social media

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.

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.

Today IZEA launched its new website and I am really excited. Why? Because the redesign was way overdue. The old site was built in a few days and had no content management system… not to mention that it wasn’t the prettiest thing IZEA has ever put out. I am also excited because I designed the site myself. It was the second WordPress site that I personally created all design elements for and I am very happy with the outcome (ted.me was the 1st). Adam did a kick ass job coding it and the team helped me fill in the content holes. What do you think?

Be sure to stop by the Ted Murphy page and leave me some love.

Over the past few years I have racked up quite a few American Express Reward Points. Each point is roughly equivalent to one dollar spent… you do the math.  I have been saving these reward points for a rainy day and with the economy where it is I am sure it’s raining for a few of you.

I’m going to do my best to brighten your rainy day. How about up to 250,000 AMEX points for you to spend how you see fit!!?!? You don’t need an American Express card, I will spend the points and send the winner the merchandise. What will 250,000 Amex points buy? Here are a few examples:

A $500 Home Depot Gift Card is 50,000 points. That’s $2,500 to put towards your home if you went that route. There are literally thousands of products to choose from including travel, entertainment, home goods and electronics.

Want to win up to 250,000 AMEX points?

Here’s how to enter:

1) Follow @tedmurphy on Twitter.

2) Tell  your friends about the contest by tweeting “Just entered to win 250,000 Amex points. To enter follow @tedmurphy and RT http://urlbrief.com/00abc6 “

The contest begins today and ends on April 1, 2009 at noon EST. For each one person that follows me the possible award will grow by 5x – up to 250,000 points. I am starting with 6,400 or so followers, so as of today the prize is already at 32,000 points (a domestic coach airplane ticket is 30,000 points).

One lucky person who is following me on Twitter will be chosen live at random on April 1st. It’s pretty simple. The more followers I get the more I give away.

Rules and Other Information

Amex points are not transferabble, the winner will be able to pick items from the Amex site and I will have them sent to the winner. This contest is open to anyone in the world 18+ so long as it is legal in their state and country. Please read the official rules for more information. Void where prohibited by law. This contest is not associated with American Express or any other company.

This morning I took a look at my Google Analytics stats to determine what content people were interested in on my blog. I was surprised to see how many people were visiting my about page. I guess that has something to do with my 70% new visitor rate, mostly from the promotions I have been running with IZEA and our partners.

Do you see the same type of pattern on your blog? If so when was the last time you updated your about page? Your about page is extremely important, especially if you are trying to sell advertising or land speaking gigs. I hadn’t updated mine since I launched this blog so I decided to give it a little makeover. Let me know what you think.