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Council for Hospitality Management Education's (CHME) Annual Research
Conference 16th-17th May 2013
Submission Type: Full Paper
Track: Hospitality Management
Title: Social media…is it critical toward sustaining event businesses in 2013 and
beyond?
Authors and affiliations: Mrs Nikki McQuillan and Ms Laura McKeown
Abstract
Economists claim that the current economic malaise comes as a direct result of the
volatility in today’s global economy and the increasing on set of nationwide austerity
measures (EIBTM 2012). Despite this, Davidson (2012) argues that the global
events sector can still look forward to another period of moderate expansion in
meetings, events and business travel volume and spending in 2013.
Technology has evolved rapidly in a manner that supplies event businesses, venues
and planners with novel resolutions to facilitate them need to work more efficiently at
all stages in the planning lifecycle (Davidson 2011). With the significant rise of social
media event attendees have engaged willingly in these platforms. Furthermore, the
growing trend of social media has compelled event planners to re-think how to
organise and market events effectively and consider how social media should be
integrated into an event strategy. Shang et al (2011) highlighted that businesses
need to have a good understanding of the information shared on social media and
how to manage it for the business to remain competitive and sustainable. However,
information on the implementation of social media within event businesses is in
limited supply in academic literature. Therefore the purpose of this paper is to
provide essential knowledge to current and potential events businesses in order to
gain competitive advantage and sustain a successful events business model. It will
review event marketing literature, explore the features of contemporary event
marketing with a primary focus on social media and Web 2.0 technologies and
evaluate their role within an integrated marketing strategy toward securing a
sustainable business model for events companies.
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The research was qualitative in nature, with the main data collection methods being
in-depth interviews and focus groups. Focus groups enabled the researcher to
observe and comprehend the context within which decisions and action occur
mirroring the activities of social media where decisions and actions are taken after
posts or comments have been made.
Findings suggest that event planners are using social media at all stages of the
event planning process: for promotion, awareness, engagement and feedback. It
was evident that it is still a new tool within the industry and that many event planners
have not fully embraced all of its features. However, interaction and engagement
with event attendees is a particular element of social media that event planners are
embracing to gain the trust of their consumers and secure audiences strategically.
Bolan et. al (2012) emphasised that events revolve around communication and
interaction and that social media is an essential element of successful event
business models. The research also highlighted that social media enabled planners
to promote and market events to thousands of people in seconds before, during and
after the event and also more interestingly to non- attendees.
The research recommends that event businesses embrace new technologies such
as social media, become fully literate in their features and engage with event
attendees at all stages of the event planning process toward securing a sustainable
events business model for 2013 and beyond.
Key Words: Social Media; Integrated Marketing Communications; Sustainable event
businesses.
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Introduction
Only recently has the event industry been keen to utilise developments in technology
in the planning of events. Consequently, the means used by event planners to plan
events is an interesting , yet very under researched topic. In 2011, the event industry
embraced the variety of technological advances that are available (Davidson, 2011a).
Technology has evolved rapidly in a manner that supplies marketing organisations,
venues and planners with novel resolutions to facilitate them to work more efficiently
at all stages in the planning lifecycle. According to Hanser and McLeod (2011)
technology was the most important trend within the event industry in 2011 and they
highlighted thatsocial media was of utmost importance.
In order for events to be successful there needs to be attendance from the correct
target market. Marketing to the target market is an important element within event
management and the essence of marketing has changed somewhat over the years.
Factors which have changed the way marketing works include new technologies,
consumer expectations and the way in which consumers communicate. Marketing
communications have been recognised as being the main driver for the success of
events (Getz, 2005; Masterman and Wood, 2005). Effective marketing relies on the
sender and receiver both being involved in the communication process (Shimp, 1993;
Kitchen and de Pelsmacker, 2004). Correspondingly, it is argued that traditional
marketing methods such as advertising in print and broadcast media are losing their
efficiency (Hede and Kellett, 2011). Perhaps the reasoning for this is due to the nature
of new technologies which are more interactive with consumers, therefore allowing
consumers to be involved in the entire communication process and much less costly.
