The Impact of Social Media on Small Scale Live Events and the Potential of Its Use by Live Music Organisers

1. Background

Representing a vast amount of songwriters, record labels and studio producers the UK music industry consists of industry groups like Association of Independent Music a non profit trade body, British Phonographic Industry who’s members include the likes of major record labels Sony Music Uk, Warner Music Uk and Universal Music Uk. With members altogether accounting to 85% of all music sold in the UK. Seeing the Music industry contribute £4.4 Billion total gross added value to the UK economy with 142,208 total UK employment sustained by music in 2016. (Report, 2017)

Music festivals involving, music artists, dancers, Dj’s and sometimes many different acts, are involved in festivals and events promoting their albums, charities and many different types of globally recognised labels and promotions. Many people of various ages are attracted to these events and sometimes travel from abroad as well as domestically to support the various acts and charities. Whilst there are many different music festivals and events that take place at various times of the year in the United Kingdom as well as globally around the world, the research conducted in this literature will demonstrate the use of social media by organisers of these live events.

 Whilst we are aware that social medias relevance in modern society we understand that it is one that is not easily measured. According to statistics an estimated 2.34 billion people worldwide use social media. Since the evolution of social media and its role in todays society. Music is in the top three most talked about topics on twitter.

Social media proves to be beneficial for companies and events. Previous studies have shown that the role of industry professionals such as venues, promoters and artist managers to be an integral part. Formed as a variety of such, blogs, forums, business networks, photo-sharing platforms, social gaming, microblogs and chat apps.

The music industry has since had to adapt to the new phenomenon, leading to a majority of online sales, becoming more accessible to the worldwide market, whilst third parties such as file sharing and video sites have excelled in the competitive industry (Roblett, 2017).  A survey conducted by UK’s national tourism agency found that the music industry attracted up to 31 million tourists in 2014 whilst VisitBritain found that up to 44% of inbound tourists considered music to be key British cultural activity.

1.1 The Internet and Social Media

Shorts, Williams and Christie concluded in 1976 that media with a higher degree of social presence was seen to have a personal level of interaction as opposed to media with a lower degree of social interaction (Walther and Parks, 2002). Continuing on into 1985 Lairds, research into the Sensory Stimulation Theory, they found 75 percent of information held by adults was learned through seeing (Brookes, 2017).

Famously known a ‘short summary of the World Wide Web project’ was emailed by Tim Berners – Lee on August 6th, 1991. “The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to make an easy but powerful global information system. The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by support groups.

The WWW world consists of documents, and links. Indexes ae special documents that, rather than being read, may be searched. The result of such a search is another (‘Virtual’) document containing links to the documents found. A simple protocol (‘HTTP’) is used to allow a browser program to request a keyword search by a remote information server.” Manu

The World Wide Web has continued to revolutionaries the aspect of normal day to day activities for many individuals and businesses worldwide. Used by millions of individuals around the world every day for a multiple selection of reasons the internet today has grown significantly to continue to reach its full potential (Furedi, 2015). Known as the first stage of the web, Web 1.0 in other words the “read – only’ web is an integration of software providing a limited user integration system thus allowing users to search and read retrieved data, without leaving room for users to provide feedback, comments or reviews.

The second generation of the web, Web 2.0 on the other hand dubbed the “read – write” web allows users to interact with relevant sources, giving them the ability to contribute, but not limited to content such as feedback and reviews (Choudhury, 2014). Social media a distribution of networks has in modern society shifted the way individuals are connected with be it, friends, family, employers or co workers (Schroeder, 2018). The Internet and Social media are both extremely powerful tools, providing both informative and interactive communication avenues with virtual platforms allowing users to interact with others and share media files not to mention the predominant role played by both elements in the strategic marketing of a company or business (Connolly, 2014).

1.2 Live Events and Management

Proving to play a predominant role not only in society but also government and economic growth. The live music events scene’s total audience that attended in the UK, amounted to 30.9 million people in 2016 alone with a total of 12.5 million of attendees being music tourists from abroad (Ukmusic, 2014). The live events scene has been a historical one dating far back into the 20th century. Traditionally music listeners discovered new music, event details and news ect. via the forms of i.e word of mouth, flyers and the radio.

Today, social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others have revolutionised the music industry with music blogs and online music services enabling the consumption of digital songs being made available to users by other users (Zucker, 2015). Music streaming networks such as Spotify provides access to 300 million different songs, across different genres accessible via specially curated playlists to its 140 million active users worldwide, with more than 60 million being premium subscribers.

