NWSL Teams Turn Draft Day into a Fan Recruitment Weapon

It's time to continue our journey through the NWSL as it comes to life in it's first-ever season. The goal is simple, to uncover best practices in the business of soccer to inspire the rest of us to aspire to something greater. Grow the game.

Here we take a look at the teams' Facebook headers, at a specific point in time, a key point in time that defines the future of the programs - shortly after the national team allocations and drafts were finalized. (Also scroll down further to see the "likes" ranking.) Here we're going to breakdown how some of the teams transform this moment into a fan recruitment weapon.

Four of the eight teams chose to hero the key signings by featuring images of the players in action. This not only acts as a visual of team news, but it also helps teams to capitalize on player popularity. In an eight-team league that spans the entire mass of America, fan affiliation goes well beyond local borders. The Portland Thorns FC will no doubt have fan support from north of the border with Canadian Christine Sinclair on their roster. These remote fans, armchair fans, will never have the opportunity to make it to the stadium on game day but can still play a part in building a team's brand and driving online merchandise sales. Taking it one step further, the Thorns FC and the Chicago Red Stars call out the player names, wasting no time to build fan awareness, and put player names to faces.

The Seattle Reign FC reminds us of the power of photography. The approach of showing allocated player Megan Rapinoe in the midst of an intense moment in action speaks to the energy of live soccer and hints at the excitement the team promises to offer fans on the pitch. Then they cleverly include a call to action to purchase season tickets directly on the header image. Not only that but they launch their tag line "Our Reign Begins", succeeding to pack a ton of copy and emotion into their header while still retaining a crisp, clean execution.

Sky Blue FC, one of the teams heralding from the previous WPS era, chose to highlight their fan-filled stadium turning the focus to the game day experience.

It looks like the Washington Spirit and the Western New York Flash weren't as quick to the draw on the Facebook updates, or they simply chose to focus the attention on their club brand. Reminding us of a simple truth, that no player is bigger than the club, not even Abby Wambach and Carli Lloyd, both of who signed with the Flash.

Thanks for reading. Follow along on this blog or get updates on Twitter @wandarful10. Oh and here below is the "likes" ranking (following Supplemental Draft day, 2/9/13). Stay tuned for digital ranking updates at key moments during the season.

Ranking - Facebook Likes

#1 Sky Blue FC:             7,586 Likes

#2 FC Kansas City:        7,578

#3 Boston Breakers:      7,120 

#4 Portland Thorns FC: 6,911

#5 Seattle Reign FC:     6,823

#6 Chicago Redstars:    5,951

#7 Western NY Flash:   5,635

#8 Washington Spirit:    1,617