Since its inception, social media has become one of the most used communication and information dissemination method for all ages and all events. Nowadays, successful organizations rely a lot on the power of the effect of social media to create a compelling brand image of their products and to promote events. The power of social media in event organization, promotion and sustenance has also led to the rise of event management platforms such as Eventility. These platforms adopt the best social media practices to successfully organize events by rallying attendees, improving affinity, encouraging engagement and maintain the thrill of the event even after it is finished. According to Eventility’s infographic, the success of an event is based on four simple practices, namely event organization, event promotion, enhancement of the live experience, and extending the lifetime value of an event.
According to Eventility, which is an event management platform, social media is far much more than just event organization and therefore successful marketing will depend on the tricks that are used. For example, social media can be used to engage the attendees at the stage of event planning by rallying them to vote for their preferred speakers or activities. This will ensure maximum attendance because the activities of the event are those that will excite the audience since they were participants in its planning. The Amiando (2012) survey show that Facebook is the most used social network with 84% of event organizers using it to market their events. Twitter is used by 61% whereas 42% of event organizers use Youtube to promote their events. It is projected that 78% of event organizers are likely to increase their use of social media.
Therefore, organizations that still depend on the traditional methods of conveying information or promoting events because they are not aware of the emerging tricks in the use of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook among others cannot survive in the current competitive market. This brief seeks to ascertain the emerging trends and the impact in the use of social media for event management by critically evaluating the case study of the infographic from Eventility and then making justified recommendations for effective management of the identified emerging issues.
The organization of events has advanced with the transformations in technology and the emergence of social media. Unlike the traditional methods of promotions where attendees were only involved in the attendance of the event, the use of social media marketing extends far beyond the marketing of the event (Tuten, and Solomon, 2017). The attendees can now be involved in the event organization thanks to the social media that offers such a tremendous opportunity. The event organizers can ask the audience to suggest their favorite activities like speakers or bands and then design an event programme that will ensure that the audience enjoy the event. Examples of an online platforms that use the online RSVP invitation include JoinIn and Eventbrite.
Technological advancements have made it possible for event organizers to collaborate through social networks while planning for events. This has enabled them to save time and energy by creating a collaborative environment and minimize continuous email exchanges. Unlike the use of emails where each client has to be attended individually, social networking enables the event organizer to reach several clients with a single message. Also, responses are made on the same platform, and those who had similar questions can be answered at the same time thus saving time and effort. Research by Culnan et al. (2010) found out that internal social networking can reduce email volume by 30%.
A developed internal social network enables the collection of the RSVP’s and to experience an increased rate of response than paper invitations. With this feature, the event organization platforms like Eventility can conveniently gather RSVP’s, and this enables the planners to foresee the type and number of attendees and to keep them updated of the dates and venue of the event through the use of SMS event reminders or via online. This is contrary to paper invitations where the event organizer is not aware of the number, interests, and expectations of the attendees. Thus, the success of the event is dependent on chance as opposed to the use of the internal social network where the progress is predetermined.
The social media through the internal network enables the organizers to involve the attendees in the process of event planning. This can be done by engaging the audience on what they expect at the event like the type of activities or performers, and then the organizers will develop a program that fits the interests and desires of most of the attendees. By allowing the attendees to be part of the event organization, their affinity towards the event increases and attendance is assured. This approach will create online traffic for the event even before its actual date. This is contrary to the traditional method where the audience was not engaged at any preliminary stages. The SXSW Panel Picker is an online site where attendees vote for their favourite speakers on various topics.
The internal social networking can also be used by the organizers to look for suppliers during event organization. This is possible because the online reviews are used to ascertain the quality of services or products. Services like photography, caterers among others can be sought for. A survey conducted by Econsultancy (2015) found out that 61% of customers read online reviews before effecting a purchase decision.
The ever-increasing presence and availability of the internet have facilitated the success of social media. Also, technological advancement has also led to the production of handle held devices which provides an opportunity for the internet to be accessed anywhere. It is estimated that by 2020, internet users will be over five billion with 50% of them using handheld devices to access the internet and eighty billion of them using connected devices across the globe. This spread of internet will come with a seamless experience of the home, work and surrounding environment in which all these elements will be accessed from a single point by the use of a new range of technology enabled services (Bakker, and De Vreese, 2011).
