Last year, I was invited to speak at the London Sport and Social Media Summit to talk about how the National Basketball Association ( NBA) approaches social and digital media. I’ve never worked with the NBA directly, but have always admired how innovative it has been, so I loved the opportunity to look into it in depth.

It was one of the first professional sports leagues to embrace the internet in the mid-1990s and has always been open to trying new things, especially in regards to online video (more than two billion video views will take place on NBA.com this year). This success has a lot to do with its strategy to embrace YouTube early on, while other leagues and bodies were worrying about the potential revenue being lost via unsanctioned video content.

There are plenty of other examples of where the NBA has done something first and seen others follow suit which is why its latest online “experiment” is worth following. In mid-February 2011, the NBA released NBA Legend – a simulator-style game designed exclusively for Facebook, which is essentially a “Farmville for basketball fans“.

In less than eight weeks, it has clocked up more than 1.1 million monthly active users.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the NBA and the message it is sending to its fans who love Facebook.

Other recent Facebook-focused innovations include the 2011 Playoff Pulse, which is a player popularity contest on Facebook, and Fanvibe, a site that facilitates “online check-ins” to live sport to share the experience with people around the world.

So what you might ask? Well if you are the CMO of an organisation you might get a bit warm and fuzzy about what these activities can deliver in terms of fans experience and engagement, but what impact is this approach having on the NBA’s bottom line?

Here’s the scoop:

Facebook is the number two referral source for NBA.com, seeing it generate nine times as much traffic as it did a year ago.

When fans visit NBA.com they can buy a product called NBA League Pass Broadband which provides live video access to every single NBA game (outside local blackout zones).

The monthly subscription comes in at approx $20.00 per month (depending on the subscription type).

So, a revenue stream has been created using previously dead content and has even seen regular national TV ratings increase by an average of more than 30 per cent this year. In other words, the NBA is well on the way to being a self-sufficient media company by giving fans what they want, where they want it, but without crippling traditional media consumption.

Is Facebook the only reason? Of course not, but the next time someone questions the value of a Facebook community, look past the “likes” and see how much traffic is being generated by people clicking on links from that stream.

And check out your YouTube referrals too.

Like it or not people, this is the media future and the NBA is way ahead of its competitors.

Adam Vincenzini is lead social media consultant at Paratus Communications.