Research previously conducted in regards to social media in terms of generalised small businesses suggested that there must be clear knowledge on the businesses targeted clientele and a clear view of the market. The research also found that many small businesses focus heavily on local clientele thus resulting in less opportunity to broaden the business beyond its region (Stockdale et al, 2012).

The large live music events sector has integrated well to the adaptation of data collection, event promoting and experience enhancing by creating social media chain reactions, sneak previews and exclusive competition on various social media platforms (Fotis, 2015). With Glastonbury festival in the UK having over 500 thousand Facebook followers from around the world, the festival’s organisers and promoters post various media content with descriptions to keep fans, followers updated whilst also using it as a platform to attract new audience. Many festivals such as Coachella festival in Los Angeles, Bamboozle festival in New Jersey and numerous others have had to adapt to this phenomenon.

1.3 Aims of Research

The main objective towards conducting this research is to define social medias impacts on small live events. Whilst also creating a clear picture into the effectiveness of social media in strategic management and or its potential that could be found given the full use of social media by organisers in the sector, together by providing an internal perception from attendees themselves. This study will focus on all concepts which equally make up towards the overall objective of this paper these being as follows but not limited to, given the scope of method applied; Social media in marketing and how organisers interact with their attendees and consumers in terms of events dates, artist information etc.

1.4 Rationale

Whilst there is literature in the field of how social media is used by large music festival organisers and other businesses including how it has impacted the terms of buyer and attendee behaviour. Speaking primarily of the large events’ use of the networking system in these previous studies, there is little research conducted into providing a detailed insight of the use of social media with in small sectored live music events and its organisers. Leaving very little to no understanding of the business potential which lies between social media and small scaled live events. Understanding the live events management strategic structure if one, will create an understanding towards the current use of social media by management and its business potential in small scaled live events.

Given the history of growth in social media use with businesses and individuals in the past, present as well as the future this study in addition will help by providing an internal incite to how social media is used by event attendees thus creating a relationship enabling an avenue to implement new strategies by small live event organisers. Research will be used to identify key issues and variables within social media and its attachment with small scaled live events, Using explanatory research to identify the reason behind how and why attendees use social media in regards to their participation with music festivals and what business potential there is for social media and small scaled live events (Alexander, 2001).

2. Literature Review

The objective of this literature is to examine the current literature on the use of social media by small scaled live music event organisers and consumers and the impact produced by social media to either or the events industry and its attendees.  Current research conducted predominantly focuses on (1)the definition, and its terminology and concepts which make up its foundation, (2) the manipulation of consumer emotion at a wider context, (3) the impacts of social media uses and benefits. (Paquette, 2013)

2.1. The use of social media by live event organisers to promote events and engage with attendees

According to statistics produced by Statista, 68.3 percent of internets users were social media users. Therefore accounting up to 2 billion people, they found 55 percent used social media to stay in touch with friends and up to date with what they were doing and 41 percent of users using it to stay up to date with new a current events.

Social media creates an avenue for live music event organisers the ability to directly market events, products and promotions to individuals based on, for example, interests of different topics on Facebook, to the genre playlist types on Spotify, potential customers are kept informed based on their selected preferences. Platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat and more have a big influence on an individuals experience, by giving them an opportunity to express their thoughts and opinions or adventures and life achievements with possibly like minded people and/or fans (Roblett, 2017).

Playing a major role in the scope of digital marketing social media can be used and quite commonly is used and quite commonly is used to increase cusomter loyalty and increase repeat purchases through customer retention. Having strong content is an extremely important element on social media, and is key to leveraging all important algorithms. Searching for content that is relevant to its user, algorithms are a crucial element to social networks. Google attempts to match relevant content to the search intent of the user, whilst platforms such as Facebook us personal data and behaviour patterns to determine relevancy of content. These are what then help make platforms more engaging to its users. Business who are able to leverage these algorithms have the ability to generate maximum reach and influence.

However, whilst the use of social media is vital in online marketing in modern history, some platforms minimise organic reach of business pages content, leading them to pay for advertisements and promotions which can sometimes be beyond a company’s budget (Jodie, 2013). Music events and festivals have continued to gain more recognition, with organisers creating social media chain reactions. Allowing attendees to “Like” and “Share” the events page and or details post purchase of tickets to events with their followers, and at the same time, keeping them up to date with latest announcements, sneak previews and exclusive competitions and opportunities via platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (Solaris, 2018). Organisers of the Lollapalooza Festival in Chicago where able to attract a buzz of excitement surrounding the festival through the use of hashtag feature on Twitter, the hashtag was used to promote the festival by using lyrics of performing artists on advertising spaces on public transport. By implementing the hashtag strategy thus using a similar tactic and result to that produced by word of mouth.

