The 68-team, three week NCAA Men's College Basketball Championship is treated like a religion by hundreds of thousands on both sides of the border. The prospect of seeing, not only college's best teams, but also the prospect of a "minnow" knocking off a "big fish" makes casual basketball viewers fanatics for a short period of time each year.
In the world of Web 2.0, March Madness is a perfect avenue for social media marketing. Facebook was one of the first social media websites to take advantage of this, when they launched a NCAA bracket pool in 2007. This year they've expanded on this app, by partnering with Citizen Sports and having a $5,000 grand prize. For the iPhone, Citizen Sports offers a mobile version of its Facebook app.
Talk Hoops offers an app for the iPhone that provides in-depth information, news, and game scores about all 68 teams taking part in the Madness.
The NCAA and tournament broadcaster CBS haven't been left behind in the social media derby. The NCAA offers on-demand streaming of all tournament games, while CBS has an app that allows you to watch every game on your iPhone.
All these new social media avenues for the tournament are a goldmine for their creators and everyone out there jonesing for more coverage of March Madness.
With these new apps you have no chance of missing the 2011 version of Valparaiso-Mississippi or Princeton-UCLA.
It is a perfect avenue for social media! There has definitely been a buzz and hype about March Madness on Social Media! So many possibilities! For example, I used Facebook’s internal app, with their March Madness application. This year, in the month of March alone, bracket applications have already drawn over 500,000 visitors. That's too cool, and great for us! Learn more about the app at: http://bit.ly/dKhZCm
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