digital divide

Social Media Platforms for Events: Part One

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With the international phenomenon of social media is is the perfect, free way of getting an event noticed, reviewed and communicated. It’s being used internally and externally in companies and is the main aspect in digital marketing (Keenan, 2015). With areas of consumer discussions, direct promotions, hashtags and visual marketing all being covered by this blast of social connectivity it is one that has been taken on my most companies worldwide.

 Lets start with Facebook 

over 500,000 million people are signed up to use  facebook and it is currently the biggest platform of social  media. Facebook allows people to do a number of things which would help a company in it’s marketing. Sharing moments, other peoples posts and photos is one way of sharing what you yourself is doing but also what other people are doing. By the public sharing a personal view or a post that the company have shared it will get the brand aware and the news spread. All their friends and friends of friends (depending on their privacy setting) will be able to view their share and the ‘word of mouth’ marketing technique will soon appear, and as seen in the video more people trust what users say rather than advertisements.

Another area that can be explored on facebook is creating and joining events. This is fantastic tool which is used by many events companies which can make the public aware of their event, feel included and an area in where they can keep updated. You can also see who is attending and if the numbers are high, it will show a sense of a popular, well know event.

2dDdk-UhTwitter

With 289,000,000 active users on twitter today and 135,000 new users everyday twitter is a close runner up to facebook (Twitter, 2015). With twitter it allows users to share their opinions via a ‘tweet’ in 140 characters or less. This can be through a message or media and it reaches out the the followers that twitter account has. Like facebook these can be shared by ‘retweeting’. Twitter is a very active platform for digital marketing as it reaches out to thousands. An event can make an account and then gain their followers by direct marketing or through other social media. This way they can promote their event, get market research, gather feedback, customer communication and gain brand awareness.

Another way the event can become know on twitter is by companies using the hashtag. By ‘hashtagging’ certain words or phrases it becomes searchable by the public and they can stumble across your account. This hashtag system also gives a sense of community as people at event will often be encouraged to hashtag something at the event itself. This giving a good feel to the experience and sharing the experience to others.

The # is not only used in Twitter but many other social media sites now. Facebook have introduced it and is used in the same sense as twitter is. Instagram and Pinterest also include it in their sites, but their main body of interest is their digital media. This is an ever growing social media area and one which will discussed in more depth in Social Media Platforms: Part Two as well as social media mobile phone apps.

Social Media Sites Mentioned:

REFERENCES

KEENAN, J., 2015. Social Media – Who, Why & How? Part One. [lecture notes]. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 27 March.

PEDERSEN, S., 2015. Motivations for Using Social Media Part 1. [lecture notes]. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 20 February.

ROSE, K., 2015. UK Social Media Statistics 2015. [online]. 6 January 2015. Available from: http://www.rosemcgrory.co.uk/blog/ [Accessed 14 April 2015].

SBRTECHNOLOGIES BISWAJIT SINGH, 2013. Social Media Marketing — How it Affects Your Business. 17 September. Available from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDA864UskXc [Accessed 14 April 2015].

TWITTER, HUFFINGTON POST, EMARKETER., 2015. Twitter Statistics. [online]. Statistic Brain. Available from: http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/ [Accessed 14 April 2015].

Online Ticket Sales

Think of all the large scale events you have been to. Now ask yourself where did you buy the tickets for these events. Would I be right in saying online? The majority of any tickets sold for major and mega events and even some minor, are all sold online and this method is one which is a quick and simple transaction for everyone involved. Fill in you name, address, email and your payment details, boom you’ve got yourself a ticket. With nearly all events promoting their ticket sales online through third party companies and only a minority being able to be purchased either over the phone or box office is this really the best option out there?

Advantages

  • SIMPLE AND QUICK. As I mentioned above it is unbelievably simple to buy tickets online for an event. Pop in your contact details and payment details and you are sorted. Access to these sites are always simple too and with the payment often going through paypal you don’t even have to fill out your card details. Confirmation gets sent to your email and the tickets will arrive a few weeks before the event, what Ticketmaster do, or even with some companies, like Resident Advisor, are sent straight to your phone in a E-Ticket format.
  • SECURE. When going with an official events link direct to the site they are selling tickets it will be trusted. This means not only secure payment, confirmation and confidentiality but that you have secured your place at that event. This is sometimes the only way you can secure your ticket before they sell out, but it also means if they are selling in a box office or that the door, that you have the advantage of defiantly getting a space/seat etc.

Disadvantages

  • MAJORITY/ALL SOLD ONLINE. What if you didn’t have access to the internet? With 13% of the UK not having access to the internet this would be an issue to those individuals. They would either have to approach someone or pay for internet usage, which also might be a issue, to purchase these tickets. This can demotivate them in attending due to the hassle. With some tickets being available online and the rest in a box office, this could also be an issue to potential attendees as they might not be in proximity to purchase them.
  • FALSE WEBSITES. With the increasing amount of fake profiles, false websites and scamming systems out there it is sometimes hard to differentiate between which ticket sites are real and which ones have been created by scammers. Make sure when purchasing tickets its always by approved sites, these are usually the ones promoted by the event itself. With sites such as Gumtree and Ebay out there it is often that they are targeted by ticket misuse but this cannot be controlled by the event itself and they are not entitled to refund the victims of these scams. (Pendersen, 2015)
  • BOOKING FEES. When purchasing a ticket for an event online nearly every time you will have to pay a booking. This can either be down to the event using third party sites like Ticketmaster or just for the fact it’s being done in advance online. This may give the attendee reassurance that they have got their ticket, but when purchasing it face to face they would not have to pay this fee (Bachelor, 2014).

