The Chicago Bears Social Media Analysis. Madelyn Enright. University of Wisconsin- Whitewater. Public Relations Tactics II. Dr.

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1 1 The Chicago Bears Social Media Analysis Madelyn Enright University of Wisconsin- Whitewater Public Relations Tactics II Dr. Parks November 30, 2017

2 2 Table of Contents Introduction..3 Analysis of Keywords..3 Analysis of Social Networks...4 Analysis of Social Media Sites and Critique of PR Campaign s Social Media Sites.6 Suggestions for PR Campaign s social Media Sites...9 Conclusion.10 Work Cited...11

3 3 The Chicago Bears Media Social Analysis Introduction The Chicago Bears are the client of interest in this paper. The Chicago Bears are a professional football team in the national football league (NFL). They are the only professional football team in the NFL in the state of Illinois. The Chicago Bears were chartered on September 17,1920 as the Decatur Staleys. Then in 1921 the Decatur Staleys were relocated to Chicago IL. Finally in 1922 they changed their nickname to the Bears. (Chicago Bears, n.d.) Analysis of Keywords The five keywords for this Client are Chicago football, Mitchell Trubisky, football, NFL and Soldier Field.These are the keywords because they show up multiple times on their cite. When Chicago football is put into google the Chicago Bears web page is the second link on the first page. Even though this key term did not lead people to the first link. It is still an important one for them to use because it included the sport that they are playing and the city that they are from. The next term, Mitchell Trubisky, when put into google you can find the clients website was the first link on the second page. Though this key term took us till the second page to find the clients web page, it still is a good one because it does get people to the client's webpage and it is one of the most important players on their team. He is an important player because he is the quarterback for the bears. The quarterback is an important player in any team because they are the root of how teams get points. Also his name is in many press releases on the Bears website. The next keyword is football and when put into google does not lead us to the client's website in the first 10 pages. This could be because football is not a very specific word and many states outside of Illinois have football teams as well. Also outside of the professional leagues there are

4 4 college teams, high school teams, kids teams, and recreational teams. This keyword could relate to all of these teams not just the bears. The next keyword, NFL, National Football League, once again in the first 10 pages of google does not lead us to the clients cite. NFL may not be a good keyword because it seem to be too broad and lead us nowhere near where people should be. However with NFL it leads us to the National Football League cite which does contain information about The Bears. (Official Site of the National Football League, n.d.). The last key word is Soldier Field. This keyword is meaningful because this is the field where the Chicago Bears play their home games. When it is put into Google it generates the client's cite 5 links down on the first page. It is a good key word then, because it generates the client s site on the first page which is generally where most people like to find their information. Another keyword that would be good would be The Bears. This is because it is not the official name of the client but is a nickname for them and is one that many people say instead of The Chicago Bears. The next keyword that could be suggested is John Fox. This is because he is the head coach of the team and has a strong association with the team. The next keyword that can be suggested is bear down. This is a phrase that fans typically say when they really need the team to do something well. These keywords could help the clients visibility because they are keywords that can not relate to any other national football team. When keywords are put into google they generate the bears website on the first page. Analysis of Social Networks After looking at the Chicago Bears official website you can see that they have some connections to the four quadrants of public relations. The Chicago Bears have relations with the community aspect of the four quadrats of public relations because they use Twitter. Twitter is a

5 5 social network platform that allows the client to interact with their public by replying to tweets, liking and retweeting others tweets. This shows the relationship is in the community aspect because it allows for interactions. They also have relations in the media quadrant because they do press conferences. On the homepage of their website it shows a press conference for Trubisky. This shows a relationship because media is considered publicity, traditional press and social press. The press release offers a time for news reporters of traditional media to come in and ask said player about his plays and how he is feeling. The bears have relations with the business quadrant of public relations as well. Although this team plays a game it is also a business. This means that they have c- level positions within the team. The have a ceo, general manager and chairman who are in charge of making all the final decision or hiring, firing and pretty much anything about the team. The last quadrant that the Bears have relations in is the government quadrant. They have a relationship with this quadrant because the government have rules and regulations in concussions and other defensive hits that are unnecessary and drug and alcohol abuse ( Safety Rules & Regulations. n.d.). This is an example of government relations because these are things that are monitored by the government already and are placed upon the game to make things safer for the player. Though some people think that the government should not get involved in somethings, here it is a good idea because it protects the players and their well being. The Chicago Bears need to integrate my suggestions of keywords into their site because they are common terms that people who like the bears would know. At the same time they are keywords that if you just knew that one thing about the bears it would get you to the clients website. By integrating these suggestions they would expand their community quadrant because it would get more people to their site which is online and online falls under the community

6 6 quadrant of the model. They could also try partnering with schools or boys and girls clubs in the area to improve their community relations. This would improve them because it would get the Bear's name into local school and clubs that are highly regarded and make them have a better reputation. Also by partnering with these organizations it gets the team actually out in their local community and strengthens the bonds with them because they are interacting with the community. Analysis of Social Media Sites and Critique of PR Campaign s Social Media Sites The Chicago Bears are a football team in Chicago Illinois. They are known nationally by people who follow the sport, live there or from the 5 different forms of social media they use. The Bears use Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Snapchat and Instagram. They proudly display all forms of social media on their website page and do not have any other than the 5 they display. Based on observation the Bears use Twitter the most with Facebook being a close second. The reason that Twitter has the most is because it includes all the campaigns that Facebook shares as well as play by play posts during games. Through their facebook page they have 4,088,150 people who like it and therefore can see their posts. The general public for this account is people who are interested in football, live in the Chicago area, both men and women, both old and young and people who Facebook. Mostly the company does not engage in the comments on their campaigns. Between October 21 and 28 the Chicago Bears had 63 campaigns posted. That is an average of 8 posts a day. The type of content that was shared was shared was majority press releases, whether it be a video press release or a written article. There were also sponsorships in their social media as well. Outside of the campaigns they posted general things about the team such as names and stats on players as