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Literature Review
The potential for the use of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) in event
marketing is crucial, given that it is being described as a “strategic imperative”, rather
than simply a tactical method of communication (Hede and Kellett, 2011, p. 990). IMC
involves the use of three key fundamentals; tools, media and messages. This novel,
media focused approach to marketing has been described by Duncan (2002) as
‘‘orchestration’’ and ‘‘seamless’’ communication. The rationale for IMC is to create
and grow ‘relationships’ between businesses and their customers that are of common
value (Fill, 2002). In order to fulfil this, IMC insists on companies organising their range
of strategies, assets and messages so that they can connect with their target audience
in a way that is coherent and meaningful (Prakash & Sharma, 2010). An example of a
company using this type of marketing is Bushmills Whiskey Ltd. As a company they
were trying to re-brand their product and appeal to the younger generation as
previously it was seen as a drink for more mature people. They held a festival,
‘Bushmills Live’ in August 2012. Tickets for this event could not be bought and could
only be obtained through the companies Facebook Page. Those wishing to win tickets
were required to post a picture of them along with a reason why they should win on
the Facebook page (Owen, 2012). This technique is a clever way for brands to grow
and promote their name. Furthermore, by doing this the company were enabling
themselves to connect and feed information to their customers through this popular
tool among their target audience. Furthermore, they revamped their website to ensure
it was aimed to the younger generation by making it quirky and eye-catching. The aim
of this was to broaden their consumer base and as social media is used extensively
with the younger generation, Bushmills recognised an opportunity to enhance their
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product to a new target market. Hence, providing evidence that when used correctly,
the use of an IMC can be a priceless tool for businesses.
For IMC to have its required result, it needs to be a strategic mix of the appropriate
communication methods such as advertising, promotion, direct marketing and public
relations (PR). Additionally the message needs to be carefully selected along with the
correct media mix for the IMC to be successful. The success is also dependent upon
careful planning, implementation and control of the entire strategy (Prakash & Sharma,
2010). A key factor of IMC is the promotion of stability and regularity of the marketing
communication and management of the fundamentals within the marketing mix, the
rationale for this being that they are all essential to the success of the entire marketing
communications (Crowther, 2011). By combining the fundamentals of the marketing
mix and integrating them into an IMC strategy additional competitive advantage can
be gained by a company (Kitchen, 2005). Competitive advantage can be gained as
the company are able to target a significantly larger number of people compared to
only using one or two marketing strategies therefore broadening their consumer base.
Strategic IMC is dependent on the situation and is circumstance explicit (Eagle et al.
2007) therefore giving more consideration for the use of IMC for the marketing of
events.
Understandably, it is thought that event attendees take pleasure in high levels of
participation before, during and after their event experience (Pitta et al., 2006). Very
relevant to this participation is word-of-mouth and viral marketing. Communication
strategies such as E-communications have surfaced as part of the IT-revolution (Holm,
2006) and are allowing word-of-mouth marketing to happen on a worldwide scale.
However, it is understood that currently there is very limited knowledge available
surrounding how event organisers are communicating with their target audience and
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market. Further to this, information is scarce on how consumers make use of novel
media and innovative technologies, for instance Web 2.0 tools. Particularly, the
initiation of Web 2.0 assists e-based communities and social networking prospects by
means of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (Ellison et al., 2007). Tools such as
these are very relevant to events, knowing that the aspirations of many events are to
generate a feeling of community (Hede and Kellett, 2011).
