A really excellent video interview by Shel Israel over at Fastcompany.tv. Shel interviews Fran Stephenson, Director of Comms at SeaWorld San Antonio and Kami Huyse of MyPRPro on how they used social media communication to successfully launch a new ride.

Their problem was that the ride was due to be ready a month earlier than the original date and so the planned promotion would not help. How could they quickly and effectively market the ride for that gap period?

They decided to use a social media campaign. Kami and Fran explain to Shel what they did to engage with communities that would help influence others. They actively engaged employees in video and text blogging to create excitement and targeted forums to maximise awareness.

What can other companies learn about using social media campaigns from this interview?

• Results can be measured
• Researching and targeting audiences is important (even theme park rides have an established fan base)
• Trying to restrict access to materials (corpororate logo police) is self-defeating (notice that Fran says they were happy for bloggers and forum members to use their materials in anyway they wanted in their own blogs)