George Takei has a new enterprise and no, it doesn’t involve a spacecraft. Takei was at South By Southwest (SXSW) 2014 to promote his YouTube Web series Takei’s Take, which is launching its second season.
Produced by AARP, Takei’s four-minute shows encourage Gen-X Trekkies to embrace new technology, like Google Glass, which was the subject of his first webisode. Takei’s Take netted about 24,000 subscribers in the first 24 hours of its launch and to date has 1.5 million views.
Perhaps best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, Takei has firmly established himself as a leader in the social media world, recognized for his wit and savvy digital curation. He has amassed a devoted following across social media platforms, with 6.1 million Facebook likes and about 1.8 million Twitter followers. “Humor is the honey. It’s the glue that brings people back daily. I use that to grow my [social media] audience,” Takei says.
ClickZ sat down with Takei at SXSW. He shared his thoughts on the importance of social media in driving engagement with fans and why he chose YouTube to launch his series. See the video below.