2.2. The use of social media to enhance attendee buyer behaviour

The Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM3) used by Pookulangara and Koesler (2011) to look at the impact of culture on social media. Through a conceptual framework the researchers created a research model using TAM3, whited aiming to determine wether an individuals cultural background influences how a message is interpreted.

Based on the research model, the researchers concluded that culture does in fact have a large influence on how individuals act and perceive an event and its contents via technology based applications, in this case social media, they stated that a new culture had been created via the evolution of new rituals and communication tools (Paquette, 2013).

The 2012 American Express Global Customer Barometer found consumers who used social media fro service in fact held the greatest amount of influence. The results of the survey found that a user of social media is likely to tell up to 42 other people about a positive experience thus having more than four times the influence as opposed to an individual who does not use social media for customer service. Having been recognised as the top festival of the year since 2011, by Billboard Boxscore. Coachella grossed a total of $114.6 Million in 2017 whilst seeing 125,000 attendees per weekend showing a significant jump in growth from a decade ago in 2007 whereby the festival revenue gross was reported at $16 Million with 62,000 attendees over the weekend (Brooks, 2017). Marking its 20th anniversary in 2019 Coachella tickets

Collaborating with well known brands creating creative marketing campaigns, influenced potential and current consumers using innovative brand awareness techniques. Three major companies, American Express, Revolve Clothing Company and Lokai Bracelets gain increased positive brand exposure. As Coachella’s official sponsor American Express’s aim is to drive awareness on the perks available to members who register on the Coachella’s app using their AMEX logins. Using predominantly high profiled influencers such as the likes of Adam Gallagher, Patrick Jangle and many others.

Coachella’s aim was to bring awareness to the services used by their mobile applications which include exclusive offers such as vip access, prizes and free tickets to Coachella 2017, by posting photos with the hashtag #AmexExpress. The American Express campaign reached over 15million individuals through 3 different social media platforms. Overall the campaign generated up to 139 thousand likes, over four hundred comments via platforms, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Mediakix, 2017).

A study on social media interactions with tourism brands, specifically focused on how music festival brands affected a consumers perception of the brand. Leading to answer as to how those interactions affect the desired marketing outcome. Researchers of the study sought to answer the following two predominant questions:

To what extent does social media interaction affect consumers emotional attachment with festival brands? and

Do stronger brand relationships cultivated though social media interaction, enhance the willingness to recommend the brand?

Researchers conducted an online survey which would take participants 10 – 15 minutes to complete. They hired a company research firm who was given responsibility in identifying and contacting specifically music festival attendees. Using quota-type sampling scheme, where as opposed to random sampling, it requires representative individuals to be chosen from within a specific sub-category. They used this method to enable a fairly equal number of participants who do and do not use social media.

Respondents were first asked to identify out of a list of festivals, ones they had attended in the past year and then asked to identify their favourite one. The remaining questions were based solely on the individuals social media activity swell as their brand feelings and behaviours relating specifically to the participants favourite brand of music festival. A ten-item scale developed by Thomson et al 2005 which was used to measure the strength of consumers emotional attachments to brands. The results found that social medial did in fact have a significant influence on the emotions and attachments to festival brands, whilst in addition it found that social media based relationships would lead to positive out comes such as positive word of mouth feedback.

2.3. Social medias role in the improvement of information regarding special events, offers and services

With social media positively coinciding with the live music event scene, hidden away in multiple London side streets, beneath railway arches and hidden basements and more, many small events showcase new music swell as artists and talent. Leaving room to question how small scaled live music event organisers are using these methods to communicate with their attendees at a wider reach?

Both Glastonbury Festival and Coachella Festival are two very large festivals, but whilst situated in two continents, use an appropriate degree of presence on their social media networking sites. This leads to increasing customer satisfaction using photo and video sharing capabilities. Being one of the biggest festivals in the UK, the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is held annually on a farm in Somerset, England and attracts up to 175,000 people each year with an estimated 200,000 attendees in 2017 (Midgley, 2017).

