FreshNetworks Blog

Golden Ticket (Photo credit: Derek Lakin)

Ticketing company Eventbrite has released its social media data and shows that it make an additional $3.23 (or £2.01) in revenue every time an event is shared on social media. This is highest for Facebook (£2.56 revenue per share) followed by Twitter (£1.15) and lowest for LinkedIn (£0.57). These figures look great. But what does it say about social commerce and what can other brands learn?

First it is worth exploring these numbers a little bit more. Twitter drives the most clicks (almost twice as many as for every share on Facebook) but these are much less likely to lead to a sale. In fact for every click through from a share Twitter generates the least revenue (just 3p per click compared with 18p for Facebook and 6p for LinkedIn.

So we can surmise the following:

• When an event is shared on Facebook more revenue is ulitmately created per share than on any other social channel
• People are more likely to click through to an event on Twitter than on any other channel but they are less likely to purchase

Facebook not only generates more revenue per share, it is much more efficient at it.

The social nature of ‘events’ as a product

This allows us to explore a little more what is happening in social with Eventbrite, and whether the ‘success’ they have had with social shares could be repeated for other brands.

Eventbrite’s product is events, and these are inherently social; we typically go to an event with people – friends or colleagues. So should it be any surprise that when these events are shared on social channels other people go ahead and book. A simple look at how Eventbrite events are shared on Facebook shows a long list of people telling others where they are going and asking them to go with them. It should not, therefore, be surprising that some people do.

In fact the nature of the product means that the shares are different to most products that people share in social.

• If the product you share were a pair of shoes, for example, you are likely to be saying ‘I like these shoes’ or ‘I just bought these shoes’. These are personal reasons with no clear call to action for your friends (except a bit of jealous perhaps).
• When you share an event you are usually saying ‘I am going here, you should too’ or ‘Anybody want to come with me to this event’. You are giving your friends a clear call to action to click through, attend the event and spend money.

So on this basis it is no surprise that Eventbrite should be generating revenue like this from social shares. And it should be no surprise that Facebook is the most efficient way of getting this revenue; the connections you have with people there are typically stronger than on Twitter.

But could these revenue numbers be shared by other products? Unlikely, unless your product is also social in nature. This is a great example of where social does make sense – the product is social, you experience it with other people, and so making it easier for you to find others to attend the event with makes absolute sense to the consumer and the brand.

The key thing we can learn from Eventbrite? Use social in the ways it can have biggest impact on your business. And this depends on what you are selling and to whom; one solution is not right for all.

Every time people share an event from Eventbrite with their friends and contacts in social media or by email, they generate $1.78 in ticket sales. This figure comes from a recent study by the event ticketing site which analysed their user data and how shares in social media and by email tracked back to ticket sales. This is a surprisingly powerful number and shows the growing importance of social shopping – using recommendations in social networks and online communities to influence purchase decisions.

Eventbrite is, undoubtedly, a prime candidate to be benefiting from social shopping before others. Events are, by their nature, things which connect people with similar interests – people like you. If you love jazz and connect with people like you in social media, then were you to share a jazz event with you then the chances of this appealing to them is quite high. Events are a prime candidate for social shopping and this study by Eventbrite highlights just how powerful it is.

How much is a social media share worth?

The study by Eventbrite found that, on average, every time an event was shared that resulted in $1.78 in ticket sales. Drilling down into this number shows how valuable different types of share are:

1. Facebook: $2.52. Facebook resulted in the highest average ticket sales per share with every ‘Like’ on the social network resulting in $2.52 in ticket sales. That this is the most valuable type of share is not surprising – Facebook has grown with events and users are accustomed to inviting people to or accepting events on the platform. Overall this is a very important driver of traffic and sales for Eventbrite – it is the sites biggest referrer of traffic and every ‘Like’ drives 11 visits back to the site.
2. Email: $2.34. The second most valuable sharing mechanism was not a social media tool at all, but email. This is not surprising – email is likely to be much more targeted as users need to select individual people with whom they want to share the event, rather than just publicising it to all people they connect with in a social network. That this is not the most valuable type of sharing is a surprise and shows the ever increasing power of Facebook and other social networks as a communications and sharing mechanism.
3. LinkedIn: $0.90. LinkedIn shares are the third most valuable with an average of $0.90 in ticket sales generated every time an event is shared on the social network. This is much less than for shares on Faccebook or via email but is still significant driver of sales.
4. Twitter: $0.43. Shares on Twitter are the least valuable of all four means, with each share worth $0.43 – almost a sixth the value of a Like on Facebook. This is, perhaps, a sign that connections on Twitter are less focused than on Facebook, or perhaps that on Twitter shares and messages are less engaged with – indeed recent research from Sysomos showed that over 70% of all Tweets get no response. So Twitter messages may be less engaging than those on Facebook, leading to fewer clicks and so fewer ticket sales.

These numbers are impressive and the data from Eventbrite is a great insight into social shopping and how, at least in the event ticketing market, recommendations and shares in social media can lead to significant ticket sales. People are using social media to connect with people who have similar interests and passions to them – this makes for a potentially valuable territory for social shopping. Recommendations from people like you carry a lot of weight – for Eventbrite, each recommendation leads to $1.78 in revenue from ticket sales.