The promotion of an event using social media comprises of several disciplines which if not executed properly may become a daunting task. This can be done by creating an event list, just like an emailing list, the use of promotional video clips and encouraging the attendees to share with colleagues. Other simple methods like check-ins twitter walls can be used to engage the attendees. The organizer first starts by creating an event listing using various disciplines such as Facebook, Google+ or online event platforms to reach out and make the event more spread-out. This has been identified as the best starting point in event promotion hence the reason why over 38,000 events are listed on Eventility. The organizer then integrates social media with registration and to encourage the registered attendees to spread the word. This activity is an excellent source of unpaid promotion, and it is more likely that most of the attendees will have been convinced by the friends that shared the event. Studies show that 71% of the online buyers are likely to purchase a product or service if someone referred it to them in social media (Stelzner, M., 2014).
Another way of event promotion is through the use of hashtags. They make it simple for all the people in the internal network to follow the social chatter around the activity and inspire the audience to interact with each other. There were 123,995 users that commented on almost three hundred thousand tweets a week to the SXSW in 2013 (Bea, 2013). Videos are also another technological improvement used for promoting events. Videos are some of the most effective ways of developing interest and event expectation. The video clips can then be shared and ranked highly in the internet searches to be reached by a higher number of people.
The need for online registration for various purposes including that of event promotion has led to the introduction of Data protection rules in most countries. This is to prevent the manipulation of individual data of the people registering over the internet. This legislation also requires all online websites that need registration using personal private information like name and identification number or place of residence to publicly declare the extent of the use of the data and to guarantee individual privacy and non-manipulation of data. This emerging issue affects the event management sector which is most dependent on online marketing. Madden et al. (2013) assert that people are sometimes fearful of providing their identification during online registration for fear of data manipulation. This limits the online social network because the event organizer can no longer keep a significant database of attendees. Cyber insecurity also led to the introduction of laws governing unauthorized entry or manipulation of private data (Lipschultz, 2018). The increase in online activity and presence led to increased cases of hacking, and thus laws were made to tame the crime of cyber piracy. An example is the UK CAP Code of Non-Broadcast Advertising which restricts specific online adverts.
The increasing number of social network sites has also led to the massive reliance on those sites for event marketing. Platforms such as Facebook, youtube, twitter, WhatsApp among others. These improvements in technology affect the sector of event management both positively and negatively. The social network sites enhance speedy communication because any information update reaches several people within seconds and the cross-posting option increases the number of people reached. Also, the social network enables people to be in touch by opening up the world without any restriction whatsoever whether age, gender or status (De Vries et al., 2012). This wide coverage and connections are good news to event management for it means that the event organizer will have an extensive internal social network which will also increase the number of attendees. Event organizing platforms like Eventility and Eventbrite have integrated the use of social networks in order to enhance serviced delivery.
The increase in the users of social media has led to a corresponding increase in the number of social network sites. This has caused most of the people especially the young to spend most of their times on these sites (O’Keeffe, and Clarke-Pearson, 2011), which is an advantage to the event organizer who can efficiently use them to share the event promotions with friends, thus promoting the event without payment. However, the employees in the sector of event management are equally or even much more affected by the impact of the social network sites (Edosomwan et al., 2011). For instance, the staff can be logged into the social media to promote an event but end up being un-reproductive because most of the time the staff waste time in private chats not associated with work. Additionally, social networking creates the fear of leaking data such as valuable information regarding the staffs or loss of IP. Such data can be manipulated by competitors to their advantage (Davison et al., 2011). According to Aula (2010), the increase in the online presence of the organization through the social network sites can also lead to the damage of the company’s reputation in case of poor performance and negative reviews. Or in case a wrong rumor is spread by persons of ill will, it can spread very fast because already the company has a high online presence and this will affect its service delivery and loss of market share. There is also the fear of cyber-crooks who may hack the organization’s private and confidential information and use it to the disadvantage of the organization. To curb the adverse effect of social media on individuals and the corporations, social media policy has been introduced by most of the online companies such as Amazon.
The increased use of the social media has led to shifts in the demographics of the online users. Social networking has abridged the differences upon which the society differentiates people (Perrin, 2015). For instance, the community discriminates people by age, sex, wealth, education among others. But the increased use of the social media doesn’t recognize this for it groups all peoples together, and thus the event organizers or marketer can reach all classes of people in a pool and deliver the required information. However, other social networks like Facebook can enable the segmentation of people based on age, sex, status among others (Shen, and Bissell, 2013. This is to allow a specific message to reach only the targeted group for useful results. Furthermore, the standard grouping of all classes of people leads to the generation of expert ideas when asked to suggest ideas during event organization.