Web 2.0 and Social Media
The exposure given by correspondents towards social media would put forward the
impression that we are in the middle of a completely new communication scene
(Kietzmann, 2011). Today’s population are emerging as one which is embracing the
ability to record and share their personal experiences by submitting them to their
friends and online communities for appraisal, thus to allow their reputations and names
be spread through forms of social media. According to Shang et. al (2011, p. 178)
“Web 2.0 is a network platform on which peers contribute to the development of tools,
content, and communities on the Internet.” A platform such as this can lead to
innovative and further intricate information. The phrase was anticipated to differentiate
actions from conventional web pages as a theory of energetic and networking
understanding which evolved from the Internet. It was imagined that users of the
platform would have the ability to extract and supply information in a simultaneous
fashion (Shang et. al, 2011). As Web 2.0 is hugely interactive and enables user
contribution in numerous means in real time there have been a number of Internet
based applications such as Facebook which have been built on the technological
foundations of Web 2.0 (Berthon et. al, 2012). Known as a social networking site, sites
such as Facebook enables communication and information to flow in both directions,
even better it can be triggered and accessed by individuals in any place at any time
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(Shang et. al, 2011). Interactive sites provide a richer context and wealth of knowledge
to users through easy to use interfaces which promote and assist involvement
(Berthon et. al, 2012).
The variety of online applications available through Web 2.0 supply marketers with a
series of novel prospects but also a number of substantial obstacles. Web 2.0 has
been described by O’Reilly (2005) as a collection of values and systems that consist
of viewing the web as a “platform” with the ambition of “harnessing collective
intelligence”.
Perhaps the popularity of these innovative platforms is due to the
exciting new experience that gives users the power to communicate and share their
lives in real time with people and brands across the globe.
Davidson (2011b, p. 119) explains there are numerous types of applications (apps)
classified to be within the Web 2.0 platform:
Blogs- meaning “Web logs”, are one of the rapidly increasing Web 2.0 apps. They are
a personal website or space that can be customised and enable the author to post
entries as regular or irregular as they wish. These entries are displayed in sequential
order for fans of the page to read. More often than not Blogs are an interactive tool as
readers have the ability to leave comments. Common types of Blogs include fashion,
sport and celebrity Blogs.
Social networking services enable users to make a personal web space, which indeed
is combined within a main website. This personal web space is known as a profile
which is presented to other users of the site. By adding or liking “friends” users can
connect with those who share similar activities or interests. Facebook is one type of
Social network, which is currently and constantly amid the largely visited sites on the
World Wide Web.
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It is now common for some sites to be made up of a combination of these categories,
such as Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging and social networking service whereby
users can send and read other users messages known as tweets. Tweets are made
up of 140 characters which are then presented on the user’s personal profile
(Davidson, 2011b).
In the past number years, social media has grown to develop into conceivably the
trendiest communication channels (Pelling and White 2009) and furthermore has
grown into a powerful tool attracting millions of users (Kwon and Sung, 2011).
The vast amounts of users logging on to social media have integrated these forms of
magnitude communication into their lives on a daily basis (Boyd and Ellison 2007).
Initially the first users to embrace the communication tool were mostly teenagers.
However, there is an increasing quantity of new social media users in the 25-34 age
range who are adopting the social media craze by building and maintaining
relationships through social media (Haythornthwaite 2005).
A study by Protalinski (2012) found that around a quarter of time spent on the Internet
is on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In the UK 64% of adults
are involved in User-Generated Content (UGC) based endeavour in some way or
another. Between them, Facebook and Twitter possess in excess of 900 million
regular active users. Indeed, at the end of March 2012 Facebook had reached a
staggering 901 million monthly active users, with a further 526 million users being
active daily users. Additionally, on 20th April 2012 there were more than 500 million
monthly users accessing Facebook from their mobile devices.
Moreover, Facebook holds a collection of over 900 million objectives such as pages
and groups, this figure would suggest that the average Facebook user would be a
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member and participates in around 80 pages, groups and events (Facebook.com
2011, cited Chu, 2011). Groups within the Facebook community are an extensive and
well-liked app which is the foundation for a unique form of social interaction between
people who have the same interests and hobbies (Casteleyn et. al, 2009; Park et. al,
2009). Joining a group on Facebook gives users the chance to interact and connect
with other group members as well as share and receive information and knowledge
about that particular topic quickly and efficiently. In turn, advertisers are seeking an
opportunity as such to create a viral-driven, multidirectional communication with
consumers (Holzner 2008).
