1. 0
Internet marketing
Copenhagen Business School
The
importance
of
social
media
marketing
as
a
promotional
tool
A
case
study
on
Eventbrite.com
Date:
Friday,
5th
August
2011
at
12:00
Written
by:
Virginia
Sande

2. 1
Table
of
Contents
1-­‐
Introduction
...................................................................................................................
2
2-­‐
Problem
statement
.......................................................................................................
3
3-­‐
Theoretical
framework
...............................................................................................
3
3.1-­‐
Social
media
and
the
interactive
marketing
communications
model
.....
4
3.2-­‐
Identifying
the
online
word
of
mouth
marketing
..........................................
5
4-­‐
Methodology,
case
description
–
Eventbrite.com
and
the
use
of
social
media
networks
.................................................................................................................
7
5-­‐
Results
and
analysis
.....................................................................................................
8
6-­‐
Recommendations
.....................................................................................................
10
7-­‐
Conclusion
....................................................................................................................
11
8
-­‐
Reference
list
.............................................................................................................
13

3. 2
1 - Introduction
Events
have
always
played
a
vital
part
in
human
society.
Historically,
gatherings
occurred
to
celebrate
ceremonies,
rituals
and
festivals
in
all
sorts
of
places
and
at
particular
times
of
the
year.
Sports
gatherings
such
as
the
Roman
Olympic
games
based
on
the
ancient
Greeks,
special
events
such
as
family
activities,
weddings,
birthdays
and
anniversaries
where
family
or
friends
can
be
involved
are
all
examples
of
different
types
of
events
(John
Wiley
and
Sons;
2007).
Today,
the
process
of
creating
professional
events
is
quite
similar
to
the
aforementioned
gatherings,
however
the
event
management
industry
has
changed
radically
and
has
experienced
a
significant
growth
as
an
industry.
Especially,
the
Internet
has
become
a
powerful
platform
for
businesses
around
the
world,
as
they
can
use
the
social
networks
such
as
Facebook
and
Twitter
among
others
to
promote
events.
These
platforms
are
followed
by
millions
of
users
worldwide
sharing
thoughts,
ideas
or
feelings
about
different
topics
that
influence
people’s
buying
behaviour.
Therefore,
company
marketers
and
individuals
use
these
as
tools
to
create
a
successful
event
and
to
increase
the
brand
awareness.
Hence
generating
more
sales.
Eventbrite
is
a
great
example
of
this;
a
social
commerce
company
that
utilizes
social
networks,
for
instance
Twitter,
Facebook
or
Linkedin,
to
manage,
promote
and
sell
different
kinds
of
event
tickets
to
customers.
Common
to
these
aforementioned
Social
Networks
is
the
online
word-­‐of-­‐mouth;
a
powerful
communication
tool
that
can
reach
a
greater
size
of
people.
Hereby,
the
conversations
consumer
to
consumer
are
the
key
to
the
companies’
search
for
success.
In
this
project
we
will
analyze
the
importance
of
the
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
in
regards
to
the
online
Social
Networks
and
how
it
influences
the
customer’s
buying
behaviour
in
the
event
management
industry.
In
order
to
explain
certain
theories
we
shall
focus
primarily
on
Eventbrite.

4. 3
2 - Problem statement
In
connection
to
the
introduction,
we
will
elaborate
on
the
main
question:
The
importance
of
social
media
marketing
as
a
promotional
tool
for
Eventbrite
Sub
questions:
How
can
we
use
social
media
as
a
promotional
tool?
How
are
the
online
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
affecting
customers?
Organizer
Introduction
to
the
topic
and
area
to
study
Social
media
as
a
new
element
of
the
promotion
mix.
Identifying
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
Case
–Eventbrite
Research
Recommendations
Conclusion
3 - Theoretical framework
With
the
rise
of
Internet,
social
media
marketing
has
become
a
key
to
success
for
companies,
as
the
give
the
voice
to
the
consumers.
W.
Glynn
and
David
J.
Faulds
confirm
this
aspect:
“
Internet
and
social
media
has
made
it
possible
for
one
person
to
communicate
with
hundreds
or
even
thousands
of
other
people
about
products
and
the
companies
that
provide
them”
(W.
Glynn
Mangold
and
David
J.
Faulds;
2009:
357).

