Real Shamu on TwitterCelebrities can be elusive. But this week, I managed to snag an interview with one of our company celebrities, the Real Shamu, who is making a big splash in the Twitterverse. He is witty and interesting and not at all what you'd expect.
Q. What prompted you to join the Twitterverse? A. Well, Fran...I can call you Fran can't I?...I joined because over the last four decades something like 250 million people have come to SeaWorld and I haven't been able to have a conversation with any of them. I wanted them to know that beneath this sleek and powerful exterior lies a deeply sensitive whale, keenly attuned to the feelings of others.
Q. Did you make that last line up? A. Yes. Marketing makes me say stuff like that.
Q. Do you have a goal for the number of followers you would like? A. The number really doesn't matter to me, but I am looking for completely irrational blind loyalty in those who do follow me. That way I can start to affect some meaningful change out in the world, things like recycling, spaying and neutering your pets, and straightening out your baseball caps. Dang, that really bugs me.
Q. Who are your favorite celebrity followers? A. I'm not sure any celebrities follow me. I'll have to check. I've reached out to Michael Phelps, who is the second fastest marine mammal on Twitter, and Shaq, who is nearly as big a carnivore as me. Those are the only two celebrities I follow, with the exception of SeaWorld San Antonio General Manager Dan Decker and Communications Director Fran Stephenson. Their tweets are gold.
Q. Any celebrities you hope will follow you? A. Well, Oprah put @RealShamu on her television program, the one with Aston Kutcher. If she chose to follow me, I'd be cool with that. I follow Newt Gingrich because he is a huge supporter of zoos and aquariums. It'd be nice if he followed me.
Q. What was it like to "be" on Oprah? A. It's pretty cool. Lots of "Dude, I saw you on Oprah" calls. The truth is though, it's kind of depressing to find out just how many people are watching TV at 2 p.m. instead of visiting SeaWorld.
Q. What is your inspiration for your tweets? A. Funny looking animals are a huge source of inspiration. Stuff I hear at Shamu Stadium, sports, food, current events, the Obamas' dog. Stuff like that. Plus, I get about 50 questions a day, everything from "How do you type underwater?" to "What do seagulls taste like?"
Q. How do you type underwater and what do seagulls taste like? A. I don't really type at all. The QWERTY keyboard is all wrong for me anatomically. I communicate via a complex series of clicks, whistles and trills to bipeds who write it all down. I don't really eat the seagulls, I just put a little scare into them so that they go back to where they came from and warn others to keep their filthy little bodies out of my pool.
Q. Will we see Real Shamu at any Tweet-ups in the future? A. . Yes, absolutely. I have been acquainted with the concept of a Tweetup and I like it. Gets this whole thing out of the zeroes and ones universe and into the one where I get to splash people for real. We're doing one for the opening of Manta at SeaWorld Orlando. We'll plan more for SeaWorld San Antonio and San Diego later this year.
If you haven't yet thought about or tried Twitter, there are some very funny people...and whales out there.
For the community,
Fran