Although there are many benefits to Facebook, there are some issues associated with
it. This is demonstrated by the continual drop in Facebook’s shares since they were
available from 18th May 2012. Recent reports by Rushe (2012) state that Facebook
shares have hit a new low and have dipped to under half of their original public price
and in turn, halving the fortune of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. This
raises an issue that people do not trust in Facebook as much as they would have when
the site originally started becoming a huge trend.
According to Pring (2012) in February 2012 there were 500 million registered users on
Twitter with approximately 200 million of these active users, with around 175 million
tweets being sent each day. With the growing rise in Smartphone’s alongside the
continuous level of Internet and mobile networks, Twitter is on the brink of further
expansion (Wauters 2010).
As a real time information network, Twitter joins consumers to the most up-to-date
information about subjects that are of interest to them. This makes it possible for
marketers to correspond with their customers who are enthused to connect with and
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follow their brand. Moreover, Twitter facilitates marketers to represent brands and aid
the forming and preservation of consumer relationships by connecting through
conversations (Kwon and Sung, 2011). Business’s are now realising these benefits of
Twitter and are increasingly following the trend. Twitter (2012) recognises and
promotes the use of Twitter in business as they state:
“Twitter connects businesses to customers in real time and businesses use Twitter to
quickly share information with people interested in their products and services, gather
real-time market intelligence and feedback, and build relationships with customers,
partners and influencers. From brand lift to CRM to direct sales, Twitter offers
businesses an easy way to reach an engaged audience”.
As an evaluation tool this is very useful as they are receiving instant feedback and if
positive they can broadcast this to all of their followers by ‘re-tweeting’ the post.
Furthermore, they also used Twitter to post videos, pictures and media reports of the
event which enables those who couldn’t make it to the event engage. It is clear that
Twitter is a very powerful tool which can help businesses in a number of areas and in
relation to the events industry it is highly constructive in each stage of the event
process.
Twitter has integrated a smart feature which allows users to see what topics people
are talking about or what is ‘trending’. It enables users to enter into conversations of
interest to them centred on a particular topic using hashtags, for example #trends
#SocialMedia, which appears before the word or phrase which is trending (Boyd et. al,
2010). This is a useful technique for promotion of events and also for monitoring
conversations amongst consumers (Chang, 2010).
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Although Twitter provides many benefits for businesses, a report within the Marketing
Magazine by Cowlett (2011) revealed that FreshMinds Research found that people
respond differently face-to-face compared to when they are using Twitter, which can
cause many trust problems for businesses. Further to this it was proposed that people
try to project a particular persona on Twitter, whether in aiming to amuse their followers
or by positioning themselves as experts in a particular area. Therefore, although
Twitter has values which cannot be denied it is also important for businesses to be
aware that ‘tweets’ can be from unreliable sources and consequently are not of true
value to the business.
Social media and the event planner
Literature on the use of social media by event planners and organisers is limited.
Nonetheless, some authors such as Davidson (2011b) have found that the decision
making process of event planners has been made more difficult due to the variety of
resources extending through the arrival of Web 2.0 applications such as social media,
which in turn persuades their buying activities. Social media has given planners the
ability to access content and information not only from venues and their colleagues
but also from planners and organisers globally who have staged a similar event before
them.
The main ways in which event planners should use social media to promote an event
should be through blogging at all stages; pre-event, during the event and post-event.