5. In
order
to
present
an
understandable
reason
as
to
why
companies
are
using
social
media
marketing
as
a
subset
of
other
online
marketing
activities
(Darren
Barefoot
and
Julie
Lynn
Szabo,
2010;
13)
this
part
of
the
project
will
represent
the
theoretical
part
where
related
theories
will
be
analyzed.
3.1 - Social media marketing and the interactive
marketing communications model
4
In
the
article
Social
Media:
The
New
Hybrid
Element
of
the
Promotion
Mix,
W.
Glynn
Mangold
and
David
J.
Faulds
argue
that
companies
traditionally
talk
to
their
customers,
while
in
a
non-­‐traditional
sense
it
enables
customers
to
talk
directly
to
one
another.
However,
what
occurs
within
the
social
media
platforms
between
customers
exists
outside
the
manager’s
control.
This
research
explains
how
social
media
can
be
incorporated
into
the
Integrated
Marketing
Communication
strategies
where
companies
can
use
social
media
to
talk
to
their
customers
through
Social
Networks
such
as
Facebook
and
Twitter.
Thus,
the
customers
can
use
these
platforms,
as
a
means
to
communicate
with
one
another
about
ideas
and
opinions
in
regards
to
a
company’s
brand
or
product.
Mangold
and
Fauld’s
article
presents
the
new
communications
paradigm
where
marketing
managers
should
recognize
the
customers’
conversations
within
social
media
by
taking
into
consideration
some
of
the
trends
within
the
traditional
communications
paradigm:
(the)
Internet
has
become
a
vehicle
for
mass
media
and
consumer
communications,
consumers
are
changing
from
traditional
sources
of
advertising
to
a
source
that
provides
information
wherever
they
need
and
whenever
they
need
it,
and
it
is
therefore
considered
a
more
reliable
resource
to
the
consumer.
In
order
for
the
companies
to
accomplish
their
goals
the
authors
provide
them
with
some
guidelines
that
can
be
applied
when
using
the
social
media
networks.
For
instance,
the
importance

6. of
providing
information
to
the
customers
and
the
use
of
the
social
media
tool
to
engage
their
customers
is
considered
an
important
guideline.
Here
we
can
see
the
power
of
the
online
social
media
to
engage
customers
and
how,
by
spreading
their
ideas,
it
can
influence
the
customer’s
buying
behaviour
of
a
product
or
service.
In
this
project
we
will
analyze
social
media
marketing
within
the
social
network
sites,
considered
as
“
[…]
a
small
group
of
founders
who
send
out
invitations
to
join
the
site
to
the
members
of
their
own
personal
networks.
In
turn,
new
members
send
invitations
to
their
networks,
and
so
on.”
(Trusov
et
al.,
2009;
90)
An
online
social
network
site
makes
it
easy
to
create
your
own
personal
profile,
with
your
personal
information,
lists
of
interests
etc.
and
from
here
on
add
new
friends
based
on
family,
friends,
company
colleagues
etc.
These
social
networks
represent
a
one-­‐to-­‐one
and
one-­‐to-­‐many
communications
flow.
5
3. 2 - Identifying the online word-of-mouth marketing
The
definition
of
social
media
marketing
is
that
it
is
associated
with
a
form
of
viral
or
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
marketing.
An
example
of
viral
marketing
could
be
when
you
tell
your
friend
about
certain
media,
products
or
services
that
you
love
hereby
spreading
the
word
from
one
person
to
another.
However,
the
difference
is
if
she
or
he
uses
an
online
network
platform
the
word
has
the
potential
to
be
spread
faster,
as
it
is
immediately
visible
to
the
peers.
The
web-­‐based
technology
allows
the
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
to
be
communicated
via
online
channels
where
it
is
relatively
easy
to
build
brand
awareness
and
a
corporate
image
through
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
communication
(Mason,
2008;
212).
The
online
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
appears
after
the
rise
of
the
Internet
and
occurs
online
as
a
consumer-­‐based
communication.
(Henning-­‐Thurau
et
al.
2004;
39)

