SOCIAL MEDIA

& EVENTS REPORT 2013

How is the event industry using Social Networks?

+ EXPERT ADVICE
from XING EVENTS
 Summary
Summary................................................................................................................................... 2

Social Demographics........................................................................................................... 2

Analysis.................................................................................................................................... 3
Summary
How important are social networks as marketing instruments for you as an event organiser?......... 3

Which social media channels do you use?.............................................................................. 4

Which social media platforms would you like to know more about?........................................... 5 The number of users in the various social media problems have emerged. A comparison with the re-
channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube sults from last years reports is especially interes-
Are you planning on changing your social media activities in the future?..................................... 6 has grown by about 20% over the past year. ting, as it highlights several key shifts.
Google+, for instance, has 500 million users and
How much content do you publish weekly in social media channels?.......................................... 7
Facebook even has 1.1 billion. This report will also provide you with numerous
What are your social media goals?........................................................................................ 8 useful tips on how you can apply social media even
Nowadays social media and the event industry more effectively to marketing your events
In which categories were improvements observed?.................................................................. 9
are inseparable: A prime example for this is this
What are the reasons that prevent you from using the potential of social media?........................10 years UEFA Champions-League-Final between
FC Bayern Mnchen and Borussia Dortmund during Social Demographics
Do you make use of monitoring tools, in order to study social media channels and which over 4.8 million tweets were sent.
analyse the success of your activities?.................................................................................. 11 Around 1500 event organisers were interviewed in
Social media has a huge potential for marketing an online survey. 57% of the interviewees were
Which monitoring instruments do you use to monitor your social media activities?......................12 events and it is no longer possible to imagine male and the majority was aged between 30
event marketing without it. People are increasingly and 50. 55% were from Germany, Austria and
The most important findings.......................................................................................................13
using the internet to read up about events, buying Switzerland, 38% from the rest of Europe and
How to: Social media tips for the event industry...........................................................................14 tickets on social networks and networking on social 7% from North and South America. 22% of those
media platforms at events. Never has it been easier interviewed are mainly involved in organising
Checklist of the usage of social media instruments.........................................................................16
to build direct customer relations and accurately conferences and congresses, 24% organise seminars
Network specific tips.................................................................................................................17 approach target groups. Social media marketing and training courses, 11% corporate events, 6%
prior to, during and after your event is essential. trade shows, 9% stated that their main focus is
Facebook.................................................................................................................17 concerts, festivals and nightlife events, and the
Twitter.....................................................................................................................19 remaining 24% are spread out across networking
events, private events and other events.
XING.......................................................................................................................21 But exactly how important are
Pinterest................................................................................................................. 22 these networks for the event
Foursquare.............................................................................................................. 24 industry?
YouTube................................................................................................................. 25 Which networks are used? And what are the ob-
Google+.................................................................................................................. 26 jectives for event organizers in using them? XING
EVENTS, Europes leading tool for online event re-
Last but not least..................................................................................................................... 28 gistration and ticketing, once again this year took
on the challenge of determining how event orga-
The Authors............................................................................................................................. 29
nizers use social media as marketing instruments,
About XING EVENTS Event Registration & Ticketing................................................................... 29 identifying the latest trends and investigating what

Our media partners................................................................................................................... 30

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 Analysis Which social media channels do you use?

Facebook
Welche Social Media Kanle nutzen
How important
Sie? are social networks as
marketing instruments for you as
an event organiser?

YouTube or the like

Twitter
LinkedIn
Google+
Blogs
Flickr or the like

XING
Pinterest
Foursquare
Other
None
Very important

Neutral

Not important at all

of event organisers consider Facebook continues to be the most

social media a very important
marketing instrument.
Social media have permanently changed communi-
cation within the event industry. In order to analyse
their significance for event organisers, we questi-
oned them about the importance of this marketing
instrument for their next campaigns and activities.
It is obvious that the marketing of events by means
of social media has a consistently high significance
within the event industry. of the event
organisers interviewed value social media as a very
important tool. Merely 10% consider social
networks totally unimportant and therefore
unnecessary in their marketing concept.
Conclusion:
The marketing of events by means of social networks
continues to be a very important communication
instrument in the event industry.
important social media channel
Facebook (78%), Twitter (56%) and LinkedIn
(49%) are the three most common social media
channels used to promote events internationally;
In Germany the picture is slightly different:
here organisers predominantly trust Facebook
(81%), XING (68%) and Twitter (50%). Clearly
Facebook is still the most significant network for
organisers, while in the German speaking countries
XING is the most popular professional network.
suited for organising private parties. To maximise the
The popularity of social networks has thus not
changed as compared to the data from the Social
Media & Events Report 2012.
Tip:
To ensure the best results when using social
media it is important to first analyse your target
group in order to choose the most suitable media
channel. The best results are reached when you
concentrate your marketing activities in the target
groups favourite social media channels. To success-
fully increase the reach of a business event for
instance, XING and LinkedIn are the most effective
marketing channels, whereas Facebook is best
reach, a multi platform strategy is recommended.

