Was thrilled to find a case study post where an organization (Sea World San Antonio) reviews what they did with social media and their Return on Investment. Objective was to increase public interest and visits in a new land/water theme park roller coaster, Journey to Atlantis.
Briefly:
1. Identified influential blogs and forums in coaster community;
2. Treated them as a VIP audience, and accepted idea of negative posts;
3. Developed content-rich destination site, and expandable URL;
4. Created 11 videos, 45 pictures - utilized creative commons, sharing sites, and made easy for bloggers;
5. Invited bloggers to media launch, and among first to ride it;
6. Identified ways to measure relationships;
7. Conducted surveys and other measurements to develop cost of social media (22 cents cost per impression vs. $1 per impression with television);
8. Quantified the value social media brought (in this case, $2.6M in revenue).
A separate link gives these ideas about continued relationships with enthusiasts: "What could they do better? Sea World should involve the coaster enthusiasts to help design, build, and promote the next generation coaster. Sea World could also sponsor their site, hold an event for them, and figure out other ways to make them brand ambassadors."
There is plenty in here for associations to think about, and use.
1 comment:
Thanks for the mention of the case study, it was a challenging project and also great fun. Also, my background happens to be in association communication where I spent half of my career.
As a person who is used to wearing many hats, I have to say the skills are particularly transferable to incorporating social media. Also, the relationship building required in the association world is also germane to the type of relationships that are needed with online constituents.
In other words, I agree that a lot of the stuff we did at SeaWorld can easily be transferred to association programs. Also, we worked on a very tight budget, so big things can be achieved with proper strategic planning.
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