Now, this impact of demographic changes is of value to the sector of event management because all classes in the society can be reached with a message that is either tailored for all or it can accurately be directed to a specific group. Moreover, the social media has made the world to be a global village where individuals who are separated by geographical boundaries can be connected within minutes, and same information conveyed at the same time (Ali, 2011). This is an advantage to the sector of event management because the event organizers can have a broad clientele which will increase the number of times the event is shared and also the number of attendees.
According to Eventality, the actual day of the event is not the end of social media promotions, but instead, it should continue even to the very day to ensure that the event reaches a wider worldwide audience. This can be done by issuing prizes to the individuals with the most number of tweets as a means of encouraging discussions and engaging attendees about the event. Also live streaming of events is another way of reaching millions of audiences. Hashtags can also be used to reach those unable to attend the event thus giving them an opportunity to follow the action. Hashtags can spread the occasion beyond those present. Research shows that tweets with hashtags receive double the engagement compared to those that do not have (Cohen, 2015). Check-ins also can be implemented to motivate attendees to check-in the event at different locations. The survey by Heine (2012) shows that almost half of the 25 million individuals that download the foursquare app use it for at least once a month. Lastly, to make the event lively, the organizers should provide continued customer support by responding to queries like the direction to the venue, the time the band enters the stage among others.
In conventional marketing, the conclusion of an event also marked the end of the promotion, which meant that in the next event the organizers had to start all over again by looking for audiences. However, with the current advancement in technology, the attendees can be engaged all through using various social networking sites such as Youtube, Pinterest among others. The event organizers can maintain an engaged community by uploading highlights videos on YouTube to keep reminding the attendees how great the event was and always to encourage others to attend. It is estimated that over four billion hours are spent each month on watching Youtube videos.
Perhaps the best part of maintaining an engaged community is the opportunity to get feedback on the event from the attendees by using a social monitoring tool to evaluate the conversation during and after the event. The social media buzz can be a source of appraisal by examining the likes and dislikes of the attendees and acts as a basis for improvements in the next event. The Columbus Marathon is a fitting example of the use of social media for maintaining a community of attendees. They manage and keep an online platform for attendees all through the year. This ensures that they have an established and ready community of promising attendees once the training season gets underway and marketing begins.
Khang, Ki, and Ye (2012) observe that the increasing number of users of social network sites has forced companies to also shift their marketing techniques to where the customers are mostly found. These revolutionary changes have been optimized on as opportunities for growth by most of the successful organizations. Each organization is now focused on gaining traffic through social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter among others. This is attributed to the shifts in social trends.
Organizations do not necessarily need to meet their clients face to face, but instead, they can trade via online platforms. This means that corporations have to maintain a substantial online presence to meet the customer needs. Customer service including feedback has also shifted according to the social trends (Lovelock, 2011). Unlike the traditional marketing methods where event organizers had to meet clients or communicate over the phone, Melián-González et al. (2013) opine that the current trend has enabled the organizers to receive customer feedbacks through the social media. These feedbacks are then used to evaluate customer satisfaction and make improvements where necessary. This type of online survey is instant, and prompt actions can be made to increase customer satisfaction. Customer reviews are also other means of ascertaining the quality of services and the need for any improvement.
The organization should shift with the increasing trend of social media marketing by ensuring that its social profiles such as Twitter, Facebook among others are complete. Each social network has different opportunities for the company to showcase its products, services, and accomplishments, and therefore to develop a robust online presence, the advantages of each network should be leveraged. The social profiles should be active all the time, and the customer queries responded promptly. The creation of productive social patterns will be able to address the rising trend of the number of users of the social media and the corresponding advancement in technology (Saravanakumar et al., 2012).
The use of social media as a marketing strategy is indeed powerful, but there is still the need of creating a website to act as a hub for all the online activity of the organization. Hoffman and Fodor (2010) argue that a well-designed site offers the opportunity to upload various blog posts, videos, etc. and brand them in a manner that reflects the organization. Also, there is much freedom in a website as to how one can package given information, a feature that is limited to the social platforms. The combination of the use of a website, blog and social media platforms will increase the online presence of the corporation in response towards the technological advancements and demographic changes.
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