7. define
it
as
“
[…]
any
positive
or
negative
statement
made
by
potential,
actual,
or
former
customers
about
a
product
or
company
which
is
made
available
to
a
multitude
of
people
and
institutions
via
the
Internet.”
As
to
the
reason
why
online
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
is
a
popular
tool
for
marketers
these
days
seems
to
be
quite
obvious.
Individuals
are
eager
to
share
information
and
managers
are
eager
to
gain
access
to
this
information
in
order
to
manage
and
control
it
for
the
benefit
of
the
company.
The
Internet
has
made
it
possible
for
consumers
to
interact
with
each
other
and
share
their
interests
(Korgaonkar
et
Wolin,
1999;
57).
Moreover,
we
may
consider
the
online
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
as
a
“
[…]
powerful
consumer
influence,
acting
as
a
source
of
information
and
as
a
persuasive
communication
tool
influencing
new
possible
customers,
consumer
awareness,
expectations,
perceptions,
behavioural
intentions
and
actual
behaviour.”
(Lam
et
al.,
2005;
9)
Finally,
the
power
of
the
social
network
is
its
capability
of
making
it
possible
for
consumers
to
gather
unbiased
product
information
from
fellow
consumers
and
pass
on
their
on-­‐consumption-­‐related
advice,
by
engaging
in
online
word-­‐of-­‐
mouth
communication
(Hennig-­‐Thurau
et
al.,2004;
39).
Therefore,
once
the
word
is
spread
it
is
almost
impossible
to
reverse
it.
In
order
to
understand
how
the
concept
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
works,
we
can
present
the
theory
of
the
two-­‐step
flow,
as
it
enables
us
to
see
the
communication
flow
of
the
word-­‐of-­‐mouth.
This
theory
is
very
important
because
it
shows
how
communication
flows
from
mass
media
to
consumers.
The
two-­‐step
flow
model
is
from
1940
and
it
is
a
study
that
informs
how
information
and
ideas
are
spread
through
mass
media
and
interpersonal
networks.
It
argues
that
mass
communication
messages
have
an
effect
on
the
public.
The
main
idea
is
that
the
consumers
receive
information
from
opinion
leaders
who
receive
information
from
the
mass
media.
Influencers
pass
this
information
on
to
6

8. the
individuals
receiving
information
from
the
opinion
leaders
called
followers
or
listeners.
A
valuable
asset
of
this
model
is
that
it
connects
mass
and
interpersonal
communication
thus
giving
the
companies
the
opportunity
to
create
strategies
that
focus
on
special
targets.
Also,
it
is
remarkable
that
consumers
are
social
beings
whose
exchange
of
information
and
communicate
with
each
other.
This
model
can
be
considered
a
main
overview
of
the
online
word-­‐of-­‐mouth.
Considering
the
new
communication
flow
between
sender
and
receiver,
the
online
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
uses
a
completely
new
channel,
the
Internet.
In
terms
of
the
online
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
within
social
networks,
the
communication
flow
may
consists
of
two
groups,
one-­‐to-­‐one
and
one-­‐to-­‐many.
In
order
of
appearance,
the
first
group
involves
a
listener
that
acts
as
an
opinion
leader.
He
or
she
gives
his
or
her
opinion
or
idea
about,
for
instance
a
product
and
potentially
persuades
one
or
more
of
the
users
participating
in
the
social
thread.
In
the
second
case,
the
influencer
passes
on
the
messages
to
a
social
network
without
necessarily
knowing
the
people
with
whom
he
or
she
interacts
personally.
This
is
an
example
of
communications
flow
that
is
likely
to
occur
on
blogs
and
newsletters.
4- Methodology, case description – Eventbrite.com
and the use of social media networks
Eventbrite
was
founded
in
2006
in
San
Francisco,
California
as
a
social
commerce
company
whose
main
purpose
is
to
make
it
as
easy
as
possible
for
people
to
host,
discover
and
attend
events.
The
company
is
focused
on
helping
people
come
together
through
events
and
currently
lists
events
in
many
countries
around
the
world.
Two
years
after
its
foundation
in
January
2009,
the
Facebook
implementation
helped
Eventbrite
become
one
of
the
most
powerful
businesses
in
the
online
7

9. event
industry.
Eventbrite
surprisingly
generated
$100m
in
gross
tickets
sales.
If
we
compare
these
sales
with
the
sales
in
January
2010
the
result
is
$200m
in
gross
tickets
sales.
And
in
December
2010
it
was
$400m
also
in
gross
tickets
sales.
Increment
sales
are
between
$100m
and
$200m
from
one
year
to
another
after
the
integration
of
Facebook
(Eventbrite,
2011).
In
the
beginning
Eventbrite
focussed
on
the
major
search
engines
such
as
Google
and
Yahoo
to
promote
their
brand
and
thus
its
capability
as
a
tool
for
creating
online
events.
At
that
time,
search
engine
operations
were
their
only
marketing
focus
together
with
some
offline
marketing
campaigns.
Soon
they
found
out
that
both
organizers
and
attendees
shared
event
information
on
Facebook.
When
Eventbrite
realized
the
fastest
growing
inbound
was
coming
from
Facebook
they
implemented
the
“Publish
to
Facebook”
functionality.
Hence
making
it
easier
to
share
events
on
the
social
network.
The
ability
for
ticket
buyers
to
immediately
publish
an
event
onto
their
Facebook
page
and
Twitter
feed
provides
a
real
time
opportunity
for
event
organizers
to
promote
their
event
offers
to
a
more
receptive
audience.
Receptive
in
the
sense
that
people
get
into
contact
with
the
event
offers
in
a
social
context
involving
their
friends
etc.
This
has
made
Facebook
the
second
largest
traffic
source
for
Eventbrite.
The
concept
of
the
“virtuous
cycle”
invented
by
Eventbrite
express
the
power
of
social
media
and
promotion
in
real
time.
When
someone
purchases
a
ticket
on
Eventbrite
then
forward
the
notion
hereof
onto
his
or
hers
Facebook
page,
the
friends
can
immediately
see
it
and
can
click
on
the
link,
purchase
the
ticket,
post
it
to
his
or
hers
Facebook
page
and
voilà!
8
5 - Results and analysis
In
this
section
we
will
analyze
the
case
above
with
the
help
of
selected
theories
that
should
make
it
clear
why
Eventbrite
is
succeeding
so
well.