Ticket Websites Mentioned:

REFERENCES

BACHELOR, L., 2014. Online ticket companies face scrutiny over booking and delivery fees. [online]. London: Guardian News. Available from: http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jul/13/online-ticket-firms-booking-delivery-fees-which [Accessed 13 April 2015].

RD MEDIA., 2015. Ticketmaster. [online]. Netherlands: RD-Media. Available from: http://rd-media.org/extensions/ticketmaster/product/7.html [Accessed 13 April 2015].

PEDERSEN, S., 2015. Identity Online, BS1288. Identity Online. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 13 March.

The Digital Divide

What is the digital divide? The digital divide is the the divide between the people who are using the widespread IT intensely and those who don’t often or not at all. This can be impacted by gender, race, social status, language, location, disability, education and age (Penderson, 2015).

This chart above shows the internet usage by region. This demonstrates the sheer immensity of the digital divide. With some regions having as high as 81% and some as low as 12% it is evident in some areas why the digital divide is apparent.

If we take Britain for example, there is no obvious area which explains the digital divide and how the public are or are not attempting to break through these barriers of access. 9/10 adults in the UK have indeed used the internet but the number on people that are rejecting the use of using the internet is a growing number. This can be down to a lack of motivation of needing to using it which has left 54% of households in the UK without internet. Another access issue is technology discomfort. This is common with the older generation who have no grown up around this digital invasion. But even though this is a common issue throughout the UK it is combated with the amount of youngsters using the internet now and it is still growing, with 99% of under 34 year old’s having used the internet and 5.2% of 1097 UK teens have been reported with online addiction and a further 15% at risk it. This counter opposite with the age divide is keeping the number of online users at an increasing pace as more youngsters than ever are constantly joining the digital world and this will soon become a normal process in households around the country. This can arise to be a problem though as it widens the divide between the old and the young, providing an ever growing social seclusion between the two (Penderson, 2015).

When coming to online marketing events, this digital divide is something that companies have to be very careful to consider. When deciding on their target market for their event they will have to investigate to see if they are currently online users and if the percentage is high enough to take this route. After those investigations more will have to follow to see if their target market is on certain social media sites, which is more common with the younger generation or email, which the older generation would more likely to have access to and other various digital media platforms. This is when promotion, advertisement, communications methods, feedback collection and other marketing details can all start and the digital world can be a companies oyster.

REFERENCES

DIJK, J, V., 2012. The Digital Divide in Europe. [online]. London and New York: Routeledge. Available from: http://www.utwente.nl/bms/mco/bestanden/digitaldivide.pdf [Accessed 10 April 2015].

KEMP, S., 2014. Social, Digital & Mobile Worldwide in 2014. [online]. London: We Are Social. Available from: http://wearesocial.net/blog/2014/01/social-digital-mobile-worldwide-2014/ [Accessed 10 April 2015].

PEDERSEN, S., 2015. How, when and where we are using Digital Media?, BS1288. [lecture]. Digital Media Practices and Platforms.The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 13 February.

Events and Marketing

Over the years the amount of relaxation time and disposable income that the public have has grown. This resulting in a wide market for a vast range of events (Bowdin et al 2011). With these events, just like any other product or service, they have to be marketed to the public to gain interest. However, marketing events has to be taken with a more unique approach and this is because an event is neither a product nor a service, it’s an experience.

Marketing, what is it? The Oxford dictionary states marketing is “the action or business promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising” (Oxford, 2015). Marketing is a tool used by all businesses which finds out the demand for its product or service, or in this case experience. By a business segmenting the market then and analysing consumer behavior the market it will define their own target market. Further then fine tuning the four P’s for a product (product, price, place and promotion) and the extended seven P’s for a service (people, physical environment, process) and after doing this the business is on it’s way to selling their product or service.

But as said before, the marketing of an event is somewhat different than other products and services, and in this blog I will be exploring the promotion, research, feedback as well as much more from events marketing online. Choosing online marketing to research is a obvious one, how many social media accounts, Youtube coverage and sponsored advertisements do you see daily from various companies? Nearly every business possible have taken to the storm of online marketing. This an effective way to inform the public of your company being out there as only 13% of British citizens haven’t used the internet, meaning an astonishing 87% of us are online. Online marketing is also a cost free marketing strategy for the business, and who doesn’t love free stuff right? So events marketing as you can imagine is mostly online, whether this is promoting their event, communication with attendees or potential attendees, video content to raise awareness or feedback.

This simple way has taken international marketing like a wildfire and is one I feel should be explored and analysed. Throughout my posts I will discuss online promotion, the digital divide, social media, case studies, advertisement and much more.

REFERENCES

BOWDIN, G. ET AL., 2011. Events Management. 3rd ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

OXFORD DICTIONARIES., 2015. Marketing. [online]. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Available from:  http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/marketing [Accsessed on 1 April 2015].

PEDERSEN, S., 2015. How, when and where we are using Digital Media?, BS1288. [lecture]. Digital Media Practices and Platforms. The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Business School, room 224, 13 February.