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3 4
 Which social media platforms would Are you planning on changing your
you like to know more about? social media activities in the future?

Other
Facebook
Google+
Twitter
LinkedIn
YouTube
Pinterest
XING
Blogs
None
Foursquare

Flickr

Activity level will be increased

Activity level to remain unchanged

Activity level will be decreased

Four out of five event organisers are

The major interest still lies in
Facebook, Google+ and Twitter
It is interesting to note that it is the same networks
as in 2012 that still generate the greatest interest.
Most event organisers still want to learn more
about Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
Our study reveals that the most popular social
network channels are Facebook and Twitter.
It can be assumed that most event organisers
see the greatest potential for event marketing in
these networks and therefore have the most
interest in them.
planning to increase their activities
Conclusion:
in the future.
In order to find out how event organisers intend to In 2013 the event industry is focusing even more
change their social media activities in the future. It on social media event marketing. This indicates
is striking that 82% of those interviewed are plan- that many organisers have already implemented
ning on increasing their social media activities. 16% their social media marketing goals and were satis-
dont plan on changing their efforts while only 2% fied with the results. It is reasonable to expect that
are thinking about reducing them. this trend will continue over the next few years.
Compared to last years data, a clear trend is visible.
Last years report already showed that organisers
were building on social media as a marketing
instrument for their events and even in 2012 78%
planned to increase their social media activities.

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5 6

More than half of all organisers
publish between three and ten
posts per week.
Consistent publishing of relevant information in
social networks contributes to the success of social
media campaigns.
It is noticeable that most event organisers publish
up to 3 posts per week; at the top end of the
scale 7% publish more than 25 posts per week. 15%
of those interviewed do not post any information
on social media sites and do not actively use these
channels. This is 4% more than the previous year.
However 85% of all event organisers publish at least
one post per week.
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How much content do you publish What are your social media goals?
weekly in social media channels?
awareness of the brand
channel (to replace email, etc)
of the event
awareness
Increasing
Creating a new information
Increasing customer loyalty
Increasing the
Reducing marketing expenditures
Opening up a new customer
support channel
Generation of leads
Increasing ticket sales
None
Up to 3
Up to 10
Up to 25
More than 25
Increasing event awareness continues
Tip: to be the main goal?
Plan your social media activities in advance and Social media campaigns can pursue different ob- mer loyalty. This shows the continuing priority in
decide which channel is best suited for each jectives. Determine your goals before engaging in these areas but also reveals a shift of significance
content. Coordinating the individual campaigns will social media activities. The survey clearly shows amongst them: this year the importance of event
guarantee you the best results. the main goal is increasing awareness of indivi- marketing has increased significantly compared to
dual events (58%). 49% hope to increase brand brand awareness.
recognition through social media activities. 41%
utilize social media to distribute information and
37% hope to increase customer loyalty. Conclusion:
The main social media objective for organisers is to
It is noticeable that, at the time of the survey in increase awareness. It is important to ensure that
2012, 70% wanted to increase event and brand target group-specific information is spread through
awareness whilst 65% hoped to improve custo- the appropriate channels.
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 In which categories were improvements What are the reasons that prevent
observed? you from using the potential of

Increasing aware-
social media?

ness of the event

Increasing the
awareness of

Lack of time
channel (to replace email, etc)

the brand
Increasing customer loyalty

Content restrictions (risk of legal problems,

Creating a new information
Opening up a new customer support channel

Lack of social media budget

Lack of know-how
Reducing marketing expenditures

Lack of personnel
Inability to measure effectively
Generation of leads

such as copyrights, etc)

Risk of a social media disaster
Increasing ticket sales

Other
Other

The majority of organisers were able Lack of time is the most

to reach their goals. Conclusion: frequent problem. Conclusion:

The survey shows that the main goal was to Both major goals formulated by event organisers What prevents event organisers from reaching their It is evident that event organisers, despite realizing
increase awareness. With 44% of the organisers were also those with the highest percentage of social media goals? The biggest problem in this area the great potential of social media, are still
reaching this goal, it is evident that over 76% of goal achievement. It is likely that this is due to is a lack of time, know-how and staff. unwilling to assign the required time and personnel
organisers who had set themselves this goal were increased measures taken by the organiser in order resources.
successful. 42% stated that they were able to to reach these goals. It is interesting to note that, in 2012, lack of time
increase awareness of their brand by means of social was already the greatest obstacle to reaching
media and 28% were able to improve customer social media goals.
loyalty.