The festival Facebook page has over 630 thousand Facebook followers over 3 continents, with the majority of fans being UK based totalling 54.6%, Mexico following second place with 5.2 percent, the US with 4.0 percent, Italy 2.7 percent and other not specified countries 33.5 percent. Organisers use the social media platform Facebook to post photos and videos with descriptions and links to more. The majority of updates are then liked and shared amongst various platforms via links and shared amongst various platforms via links, which also include youtube videos. Also having an up to date Facebook event page for the festival where fans from various locations can join and discuss past, present and future events.

Using Twitter similarly to Facebook, organisers annually announce the first line up act to the five day event, with an additional two profiles active only during event seasons. The ‘live account’ which reports live details from the festival keeping people thoroughly connected, and the ‘help/info account’ which is used to answer questions asked by users, these questions range from stage act times, parking restrictions, to problems that may have incurred prior during or post events. With quick responses providing detailed information for/and solutions (Us and Hebberd, 2017).

Coachella issued RFID wristbands to its attendees allowing them to link their Facebook accounts, festival organisers placed social check-in scanners at each stage allowing festival goers the ability to simply wave their wristbands and automatically check-in on Facebook with the act they are watching. This strategic marketing plan leads to potential consumers hearing about the event. Facebook users also gain access to enter prize draws, special prizes and VIP passes (Roblett, 2017).

A survey conducted by statista.com giving answers from business marketers and whether the use of social media benefited their business or not. 89 percent stated increased exposure, 75% said it increased traffic, 68% developed new fans. What business potential is there between social media and small scaled live events?.

2.4. The Impact of Social Media in Live Music Events

The UK’s knife crime epidemic has sawn among children and young adults and is at a 40 year high, with 38 out of 44 police forces in England and Wales reporting an increase. With the power of social medias wide accessibility and high use by teenagers and young adults, debates have arisen with the argument of social media being used by gang members and rappers to sending messages via music videos on youtube, thus resulting in gang violence. Uk drill music, which can be considered to contain violent and often explicit lyrical content has brought up the question of wether it is to be blamed for the recent surcharge in stabbings amongst the young (Shingi Mararike, 2018).

An investigation into this allegation by The Sunday Times resulted in the findings to say Mc’s used social media to share and taunt their rivals with lyrical spats thus resulting to real life irreversible violence. Questioning whether if music is a reflection of the environment or does it shape it? Can it be distinguished fact from reality?

Referring to a violent knife crime lyric, drill DJ Bempah argued: “If thats what you see in your environment, as an artist, that’s what you portray in your lyrics, music can glamorise violent crime, but it can’t force your hands to commit those actions.” (Beaumont-Thomas, 2018). After attending the Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey, Ashbury Park in 2012 Greg Parmely, Chief information officer for Intellitix explained, that the use of ‘Radio Frequency Identification’ (RFID) wristbands had significantly impacted against fraudulent ticket purchases.

The technology saw a huge cut in the festival cues whilst festival goers were able to interact with the festival at a more personal level with the wristbands allowing them to post statuses of their current locations within the festival perimeter. The wristbands gave attendees the opportunity to win prizes upon the collection of points and also make payments for refreshments and souvenirs (Remling, Gebrehiwet, 2012). The RFID works with a microchip being embedded into the wristbands, cards or badges thus using similar technology to London’s Oyster card for public transportation they communicate with a scanner via a radio signal allowing the control of anything from entry to purchasing. (Tech, 2017)

The system is widely used at concerts in North America with the use of the system continuing to reach Europe, with its first use being in The Netherlands, Eurosonic Noorderslag festival in Groningen early 2012. The Uk’s first multi-day festival to use wristbands was Wakestock in July 2012, with other large festivals such as Wireless and the Isle of Wight Festival shortly following (Crookes, 2012).

Said by Tony Blair, ’The demand for information to be condensed in up to 20 second sound bites can be very difficult. But to be able to be an effective communicator you must be able to condense complex items down to the core and be able to do so quickly.’

James Karl Buck, a Journalism student at the university of California was detained on 10 April 2008 whilst taking photographs during a political protest in the Egyptian city of Mahalla. Buck was able to quick thinkingly send out a message via social networking site twitter. The message he sent out was a simple message, containing the word “Arrested”. This was seen by an egyptian network colleague who was studying abroad in Berkeley, including many others.

