Blazer's Edge provides a space for Blazers fans to hang out, to talk about the team, to learn what's going on, and to have fun with it.
We do that in lots of different ways: our feature writers take deep dives in to particular matchups, offensive sets, or statistical oddities. Our news team hunts for Blazers chatter, vets it, and brings it home. Our video crew picks the best plays of the game and puts them where we can see them. Our editors make sure the pieces are solid, our moderation team keeps the conversation on track, and our podcast hosts drink gallons of honeyed milk before each recording (it really smooths out rough vocal chords).
It's truly a team effort, and throughout every part of it, there's a common thread: you.
To that end, we wanted to announce that we've gradually expanded our reach across platforms, and wanted to let you know what else was out there.
Facebook - facebook.com/blazersedge
Since last last year, Blazer's Edge has put an emphasis on our Facebook page. Thanks to the efforts of Dan Graves (who stocks our page every day, without fail), Team Mom, and Kody Tarbell, it brings stuff not just from us, but from other media outlets: pictures, videos, graphics, articles, audio, and more.
In the last few weeks, we've ramped it up: we're now bringing Facebook LIVE videos (where you can ask questions in real time as it's being recorded) and Facebook-only podcasts, like the one Chris Lucia, Eric Griffith, and myself recorded last night.
The philosophy: If YOU as a Blazers fan care about it (even if it doesn't come from us, and sometimes even if it's not directly about the Blazers), our goal is to have it on our Facebook page. During 2016, we've been offering 20-ish posts a day to meet that goal.
Twitter - twitter.com/blazersedge
We've come a long way since 2014 when Dave and Ben created the @Blazersedge Twitter account. It used to just be an automated feed for our stories published on site. A while back, Dave did something foolish and asked me to run it and give it a more personal voice. Since then, I've been subjecting folks to graphics, stats, and back-and-forths with other users and our followers. We also use it to solicit questions for our Weekend Podcast (questions that we greatly appreciate, even when we can't use all of them!
Instagram - instragram.com/blazers.edge
With the benefit of a fantastic image library, and we've been mixing those along with graphics and pictures from the Moda Center (we will be there TONIGHT for Game 6!) and the occasional interesting screenshot or other images. We've been putting more focus here in the last few weeks, and even though it's still pretty new to us, Instragram will be a permanent part of our social media rotation now and moving forward.
YouTube - youtube.com/user/blazersedgedotcom
Podcasts are only useful when you can listen to them, and we got feedback that having them available on YouTube would be helpful to some folks... so we did it! Right now, we're just uploading our Weekend Podcast with Chris Lucia and myself (and almost always a guest), but we may be figuring out ways to better-utilize YouTube moving forward. For now, you can subscribe and catch every episode of our Weekend Podcast before it hits the site.
Others?
The point of being in different places is simple: we wanna meet you where you are. So if there are places where you hang out online and we're not there, be a pal and invite us over! While there may be logistical limits and while we can't be everywhere at once, we want to make sure that everyone in the Blazer's Edge family can connect with us and the team wherever they are.
Please: now or later, offer your suggestions as to where we can move forward from here! You can email me directly at benefit1970@gmail.com, or hit us up in the comments of this post.