As a social media consultant I tend to look at most things through a social media lens. Whether I’m out for dinner or coffee, traveling or shopping I’m always examining how a brand is or isn’t using social media and thinking about what they could do to improve.
Such was the case these past two weeks as I drove down the west coast to California (which is a gorgeous drive). Part of the reason for the trip to California was of course to spend a day at the magic kingdom.
Whether you’re into social media or not, a Disney trip requires plenty of online research, from figuring out ticket packages to planning your attack on the park (we got there at the 8:00AM opening) and directions to the park itself. In addition, I tapped all their social networks in search of offers (none to be found).
In the process I was stunned to find that although Disney has a massive following as you would expect, they are very light on "engagement". They use Twitter and Facebook to broadcast news and info. There are no @ replies from their Twitter account and you cannot post to their Facebook wall. What!? For a company renowned for engaging audiences for decades I was quite surprised by this. A huge missed opportunity to connect with customers and fans (@Disneyland is mentioned on Twitter about once every 5 minutes).
Disneyland Anaheim social media facts:
- Facebook Page has over 10.3 millions fans and 370,00 check-ins (I thought the check-ins number was low given the fact they have over 100K visitors a day)
- There are approximately 13 different Disney related Twitter accounts including @DisneyPixar @WaltDisneyWorld and @DisneyLiving dedicated to Disney’s consumer products
- The Disneyland Twitter account has over 118,000 followers and 3,500 tweets with a Klout score of 72
- Only 2 @ replies and no retweets going back to January 2011
- There are approximately 30 different Disney related Facebook accounts, 15 of which appear to be unofficial
- Youtube channel has 43,000 subscribers and over 23 millions views
- They do have a blog but it’s hard to find. I had to do a search to find it. The blog includes several posts a day from various managers and staff from Disney companies
- Disney has a "Social Media Director" @ThomasSmith
As you would expect Disney does excel in engaging audiences in other ways. Their “Let the Memories Begin” campaign, launched in 2009, re-purposes user-submitted photos and videos to recapture the memories families create going to Disneyland. They also incorporate family memories into its theme parks nighttime experience. As many as 500 photos a day are projected against the “It’s a Small World” facade. We watched a bit of this the evening of our visit and it is indeed quite spectacular.
- About 100,000 people visit Disneyland every day
- Disney is the 8th biggest and most well-known brand in the world
- Disney offers financing options for your vacation (and you’ll probably need it)
- Up until the year 2000 male employees were not allowed to have facial hair
- There have been about 12 deaths at the park since 1955.
- Walt had an apartment built above the Fire Station on main street so he could keep an eye on things when the park was being built. It has been left untouched since he died.
- The Walt Disney Company operates 14 theme parks and resorts around the world
- Tokyo Disneyland is the only park that is not owned by The Walt Disney Company. It is owned by The Oriental Land Company which licenses the theme from Disney.
Side note: we were at Tokyo Disneyland last September and they have absolutely no social media presence at all (that I could find anyway).
Have you been to Disneyland? We’d love to hear your Disney social media story.
6 thoughts on “Social Media and the Magic Kingdom (aka Disneyland)”
With such a large organization I can only imagine what an overwhelming task it would be to coordinate some kind of social presence. Many really small organizations have troubles keeping up with the social scene. I mean I have a second helping of dinner and I’m like “Too full no Twitter for me please.”
It sounds like they are on the right track with segmenting their social presence by department, it’s probably gonna take a really long time to get their plan together though. Of course when they finally get sorted the game will have changed.
They should have though of this when putting together “Tomorrowland”
Good point about tomorrowland Chris. I had expected to see the odd QR code pasted here and there at least. Soon I’m sure. I think I saw Mickey tweeting from his iPhone on a break though…
I didn’t know you were going to Disney! I worked with them last year and could have introduced you to some of the social media people I knew…
Anyhow, I understand because they are so massive it must be crazy hard to manage Twitter/FB like mid-size business. But as you mentioned in the post, they do lots of social media outreach to influencers. In fact I am about to start a project with them soon.
I have been to Disney parks few times and every time I go I am so impressed with their customer service. Those guys know what they are doing.
Thanks for the update Scott. Enjoy your trip to Disney. For the most part the customer service is good. However, the day we were there we waiting in line for the Indiana Jones and Splash Mtn rides for an hour when in each case the rides had technical problems (they stopped running) and they didn’t know how long it would be to get them running again.
In one case we were given a Fast Pass which we used later in the day. In the other case we were told that it wasn’t economically feasible for them to give a Fast Pass to every person inconvenienced on the ride. To which I responded that it wasn’t ecnomically feasible for me to pay $500 to bring my family to Disneyland for 14 hours to waste 2 of those hours standing in line and not get on the ride we were waiting for.
She was unimpressed and suggested I take up the matter with City Hall, seriously. Something to keep in mind when you go…
Great post! I work with a couple of ex-Disney managers and their customer service and engagement stores are mind-boggling – Disney really thinks about these things and has been for a long time. That being said, I find their social media policy disappointing. We are planning a Disney trip and this is how I get info, through Social Media channels – not through a website and I lament the lack of responsiveness.
BTW, Tokyo Disney has a social media presence. You can follow @natsu_disney
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It is a limited account for the summer only, perhaps their first foray into social media?
Scott
Addendum: There is also @disney_mobile and @tdr_disneygoods though I am not sure the later is official.
Scott