This lead them to take action including to contact egyptian authorities as well as UC-Berkeley thus hiring a local legal counsel. Within 24 hours he was released and shared a tweet via Twitter simply stating the nature of his situation, “Free”. Stone, co founder of twitter said “ It highlights the simplicity and value of a real time community network that follows you wherever you go.” (Simon, 2008)

To conclude, the following chapter has critically analysed how social media is used by some of the biggest festivals in the live music industry critically analysed how some of the biggest music festivals use social media to promote their events, based on existing literature. The following chapter will continue to analyse the methods of research that will be used to define this phenomenon within the small scaled live music industry.

Whilst previous findings are proved to have been focused highly on the larger live music event scene, providing knowledge of the greater business prospects and achievements attained thus however, leaving a gap in the literature to discover the full potential to be obtained with this powerful element of modern society within the small scaled events and its vital organisers. How is social media used by small scaled events organiser in the UK to reach it greatest business potential? and How can these major elements be brought together to providing a safe environment in the UK?

2.5 Research Purpose

Research previously conducted has found that small event organisers tend to focus on the usual local clientele when promoting events, this research will create an understanding as to how social media can be used for attracting a much larger audience without having to alter its current setting. Finally with studies finding nearly 3 billion people world wide use social media in one way or another. The purpose of this paper is to distinguish the effectiveness and impact of social media within the small live events scene.

3. Methodology

The methodology chapter will discuss the process in which the study consists of following in the basis of collecting data for the intended purpose. This can include both present and historical information as demonstrated in the following details.

3.1 Research question

Research Question 1: Is social media used by small live event organisers to engage with attendees and is it being used to the best of its business potential?

Hypothesis 1: There is a need for significant or meaning full relationships between organisers use of social media and customer engagement and buyer behaviour process.

Research Question 2: Has the role of social media in marketing affected the small live events industry?

Hypothesis 2: Social media marketing is vital in the growth of small live events, however can proving to sometimes be costly in the advertisement of information to wider audience selection.

3.2 Research Philosophy

This research philosophy consists of a positivists approach, this whereby is the belief that factual knowledge is in fact gained through observation (the senses) including measurement and is in fact trustworthy.

Positivism is a position in the philosophy of science that emphasises the importance of observation for the growth of knowledge, and thus considers the measurement of phenomena as central to the development of understanding (Fox, N.J. 2008). Positivism depends on quantifiable observations that lead to statistical analysis noting, “As a philosophy, positivism is in accordance with the empiricist view that knowledge stems from human experience.” Using a deductive approach which is aimed at testing theory, this research will look at how social media (independent variable) has impacted the  small live music events scenes (dependent variable) through the perspectives of event attendees (participants). Research will also examine whether social media (independent variable) is being used to it full potential by organisers (dependent variable) given the knowledge of its use in todays marketing realm.

3.3 Research Design

In contrary to a mixed methods approach which is carried out “By combining multiple observers, theories, methods, and empirical materials, researchers can hope to overcome the weakness or intrinsic biases and the problems that come from single-method, single-observer, single-theory studies. Often the purpose of triangulation in specific contexts is to obtain confirmation of findings through convergence of different perspectives. The point at which the perspectives converge is seen to represent reality”(Alexander, 2001). Data in this study will be gathered in numerical form which can then be put into categories. For this purpose the collection of quantitative data used measurement questions in order to distinguish small live music event attendees and or its followers will be presented via the instrumental use of structured interviews.

A set of questions in the format of questionnaire/survey will be formed via web based Google Forms and presented to the target population for this study which consists of social media users and randomly picked individuals in the researchers contact list as well as comparing relevant secondary research, using previously completed studies and statistics from academic journals, companies, ect.

3.4 Conceptual Framework

This study will use non-probability sampling, specifically convenience sampling to analyse the effectiveness of social media’s use by event organisers on event attendees and whether it has an impact on the business marketing element (Schleusener, 2010). Convenience sampling gives a relative advantage towards the aspect of time and money in the collection of data. and enables the collection of data from respondents in which they are selected by their convenience of accessibility and proximity to the researcher.

Researchers of pilot studies are able to obtain basic data and trends regarding the specified study by therefore avoiding the complications of using a randomised sample (Stanton and Rogelberg, 2001). This study has adopted two questions in which are considered part of quota sampling method which will require participants to be aged over 18 thus requiring them to state their age group followed by another method to categories the gender. Forming grounds to specify so that the results are analyzed and a more specific demographic could be reached.