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Only 20% make use of
monitoring tools.
Monitoring of social media campaigns is essential
for any successful social media strategy.
It is noticeable that 39% do not monitor their social
media measures and 41% of organisers dont even
know if they are using monitoring tools at all. No
more than 20% check their social media goals by
means of monitoring tools.
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Do you make use of monitoring
tools, in order to study social media
channels and analyse the success
of your activities?
Yes
Dont know
No
Tip:
The use of monitoring tools is crucial for the
successful implementation of marketing strategies.
This is the only way to verify specific marketing
measures and, if necessary, adapt them accordingly.
cost-free monitoring tools. It is interesting to note
Which monitoring instruments do
you use to monitor your social
media activities?
Free commercial
Paid commercial
External
83% use no-cost monitoring tools Conclusion:
The 20% of event organisers who said they employed Cost-free solutions are predominantly used for
monitoring tools were asked to specify which kind social media monitoring.
of tools they were using. As in the previous years
analysis, most event organisers (83%) are using
that there has been a 4% increase in those using
fee-based tools compared to last year. Compared
to the last two reports these values show a consi-
derable increase of almost 10% in two years. The
biggest change has been in the use of external
tools. Whilst 14% were using these external tools
last year, only 1% are still monitoring their goals in
this way today.
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1. Social media is still an important 3. Increasing event awareness is still
marketing tool
Event organisers still rely heavily on social media
activities when promoting their events. This can
be deducted from the fact that over 80% of event
organisers are planning to increase their social me-
dia marketing measures this year. The most widely
used channels in this area remain Facebook,
Twitter, XING and LinkedIn.
2. Great confidence in Social Media
Marketing
Confidence in the potential of social media mar-
keting has grown again this year. While in 2012
only three quarters of the event organisers were
planning to increase their activities in the future,
this year over 80% intend on enhance their efforts
in this area. The majority of those event organisers
who made use of social media measures the
previous year is pleased with the results.
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The most important findings
The data collected from event organisers and
its comparison with the data from the Social
Media Events Report 2012 reveals several im-
portant insights.
the primary goal
The most important objectives of social media
activities are still to increase awareness of individual
events as well as of the brand. Nearly half (44%)
were able to achieve this, the equivalent of 76% of
the event organisers who had set themselves these
goals. This is the same success rate as event orga-
nisers had in 2012.
4. Lack of time remains to be
biggest problem
As already established last year, the greatest obst-
acles to the implementation of social media mea-
How to:
sures are lack of time and staff. It is interesting to
note that the lack of know-how has now become
just as large a problem as the lack of staff. Event
Social media tips for the event industry
organisers show great confidence in social media
marketing and most of them reach their goals,
but the majority is still not willing to provide the
necessary resources.
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 Checklist of the usage of

Posts based on a strategy social media instruments

and plan
network planning phase during the event after the event

create fanpage, Facebook plan due date evaluate your results

To successfully implement a social media strategy, wait too long. Be sure to post different types of
event and places with publications with the page statistics
its important to incorporate the time and per- content to stay interesting. Yet a happy medi- Facebook Places and adapt your social
sonnel into your business plans and to compose a um should also be sought in terms of the fre- media strategy
publish all information publish pictures and all
social media plan that lays out what will be quency of posting: always keep the dialog
about the event relevant information of publish pictures, videos,
posted and when over a specific period of time. This moving, but do not overwhelm with infor- the event press commentaries
ensures that new content is posted on a regular mation. Give your company a face and and animate attendees
to tag themselves on
basis. The plan should be oriented toward your show your customers how things look,
the event pictures.
other marketing activities and event planning, but behind the scenes by posting photos
nevertheless retain flexibility: if you discover a from everyday life in the office. This publish a thankyou
note for your attendees
current, relevant blog article, you shouldnt wait will give you company character and
too long before sharing it with your channel. bring a sense of an open door policy
and make you more sympathetic.
create a Twitter account create a Twitter wall publication of pictures
Define clear social media objectives: which Kipp Bodnar, a marketing stra- and a hashtag for the and videos
target audience are you seeking to address? tegist at Hubspot, postulated a event
How do you want to present your company? 10-4-1 rule. Dont just promote Twitter themes: Twittergrader
Broadcast hashtag over all Presentations, topics,
How do you react to criticism and other feedback? your own events, but also tho- communication channels schedule changes,
Monitoring tools are recommended to measure se outside your company as well general information,
the success of your efforts. Some are free (such as industry-related content so introduce the event on impressions
TweetMyEvents
as Socialmention, TweetDeck, Wildfire, Klout) that your users find your page
and others are paid commercial products (such as interesting and ultimately sub-
Meltwater Buzz, HootSuite Pro, Trackur). Depending scribe. You should link 10 times create event and post network during connect XING profiles
in appropriate groups the event after event and
on your specific needs, it may be worthwhile to to external content, such as network via XING
invest in a more full-featured tool with greater interesting articles from indust- XING AdCreator
options for investigating the success of your ry bloggers, 4 times to your own
social media strategy. content and one time to your create a Google+ Business create collections measure the success
own homepage. account and upload videos of your event
Post relevant, topical content
implement +1 button on
Involve fans homepage
To keep the attention of your customers focused
on your social media presence for the long run, Your social media strategy will be Video conferences
Google+ Hangouts
it is crucial that you always have current, rele- at its most effective when you in-
vant content posted. This can be interesting blog volve as many people as possible
posts, industry or company news, heads-up about with your entries through comments, create a Pinterest account publish significant publish significant
and create boards pictures and videos pictures and videos
upcoming events, photos from past events, or even Likes, Re-tweets and +1s. The ar-
infographics the key thing is that your target ticles then also appear in the newsfeed review own homepage link pictures with link pictures with
audience feels personally addressed. Its essenti- of friends of your fans, drawing further for adequate picture and keywords keywords
video quality
al that the content be kept up to date. Especial- attention to your brand. You should thus
ly when it involves external content such as blog animate your fans as often as possible to
posts from the industry, its quite likely that other take part: post questions, ask for feedback create an event on hang up posters and delete event
foursquare and link it stand-up-display to
companies from the industry with an overlapping have visitors to one of your event share their
with your Facebook and let people know about
pool of fans will already have posted a link if you photos afterward, for example. This shows Twitter accounts check in possibility
other fans not just the success of the most recent
event, but also awakens interest in future events. create a YouTube channel stream live videos upload highlights in
from the event revised video

