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KickApps Partners With the New Orleans Hornets on a Social Network
NY-based KickApps has announced a new partnership with the New Orleans Hornets NBA team today. The partnership brings a new "Hornets Fanzone" social network which includes fan videos, photos, blogs, chat, a message board and groups.
What I’ve found with the social networks that KickApps powers for most of the sports teams they are working with is that it’s nearly impossible to find the actual social network on the main sports team’s website. On the new Hornets deal today, it’s listed in their rotating news area but I can’t find it elsewhere. The Seattle Seahaws installation is also missing or I can’t seem to find it. On the positive side, the NY Rangers site seems to display a widget for the social network on the homepage.
While it’s great that KickApps has signed a variety of pro sports teams to social networking deals, if the networks are nearly impossible to find, what good is that for KickApps, the sports team or the fans?
Here’s a sample of the videos on the Hornets social network – watch the hornet mascots get down and boogie! Update: it looks like the widget embeds all of the videos, not just the one with the mascots – it’s on the right if you want to watch it.
Hey Allen — Thanks for your interest in this story. You raise a good point about integration of a community site into the main site. The strategy of contextually integrating user-generated content with editorial content is an important one and made very easy using widgets and feeds.
With re: to the Hornets, they provide a link from the highest valued real estate on their homepage, the center module with the big photos. Also, as you can, the Suns and others have banners that link to the community site. The Seahawks actually chose to not link to the main site because they wanted to keep Spirit of 12 (their fan site) separate and exclusive. They’re actively promoting it to a very active fan base through channels like email, etc. That said, you’re right, it’s one of the core tenets of building a successful online community.
Best,
- Michael
KickApps