• How To Split An Atom Blog, Wednesday, May 27, 2009 10 AM

Busch Entertainment's SeaWorld last week took a group of bloggers for a ride on its new roller-coaster, the Manta. In this posting, blogger Steve Spalding provides what he terms an "enlightening look at how a large corporation is using social media effectively" and provides his case for making blogger "testimonials" part of the marketing mix.

Spalding states that SeaWorld did two smart things for the blogger contingent of its press event: "They did not obsess about controlling the message and they gave us tools. They shot video, took photographs and gave us access to the type of professional quality media that helps us tell better stories. They also let us shoot our own pictures and take our own video to use as we wished."

The results: 100 tweets a day about SeaWorld, compared with five to 10 normally, delivered to 50,000 followers -- plus, based on just 50% of the contingent blogging about the event, another 250,000 eyeballs. Using social media as part of the marketing mix works, Spalding writes, "because the people you are empowering are just that, people. People who tweet, talk and type about what they like."

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