Mary Carty

Arts organizations and voluntary groups spend lots of time organizing and promoting events each year. We all know it’s good to share, but how important is sharing your event using social media tools like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter? How much are social shares worth in real terms?

Eventbrite have just published two reports on the value of social sharing and it makes for interesting reading. On Facebook, most people (60%) share information about an event after they have completed their ticket purchase. While 40% like to share pre-purchase. However, the share that is made after the sale or registration is much more valuable; for example, a “post-purchase share on Facebook drives 20% more ticket sales per share than a pre-purchase one.”

Why do people share this kind of information? There are lots of reasons for social sharing: showing you are part of a group, flagging something important/fun with your peers and inviting friends to come along. Events most likely to be shared are music events, fundraisers and social events.

In monetary terms, Eventbrite found that a share on Facebook is worth $2.52, an email share is $2.34 while a Twitter share is $0.42. Finally, a LinkedIn share is worth $0.90. And the good news is, these values are increasing all the time.

Key Outcomes

Looking at this data, it is worth thinking about where you share your events online and more crucially, where your audience shares this information. Then concentrate on the most valuable. It’s not about leaving any social media platform out; rather, it’s about focusing your attention on what shares will increase your audience numbers.

When promoting your event online, make sure to provide “share this” opportunities for your audience. A great resource to use is www.sharethis.com. Another bonus for social sharing is an increased amount of traffic to your website. Make sure to capitalize on this with specific landing pages for your events and email sign-up forms to capture new users.

Images (c) Eventbrite