There are somethings that I am good at. Riding a horse while trying to make a video is not one of them.
As many of you know I was on The Daily Buzz with Missy Ward earlier this week. They were kind enough to provide izea with a clip of the show to upload to the interwebs. You can see it here:
I first met the SeaWorld communications team in December of last year. I came to them with a big idea…I wanted them to partner with IZEA to bring IZEAFest to SeaWorld in 2009. To my surprise they instantly understood the value of having bloggers visit the park. As a result 500
bloggers and social media types will descend on SeaWorld in October. They have really embraced bloggers and social media in general and continue to impress me every month.
The Real Shamu Marks SeaWorld’s Official Twitter Debut
Last night I found that I had gained a new follower called @realshamu. The name peaked my interest and I decided to check it out. Sure enough the SeaWorld communications team was now on Twitter with the most creative corporate use of the medium I have ever seen. I immediately reached out to Shamu for an Interview.
Shamu Interview
Ted: How did you hear about Twitter?
Shamu: Well, 11 million people visit SeaWorld every year. I hear things. I see people in the stands tapping away on their mobile phones. Our staff too. You’d have to be pretty out of touch to not know about Twitter.
Ted: Is it hard to tweet underwater?
Shamu: It’s impossible to tweet underwater. It’s tough on the keyboard and the saltwater really munges up the computer. Tweeting is simple when people are lined up to transcribe for you, however.
Ted: Do you follow any other animals online?
Shamu: You will notice over the next weeks and months that I do not hold other species in
very high esteem. This is typical of your apex predators. I would be inclined to follow other animals if they had something worthwhile to say, but frankly if I saw them in the world I’d either ignore them or eat them.
Ted: You seem like you have a bit of an attitude? What’s up with that?
Shamu: Well, I like to think of it as a kind of quiet confidence, not attitude. I am the Ocean’s Top Predator. It’s hard not to look down if you’re at the top. But I don’t want to be mean exactly, it’s just biology. I am very picky about my favorite sports teams and I don’t like animals that are poseurs. Dolphins, I’m looking in your direction.
Fred Jacobs Interview
After I got up off the floor from laughing I decided I needed some straight answers. I reached out to Fred Jacobs, Vice President, Communications at Anheuser-Busch Theme Parks.
Ted: Why did SeaWorld decide to to embrace Twitter?
Fred: Twitter allows us to engage people in a conversation, anywhere and at anytime. It differs in that sense from more traditional marketing, which is typically one-way and passive. We get visitors from all over the world and this is a good way for us to offer people a window into SeaWorld and our other parks. It also allows Shamu to show people what he’s like on the inside.
Ted: What led you to make Shamu your first official voice on Twitter?
Fred: Shamu represents SeaWorld. He is universally associated with this brand and has been for four decades. He is one of the world’s best known animals. Plus, he’s a higher mammal, meaning that he really does have some interesting things to say.
Ted: The voice of Shamu is edgy. Why?
Fred: Well, sometimes he’s edgy and sometimes he’s sweet and sometimes he’s a bit silly. We hope he’s always interesting. It’s really all up to him. Stay tuned.
Ted: How do you monitor interaction with SeaWorld brands on Twitter?
Fred: A lot of our folks have Twitter accounts and there’s a pretty good internal network that distributes comments and questions. We’re working hard to use Twitter in a way that not only enhances our guests opinion of our parks, but improves their experience. We encounter guests sometimes who need an answer or who have encountered some kind of challenge, and we work hard to fix those problems. Twitter is a great asset to us.
Ted: What are SeaWorld’s goals with this new medium?
Fred: We have a whole new generation, the members of which inform and entertain themselves in ways that no one could have dreamed of a decade ago. RealShamu on Twitter is one small part of our plan to reach out to people and connect with them in their everyday lives; to give them positive and authentic associations with our parks, our brands and our company. Our larger mission is to entertain as we educate. That’s sounds a bit corny, but it’s true. You leave SeaWorld more aware and maybe even more enlightened than when you entered it. We want the same thing to be true with everything we do in social networking.
My friend and IZEA Insider Heather from Beautiful BC was the first person to post a picture with my head. That’s quite fitting as she is the leader of SocialSpark crew called the TedHeads. It appears that I went to Yoga in Canada today! Awesome… I haven’t been for about 6 months and need to get back in the habit.
Join in the fun! Print out your own Ted Head and send me around the world.
A few weeks ago I was packing for my trip to SXSW. As I gathered my clothes Tara asked me if I was going to bring my “social media costume”. I laughed…she had totally
caught on to me. Over the past few months I have been making a point of wearing the exact same outfit to any event where I would be seeing a lot of social media types.
My hat, Twitter shirt and crazy red running shoes have all become part of my personal brand. I wear this outfit to events because it enables people to easily recognize and remember me. It also creates a consist image when people take photos of me and post them on the interwebs.
I have a red and blue version of the “costume”, allowing me to switch things up if the event is multiple days. The red version is my primary pick because it matches the colors of this blog.
If you want to build a personal brand you need to constantly reinforce it, whatever it is. Are you the guy who always dresses in black? Hawaiian shirts? Has crazy hair? Wears sunglasses inside? Define your visual image and make a conscious effort to embrace it, particularly at social events.
This morning I was thinking of building a photo gallery that included pictures of me with all the readers of this blog. I have had the pleasure of meeting quite a few of you, I thought it would be cool to share those images with my community. I started to build the gallery, but then it occurred to me that it wouldn’t really be an accurate representation of everyone who visits. It seemed a little unfair to the rest of my readers; some of you just don’t have the time, money or interest in attending the events I go to but still contribute here.
Then I had an aha moment. What if you could download me wherever you are? We could take a picture together anywhere in the world! Awesome.
