The Chicago Bulls, winners of eight of their last nine, have been cruising to date and it's clear that their success has a correlation with some of the good vibes on social media. This week, I selected a few tweets that really appealed to me and I just want to further elaborate on why I believe that @ChicagoBulls has been the weakest social media campaign thus far.
Beginning with the good...
The Bulls hosted a very good Golden State Warriors team and completely blew them out. There were many optimistic tweets that I saw on Twitter, but my favorite came from @NickFriedell towards the end of the game. In his tweet, Nick Friedell pokes fun at the Warriors' bad night for the amusement of Bulls fans.
Nick Friedell
How bad is your team's night when that team is down 20+ in the 4th and the opposing team's crowd is chanting for your assistant coach?
It was nice to see Friedell shy away from his normal in-game analysis to bring us this tweet. Though most Bulls fans remember, Brian Scalabrine was our former red-head benchwarmer who served as the unofficial mascot for the team from 2010-2012. Now coaching the Warriors, Scalabrine heard his name being chanted throughout the Bulls arena late in the game as Chicago had a big lead. This is what Bulls used to do when Scalabrine was a player on the team and Friedell's tweet was effective in evoking old memories for us to cherish. In my opinion, the best tweet is the kind that people can relate to and all Bulls fans can remember the good ole days, when we were number one in the league, and Scal was number one in our hearts. Although it has only been about two years, it does feel like a long time ago and Nick Friedell's tweet allowed us to cherish the past in the midst of a season focused solely on the now and in the future. Friedell's tweet definitely appealed to pathos; it was both comical and nostalgic, and that's why it was my favorite for this week.
(Brian Scalabrine in his days with the Bulls)
This next tweet from @Bulls_Jay was unique because I thought it really hit well on not one, but two rhetorical appeals. Again, Jay was referring to the Bulls-Warriors game by tweeting a detail that not all Bulls fans might know.
Warriors haven't gone over 91 points at the UC since the 2007-08 season when Baron Davis (!!!!) dropped 40 if any of you remember that one.
As most NBA fans would know, the Warriors have been one of the highest scoring teams in the league for the past few years, yet every time they play at Chicago's United Center, they haven't managed to score more than 91 points- much lower than their season average. Now you may think that this tweet by Jason Patt only satisfies one rhetorical appeal, logos, as he is providing a true statement regarding the Warriors' history in Chicago, yet, there is another aspect of his tweet that shows his worthiness of being a Bulls blogger. It was remembering the game where Baron Davis, a former player for the Warriors scored 40 points. Maybe it's because I'm a huge Bulls fan, or because I have a strong memory, or both, but I myself remember that game and I even remember how Baron Davis said he "felt like MJ" in his post-game interview. However, even some of the biggest Bulls fans' might have trouble remembering that game (after all, there are 82 games in a season not including playoffs and exhibitions and 7 years have gone by since), but that game didn't evade Jason. The fact that he asks his followers, "if any of you remember" not only tells us that he's not expecting many people to recall that match, it also tells us that he knows his stuff. In 2007 the Bulls only had one player that is still on today's team, but Jason Patt has stuck with the team, documenting and analyzing their ups and downs since then, if not before that, and that kind of experience as a fan makes him the right guy for this job. He also appeals to ethos in this tweet, by certifying his own reputation and it took another huge Bulls fan (myself) to recognize that. He remembered that one insignificant regular season game in '07 and so did I, and I have to amend him for his recollection.
Last week, I made it know that I believed @ChicagoBulls was the weakest social media campaign that I had been following to date. Today, I just want to give you examples of both a good tweet and a bad tweet from the official Twitter account from the Chicago Bulls. I believe the Chicago Bulls' main goal should be to connect with not only their fans but the people of Chicago as well. There are many casual fans who follow the bulls on Twitter, so the team has to be mindful of the content they are putting on social media. Here is an example of a good tweet from @ChicagoBulls.
We lost a good one in Harold Ramis. Actor, writer, director & Bulls fan. You’ll be missed. pic.twitter.com/o2RCKeFWn3
As you may have heard, legendary actor/director and Chicagoan, Harold Ramis passed away earlier this week. As we mourned the loss, the Bulls uploaded a very appropriate image of Ramis at a Bulls game with his two sons. Like all other Chicagoans, Ramis was also a Bulls fan and this tweet from the Bulls not only appeals to pathos, but it also shows us another side of Harold Ramis that people from Chicago can connect with.
Now, it is understandable that the Bulls wont always be able to tweet photos commemorating local celebrities; however, they should always keep in mind that thier target audience is the average Bulls fan and not necessarily a diehard. Here is an example of a bad tweet from the team that came earlier this week.
That's it. Now think, if your an average Bulls fan who only catches regular season games once in a while and you constantly see tweets like this pop up on your timeline, wouldn't you unfollow the team? There is absolutely no substance behind this tweet and they don't even share a link to where you can see the block. All that is included is #GSWvsCHI and nothing else. This is the type of dull tweeting the Chicago Bulls need to refrain from. I understand it's providing in-game feedback for those watching or not, but there needs to be more than just "X blocked Y". This tweet has no rhetorical appeal and is a kind that I've seen far to often from the team.
I hope you guys enjoyed this week's blog post, let's hope the Bulls continue to ride on their recent success.
Matt
Overall pretty good. Cosmetically you could fix the change in font, I found it hard to see where the tweet ended and analysis began. I liked the additional photos you provided too. Maybe talk some more about larger scale implications for the future since sports relies a lot on guessing the future of how to play. But goo!
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