7 7 well as times, places and who they were playing for games.the tone of their page is business but fun. They share all the necessary facts and things that people needs to know well incorporating posts that get the audience hyped and ready for the games. The Bears use Facebook properly according to their audiences because they update them in a way that is easy to see and follow and share. They use Facebook for a multitude of reasons those being communications and engagement with members, building your client s profile,influencing opinions, manage crisis communication. The quality of the posts are adequate with the audience members and well they do not reply a lot in the comment section they do reply in other press releases. The Bears twitter account has 1,570,000 million followers. The general audience of Twitter is similar to that of Facebook, people who love football, live in the Chicago area and use social media. The biggest difference is that twitter is primarily used more so by the younger generations, where as facebook is used by both older and younger. Over the course of October they tweeted 84 campaigns, that is an average of 10.5 posts a day. Similarly again as Facebook the types of tweets that were published were press releases and sponsorships. But outside of campaigns they tweeted a bunch more updating their followers with play by plays of games as well as posts about upcoming games and players on the team. The posts on Twitter were a bit more casual than those of facebook and the interaction with the audience was more. They would often retweet fans and other peoples pages tweets. According to the audience on their Twitter account The Bears are using their Twitter account correctly. Since primarily a younger audience is the public they make their tweets to match that. Younger audiences do not like to read or wait so they make their tweets short and to

8 8 the point and provide instant responses and updates. The Bears Twitter account is primarily used for communications and engagement with members. On The Bears Youtube channel they have 21,954 subscribers. They use their facebook page to primarily share their video new conferences and reports. Over the course of October they posted 25 videos. On average that is 3 videos a day. In these videos they covered post game reports, player report as well as the head coach talking about the team. The audience that Youtube covers is mostly the younger generation and people who enjoy Bears football. They do not interact much in the comments with the audience. In The Bears Youtube account according to the audience and the platform they are using it correctly. However there is so much content out on youtube of different kinds that you can not share something that isn t right for this platform. The Bears primarily use this platform to build their profile. The share interviews with the players recapping games that had just happened as well as press conferences. The Bears Instagram has 676,000 followers. Between October they posted 60 times. That is an average of 7.5 times. The type of content that they shared was mostly promo pictures to get their followers ready for a game, a picture of a player during the game or a wrap of picture. Their level of engagement was poor as they did not proceed to comment back to peoples comments after they posted. The Bears correctly use Instagram as it is a platform to share pictures and not so much share news. This platform is used for entertainment and hype. The final social media that was analyzed was The Bears snapchat. You can not tell who the audience of this platform is or how many people follow them. It only allows you to see stories that they have posted. Over the course of October the posted every game day with

9 9 snaps of the players walking from the bus to the stadium and from the stadium to the field. It also included plays and fans on it as well. This platform is an entertainment platform and that is exactly what they do on it, entertain their followers. For the most part the Chicago Bears social media posts are about the team. The posts include press releases about future, present and past games. Their post also have updates and information on the players of the team. These are relevent information for their Facebook page because it is page about the team and people use Facebook to see updates about the players and the team. Occasionally there will be a post that is a sponsorship with an outside party. Though these posts do not always have to do with the Bears, except for the fact that it is a picture of a player or the team using that product, it does not have much relevance to updates about the team. These sponsored posts do help the team strengthen its relationship with the business quadrant of public relations. Suggestions for PR Campaign s Social Media Sites Overall the Bears need to work on their audience interaction. It seemed that nearly all of the platforms they never go into the comment section. Instead they would keep posting. Also they need to realize how much they are posting on some of these platforms. When they post so much it makes it very difficult for someone to go and find what they are looking for. The Bears should emphasize their Youtube more. Youtube is a growing platform that just keeps getting bigger and bigger and becoming more innovating. This growth and innovation are going to keep that platform running for a long time and attract new followers. Another way they can improve their social media use is by using Snapchat more. Right not they only use Snapchat on game days or when arriving to an away game. They should use their Snapchat more regularly to show

10 10 practices and locker room talks to show a different side of the team instead of just games. By using this suggestions I think that it would make fans and the team have a closer relationship because you get to see more behind the scenes things and not just what everyone would already see when watching the game. Conclusion The Chicago Bears are a big name in a big industry. What sets them apart is their use of their social medias and how they keep their fans up to date on almost everything. Through their social media campaigns the Bears have strong relations with all four quadrants of the public relations model. Though the Bears are good at keeping their fans up to date the lack audience interaction and creating that bond with their fans in both the comment section and their Snapchat. If the Chicago bears were to integrate the suggestions throughout this paper they would strengthen their social media and relations.

11 11 Work Cited Account, C. B. (2017, November 13). Chicago Bears Retrieved November 2, 2017, from Chicago Bears. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2017, from Chicago Bears Team Facts Pro Football Hall of Fame Official Site. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2017, from Chicago Bears Instagram photos and videos. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2017, from Facebook. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2017, from Official Site of the National Football League. (n.d.). Retrieved November 10, 2017, from Safety Rules & Regulations. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2017, from