In addition the event should be marketed on Facebook by inviting users and posting
statuses about the event to generate a buzz and exciting environment surrounding the
event. Tweeting about the event should be utilized by the planners to try and spread
awareness and get the event trending. Other social media means which could be used
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include, YouTube to give a snapshot of the event in video form and also live stream
the event on the web for those who could not attend. Success will be amplified by
using all of these social media platforms compared to just one or two as it is making
full use of the tools which are available and reaching a larger volume of people (Bolan
et. al, 2012).
Bolan et. al (2012) highlight that as events revolve around communication and
interaction with people it would be a shame and loss if social media was not used to
identify and grow events. Event planners and those within the event industry need to
embrace social media and be aware of all the aspects and assistance it can give.
Defying the risks associated with not being socially active on the web in an evergrowing competitive market is a concern which should be felt by planners not using
social media. What is more, if a business adopts social media and are under no doubt
that they are fully literate in how to use the platforms correctly and effectively to interact
and connect with their customers regularly, whilst making great effort to drive more
customers to their website, then there is a high likelihood that the impact will be very
successful in regard to current and future events.
On the other hand, a study conducted by IBM (Prodhan, 2011) established that
marketers are anxious about the degree of data now available and how to use it in an
effective and efficient manner. In addition, marketers felt unprepared on how to make
full use of social media platforms even though they were very aware of the benefits of
using it.
A further concern for businesses established by Davidson (2011b) is the notion of
getting bad press and comments made about their products and services with the
people who write them remaining anonymous. On top of this Gilllin (2007) rightfully
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explains that when comments are negative towards a product or service the damage
can be enormous. In light of this Gillin (2007, p.4) remarks that;
“Conventional marketing wisdom has long held that a dissatisfied customer tells ten
people. . . In the new age of social media, he or she has the tools to tell 10 million
consumers virtually overnight.”
Event businesses need to be aware of the downfalls associated with social media. Not
having a good understanding of social media can be as fatal to a business as not being
connected on social media. It has been established that social media is a very powerful
and useful tool for businesses and can add great value but this can only be achieved
through understanding and consideration of various aspects, including how
consumers behave and respond on these sites.
Methodology
The methods used for this research were unstructured interviews with event planners
and a focus group made up of event attendees. The fact that there is very limited
information in this area of study and to facilitate exploration, non-standardised
interviews were used to encourage deeper discussion and better quality outcomes.
The sample size consisted of six event planners selected on a basis that they were
within the UK and also those companies that used social media such as Facebook
and Twitter for their events. The interview aim was to analyse to what extent current
event planners integrate social media to organise and promote events.
The focus group was made up of seven event attendees of The Fashion Souk, a
shopping event held in Belfast. The event attendees were invited on the day of the
event to join the focus group. The focus groups were made up of three males and
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four females, all between the ages of 14 and 45. The focus group will enable the
research to discover in-depth information about how attendees use social media and
respond to social media used by event planners to promote an event.
Results and Discussion
The current use of social media applications by the six event planners are mainly
focused on Facebook and Twitter. Bolan et. al (2012) remarked, event planners
should use social media at all stages of the event process to create a buzz around
the event, also live streaming the event for those not in attendance. Astonishingly,
over half of the event planners have received no training in social media and have
utilised learning on the job, trial and error. Moreover, these event planners were the
sole developers of the social media. Interestingly, of the event attendees involved,
all had an account on Facebook, whereby over half logged on once a day.
Surprisingly only three out of the seven attendees had a Twitter account. This
indicates how vital it is for event planners to use more than one social media
platform in order to reach their target market.
The main use of social media from all of the event planners interviewed was
advertising and promotion. Events NI Ltd acknowledges social media “ helps build
the event because it means somebody that didn’t go can see it and will perhaps
attend the next event, so it’s all word of mouth really”. Event attendees mirrored this
“if you miss an event and see pictures on Facebook or Twitter, it makes you feel like
you have missed out and makes you want to go to the next event”. Thus, event
organisers who upload pictures will have a competitive benefit over those who don’t,
seeing that it is a competent marketing technique to attract people to events. When
asked about what they would like to see posted on social media sites event
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attendees responded saying “Encouraging people to tag their location and receiving
free entry”, “Using the check in and adding photos to encourage more people to
attend” and “any information as it is a good reminder that the event is actually
happening!”.
