A study into social media influence upon event experience

Abstract

Social media is a world wide growing trend, which has transformed the way in which people communicate and share experiences (Safko 2010). Social media is a topic, which has been researched across many different sectors, however it has not been addressed with aspects to events experience and marketing promotion. Therefore through the use of qualitative research methods, this dissertation will contribute to the already existing research into social media, whilst relating it to event experience, satisfaction and promotion. Qualitative research has been carried out via the use of a focus group and semi-structured individual interviews, within the students of Queen Margaret University. The data collected was categorised into any potential themes, and then analysed and referred back to the literature. Accordingly the themes and analysis ofthis study were developed and highlighted in connection to the stated study aim, which was to assess the influence of social media platforms upon event experience and satisfaction. Conclusions of the study were clarified after analysing and comparing the data results found in comparison to the literature review. Results indicated that non-event related social media was deemed as a distraction to event attendee's and took the overall event experience away. However, it was also discovered that if social media is part of the event design then attendees feel satisfied due to the commonplace with social media in today's society. (Key words: social media, events, satisfactions, validation, event design, marketing, and anticipation)