Suppose you held an event and nobody came. For those charged with organizing, conducting, and promoting events – seminars, training courses, conferences, trade shows, concerts, or other gatherings – assembling an eager throng is the top priority. And, according to a recent survey by the events management company Maximillion, the most effective tool for spreading the word and bringing in an audience is social media platforms.
Published in May 2015, the online survey analyzed the responses of over 1500 event organizers and managers from around the world and across six event verticals as to how they viewed social media and how they used it in their field of endeavor. Among the findings:
- More than 75 percent of the respondents said social media was “very important” to event promotion.
- With over 1.3 billion users, Facebook was identified by 78 percent as the preferred medium for event promotion, with Twitter and LinkedIn well behind at 56 and 49 percent, respectively.
- The primary reasons for using social media were increasing awareness of an event (58 percent); increasing brand awareness (49 percent); and creating new channels of information (41 percent).
- Promoters’ efforts with social media were not in vain, as 44 percent said these channels were effective in their ability to increase event awareness; brand awareness followed closely with 42 percent.
With such encouraging evidence of effectiveness, more than eight of ten respondents indicated they will be increasing their social media activity in the coming year, and 85 percent of these said they will be producing and publishing at least one post a week.
To reap the greatest benefits from social media, the study suggests that in addition to identifying the target audience, incorporating images into the platform of choice increases “likes” by almost 60 percent and comments grow by over 100 percent.
Reference:
eMarketer. “Social Promotions Boost Event Awareness,” June 1, 2015.
Maximillion. Social Media: The Best Marketer for Your Events. May 8, 2015.