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 Network specific tips
Facebook
Facebook is the social network with by far the gre-
atest outreach worldwide. More than 1.1 billion
monthly active users, 25 million in Germany alo-
ne, put it far ahead of networks such as Google+
or Twitter. Another remarkable statistic is the share
of monthly active mobile users: at 751 million they
account for almost 68%.
This is also reflected in the development of likes and
shared content. Daily likes have risen to 4.5 billion,
an increase of 67% compared to the previous ye-
ar (Status: May 2013). The amount of shared cont-
ent has even risen by an astonishing 94% to a total
of 4.75 billion per day over the same time period.
These statistics show plainly the enormous outre-
ach that the top dog among the social networks
has to offer. Thus it is not surprising that the inter-
viewed event organisers see massive potential in
Facebook for promoting their events.
Planning Phase
If you do not have a Facebook fan page yet, then
you should definitely set one up. We suggest cre-
ating individual fan pages for your major events
and event series. Smaller events can be featured
on your companys fan page that eventually alrea-
dy has some likes.
Make use of all the design options Facebook offers
you. An expressive cover photo as well an appea-
ling profile picture will help you create an indivi-
dual Facebook page appearance. Post all relevant
information in the About section. This will be dis-
played to everyone underneath your profile picture.
Here you should also point to your websites imprint
to avoid possible claims of infringement. The first
step to acquiring more likes for your fan page is to
advertise it on your website or in your newsletters.
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If you decide to create a new fan page, then fill
it with life. Facebook lets you date articles in
the past. This way you can publish your com-
panys founding date or other similar
occasions. Articles about import-
ant events can be highlighted as
Milestones on your fan page.
You should now begin to
publish all relevant infor-
mation about your event:
Information about locati-
on, agenda, speakers as
well as links to articles
that your target group
might be interested in. As
you increase the outreach
of your posts primarily through
interaction with your fans, you
should ask them for feedback or even
involve them in the design of your event. En-
quire about those current issues and trends that
your fans are especially interested in and incor-
porate these into your event. Be creative here!
Your event and the way in which it is perceived will
have much more significance if your fans have the
feeling that they are involved in the shaping of it.
In addition to your fan page you should also set up
a Facebook Event for your event.
Create this with your companys profile and ma-
ke use of all design options Facebook has to offer.
Recently Facebook added the option of entering a
ticket-link, so it is now possible to display promi-
nently on your event page where the tickets can
be bought, with a direct link to your ticket shop.
The advantage of a Facebook Event is that, when
they indicate that they are going to your event, at-
tendees automatically broadcast your event among
their friends, thus increasing your outreach.
XING EVENTS allows you to integrate a ticket shop
directly into your fan page. With our easily integ-
ratable Facebook app you have the XING EVENTS
ticket shop for your event right there on your Fa-
cebook page and are thus able to sell your tickets
on the worlds largest social network. In the menu
point Apps, under Settings, youll find the XING
EVENTS Facebook app that allows several small
adjustments. You can change the name of the tab
for the ticket shop - the default name is simply Ti-
ckets. You can also upload your own tab-image.
This is also where you can get the link to your
Facebook ticket shop which you can publish in
your Facebook Event. And so your entire ticket
purchase process takes place in Facebook*.
Facebook also offers fee-based advertising
functions. There is a wide variety of different
Facebook Ad options that are charged accor-
ding to the CPM (cost per mille) or the CPC
(cost per click) principle. For some time now
Facebook has also offered users the chance to
substantially extend the outreach of individual
posts. This is made possible by the feature Boost
Post, which is accessible straight from the post
menu. There you specify, for example, if a post
should be published to your fans and their friends
or you can specify certain target groups. Youll find
a compilation of all Facebooks charged advertising
options on the following website: www.Facebook.
com/advertising
During the event
Publish relevant information while the event is
taking place. This may be useful information for
your on-site attendees. However you should also
be aware of those fans who are not actively ta-
king part but following the event online. Bear in
mind that these might be future attendees of your
events and that this information will also be an ad-
vertisement for your other events.
If you should be too busy to post articles during the
event itself, you can create these in advance and
schedule the time and date they are to be publis-
hed. Facebook gives you this option as soon as you
have specified a creation date.
A helpful tool for Facebook site admins, especial-
ly during an event is the Facebook app Pages Ma-
nager. It allows you to manage your Facebook fan
pages from your smartphone. It handles this much
better than the regular Facebook app.
After the event
After the event it is advisable to share all availab-
le content about the event with your fans. Pictures,
videos, press commentaries as well as a thank you
note are always well-received content for posts.
After your event its important to take time to ana-
lyse your Facebook activities and the associated
success rates. Facebook provides a useful analy-
sis section for this purpose on each fan page, which
provides valuable data about your completed cam-
paigns/activities.
*Experience more about the XING EVENTS Facebook
app at
http://www.xing-events.com/features/facebook-app/.
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 Twitter
The micro blogging platform Twitter is the fastest
growing social network worldwide. By now nearly
500 million accounts are registered and between
200 and 400 million tweets are posted daily.
Twitter can be an outstanding marketing tool for
your events and this in all three stages of event
marketing. Not only because of its reach but al-
so due to the features that set the network apart
from e.g. Facebook.
Planning phase
If you dont already have one, start by setting up
a Twitter account. Remember again to broad-
cast your presence on this micro blogging plat-
form on your website and / or newsletters. This
will make sure you gain new followers fast.
Twitter also offers a follow button that you can in-
tegrate into your website. Familiarize yourself with
this platform. There are many differences between
communication on Facebook and Twitter as for
instance the fact that you may only use 140
characters per tweet.
Decide on a Hashtag for your event early on. Hash-
tags have the advantage that information about
your event is displayed in a bundle and that your
attendees can Twitter about your event using this
hash tag. Your hash tag ought to be short, catchy
and uniquely identify your event. We suggest to
append the current year e.g. #eventname2013
Share all relevant information about your event,
introduce your speakers and point out their
Twitter profiles. This allows the attendees to obtain
comprehensive information about your event.
In order to increase the attention your event is
getting you can raffle off tickets to your event.
Creating raffles is much easier on Twitter than
on Facebook because it has fewer regulations.
Dont forget that the lifespan of a tweet is much
shorter than of a Facebook post. Therefore you
