The Casual Bulls Fan (3/19)

Hello Everyone,

In today’s post, I would like to talk about the main audience that the @ChicagoBulls should be attempting to reach. Now it is important to note that the organization has several types of audience; however, after keeping a close eye on the team’s Twitter interactions this year, I’ve concluded that the overwhelming majority of their followers are casual basketball fans that likely live in the Chicagoland area.

The casual Bulls fan is not always up to date with the team and that’s okay. He or she probably has a sense on how the team is doing at any point of the season, but probably doesn’t watch every game and maybe only catches them when flipping through the channels. I am a diehard Bulls fan, but my brother Mark is not. Although Mark is a fan of the team, he doesn’t nearly know any of the in-depth Bulls information that I do and he probably doesn’t care either. The @ChicagoBulls need to adhere to folks like Mark. Mark doesn’t want to see continuous headlines being posted about a Bulls charity gala or non-stop play-by-play tweets, Mark would rather see a clip of an exiting dunk or a Chicago related tweet/image that any Chicagoan could relate to. Granted, not everyone who follows the Bulls is from Chicago (the majority are), but the Bulls are a very important to the Windy City and that is something that casual Bulls fans acknowledge and appreciate. After all, when Chicago teams are playing well, you can’t deny that there is a good vibe in the city.  

The casual Bulls fan might have been drawn to the team in the 90s, due to a guy name Michael Jordan. Although MJ’s playing days are long gone and he himself is now focused on the Charlotte Bobcats (the team he owns), the Chicago Bulls should know that Michael Jordan will forever be apart of the team’s legacy. You can’t go to any Bulls game, home or away without seeing the #23 jersey, and keep in mind the last time he wore that uniform was in 1998. If old enough, the casual Bulls fan likely remembers the 90s era when the Bulls won six NBA championships and if you were to ask then, he or she probably wouldn’t use the term casual as a description of himself. For this reason, it is appropriate for the team to post flashback tweets, images of videos. They definitely catch the eye of the casual Bulls fan that may remember the good old days, or heard about it from family.

Ultimately, casual Bulls fans wants to be kept up to date. They might even be exited to learn a fun fact that they can impress their friends with later, but they probably don’t want the entire box score of a game, and unless they are intriguing. They don’t want any numbers and they don’t care to know about a normal play that occurred during a game. That kind of information is meant for diehard fans such as myself and diehard fans already prefer other sources such as @NickFriedell and @Bulls_Jay.

My advice to the @ChicagoBulls? Stay casual.

Matt