2007 NBA Mock Draft

NBA’s Top 10 Blogs Released by Sports Media Challenge’s Sports Blog Index

Charlotte, NC (PRWEB) April 27, 2007 -- With the NBA Playoffs underway and teams battling for the chance to be crowned league champions, Sports Media Challenge today announces the top 10 NBA basketball blogs in the official Sports Blog Index.™ The SBI is the first ever standard measurement to identify the most influential blogs across all sports and in each major sports category and aims to be a helpful tool to determine where the most passionate fans go on the Internet and which blogs carry the most weight. Last month, the Sports Blog Index debuted the Top 10 Baseball blogs to compliment their general index of most influential sports blogs.



Recently, Sports Media Challenge’s Sports Blog Index debuted in the SportsBusiness Daily and can be seen in the Sports Media section, accompanying the extremely popular Blog Hound feature. Every day, the Sports Blog Index takes a snapshot of the blogosphere’s current sentiment regarding noteworthy news item. That graphical snapshot is then coupled with expert analysis and quotes from the blogs themselves to provide the reader with a thorough understanding of the current online word of mouth regarding the topic.

Sports Business Journal/SportsBusiness Daily Executive Editor Abraham Madkour announced that “The Sports Blog Index™ is gaining in popularity since its launch and will be available to SportsBusiness Daily and SportsBusiness Journal subscribers and at www.sportsmediachallenge.com .”

With this proliferation of blogs dedicated to all things sports, SMC identified the need to establish an Index to determine where fans and critics go online to feed their insatiable hunger for information. The giant sports networks bring us the facts, but SMC is determining where the best virtual water cooler conversations are taking place and where fans and critics congregate to debate the hottest issues.

“Whether you’re a sponsor, league, team or media outlet, blogs and other fan-generated media™ must be on your watch-list because of their capacity to drive the discussion to the forefront of public consciousness,” said Sports Media Challenge President Kathleen Hessert. “Understanding the issues that fans are listening and reacting to, can provide invaluable insight for brands vying for the minds, hearts and wallets of sports fans. With over 54 million Americans visiting blogs in 2006, they’re often more commonplace to read than newspapers and magazines, especially with the coveted young male audience.” Fan-generated media including blogs, forums, and social networking sites have become the equivalent of ‘main street’ online.


The Index will be regularly updated to ensure that the listings reflect those blogs that fans count on most for their online word of mouth. Following is the month’s top 10 NBA related blogs:

1.TrueHoop          (truhoop.com)
2.YAYsports! NBA     (yaysports.com/nba)
3.Celtics Blog     (celticsblog.com/)
4.Sonics Central     (sonicscentral.com/blog/)
5.Golden State of Mind (goldenstateofmind.com)
6.Need 4 Sheed     (need4sheed.com)
7.Free Darko          (freedarko.com)
8.Blazers Edge     (blazersedge.com)
9.Detroit Bad Boys (detroitbadboys.com)
10.HoopsAddict.com (hoopsaddict.com/)

•    In February 2007, TrueHoop was acquired by ESPN and has left the format fundamentally unchanged.

•    Active communities are measured by comments directed at individual posts. The top blog communities average dozens of comments per post.

In conjunction with the top blogs for an individual sport, SMC has identified the top five subjects discussed on blogs in the Index featured every Monday in the Daily which we will be glad to provide to you via e-mail. Send your request to tips @sportsmediachallenge.com. Over the next few months, SMC will be releasing Top Ten blog lists for NASCAR, Golf, Olympics, Action Sports, NCAA Football, NHL and the NFL.

There are three criteria that Sports Media Challenge use to rank blogs for the top 10 – Influence, Fan Engagement and Quality. These criteria combine quantitative aspects, including the number of incoming links, number of fan comments as well as qualitative measurement by Sports Media Challenge analysts.

Buzz Manager, a staple service of SMC, is the proprietary search engine that mines, monitors and analyzes online content and helps rank blogs in the Sports Blog Index. Buzz Manager tracks and measures the online word-of-mouth and mainstream media exposure of brands operating in the sports, entertainment and lifestyle markets. A combination of proprietary technology and human analysis is used to determine a brand’s awareness and fan perception. The Sports Blog Index uses the Buzz Manager tracking software to determine ratings for the thousands of sports blogs tracked. Beyond blogs, Buzz Manager also monitors trends on other forms of fan-generated media™ (FGM) including message boards, MySpace and YouTube sites and other social networks. We can measure the volume, intensity and direction of influential fan sentiment real time.

We urge fans and media to send us links to sports blogs they think should contend for a top 10 spot on the Index. We will put them on our Watch List and it will be added to our Buzz Manager search engine. Even if a blog focuses on one sport or team, please send them along because, as you see above with the basketball specific list, we will release a sport specific blog Index each month of the year. You may send these to tips @sportsmediachallenge.com.

For interviews on anything pertaining to the Sports Blog Index, please contact Harold Kaufman at (704) 451-8938.


