How the Indiana Pacers Can Improve Their Internet Marketing

With the growth of the Interwebs over the past decade, the Indiana Pacers have finally caught on during the last couple of years. About two years ago, the Pacers added a new “highlight section” at the top of the page featuring the most important news. They also started a blog section, written by the great Conrad Brunner, providing many updates with interesting information for Pacers fans. The Pacers took their blogging efforts a step further last year and added blogs by the Pacer players, but also included a local Pacers fan and blogger Indy Cornrows, which was a great move. I receive text messages, emails, Facebook updates, and Tweets from the Indiana Pacers about any important Pacers news. Recently they have had live online video of press conferences, video blogs from players, live chats with new players from the 2009 NBA Draft, different home pages for game nights, separate micro sites, special ticket prices available only online, and even gave away free tickets on Twitter and Facebook. Wow, that was a mouthful.

After reading many of the Internet Marketing tactics the Indiana Pacers are currently using, how could they possibly improve their local Internet Marketing, online presence and ticket sales?

Here are the first ideas that come to mind for Your Indiana Pacers organization . . .

Dearest Indiana Pacers:

Feature the Twitter feeds for each of the Indiana Pacers. T.J. Ford and other Pacers are already publically talking on Twitter. The Pacers.com site could have a main Twitter feed on a sidebar that lists every Twitter update from each player. We die-hard fans want to know about their personal lives, but the players should also be encouraged to share quick thoughts after an awesome (or disappointing) game.

Twitter is cool, but there are many Pacers fans who don’t have a reason to join Twitter yet . . . so they’ll miss a lot of the news from Your Indiana Pacers if they don’t see it on the Pacers.com website. I saw a Tweet yesterday from someone who joined Twitter just to follow the @IndianaPacers. Encourage that during broadcasts and mention the unique Twitter news and deals fans can get if they follow the Pacers. The more news . . . the more awareness . . . the more interest . . . the more personal connection . . .  (the more deals) . . . the more reason to buy a ticket.

Let fans have freedom on your social media sites. I left a comment about something having to do with the Pacers and a possible point guard draft pick, innocently asking “Bye Bye TJ Ford?” . . . and it was deleted from the Pacers Facebook page. Having your words deleted doesn’t encourage conversation.

Let the fans talk, positive or negative. If you delete all negative comments, you will discourage discussion and your social media efforts won’t be as effective.

Embrace community websites and Indiana Pacers forums like PacersDigest.com. These sites have die-hard Pacers fans that are good writers, know the game of basketball, and have a passion for the Pacers. Reading some of the posts you would think you were learning about internal plans from the Pacers coaching staff, or even from a sports columnist at the Indianapolis Star. The contributors are that good, so use them on your website and in your social media efforts. Give them some free tickets and let them rave about the Pacers on their Twitter and Facebook accounts, and on the official Pacers.com Blog. They will do all of the hard work for you.

I am sure a better internal social media effort is in the works, but you could consider purchasing a website like PacersDigest.com and have an engaged community from the start. Based on the low number of comments the blog posts currently receive, it’s going to take a lot of cool features and exclusive stuff to get people to join and participate. Or you could start out with an already active community, keep the same moderators and rules, move it over to Pacers.com, and let your internal social media site grow to be the best in the NBA. The fans will visit Pacers.com everyday to check out news and thoughts from other fans; and be reminded about the next game, the next great deal, or the next reason to buy a ticket.

Just a few thoughts from your Uncle Kevin . . . can’t wait for the season to start – Boom Baby!