Conversations That Matter

Author: Raquel Fuentes

SeaWorld and Shamu have been a part of my world for as long as I can remember. I’m originally from San Antonio, which is where one of the three locations of SeaWorld can be found. I had the privilege of having season passes every summer until it wasn’t the ‘cool’ thing to do. I remember sitting in the Splash Zone during the “Believe” shows watching the trainers and their dolphins doing amazing tricks (which were always my favorites).

Splash Zone at SeaWorld’s Shamu show

After I left Texas almost three years ago, I didn’t hear much about SeaWorld until they popped up on the social media scene. Over the last year I have watched SeaWorld grow their social media outreach rapidly via Shamu’s Twitter account and their blog. Shamu, a stage name given to killer whales by SeaWorld, has always been the face of Sea World and then became a hilarious Twitter user, providing updates of happenings at the parks in the voice of a whale.

Recently SeaWorld has been in the news about a tragic death of trainer, Dawn Brancheau. The day following the death SeaWorld suspended all action on the Shamu Twitter account.

On the same day, SeaWorld also updated their blog to explain their reasons for shutting down the account and directed Twitter users to their other account – SeaWorld_Parks.

If you scroll through the comment section of the blog, you will see an out pouring of condolences to Dawn along with “well-wishes” and “don’t go’s” to the Shamu account.

Because SeaWorld and Shamu already had an online community in place, they were able to react quickly to the crisis and share decisions made by management with the public, including answering all tweets and comments made on the blog and Facebook. Without their presence on social media and online communities, SeaWorld’s reputation and brand could have been severely tarnished and ruined. And while SeaWorld is still receiving negative comments, they are also overwhelmed by a flood of sympathy and support for the victim’s family, and support for SeaWorld's actions.

Large companies and organizations, such as Toyota, could (and should) learn a lesson from SeaWorld. The backlash they can and will receive during a crisis without support from an existing online community will be much greater than SeaWorld’s crisis.

SeaWorld understands the value of social media and the relationships that can be built through it, and uses those to their advantage, especially during a crisis. I look forward to watching how SeaWorld moves forward with their social media outreach.