Click on the image for a printable size
Let’s take a picture together
Download the image above, print it out and cut my face out. Take it with you somewhere fun and snap a picture…. be sure to stick your tongue out! Let me know about the picture by leaving a comment or writing a blog post that links back here (you’ll get a trackback). Be sure to let me know who you are, 
where you took the picture and where you would like me to link back to. I love to go to parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs and fancy restaurants. I will also accept photos from companies, it could be a cheap way to earn yourself some traffic.
I am going to take all the photos and make a permanent photo gallery just for them in a new section of this blog. I can’t wait to see where I wind up. I have always wanted to go to Asia!
I am very excited to be spending my Easter vacation in Costa Rica this year. Randy has been raving about Costa Rica ever since I met him. He loves it so much he plans to build his dream home there on day. Tara and I will be leaving on Thursday and returning on Monday. I am bringing all of my gear and will do a full video of my experience when I return. I will be off the grid for a bit, I hope I don’t go into some type of Twitter withdrawal.
by thombo2
Top 10 things I want to do while I am in Costa Rica:
- Go an entire day without using the Internet
- Get a massage
- See a volcano erupt
- Take a dip in a hot spring
- See a monkey in the wild
- Go Parasailing
- Eat a local dish
- Scream my head off on a zip line
- Travers a hanging bridge
- Go white water rafting
I know that is a lot for 5 days, but I am going to do my best to pack it all in there.
The past two days haven’t been so good for me on the customer service front. Yesterday my flight to New York was canceled after waiting in the airport for 3 hours. Today I am really frustrated after trying to reserve a rental car for my vacation this week.
My Hertz.com Rental Car Experience
While I am a member of the Hertz #1 club I rarely rent cars through them. I decided to give Hertz a try because Randy recommended that I book my car through an american rental company for my trip to Costa Rica. While I normally use Orbitz for all my travel I decided it might be easier to book on Hertz.com since this was an international reservation. I went online with my Hertz ID, selected my destination and vehicle, and landed on this page.
Apparently “online booking” isn’t really online. I have to call a phone number to complete my reservation. I dialed the number and was greeted by an automated system.
System : Are you a Hertz #1 Club Member?
Me : Yes
System : What is your number?
Me : 527XXXXX
System : What is your last name?
Me : Murphy
System : I’m sorry, I can’t find that. Your member number is “2”. Is that correct?
Me : No
System : I’ll transfer you to an agent.
Me : It wasn’t like this on the Jetsons.
Five minutes goes by, then I get someone on the phone. She asks me for the exact same information I just entered in the Hertz.com site. She then proceeds to tell me that my rental will be over $400. I explain that there must be a mistake. Perhaps she has selected a nicer vehicle for me. She begins to read me a list of American vehicles to choose from and I reply that none of those vehicles were presented to me when I made the online booking. I want to roll in a Hyundai Tuscon (or similiar) for $58.00/day.
We go back and forth for 10 minutes or so. I ask her if I can send a screen shot and she tells me that she can’t recieve it. She asks me if I have a discount code. I tell her I have an AMEX platinum card. She tell me the AMEX card will save me 12%.
After a little more time she finally tells me the best she can do is around $360. I tell her that isn’t going to work. She informs me that she has to transfer me to the web operations people.
I now go through the process of sharing my destination and dates a 3rd time. The web operations person tells me she need to walk through the website with me. At this point I decide to bring up Orbitz and see what they have to offer. To my surprise the prices are even cheaper than what I was originally offered on Hertz.com with my #1 Club discount.
Finally The Web Ops person tells me the price I have is wrong and it will be around $320.00. I laugh. Hard.
Web Ops : Why are you laughing?
Me : Because I tried to book this online for one price and now I call and you give me a completely different price. It is a joke. It is bait and switch.
Web Ops : This is the price.
Me : I am on Orbitz right now and the prices are cheaper than your original quote with my #1 discount. What is the point?
Web Ops : (hung up on me)!?!?
I should have just stayed with Orbitz to begin with. I spent 30 minutes of my day with Hertz and all I got was this stupid blog post.
Our society has become saturated with traditional display advertising. Consumers have learned to tune out, or even pay to omit ads altogether.
The most glaring example of this can be seen in television. If you have seen an episode of NBC’s “The Office” lately, you might have noticed product placement for Sandals Resorts, Apple, Gateway, Chili’s, Cisco and many others. In the episode “The Merger,” the character Kevin uses a Staples-branded shredding machine to shred a Staples branded CD-R and other non-paper 
items.
Product placement and sponsorship are appearing more than ever in radio, television and motion pictures. Each day the products and entertainment we love are becoming more entangled in each other’s success. Naturally, the same advertising shift is taking place online.
A Familiar Problem
Advertisers have long understood the benefit of sponsored content — soap operas got their epithet because they were sponsored by soap manufacturers such as Procter and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive and Lever Brothers. But content creators and networks moved away from this form of advertising because it limited inventory.
A show sponsorship can only be sold once, but distinctly separating content with commercials allows the ad inventory to be sold hundreds of times to different advertisers. Essentially, the networks got rid of custom sponsorship then created standard ad units and sold them all to the highest bidder. Initially, it worked. But the number of television and radio stations multiplied, niche content networks were created, and soon advertisers had thousands of options to promote themselves. Every network was selling the exact same thing, creating a commodity out of television and radio ad inventory.
Pretty good teaser huh? Read my whole article at Website Magazine.
Catch me live next Wednesday morning at 8am!
I have been invited to be a guest on The Daily Buzz morning show next week to talk about blogging, making money online and personal branding. Missy Ward will be joining me on the show and it should be a hoot. They broadcast live on 148 stations nationwide as well as UStream.
Live nationwide television. Hope I don’t barf.