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should post on Twitter much more often than on
Facebook. Identify power users within the group
of attendees as well as within the industry and
attempt to build a network. Power users are extre-
mely active Twitter users with many followers who
may be important promoters for your event. To
ensure the best possible reach: Choose the right
time for your tweets. Ideal is Monday through
Thursday in between 1 and 3 pm. Avoid tweets af-
ter 10 pm or at the weekend (starting Friday 3 pm).
During the event
In a previous research study XING EVENTS
found out that the majority of tweets is pu-
blished during an event. So in order not to
miss any important information or feed-
back and be able to react quickly to inci-
dents a well working monitoring concept is
essential. Observe what attendees post
and save this information. There is no
cheaper or easier way to obtain valuab-
le feedback.
Continue to post about information, changes Monitoring
in the event timetable or special offers of Especially with Twitter monitoring is essential.
your sponsors. Information about your to- You can choose from free and charged tools
pics and highlights are also valuable for inte- depending on your requirements. You will
rested people who could not attend this event. only be able to make use of Twitters full poten-
Regard these efforts as marketing for your next tial with a well functioning monitoring system.
event because anyone following your event is a
potential future attendee. Power users
Identify Power users and establish contact.
For your on-site attendees you could put up a Influential Twitter users can become valuable
Twitter wall that shows all tweets that contain your multipliers for your event. Dont hesitate to
hash tag chronologically. ask for help. Often your speakers will be
influential people with many followers
make use of these opportunities!
After the event
Post pictures, videos and interviews and maybe Length of tweets
provide keynote-presentations to keep your events Twitter allows you to write only 140
popular. Request and collect feedback and save characters this might often seem not to be
the most important social media statistics (Amount enough. Still you should even consider writing
of tweets, Follower, etc.) to be able to reach a even less to make sure your whole tweet is
verdict about your events success. Keep your visible after a retweet.
account interesting by posting external content
that your followers take an interest in. Only by
posting relevant content you will be able to keep
your followers and attract new ones.
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 XING
XING is the largest business network in the DACH
region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland). More than
13 million users world wide, 6.5 of which from
German speaking countries, make use of this
network for their businesses, jobs, and careers.
Events are an important element of XING as they al-
low users to maintain offline business relations. By
integrating the XING EVENTS ticketing tool event
organisers can offer their tickets within the net-
work. But XING offers much more than merely ticket
sales. The diversity of XINGs marketing options
provides great opportunities for event organisers.
Planning Phase
XING demonstrates great potential for event mar-
keting. Make use of all of XINGs capabilities. Post
information about events in your network. Find
relevant XING groups and publish information about
your event in these and then start discussions in
these groups that are relevant to your event. Make
use of this information and include it in your event.
Create groups for large events and invite your at-
tendees.
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This way you can offer your attendees a platform
for networking and for discussing relevant topics
prior to the event. Give your attendees the feeling
that they are directly involved with the organisation.
Let them for instance vote on the topics of
certain talks or open discussions. Be creative as
there are countless ways of attendee participation.
With XING as with other networks it is important
that the relevance and quality of the shared infor-
mation be high.
The full potential of XING unfolds when taking
the event straight into the network. XING lets you
create events and the integration of XING EVENTS
even lets you sell tickets directly on XING. Only by
this can you profit from automatic recommenda-
tions as well as viral network marketing effects. This
way, based on their profile information, your event
is automatically recommended to users who might
be interested. Furthermore users are informed
which of their contacts are attending your event.
If you are using XING EVENTS you can, with just
a click, choose that your event be also listed on
XING.
Another marketing tool for events
is the XING AdCreator. The XING
AdCreator is, above all, a self-
booking tool for advertise-
ments on the business net-
work. You determine your
advertisement budget and
runtime as well as your target
group by individual choice of
sector, interests and region.
These ads are then shown to
all XING users that match your
target criteria. This enables you
to effectively increase your reach
and market your event to relevant tar-
get groups.
Create your event straight on XING or link
During the event your event to your XING account.
Connect with new people through XING. You can
Identify relevant groups to effectively
do this during the event using the XING app. If you
market your event.
created a XING group for your event mention it to
people. A XING group is a good channel to stay
Advertise your event with the XING
connected to your attendees and is also the perfect
AdCreator and significantly increase
platform for your attendees to network and exch-
your reach.
ange among themselves.
After the event
Encourage your new contacts as well as your group
members to provide event feedback. To remain
a talking point you should publish about interesting
topics concerning your events. Use your increased
reach for your next event to market it even
more successful. Event by event you will thereby
also build up your own personal network.
XING is going to increase the marketing possibilities
for event organisers in the upcoming months.
Users will find it easier to discover particular highly
relevant events and event organisers will be able to
make use of the full potential of the business plat-
form for their events.
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22
 Pinterest
Pinterest has been online now for three years and
has already acquired 70 million users. Pinterest is a
kind of social bookmarking service that focuses on
an appealing presentation of pictures and videos
on the web. The platform allows you to pin pic-
tures and videos to your personal board. Pictures
are displayed on these boards that you can cate-
gorise yourself. Every picture or video is displayed
on your board but also links to the source website.
Other users can not only follow various people,
companies and brands but also individual boards
and view the latest pictures. Before choosing
Pinterest for your event you should bear in mind
that 70% of the users are female and that the sha-
re of female active users is even higher.
Planning Phase
If you decide to create a Pinterest account for
your event make sure you are able to supply high
quality pictures and videos. Create boards about
topics that are of interest to your attendees.
It makes sense to create boards about the event
location or about your last events to give poten-
tial attendees a first impression. Publish photos
on your website first before pinning them to your
board. This way you make sure your pictures link to
your website and use Pinterest as a traffic source.
Of course you can also create boards about event
topics and pin for example relevant infographics.
Stay aware of your target group, what they are in-
terested in and what they are looking for.
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23
During the event
Publish significant pictures and videos on Pinterest