10. From
the
Eventbrite
case
we
can
see
that
the
company,
from
its
very
beginning,
was
using
search
engine
marketing
to
promote
its
business
and
the
events
offered.
However
after
a
certain
period
of
time
the
company
realized
that
customers
were
sharing
their
attendance
to
an
event
in
social
networks
such
as
Facebook
and
Twitter,
both
before
and
after
purchasing
the
tickets,
thus
increasing
the
traffic
and
consequently
the
sales
growth.
This
is
a
clear
example
of
the
power
of
the
word-­‐of-­‐mouth
where
one
person
sees
the
event
posted
on
the
Eventbrite
website
or
via
another
source.
This
individual
may
then
choose
to
share
it
with
friends,
work
colleagues
or
family
members
through
any
of
the
social
networks
in
order
to
make
others
attend.
-­‐
Interestingly,
this
may
happen
before
or
also
after
the
purchase.
Thus,
in
the
above
case
the
communication
flow
one-­‐to-­‐many
is
at
work.
The
online
social
network
spreads
the
good
news
and
curious
friends
from
his
or
hers
social
network
profile
may
click
in
order
to
see
what
the
event
is
about.
In
regards
to
this,
Tamara
Mendensohn
of
Eventbrite
writes,
when
one
person
shares
an
Eventbrite
event
on
Facebook
with
their
friends,
it
yields
on
average
$2,52
in
ticket
sales
while
on
Twitter
it
is
$0,43
so
we
can
easily
deduct
that
the
shares
can
be
translated
into
money.
After
some
time
Eventbrite
became
aware
of
this.
Therefore,
a
natural
next
step
was
to
integrate
Eventbrite
with
Facebook,
the
so-­‐called
Facebook
Events
API,
a
Login
with
Facebook
and
Social
Plugins
including
the
like
button
and
the
activity
feed
well-­‐known
to
the
Facebook
user.
This
is
an
example
of
an
online
partnership
within
the
IMC
model
where
in
order
to
help
the
promotion
and
the
sales.
If
we
were
to
explain
the
evolution
of
the
Eventbrite
business
we
may
say
that
the
company
started
its
business
with
only
one
online
digital
communications
tool,
search
engine
optimization
marketing
in
order
to
get
a
good
positioning
in
the
different
search
engines,
especially
through
Google.
The
company
used
other
online
marketing
campaign
methods
for
example
e-­‐mail
marketing
in
order
to
reach
potential
clients
that
might
be
interested
in
their
services
and
online
9

11. marketing
campaigns
underlining
how
the
social
media
marketing
is
an
important
tool
of
the
promotion
mix,
as
explained
in
the
theoretical
part
above.
After
this
small
analysis
of
the
case
and
the
theories
we
will
give
some
recommendations
for
the
marketers
of
the
event
industry.
10
6 - Recommendations
First
of
all,
event
management
marketers
need
to
consider
the
use
of
Eventbrite
to
manage,
promote
and
sell
tickets
to
their
events.
It
is
an
easy
tool
to
succeed
in
reaching
their
goals
within
the
event
marketing
strategy.
The
use
of
Eventbrite
is
a
win–win
situation
for
both
the
company
promoting
its
event
and
Eventbrite.
Therefore,
creating
an
online
event
registration
page,
promoting
the
event
through
online
social
networks,
i.e.
managing
all
the
information
from
attendees
and
collecting
the
money
from
the
registrations
via
secure
credit
card
systems,
paypal,
etc.,
is
all
part
of
an
advantageous
and
non-­‐
expensive
hybrid
form
of
the
traditional
marketing
and
it
exists
between
the
client,
Eventbrite
and
thousands
of
Social
Network
users.
Although
the
event
management
industry
is
changing
towards
the
social
media
marketing,
especially
by
using
the
online
social
networks,
it
is
necessary
to
understand
the
importance
of
the
traditional
marketing
as
a
necessary
means
to
create
awareness
of
a
particular
event.
Not
every
client
is
familiar
with
the
online
social
networks
as
a
promotional
tool
and
the
users
may
feel
an
urge
to
keep
their
online
purchases
private
as
opposed
to
public
via
the
networks.
As
to
this,
in
the
analysis
of
the
case,
I
have
argued
the
importance
of
the
IMC
model
in
order
to
generate
more
traffic
to
the
e-­‐commerce
site
as
a
key
success
for
marketers
within
the
event
industry.
So
my
recommendations
to
an
event
marketer
are:
From
an
offline
environment
as
segmentation,
pull
and
push
strategies,
brand
awareness.