All event planner companies said they would set up an event page on Facebook but
commented “it is not a definite source to gather an attendance list.” This indicates that
whilst event planners are keen to use social media channels for the benefits they offer,
they still have to use other traditional communication channels, as social media
channels are simply not reliable sources.
According to Hede and Kellett (2011) due to the diverse market that events fall into
there are challenges for event managers and planners to create marketing
communication strategies which work in the present market. The event planning
companies generally commented that, “most companies don’t really have a choice
now, it’s the way marketing is going so you’re either in or you’re out and if you’re out
you are behind”. Thus those who don’t use social media are seen to be lacking
competitive edge within the industry. Mencap NI made a very valid and interesting
remark “it is not why do social media it’s why not do social media?” As noted by
Pelling and White (2009) social media had developed into the trendiest
communication channels and if businesses wish to have a competitive advantage,
they need to be engaging in the latest trend.
Thackeray et. al (2008) and Borges (2009) expressed the underlying difficulties
businesses face of measuring the success social media. When asked the event
planners each had different ways and opinions on this issue. Mencap NI also
commented on analytics as a device for measuring success. The purpose and
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advantages for them to measure the success of social media, was that “it was great
to know that it worked. It is about quantity with Twitter because everything moves so
quickly”. Overall, the use of analytical applications is the most popular method for
measuring success in the event planning companies. Measuring success without
setting an expectation and objective from the beginning, serves no purpose. It was
unanimously felt within the companies that social media is “definitely a success”.
Events NI commented, “it increases our return on investment as we are able to
continue publicising the event after it ends”. Therefore the organisation is generating
new business for forthcoming events from the success of the previous event.
Mencap NI summed up the importance of interaction; “the more you tweet and the
more you post on Facebook the more likes and followers you get. If you stop posting
for a week people will start to unlike you and not follow you”. Hence, keeping ahead,
interacting and monitoring what people say so that they don’t lose interest and
‘unfollow’ or ‘unlike’ the page are key to successful social media management.
Authors such as Russel (2007) are very positive towards the engagement and
involvement of event attendees to build lasting connections. Events NI has a similar
view “the purpose of using social media is that it gives people information and
encouraging people to feel involved”. Blick Studios added another element into the
mix by stating “the whole purpose of an event is networking”. Consequently, event
planners are embracing the fact and knowledge of this suggestion and finding that it
works.
Events NI explains that “it is nice to be able to engage verbally but in writing with
people and people like that”. Event Amplifier backs up this opinion by saying that “it is
better to be fairly friendly and human, people really like a human voice, they like to
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have a joke and to know a person is there”. Events NI remarked that it was particularly
important as “it’s all about bringing people in, people feeling involved”.
Event attendees are very keen to feel involved particularly with the event planner, as
one attendee stated “it is good to speak to the event planner” another commented “if
they re-tweet me, I’m more inclined to go back”. Engagement of this type was
important because “they can give you direct answers and it feels more personal”. The
research indicated that attendees like to be “involved and part of the event”, achieved
by interaction through social media. One respondent mentioned “if I built a strong
relationship with an event planner, I would be more likely to attend their events as they
would value my opinion”. Therefore, event planners need to commit to their attendees
and interact with them through social media platforms.
When asked about the importance of engagement, Mencap NI replied “yes
engagement is up there; all our strategies are about engagement. We need to get a
lot more people involved”. The research found that it was not only important to engage
with event attendees but also with other organisations and have powerful collaboration
with stakeholders. Mencap NI commented, “Victim support were fantastic by retweeting and talking about the events, that was a really good linkage. That was a really
good way of getting interaction with other good organisations, as people like to see
that you are working together”. Events NI suggested that interacting with other
organisations is beneficial “as it builds that relationship and its sharing information and
supporting each other as well as resources as they might have something that we
don’t and vice versa”. Davidson (2011b) highlighted that social media gives event
planners the opportunity to access information from other planners on a global scale.