during the events that will likely be re-pinned.
Be sure to post these pictures on your other social
media channels. This will also give people who are
not attending the chance to get an impression of
your event. Call attention to your Pinterest profile
and its content to make people follow you.
To avoid legal troubles you should take care only to
pin content you own or have the owners consent.
After the event
Pin your pictures and videos on Pinterest after the
event. Add short descriptions. Make sure these
picture and video descriptions contain keywords,
so search engines will find them. You can also
invite users to pin pictures straight to your board.
Besides this you can search for pictures from your
event and re-pin these to your boards.
Pinterest is certainly not the ideally suited choice
for everyone. However if you do choose to use this
marketing channel, as with any other social media
channel, make sure you use it actively! An aban-
doned profile is usually more of a drawback than
no profile at all.
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24
 Foursquare
Foursquare is a location based social network that
can be used to market locations and events on-si-
te. This location-based service (LBS) has over 30
million users worldwide that have checked in over
3 billion times.
Every user on foursquare can create a profile and
add friends. The software determines the users
location by means of GPS geotagging. Further mo-
re the app allows users to check in at near by places
and share these check-ins with their friends on
foursquare and other social communities such as
Twitter or Facebook.
An event listed on foursquare can thereby gain
popularity instantly by word of mouth advertising.
The new version of the app not only introduces
a new look but also improved functionality. Users
may now get information about close by places
without having to check in first. Furthermore the
application now provides more recommendations
about places near by.
Planning Phase
foursquare allows for successful event marke-
ting by means of LBS and increases popularity by
word of mouth advertisement. Make use of mobile
marketing by adding your event to foursquare
and connecting it to your Facebook and Twitter
account. Promote your foursquare presence online
as well as offline, for instance by fixing the
foursquare button to the entrance door of your
event.
By offering different tips and promotions at diffe-
rent places during the event attendees can check
in at all of these places.
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25
YouTube
During the event
Make sure that you advertise the different check-in
possibility during the event with stickers and stand-
up displays. Reward your attendees for check-ins
and encourage your attendees to check in at
places with as many friends as possible. You could
for instance leave a hint at a stand that there is a
free drink to be had for foursquare users that lo-
gin together with two friends. The more foursquare
-users check in at your event, the more likely is it
that this place shows up as a popular place in the
vicinity of your event.
Many big companies try to encourage their
attendees to check in at their events. Nokia for
instance had a soft drink vending machine that
would dispense a free drink after a successful
check-in at their booth.
After the event
Make sure you assess the success of your event With more than four billion visitors per day, During the event
afterwards. Check the amount of attendees that YouTube continues to be the largest and most YouTube lets you stream live videos and capture
checked in and which places were especially important video website worldwide. The viral the emotions of your event. Bear in mind to acti-
popular. This way you will learn what to improve at impact Google`s website possesses is immense. vate the Live-Stream Player. To achieve the largest
your next event. Various artists, such as the South Korean rapper possible reach you should publish them in all your
Psy with his hit single Gangnam Style became over social media channels. Find relevant tags for your
night celebrities due to this social media channel. videos so they will be found.
At http://business.foursquare.com/ you can YouTube is an important social media channel for After the event
create and manage a business profile. If you promoting events because of its enormous reach. Compile a video of the highlights or release an
run an event location you can register the image video with organiser and guest commentaries
place once and then need only to list the va- Planning Phase after the event. In doing so attendees as well as
rious events on foursquare. In the planning phase you should inform peop- interested people will have another chance to view
le about your event early on. Upload interesting the highlights of your event.
At https://vimeo.com/62289901 you can videos such as an image video or videos of previ-
view how many people check in daily on ous events. Ensure to link your channels to your
foursquare in New York and Tokyo. other social media sites. Tip:
Check the comments on your videos to improve
the videos of future events.
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26
 Google +
With currently 500 million users Google+ is beco-
ming increasingly important for the marketing of
events. Despite rising member numbers Google+
was unable to overtake Facebook. The US user
spends an average of 3 minutes on Google+ per
month while spending 7 hours on Facebook. For a
successful event marketing campaign one ought to
make use of both social media networks.
The management of data is very simple on
Google+: e-mail addresses and mobile numbers of
non-Google users are also storable in a contact list.
Planning Phase
Create an informative Google+ business site prior
to the event. Add important industry members to
your profile and divide your contacts into groups.
These groups allow you to address specific individual
groups and ensure they receive only target group re-
levant information. To make your event well-known
beforehand you should integrate an +1 button into
your website. This gives interested visitors the op-
portunity to share your event with their network in
advance. Google+ possesses an event option. Invite
your attendees prior to the event and customise the
event page with pictures, videos and link it to your
Google calendar.
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27
During the event
For interested people that are following your event
from home you should share photos and videos on
Google+. The Google+ application allows sharing
of pictures, videos and info graphics conveniently
from mobile devices. It is also possible to participate
at conferences or seminars by means of Google
Hangouts.
After the event
You may share all relevant photos with your
attendees and use your profile to inform them about
coming events as early as possible.
Last but
Tip:
To make sure your event receives a high Google
not least
ranking you should have as many Google+ fol-
lowers as possible. When searching for your
event Google uses information from your circles.
Therefore you should manage your account well
and add as many contacts as possible.
We are delighted to be publishing our third Social This year we are looking again for success stories,
Media & Events Report this year. We hope that suggestions and good examples of social media
we have once again been able to demonstrate the marketing in the event industry for future reports.
importance of social media as a marketing inst-
rument in the event industry. On the basis of the We look forward to your feedback:
survey and the resulting analysis we have illustra- reports@xing-events.com
ted the developments which have taken place in
social media in recent years. Using various diffe-
rent examples, as well as offering tips and tricks on
the best possible use of social media tools we have
attempted to show the most advantageous ways of
promoting events using social media.
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28