12. -­‐ Offline
promotion
using
traditional
marketing
campaigns
as
radio
and
print
and
phone,
guiding
the
customer
to
an
online
presence
to
look
for
more
information
or
even
to
formalize
the
purchasing.
To
an
online
environment,
to
create
more
brand
awareness
and
formalize
the
ticket
purchase.
-­‐ Online
promotion
using
search
engine
marketing,
e-­‐mail
marketing,
word-­‐of-­‐mouth,
etc.,
especially
through
online
social
networks
such
as
Facebook,
LinkedIn
etc.
Once
a
company
who
is
organizing
an
event
has
its
segmentation
to
whom
the
event
is
for
and
has
created
a
website
with
important
information
for
the
customers,
registered
the
event
in
the
Eventbrite,
it
is
important
that
customers
do
not
know
about
the
event
only
because
of
the
Eventbrite
registration
but
also
due
to
the
traditional
marketing
campaigns
as
well
as
the
online.
For
example
e-­‐
marketing
campaigns
in
order
to
reach
the
correct
target
is
an
example
hereof.
11
7- Conclusion
In
this
mini
project
we
have
focused
on
the
importance
of
the
social
media
marketing,
primarily
the
social
networks
in
order
to
promote
events
within
the
event
industry.
This
type
of
online
marketing
leads
us
to
an
understanding
of
the
online
word-­‐
of-­‐mouth
concept.
It
is
a
growing
and
popular
tool
for
advertising
within
the
development
of
the
social
media
marketing
and
it
should
not
be
neglected
for
the
sake
of
traditional
campaigning
methods,
but
rather
play
an
equally
important
role
in
the
coming
across
to
the
customer
and
the
potential
Eventbrite
clients.
Since
the
power
of
consumers
has
made
it
possible
for
customers
to
change
the
perfection
of
a
product
or
service,
companies
need
to
be
able
to
understand

13. social
media
marketing
in
order
to
have
the
correct
information
and
keep
that
everybody
is
receiving
the
right
message.
By
implementing
the
right
strategy
using
both
traditional
and
non-­‐traditional
marketing
campaigns,
event
organizers
are
able
to
reach
their
goals
in
terms
of
event
ticket
purchases
and
brand
awareness.
The
Eventbrite
example
illustrates
how
companies
that
have
not
implemented
this
service
may
not
achieve
their
goals
as
quickly
due
to
the
complexity
of
integrating
the
event
information,
ticket
purchasing
and
management
of
information.
If
a
customer
needed
to
attend
an
event
and
the
information
was
neither
well
provided
nor
well
organized,
it
would
affect
the
ticket
sales,
the
customer
satisfaction
and
therefore
the
engagement
would
not
be
a
success.
Finally,
the
key
to
successfully
create
a
popular
and
thus
great
event
is
to
use
traditional
marketing
with
non-­‐traditional
marketing,
as
this
will
provide
the
best
results
for
the
company
in
question.
12

14. 13
8 – Reference list
References
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T.,
Gwinner,
K.P.,
Walsh,
G.,
Gremler,
D.D.
(2004).
Electronic
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d-­‐of-­‐mouth
via
consumer-­‐opinion
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what
motivates
consumers
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artic
ulate
themselves
on
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Journal
of
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38-­‐52.
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P.,
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L.
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Websites
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http://eventbrite.com/
Books
Chaffey,
D.,
Ellis
Chadwick,
F.,
Mayer,
R.,
&
Johnston,
K.
(2009).
Internet
Marketing:
Strategy,
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and
Practice.
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Cap.
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Darren
Barefoot,
Julie
Szaboh
(2010)
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with
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A
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chapter
1,2,10

15. 14