The Social presence theory developed in 1976 by Short, Williams and Christie, researchers whom focused on contrasting the attitudes of individuals and different communication medias including face-face, audio and video with the aim to explain the effect that telecommunications media can have on communication. They found that the degree of social presence would play a vital factor in how individuals interact. Based on their research they concluded that media via the form of visual content such as photographs and videos had a higher degree of social presence, whilst media in the form of audio or just words was considered to have a lower degree of social presence. However upon there research they also established that

3.5 Data Collection and Analysis Method

In this study, Quantitative data method was formed using Google Forms online survey creator, primarily focusing on the relationship between social media event attendees and their relationship with social media and small live events. To enable the researcher to examine how much understanding respondents have about a specific topic at a wider context, via the use of web based self administered questionnaires (Skaife, 2019).

This study will contain four 5 Point Likert type frequency scales which will measure frequency of social media use as well as their engagement with small live music events on social media (Mcleod, 2008). Two 3 Point Likert type likeliness scales measuring likeliness of attendance based on the use of social media by events. Using fixed choice response formats, Likert type scales developed in 1932 and are designed to measure attitudes and opinions (Bowling, 1997; Burns, & Grove, 1997).

One multiple question will be used to distinguish the social media engagement element that is considered vital by attendees. Three close ended questions where used for purposes such as to establish respondents into a demographic and their views on social medias use by small live event organisers. Two open ended questions are used to to distinguish where most respondents are informed about small live music events, whereby creating a link between the current use by organisers and the possible missing elements to improve their reach strategies. The questions will also give respondents the opportunity to leave suggestions on how organisers could use social media to engage with attendees more, creating an external view on the us towards reaching its full potential.

The use of open and close ended will be used to measure the accuracy of respondents interpretation of questions presented (Martin, 2004). These questionnaires were distributed on to well known social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat to maximise response rate and widen the range of networks from 13 April until 24 April 2019. Research was conducted to identify the reason behind how and why attendees use social media in regards to their participation with music festivals and what business potential there is for social media and small scaled live events. (Alexander, 2001) This is so that a richer explanation behind the role of social media and its attendees can be reached.

3.6 Validity and Reliability

This study will be using content validity where the method will seek to answer to whether the current test covers all relevant items needed to answer the research question. Given the use of multiple style questions as well as methods including multiple choice, open and closed questions as well as Likert Scale. The research in this study purely focused its questions to focus purely on the subject matter and how influences are made to small live music event attendees by small live music event organisers. Validity is the extent to which a concept is accurately measured in a quantitative study. Validity is defined as “the extent to which (a test) measures what it claims to measure” (Gregory, 1992).

This study will aim to reach its conclusions based on the hypothesis’s and questions drawn from the literature in relation to the research question using data collected . Referring to validity as the degree to which both evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores. Validity, always refers to the degree to which empirical evidences and theoretical rationales support the adequacy and appropriateness of interpretations and actions based on test scores (Pretoria, n.d.) According to Thanasegaran, 2009 reliability is the degree to which measures are free from error and therefore yield consistent results. This study will in essence provide a variety of questions which reflect the main goal, this is to prevent reluctancy to respond by participants. The Data Protection Act 1998 providing respondents with anonymity (Messic, 1989) have covered situational error factors.

3.7 Ethical Considerations

A critical component in research is ethical considerations. Ethics are the standards for conduct, which are used to distinguish right from wrong. Ethical standards prevent the fabrication and possible falsification of data whilst ethical behaviour encourages the environment of trust, accountability and mutual respect amongst researchers and participants working on collaborative work. Following five relatable principles  out of ten which where According to Bryman and Bell the most important elements in the ethical considerations (Bell, E, 2007).

This research follows the Ethical Principles whereby voluntary participation is required as well as rights withdrawal. Research ethics is specifically interested in the analysis of ethical issues that are raised when people are involved as participants in research. There are multiple elements to carrying out the right research ethical considerations. The aim to protect human participants, to ensure that research is conducted in a way that serves interests of individuals, groups and/or society as a whole and to examine specific research activities and projects for their ethical soundness, looking at issues such as the management of risk, protection of confidentiality and the process of informed consent (ethics, 2017).

Respondents were contacted via social media sites, direct messages and the researchers contact list with an attached link containing the questionnaire titled with a description of the subject and purpose of questionnaire including what the link had contained. The structured interview formed questionnaire contained a paragraph detailing what the survey intended to do also informing respondents that research was being conducted as a part of educational research purposes aswell as informing participants all data collection will be anonymous.