Sandro Spiess
Senior Inbound Marketing Manager
sandro.spiess@xing.com
About XING EVENTS
XING EVENTS offers event organisers of conferences
and seminars the best event management software
for online event registration and ticketing. As an expert
in the event industry XING is a competent consultant
when it comes to the subject of attendee management
as well as event marketing.
As of now more than 180,000 conferences, seminars
and corporate events around the world value XING
EVENTS as their partner. As an industry authority we
will assist you in all matters concerning online ticke-
ting as well as event registration. The leading expert
for business events is a 100% subsidiary of XING AG.
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Authors Our media partners
At this point we would like to thank our media partners. Their help allowed us to build our
Social Media & Events Report on a solid foundation and enabled us to achieve even better results.
CIM Conference & Incentive Management
CIM is the business journal for the convention,
incentive and event industries, focusing on current
topics, trends and technologies in the meeting and
incentive business, as well as on well-targeted
event-marketing both globally and locally. CIM
addresses decision-makers and planners of events
in companies, agencies and associations. For many
years its competent and independent journalists
have built a reputation for their critical reflections
Myriam van Alphen-Schrade
on industry topics.
Marketing & PR Manager www.cimunity.com
myriam.schrade@xing.com http://www.Facebook.com/cimunity
Corbin Ball Associates
Corbin Ball, CSP, CMP, MS is an international
speaker, consultant and writer.
www.corbinball.com
This close collaboration with XING, the social network ESB European Sponsoring Marketplace
for professionals, allows event organisers to reach more An international network with over 230 specialised
than 13 million additional potential attendees. agencies and consultants in all sponsorship and
event marketing areas. An internet exchange with
sponsorship projects from Germany, Austria and
Switzerland. Alongside the ISPO Sports Business
Summit ESB hosts the KulturInvest Congress
(focusing on sponsoring and culture) and the sport.
forum.schweiz in Lucerne. ESB provides knowledge
for professional careers in the sponsoring industry.
Beginners and professionals use day-seminars and
courses to learn about Sponsoring-Management
and Event-Management. Studies, publications and
the sponsoring-evaluation-tool Sponsor-Meter
complete the portfolio.
http://www.esb-online.com/
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 events-magazine
events the management magazine for the meetings
industry has fortified its position as a reputable
magazine for meetings, conventions, events and
incentives. This independent magazine with a print
run of 16.000 five times a year with an additional
special issue calls on decision makers domestic
as well as foreign, organisers of the meeting and
event industry as well as enforcers of the event
industries such as German speaking incentive
agencies and international associations.
www.events-magazine.de
Frenchweb
FrenchWeb.fr is a French magazine by professional
digitals. Creating a community of 24.000 experts
and businessmen. Find topics such as: news, data,
research studies, interviews, video reports and
podcasts. French web also offers various services:
a specialized job market for the digital trade, work-
shops @ Frenchweb, formations @Frenchweb an
Agenda, all Web-events as well as CLUB Frenchweb.
www.frenchweb.fr
HORIZONT
Newspaper for marketing, advertisement and media
The weekly paper HORIZONT dealing with all topics
of the modern marketing communication: covering
marketing concepts, trends and tendencies in the
agency business and developments in classical and
interactive media.
Furthermore HORIZONT informs about career possi-
bilities in the communication industry.
www.horizont.net
ICCA
ICCA represents the main specialists in organising,
transporting and accommodating international
meetings and events, and comprises over 950
member companies and organisations in 88
countries worldwide. ICCA specialises in the
international association meetings sector, offe-
ring unrivalled data, communication channels, and
business development opportunities.
www.iccaworld.com
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INTERNET WORLD BUSINESS
Internet World Business is the leading bi-weekly
Business Magazine for internet professionals in
Germany. Main topics are eCommerce, online mar-
keting and backoffice solutions for internet com-
panies. The magazineis focussed on strategies, so-
lutions the latest trends in this industry. Published
since 2005 with a current circulation of 18,000
copies, Internet World Business reaches more than
40,000 readers in Germany, Austria and Switzer-
land.www.internetworld.de
tw tagungswirtschaft
tw tagungswirtschaft as a professional business
publication is a reliable partner for MICE deciders.
It features an extensive variety of information and
thus is an efficient support instrument for planning
and organizing meetings, conventions, congres-
ses and events. TW offers inspiration for readers
as well as real-life support.
In addition, tw tagungswirtschaft presents suc-
cessful case examples, analyses on-going research
and university projects, conducts own studies and
provides in-depth background reports while at the
same time narrating stories, awakening interest
and triggering emotions.
www.tw-media.com
Veranstaltungsplaner
The association of German event organisers has
more than 650 members and is thus the largest
national interest group. Here organisers of major
DAX companies, medium sized companies
and event agencies get together and focus on
networking, experience exchange as well as further
education. The association of German event
organisers is a central networking platform.
www.veranstaltungsplaner.de
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32
 Sources:
http://www.medienrot.de/social-media-marketing-die-trends-des-jahres-2013/
21th June 2013