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On a less positive view of the use of social media in events companies Events
NI noted the main disadvantage for social media is time and trust issues, commenting
“it’s very time consuming. You would get a lot of people who would waste your time
on it as well”. Mencap NI agreed “time is a big disadvantage”. This was an issue
Cowlett (2011) established, that people respond differently face-to-face compared to
when they are using Twitter.
Other disadvantages of social media include “ensuring that we are using other means
of communication because you can’t isolate people who don’t have computers.”
Mencap NI felt this was a downfall of the social media tool. Blick Studios commented
“it’s not taken as seriously as some other forms of promotion and not everyone can be
bothered to feedback on an event.” An interesting statement, that it wasn’t taken as
seriously as other forms, when asked why Blick Studios commented “it’s not the same
as having a leaflet, a physical or personal kind of exchange of information. It seems
less credible”. Mencap NI have a similar view on this and thus contradicting authors
such as Hede and Kellett (2011) and Davidson (2011b) who stated that traditional
marketing tools such as advertising and direct marketing are being abolished because
of the phenomenon that is social media as these types of communication are still
essential to those who don’t use social media.
Event Amplifier responded “It can go horribly, horribly wrong”. In relation to a Twitter
fall being placed behind a speaker, Event Amplifier expressed “John Snow from
Channel 4 was the keynote speaker for an audience of journalism students, the
hashtag got so much interest and it got spammed. Every time he turned around to see
what people were saying on Twitter there was a whole line of pictures of naked women
spamming the hashtag”. It is therefore vital for event planners to think their social
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media strategy through to ensure situations like this do not occur. Mencap NI found
that their Twitter fall on TV’s worked exceptionally well but their audience was made
up of professionals, whereas this audience were students. Therefore, the importance
lies with event planners, to take into consideration their audience and how they will
react to certain forms of social media.
Events NI comment “people are talking about negative things being put on Twitter
about the organisation”, this was an issue explored by Gillin (2007) who established
that when negative comments are made towards a business the damage can be huge,
especially with the use of social media as a dissatisfied customer can tell over 10
million people instantly. However, in light of this issue Events NI express “it’s definitely
a possibility but I think the benefits outweigh the risks, in terms of that”.
The disadvantages of social media have been clearly identified but event planners are
not put off. Our Events NI remarked “yes there are negatives but it’s how you
counteract the negatives and how you deal with them when they happen. I think the
benefits far outweigh the negatives”.
Event attendees expressed that they would give negative feedback if necessary. They
also suggested that “because one person has a bad experience it can put other off”
like a domino effect also “if they have a bad experience people are less likely to give
the event another go, even if the planner has tried to rectify the problems”. The
research suggests that negativity is something that attendees are not afraid to
express, also mentioned was the current issue of “trolling” whereby “people are just
hiding behind computers and being abusive”, which in turn can have a very bad effect
on event attendance because of one bad review.
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Conclusion and Recommendations
It is of great significance for event companies to have a presence on a number of
social media platforms, especially the main sites such as Facebook and Twitter in
order to reach a vast number of people. It is recommended that social media should
be used at all stages of the event process to engage with event attendees. Further
to this, social media requires planning and should be an integrated marketing
strategy to ensure that relevant information is posted at regular intervals.
An integrated marketing strategy will ensure that social media is not the sole focus
of event companies and all forms of marketing communications should be evaluated
to ensure that those event attendees who do not use social media are not
discriminated against. It is evident from this research that there is some negativity
toward the use of social media in event planning. However to omit social media from
an integrated marketing strategy would lead to nothing less than commercial suicide
for event companies in 2013 and beyond.
Word Count (including abstract) 5805
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