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| The mothership, way back in 1996. Sign our guestbook! |
A couple of months ago, the Kansas City Chiefs sent out a message via their Twitter feed saying that the staff had a meeting about how to improve KCChiefs.com and more specifically about how to integrate social networking into the whole online experience over there.
I replied on Twitter asking if they came up with some good ideas and the response was, "LOTS OF IDEAS!"
So the team is moving forward with some cool new ideas for what may or may not be an entirely new web site. The Chiefs have gone through a couple of redesigns of KCChiefs.com over the last few years and probably at least a dozen since they launched KCChiefs.com back in 1996. Some of the redesigns were good. Some bad.
For a 13-year review of the history of KCChiefs.com, check out this link. Trust me when I say you'll want to see some of these old school web site pictures. Wow....
The mothership (as it's known around here) has improved quite a bit over the last year or so. Embeddable videos (which you see here all the time) are available within hours of a press conference happening. This is HUGE by the way. The vast majority of NFL team sites do not allow embedding of their videos. I have to say thank you to the Chiefs for allowing this. The Chiefs official Twitter feed is a great place to get the jump on the articles and videos posted over there, as well as miscellaneous bits of information we never really got before. We'll even get the occassional picture out of a One Arrowhead Drive office now and again.
The columnists on the mothership put in a lot of time and effort into their articles. Even though I may disagree with a topic or find it a bit boring, you can't chide them for putting in the sweat to write them. Bob Gretz especially does his homework when it comes to his articles on KCChiefs.com.
It's possible we may see a change in the mothership with the addition of Mark Donovan as the new COO. Donovan came from the Philadelphia Eagles, who have an incredible official site. The site is loaded with pictures and video, as well as a forum. Plus, it just looks like a slicker, more modern, faster loading site.
Here are some of the team sites who I think "get it" when it comes promoting their team online:
(On a side note, check out the Eagles homepage and you'll see an official menu bar at the top labeled NFL Internet Network. Oddly, the Chiefs don't have that on their site. The Chiefs old site used to have a similar menu bar.)
So kudos to the Chiefs for improving the site with some cool new features over the last year. But what else could the team do with its official site? A blog with comments? Some sort of message board or forum perhaps? An official team blogger with full access to the team? Link to sites like AP?
One thing I will say right off the bat is that I want to see more pictures on the mothership. There's no photo gallery and the official site more than anyone could be posting some great insider pictures. Take a look at the Eagles photos and drool.
Chime in with your thoughts. The Chiefs are listening....