About Sports Media Challenge
Since 1988, Sports Media Challenge has helped more than 100 leading university athletic departments, professional leagues, teams and world-class sports personalities protect and enhance their brands through strategic communications, consulting and training. Some of the more prominent clients to use PR and marketing tools both proactively and reactively include, The Universities of Notre Dame, Tennessee, Texas, THE PGA TOUR, The NFL, MLB and NBA teams as well as NFL MVP Peyton Manning, Yankees Captain Derek Jeter, and NBA great Shaquille O’Neal. Sports Media Challenge has become the industry leader in online word-of-mouth marketing.

Media Contact:
Harold Kaufman
Sports Media Challenge - Senior Analyst and Consultant
704 451-8938

###

NBA Team Gear and More!
Great Gear at Great Prices!!

MORE ARTICLES:

4 Game Variations Of Basketball
Basketball does not just have to be strictly rule regulated play on an indoor wooden court There are actually many different variations on the game that bring basketball to a whole new level

Goalrilla Goal Basketball Goal Specials Now Available From Leading On-line Store
There's never been a better time to buy a new basketball goal. Overstocks of two popular models of Goalrilla Goals basketball goals are now available on-line at basketballgoalstore.com, at prices up to 30 percent less than leading national sporting good retailers.

St. Joseph. MO Hosts a Unique College/AAU Basketball Tournament This Weekend
A unique basketball tournament this weekend features college and AAU teams

Burger King Corporation Welcomes All-Star Line Up to Franchisee Family: NFL and NBA Greats Score Big by Landing 18 Restaurants in an Investment Ventur
Burger King adds several new franchisee investors from the NFL and the NBA. Eighteen BURGER KING® restaurants in Norfolk and Richmond, Va., were acquired by the following football and basketball stars: Marcus Allen, a professional football Hall of Famer; Caron Butler, of the Washington Wizards; Donnie Edwards, of the Kansas City Chiefs; Kevin Faulk, of the New England Patriots; and Michael Strahan, of the New York Giants, along with other investors that make up a new company, Ramsell Dining, LLC.

American Basketball Association and VoiceAmerica Sports Network to Deliver Global Internet Radio Program: "Inside the ABA" Program to Be Part of the V
Modavox, Inc. (OTCBB: MDVX), an internet broadcasting pioneer in the production and distribution of online audio and video, announced today that it has established a broadcasting partnership with American Basketball Association, Inc. (OTCBB: ABKB) and will begin broadcasting, through its VoiceAmerica Sports Channel, "Inside the ABA" an Internet Talk Radio show that will premiere Thursday, November 15th at 10:00 p.m. PST.

Will 2006-07 Kansas Basketball Tickets Wind Up Being Historic?
Kansas basketball tickets are as cherished as any sports tickets in the world, and every season brings new hope to the entire state. The Jayhawks are one of those truly historic programs, and the coming season is one sprinkled with hopes that are as high as any in recent seasons. It?s hard to believe that a program that?s as consistently good as Kansas hasn?t won a national title since 1988, and below will be a look at whether or not that ?drought? is about to end.

Cutting Edge Basketball With Cleveland Cavaliers Tickets
If you have got your hands on some Cleveland Cavaliers tickets you know you're in for some really exciting basketball action. The Cavs have had a rich career so far, making waves both on the court and off it. They have fielded some famous basketball icons and some infamous owners. They have also been party to some spectacular NBA legendary games and moments.

First Look: The 2004-05 NBA Schedule
Admit it, the first thing you did when the 2004-05 NBA schedule came out last week was check to see when Shaq and the Miami Heat would visit Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. It probably didn't take long to find that game, though, as we all know the NBA marketing machine would slate it for big time ratings on X-Mas day.

InventHelp Client Invents Recreated Basketball Court and Goal
An InventHelp client from Oakland, Calif., has designed a distinctive type of basketball court and basketball goal.

How to Choose a Basketball Hoop
A basketball hoop is an important part of your game You want to choose a hoop that will compliment your game and that will last and be something you will be able to use over and over

Basketball - Heat Says It?s Ready for the Games That Really Matter
MIAMI ? Relieved to be rid of the regular season and all its banality, the players and the coach of the defending champion Miami Heat started projecting a familiar confidence these past few days that bordered on arrogance.

University of North Carolina Basketball Design Unveiled by JerseyNaps®
Following on the success of JerseyNaps® in the collegiate football and professional baseball markets, the company has unveiled a Carolina blue version of the storied North Carolina Tar Heels basketball uniform. Carolina basketball JerseyNaps® are available immediately at www.JerseyNaps.com.

Basketball - Nets Hold On to Force Game 6
CLEVELAND ? The city was primed for a minor coronation. Mark Price was in the stands, the streamers were in place and LeBron James was set to usher in the next great Cleveland Cavaliers era. All he needed to do was fashion one more victory over the Nets

5 Things Not to Do When Playing Basketball
You are probably told most often what to do when playing basketball However, highlighting some things you should not do is also important to mastering the sport