Social Media Networks as an Effective Way to Promote Events

Introduction

The need for the socialization of people is shaped in line with the opportunities offered by the world. Man, who is a social being, chooses within these possibilities to spend his leisure time. Leisure activities of people have moved away from the classical holiday perception and turned to the point of trying the difference. New destinations and innovations that will create an attractive element in people’s leisure time have become the reason for the preference for people who have tried the classic holiday concept which is comprised of the sea, sand and sun. In this context, people sometimes prefer to participate in various activities to spend their limited time and in variety-seeking behavior (Quan and Wang, 2004). The change in consumer expectations has enabled providers to take action to meet these expectations. At this point, events and festivals are one of the most important touristic attractions of a destination (Getz and Page, 2016). Moreover, destinations come to the forefront with the events they organized, creating a successful brand and having some important competitive advantage between rival destinations.

With the technological advancement, people have an idea instantly about a destination away from where they are today and get valuable information about tourist destinations or tourism business. When it is considered that this technological advancement has enormous impacts on destination and event promotion, social media networks have played an important role in tourist decision about visiting a tourist destination or attending an event held in a particular location. Instant information sharing and interacting with other users are realized with social media tools. In recent years, the interest in social media networks, which is an important branch of Web 2.0 technologies has been increasing.

People from all age groups create profiles on various social media networks so as to interact with others. These profiles have been frequently posted comments towards retrospective or with instant sharing. Some high-follower profiles play a promotional role, like a publication with high circulation, with interactions, likes and comments. It is seen as an efficacious element in many aspects that people carry it to the virtual world while socializing in the real world. In a way, this situation can also be considered as the elimination of distances. With the same perspective, social media has a great influence on the promotion of special events. Social media, which provides direct access to consumers, also forms the basis for creating an effective marketing strategy based on user comments. In this context, this chapter focuses on obtaining an in-depth understanding of the relationship between social media applications and event promotions. Moreover, this chapter aims to reveal how social media applications can be used to promote tourism events. In the chapter prepared in this line, social media platforms that can be used in the promotion of events and festivals will be discussed conceptually based on the existing literature. Subsequently, it will be discussed how social media networks can be used as a promotional strategy tool for the event industry. Finally, some practical implications will be presented for event marketers and organizers about using social media tools for building strategies for event promotions.