Sure, you’ve been reading “Meet FanBridge” for a while now…but did you know there are champions amongst us?! Champions, you say? Why, yes – elite FanBridger of the Month type champions.

FBotM’s are voted on at the end of every month by every FB’er.  Results are tallied, winners are crowned, and they are awarded money to spend on whatever best allows them to gloat over their month-long title.

We’ve just chosen our 9th FBotM, which went to one Mr. Luciano Fantuzzi from our BA office.  So while we wait to see which way he’ll go with his prize, I present to you:

FBotM’s…Through…History.  A [mostly] Photographic Tour.

FBotM’s #1 and #2 were before we got clever with the prizes…way back then (er—in July and August) we just handed out cash.  Maxi was our very first FBotM, and we’re not asking what he did with his winnings…but Gaston, our August winner, took his prize and bought, um, this:

The BA reign was in full force by September, when Lisandro took the crown – and the new responsibility of a choose-your-own-adventure prize.  He opted for 4 Wii nunchuck controllers…so that BA could pound on each other in virtual boxing.

Halloween brought the first breakaway from BA – Nathan took the title up and over to the SF office.  His prize?  A wireless mouse to free himself from his laptop trackpad. (Yep, a visual cat-n-mouse pun for you…)

November went to Jay (NY) and, well, his photo [at the top of the post] really says it all.

The last winner of 2011?  Bounced back to SF, with Tom taking the prize:

And the first winner of 2012…well, [blush], that was none other than ME!  As the person watching our finances, I know how to stretch a dollar – I grabbed both a used Wii (to replace our broken one) and the awesome Pacman accoutrements for our ping pong room:

The tour ends with our last prized-out winner, Jony (BA).  Jony was behind me by, ooooh, 1 vote in January – but he far surpassed everyone in February.  His prize will clearly kick the weekly BA BBQ’s up to the next level:

So, if you’rere keeping score, thusfar we’ve got 5 BA wins, and 2 SF/NY wins.  Tech team is totally owning it.

With its recent billion dollar acquisition by Facebook, Instagram is proving its value not only as a fun way to share photos with friends but as a marketing and branding tool for businesses. In this series, we’ll look at how expert marketers are using Instagram to engage fans and recreate live experiences.

Today, we have Nick Kioski, Director of New Media and Technology for the Los Angeles Lakers, to answer questions about Instagram both on and off the court.

How does the use of Instagram (or just visual content in general) fit into the Lakers‘ digital content strategy?

Instagram is the solution we are currently using, but we have tried a variety of solutions to help us get images out to our fans.  Images are a key part of our digital content strategy.  Only a small percentage of our fans get to attend a game so anything we can show them from the in-arena experience is of value in communicating with our fans.  We also get to go to places that fans don’t get to see and images are the best way to show those behind the scenes moments.  Beyond that, we know from Facebook and Twitter analytics that posts with images generate a better response, which tells us that we need to capture content in image format.  Specifically, Instagram is an easy tool to use and we can do some additional creative work in how we depict those images, which creates even better content for our fans.

What’s a good balance between promotional/marketing content and content that builds brand identity?

We have been focused from the beginning that what happens on our social networking platforms has to be about the Lakers.  With that in mind, we are careful to keep all posts Lakers oriented and then to keep the games as the focus of our efforts.

Why do NBA/Lakers fans connect with Instagram?

Basketball is a visual medium and Instagram is a useful tool for showing everything that goes on around the Lakers. It ismore than just a means to push out our photo content.  As a photo social networking site, it is a place for fans who are specifically interested in photos to receive their preferred content, which means they are willing to accept more posts than perhaps would be advisable via Facebook or another property and they’ll react more positively to those posts.  They also have their popular photos tool, which extends our reach and photos have a longer shelf life on Instagram than they would purely as a tweet.

Where else do you see visual content gaining popularity in sports marketing?

The ability to capture and then distribute images has become so easy that now visual content is getting into every aspect of marketing.  There was a time when these images could only be captured by a specified photographer, but now images of relatively high quality can be taken by just about anyone.  Our photographers still take superior images, but they can’t be everywhere.  So much of what we market as a team is an experience and that can be shown so much better and more tangibly through images.

Visual content helps give sports fans the kind of access previously only touched upon with post game recaps and locker room interviews. Want to learn more about creating social content that builds fan engagement? Download our eBook, 3 Keys to Fan List Success for Sports and begin growing your fan list.

Ever wonder who’s in charge of making the magic happen here at FanBridge? Every Friday, we’ll introduce you to one of our very awesome team members. We’ve all submitted questions to the lucky FanBridger through our own Fan Questions feature. This week, find out a little about Heather below, then click the link to see the Q&A.

Who: Heather Banks – Client Services

What: I help our clients get the most out of their FanBridge accounts.

Where: Here, There, Everywhere.

When: Since August 2007

Click here to read Heather’s Q&A