All data collected from respondents will adhere to the Data Protection Act (1998) Chapter 29 whereby “An act to make a new provision for the regulation of the proceedings of information relating to individuals, including the obtaining, holding, use or disclosure of such information” (Gov, 1998). Given the collection of data was gathered online, no risk assessment was necessary.

4. Findings and Discussion

This chapter will cover the findings from the results of the structured interview formed questionnaires, which was previously discussed in the previous chapter. A discussion of the sample analysis will be presented first continued by inferential statistics noted in relations to the hypothesis formed in the methodology (Skaife, 2019).

The sample population consisted of a total of 114 respondents. This was split in to gender demographics consisting of 47% Male (53), and 53% Female (59) 1% (Non Binery) (1). 20% of participants were aged between 18 – 24, 38% aged between 25 – 30 and 41% aged 31+. The majority of respondents actuating to 95% use social media on a daily basis, 26% heard about small live events on social media. 42% of respondents are sometimes influenced by social media whilst 40% consider content, engagement and consistency to be essential.

4.1 The use of social media by small live event attendees

Questions 1.a and 1.b where used to demographically specify participants into categories.

Questions 1.C, 1.F explored the relationship between individuals and their use of social media, this assessed the frequency of network use for each respondent as well as the influences and needs factoring the importance of consumer and attendee behavior.

The survey found that 95% (105) people used social media on a daily basis, and 4% used it weekly. 42% of respondents stated that social media sometimes influenced their behaviour, whilst 32% suggested it rarely influenced their behaviour and equal respondents of 11 percent for both stated they were often and never influenced. These findings prove to be consistent with the previous literature, Social media reach is a key element to reaching the majority giving that they show the majority of users to use social media on a daily basis. All data retrieved for the research can be found in the list of figures.

4.2 The enhancement of attendee buyer behaviour via social media

Questions 1.E, 1.I, and 1.J were used to investigate respondent’s relationship with small live music events and their perception on how networks are being used by event organisers and what type of presence they deem to be essential. 42% (31) people sometimes attended small live events however, the majority of 46% (52) people stated they rarely attended small live music events, 4% attended events always with 6% attended often and 16% attending never. Respondents answered what sort of presence they considered essential online, this was to establish sensory stimulation theory in the current settings where by simulations of the senses is thought to create a meaningful interactions thus contending to correlate to previous finds.

The results found that 40% (40) out of 81 respondents felt all three elements of content, engagement and consistency as essential. 22% of respondents chose engagement to be essential whilst 20% considered content to be most essential 119% considered consistency of interaction to be the essential element.

Therefore addressing Hypothesis 1 the findings prove to be consistent by proving that there is a significant level of interaction necessary in order of to engage continuing further, the results also found that 58% (64) respondents felt that social media is not being used to the best of its ability and business potential by organisers therefore suggesting that there was a need for the use of social media by events organisers to engage by respondents. In contrary however, 42% (47) believed that organisers do use it to its full ability.

4.3 Small events use of social media for promotions of events and offers

Question 1.K and 1.L provided respondents with the opportunity to display a flexible list via an open ended question, they were asked to name social media networking sites in which they mostly hear about and come across content displayed shared by small music events organisers. They were also asked to present their suggestions of how social media can be used to engage with its attendees.

The majority of respondents stated that they heard about small live events via word of mouth or social media sites Facebook and Twitter. The readiness of information sharing via this methods has proved to be the most popular. Respondents’s suggestions was found to have correlations between each response. The majority of answers implied that respondents who in the case will cover the population sample of event attendees for this discussion.

The results found that social media users should implement relationships with their attendees by creating different business techniques such as this response which was answered by a respondent in the study “Reward the first X attendees (responders) with free entrance, as long as they share the post / event and promote it. – 2. Refund ticket money to a winner for uploading the best (or most exciting) picture to the FB group. – 3. Raffling an exclusive X minutes or episode on a content channel of YouTube / Or enter a raffle to get a VIP table / Backstage entrance – 4. Allow Early Birds to influence the theme or flow for the party. – 5.

First 3 drinks for free to whomever buys 3 tickets or more.at once”. Continuing respondents also agreed in the advertisement of event not being realistic and thus suggested how this can be improved. The answers of two randomly selected respondents states that “organisers should be easily accessible when potential attendees have questions about the event. I think they should be consistent with the information they provide and that they should deliver what they initially advertised.

