drive sales, attention, discussion, etc (examples here). This is particularly noteworthy though because Nike effectively erected a real-time, curated storefront.

With pictures of what Li Na wore that morning, during here French Open Victory, Nike sold each piece of her ensemble. In effect, it is a trend that I have written about a few times: the curated web. In this case, curation comes from Nike and it’s star athlete Li Na. It is a more compelling way to browse, find and buy.

And, it evolves over time. Nike can build out experiences for their athletes based on each event… and then users can explore those historically. For instance, why not showcase Nadal’s outfits historically and bring them back on anniversary’s of major events? And why not reveal what technology, clothing, etc are used Thursday – Sunday of each PGA event for your Nike golfers?

It worked for Michael Jordan with sneakers only… and with the online presence of today’s athletes, we are seeing the rise of curated storefronts where the personality is first and the brand is second.