Bears’ Jen Tulicki on Making Planning a Priority When It Comes to Social Media

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Jen Tulicki didn’t plan to work in social media while she was in college. Studying PR and journalism while at school, Facebook became a thing just as Tulicki graduated. After spending eight years in retail management, Tulicki got her first job in social media with Target in Minneapolis.

Starting out in a more customer service-facing role, Tulicki eventually moved to the brand side where she spent a just over a year working on some of Target’s biggest campaigns.

Realizing that social media and the opportunities were so much larger than she once thought, she began to look around to see what else was out there. That’s when she stumbled upon the Bears’ job opening. Not thinking she would get it, she threw her hat in the ring just to see what would happen. Now, just over three years later, shes running one of best social teams in the NFL.

Edited highlights appear below:

On Getting Her Start in Social Media (3:55)

“After college, I was in retail management for a long time. After about eight years of doing that, I eventually got hired at Target headquarters in Minneapolis to start doing social media there. I was actually hired to manage a team of about 10 to 12 people who oversaw a call center. As opposed to them answering and replying to these guests or customers via email and phone, they were really responsible for responding to these people on Twitter and Facebook. That was really my first foray into social media.”

On the Bears’ Social Strategy (7:45)

“This year has been easier than others. You can just tell that there’s an energy and a chemistry in the building, and everyone’s having fun. That really allows us to be creative. We have huge content brainstorms every Monday after a Sunday game. There’s a huge group of us sitting at a table talking about ‘what can we do and what the fans are talking about?’ They really obviously are the backbone and the reason for what we do and why we do it and they help fuel our creativity. No idea is too small, and it’s about really just encouraging that conversation and finding the right people in the organization to get the buy-in.”

Social on the Sidelines is Presented to You By:

On Importance of Building a Good Team (12:38)

“I learned that from Target that it was really important here to have a team that could work cohesively and understood our goals in that way of making sure that we were a fan in the social space. We are a fan first, so even though it’s very different there than representing a sports team, I think it was easily able to carry over.”

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On Their Monsters of the Midway Campaign (12:58)

“Monsters of the Midway is a very rich part of our history and I think this year we had a little bit of freedom from the organization to think about what our big brand look was going to be. That wasn’t an idea that started with the social media team. That was something that was much larger than us. That was a huge organizational undertaking. We’re actually working with Athlitacomics, which is run by one of our alumni, Israel Idonije, so a pretty cool connection there that we are able to work with him on this project. The project really touches not only social, but it touches marketing, and it touches ticketing. It was really about getting buy-in for it from across the organization to make it as big as it is and as successful as it has become.”

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