http://www.wallstreetjournal.de/article/SB10001424127887324577904578559050001311288.html
21th June 2013

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/soziales-netzwerk-google-plus-meldet-millionen-nutzer-1.1544217
21th June 2013

http://www.socialmediastatistik.de/category/twitter/
21th June 2013

http://blog.de.twitter.com/2013/05/immer-am-ball-beim-jahrhundertfinale.html
5th June 2013

http://www.internetworld.de/Nachrichten/Medien/Social-Media/Google-Plus-Mehr-als-500-Millionen-Mit-
glieder-und-2-neue-Funktionen-72063.html
10th June 2013

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/neues-design-fuer-google-netzwerk-wie-google-plus-Facebook-ko-
piert-1.1330919
10th June 2013

http://blogs.faz.net/netzwirtschaft-blog/2012/07/03/foursquare-will-mehr-sein-als-spielerei-gespraech-
mit-ceo-dennis-crowley-3272/
12th June 2013

https://de.foursquare.com/about/
12th June 2013

http://www.performance-marketing.at/social-media-marketing/foursquare-als-marketingplatform-fur-un-
ternehmen-teil-1/
12th June 2013

http://www.gruenderszene.de/marketing/youtube-marketing
12th June 2013

(http://investor.fb.com/results.cfm)
13th June 2013

(http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/17/Facebook-growth/)
13th June 2013

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