Events are usually non-refundable, you purchase the ticket convinced by what was advertised on social media and if it doesn’t live up to your expectations then there’s not much you can do about it. This is why it is important that organisers stay true to what they advertise on social media.” and “Organisers should use social media to engage with its attendees by continually, and consistently, showing the target audience the content of the event.

Quite often, flyers are generated with images of people or celebrities that aren’t going to be in attendance and the event is then written off by quite a few without having a real chance. If the target audience could see what the event actually entailed, whether it be a video of the previous event or live snippets, this allows people an informed decision and can share the video to increase notoriety of the event”.

4.4 Social medias impact on small live music events marketing

Questions 1.D, 1.G and 1.H will explore the settings in which social media has affected the online marketing scene by looking at respondents perception of live music events based on Figure 3. Social media presence and interaction.  The study looked at often small live music events were seen on social media as well as looking at wether respondents where likely to shape their decisions based on an event with or without a social media presence by comparing the results to their initial attitudes. 28% of participants often heard about small live events on social media, calculating 27% of respondents to have heard of these events on these sites sometimes and 26% rarely seeing this occurrence.

59% of respondents stated that they would likely attend a small live event with a degree of social media presence as opposed to 47% who stated they would be likely to attend and event without the social media presence..

In contrary, however 23% of respondents stated that they would be unlikely to attend an event as such as opposed to the 46% who stated they would be unlikely to attend an event without a social media presence. Given the responses given by respondents in relation to question 2. Therefore, this confirms Hypothesis 2 whereby respondents would be more likely to attend an event given the use of social media.

5. Conclusion and Recommendations

This study has provided a critical analysis of all variables consistent in the study. Providing in depth historical case studies curated from secondary researched data of previously written scholarly articles as well as news articles and more. By doing so the study has created a clear understanding of the research contexts reasons, aims and objects thus clearly defined in the literature.

By taking this approach the findings were found to be consistent to be with both hypothesis formed from the literature; Hypothesis 1, whereby states the need for a significant or meaning full relationship between organisers use of social media and customer engagement and buyer behaviour process. The findings would suggest that given the use of social media by attendees and future attendees this could create more meaningful customer retention.

Hypothesis 2 which suggests social media marketing to be a vital aspect in the growth of small live events, was consistent with findings suggesting that respondents would more likely attend an event that has a presence of the networking system as opposed to not.

However, findings proving consistent with what literature states could sometimes be costly in the advertisement of information to wider audience selection the findings found that word of mouth or through Facebook and twitter to be the most powerful. Referring to literature found in chapter 2.1 referring to Facebook algorithms small live music events are recommended to focus on content, and user generated content which can help them reach and understand the culture of trend at wider network (Singer and Couper, 2017). The implementation of Social media is highly recommended to be used by small event organisers for the implementation of events invitations it can build a buzz, interaction and connectivity within the industry of events.

Limitations

Due to the large nature of context. Limitations are sometimes be proved evident in many research studies. Anticipated and no anticipated limitations can occur due to either or research design or research methodology. Limitations are often categorized into two categories, Common methodological limitations in a study refer to insufficient sample size, lack of previous research studies, or the types of methods, instruments or techniques used to collect data being so that it limits the results. Common limitations of the researcher are defined as limitation whereby access to data is limited, constraints on time, and conflicts, which may arise through cultural bias or other personal issues (Wordvice, 2012)

In this study, limitations from both spectrums were found. The initial route of plan had been to follow a sequential explanatory approach whereby which the study would have consisted of data collection from both qualitative and quantitative design. The researcher obtained informations for this method both prior to and awaiting for the collection of data. However shortly after this the researcher was met with constraint in time due to the process in which quantitative data is collecting prior to and then used to develop and analyse qualitative data sequential explanatory design could no longer be adhered to, due to the time limitations upon the research sit date. Access to data was limited given the scope of time and level of concentration in formulating to studies.

the marketing impact in events plays a major role in the economic well being of the local or national economy. “Measuring economic impact not only allows public sector bodies to evaluate their economic return on investment, but it also demonstrates how events drive economic benefits – allowing event organisers to develop practices which maximise these benefits. The ‘economic impact’ of a major event refers to the total amount of additional expenditure generated within a defined area, as a direct consequence of staging the event. For most events, spending by visitors in the local area (and in particular on accommodation) is the biggest factor in generating economic impact; however, spending by event organisers is another important consideration (E.impacts, 2106)

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