Don’t Be Bull(ish)on How You Use Instagram — Chicago Mascot Edition
Hey you! Who is your favorite basketball team? Mine is the Chicago Bulls.
I bet you didn’t know that mascots can play a huge role in an organization’s social media strategy. They can even help drive revenue and reach a broader audience than you initially thought. I will tell you this. If you do not believe me, check out Benny the Bull’s Instagram account. Yes, the Chicago Bulls mascot actually has his own account where he has his own brand voice.Benny is one of the most iconic basketball mascots in the NBA. Yeah he is that cool.
Let’s take a deeper dive into his account and understand what he may be missing out on and how that can affect the Chicago Bulls.
Use Instagram Reels
This is where mascots can show their true creativity. A post can capture a single second, but Reels can capture a story. NBA franchises get 22% higher engagement using Reels than the average Instagram post or story. The Benny the Bull Instagram account has a Reels section which usually contains content from his TikTok .
Benny posts fun, humorous, out of the box content but is always representing the Chicago Bulls. My wish is that he would transfer a lot more of the videos from TikTok to his Instagram account for Reels. Based on the statistics mentioned above, creating more Reels can increase engagement with his audience and expand brand awareness as he is the mascot for the Chicago Bulls. The more people that learn about Benny the Bull, the possibility of say person wanting to see him in person at a Chicago Bulls game.
You can see from this Reel, Benny the Bull received 144 comments and 22.4 thousand hearts for his duet with the screaming lifeguard woman.
Whereas his most recent Instagram post received 18.5 thousand likes and 69 comments.
Hey Benny! You don’t have to look far to see what you are doing right. You are already on the right path.
Collaborate with Influencers
As you may know, influencers are all over the Internet. Many have their own Instagram account where they will share information about a personal workout routine or to promote a branded product. 37% of Instagram users from Germany, United States, and the United Kingdom interact with influencers. Benny the Bull does just that.
Here Benny is standing with Kelli Erdmann who took off on TikTok. She is well known for her dancing videos. On Instagram, she has 1.7 million followers while Benny the Bull only has 355 thousand. Creating a post of these two individuals can cause some major engagement. Who knows, maybe some fans who follow Kelli end up liking Benny the Bull. That passion for Benny could grow into becoming a potential Bulls fan and going to future games.
Know Your Events
What I mean by this is that any day there could be a new trend or event going on. This could be potential content that could be made for an account. Remember the Ice Bucket Challenge? That took the nation by storm. Before the NBA Lottery took place, it wasn’t the Chicago Bulls that was doing the promotion, it was actually Benny the Bull. One of his videos was putting money in the Chicago fountain in hopes to create better luck for the Bulls to get a top pick.
The screenshot above is of another video where Benny the Bull is trying to speak to the spirits to try to get a top four pick. Benny was feeding into the momentum about the NBA draft. He was keeping his fans but also the Chicago Bulls fans engaged about the event and trying to get their hopes up and moving up in the draft. Another great example that Benny the Bull did was recreating Bernie Sanders in a chair at a Bulls game. Also known as Benny Sanders. This was all over Instagram Stories and even got on ESPN. The more news Benny made, the more the Chicago brand was in the spotlight.
Post Constantly
You need to be careful when you go weeks or months without a post. Within Instagram settings, you can see who you are engaging with the most and with the least. Giving you the option to unfollow someone right there and then.
I have personally used this tool for my own account to unfollow people that I don’t engage with. This is why posting more and having a set schedule can help with building relationships in the long term.
As the mascot of the Chicago Bulls, I expected a more fluid scheduling of content. The Benny the Bull account only posted twice in September and no post during August. Could this be because it was the NBA off-season? Could be but the longer you take to not post something, someone on their phone might be following you.
Use Hashtags
Hashtags allow someone to find your content through basic search. It also helps in reaching a broader audience. When someone searches for a specific hashtag, they will see all the content for that specific word.
We have learned in class that the sweet spot for Instagram hashtags are 5 to 10. Benny the Bull actually does not follow this. He usually is more in the 0–3 range.
This could be hurting his account and finding new fans. As a mascot of the Chicago Bulls, you want to utilize the best practices. How else are people supposed to learn who the best mascot is in the NBA? If no one knows who Benny the Bull is, how will someone learn who the Chicago bulls are?
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, Benny the Bull is representing the Chicago Bulls in a fairly positive manner. As a mascot, he brings a personal aspect of being part of the organization. Someone that an individual can see and interact with. People like building connections and relationships and Benny the Bull is the perfect person to help be that bridge for an individual and the Chicago Bulls. There are still things that Benny the Bull can improve upon but at the end of the day he is still one of the best NBA mascots and all social platforms.
