Any press is good press…

Recent news that a killer whale actually killed a trainer at SeaWorld today is spreading quickly. This situation brings up the validity of the old saying; “any press is good press.” One of the less obvious factors that makes this so damaging for SeaWorld is that people weren’t talking about it much until something went horribly wrong. The below chart, created by Trendistic, illustrates how many times SeaWorld was mentioned on Twitter, starting 7 days ago.

It’s barely mentioned at all, but of course as soon as tragedy hits, mentions skyrocket. SeaWorld has embraced certain aspects of social media. Its Twitter handle, RealShamu is currently protecting its Tweets (although that may have always been the case). There was also the issue of paying Julia Allison to essentially shill for them. Neither move seems to reflect much in the way of social media skills. It’s not easy for a company as large as SeaWorld to not only embrace social media but excel at it, but a situation like this calls for both.