Social media definition
Social media is an advanced communication device of the modern century that applies the inclusion of a massive group who share a common sentiment. It has allowed its users to update on their events and societal beliefs as they strive to acquire better communication channels. Individuals of a similar group setting relay information and transfer opinions online through clicks and accessing fan pages apply social media.
Its repercussion includes addiction and exposure to unprotected links that may be considered highly disturbing without control because information is transferred by a click of the mouse. However, social media presents advantages in the number of users and the level that the information can reach its recipients within a limited time. Social media has been most popular in Facebook and Twitter in the recent years with billion users each having access. Companies have created pages to allow their brands to be marketed and get user preference because it provides a channel that can communicate effectively to these customers (Rothschild 2010).
Social media is applied to provide answers and current news on the latest trend and the best products through getting user reviews and referrals. The even management industry is fast utilizing this new development. It has applied the use of social media strategies to widen the scope of consumers with a definite response from the target. Event management handles venues and activities from sport to capital entertainment grounds that are mostly utilized by energetic individuals. To manage properly an event, there should be time and venue to accommodate the function with sponsorship acquired from attendance. Event management requires an effective communication devise to apply its spread, therefore, incorporation of social media would fulfil this function.
Social media advantages
The society has found measures to close the gap in socialization with this new form of communication channel that promises to deliver easier pathways when relaying and sharing information. The majority of individuals who utilize social media have been found in the youth who search for the latest communication method to communicate with their peers. Social media contains packages that make it appealing to use and these may incorporate other modern media technologies in the data.
Photo sharing, video maps and graphical images may be incorporated to boost communication. The major advantage that social media bring to its user is its ability to deliver fast information instantly, and bears update on the modern news that individuals desire to get informed on the current events. Facebook and Twitter are examples that have provided their users with interactive groups and links that have connected individuals to their peers, and respected customers when the subject is service delivery.
Social media has been applied by the majority of youth and adolescent to search for answers towards stressful situations that they may encounter in the society. Forums are established to generate a link that enables individuals sharing similar issues to discuss their constraints. The importance in communicating with individuals within the social media forums is that information can be shared openly without a threat in disclosing the identity.
People can log in with different user names or indirectly via company or organization names. With the network, fast growing within the community, there have been additions to streamline live feeds of videos and instant messaging that ease communication. Search engines like Google have implemented easier strategies in seeking information and through a list of various events and venues. Individuals can access their information through typing the key names.
Social media has advanced from its position to offer interactive channels for friends and families to gain use in the business industries. Facebook and Twitter have provided firms with positions within its pages to create links for their clients to access. This is done through the creation of links that the companies have created for their clients to follow and access their information with packages presented.
In creating new fiends, the social media networks have been vital to developing measures that allow individuals to met new individuals. However, an individual may have several friends that they may have not met before or have an indirect contact with in the real world (Smith 2011, p2).
Links have been increased through such networks as popularity given to the pages with the most visitors. This system may be beneficial to the rating system where individuals are capable of giving preference to the companies they consider beneficial.
The social media networks are vital to offer resolution to individual conflicts that they may face in the society. When Facebook and Twitter were unvented, they were made for the sole purpose of creating communication channels that could be beneficial to a family member and friends. Through these links, topics that could discuss the vices of the society and creative forums could be posted.
Theses have become the main communication channels in the modern century because individuals rarely find time to socialize with their friends. Research has articulated the association entities to develop psychological comfort and lead to reduce in stress situations. Individuals find ease in communicating about their problems and experiences in the social media forums because they are minimal demanding and a cheap means to gain therapy. The close relationships developed within these forums promote unity and may lead to group formation that is focused to promote the topic under consideration.
Limitations
The major concern that the social media brings is the confinement of information transfer within a singular medium presented in the internet. This is a fast moving source to acquire information and the wrong implication could lead to ruining the reputation. Most people would pay more attention to a negative publicity as compared to a positive entity. Once a strategy is defined to reach a maximum population, the reputation must be maintained to justify every action.
Event customer relations depend on creating a positive image to help in relating to them. An example may be involved in introducing a new product without testing it to the customer and may have a negative implication on the reception capability. Social media requires experts in handling its technicalities. There is a restriction to maintain a high level of competence to achieve successful strategies in marketing (Colderice 2011).
In achieving successful customer satisfaction in the event management business, there needs to be constant check on the market trends and maintain the service delivery at a constant (Sharpe 1990, p1069). Many individuals may apply social media, but few access the contents of what the message contains. There is a constantly changing opinion in articulating the important information from the less necessary.
The Event Management Process and customer relations
The process of careful organization and planning an event to ensure that each desired fulfilment is completed appropriately comprises event management. In event management, the resources that are involved in the preparation of these events, people, time and financial expenditure contained in the organization process are merged. The process requires a qualified individual in the organization of these elements who manages time appropriately to deliver these services.
Customer relations, on the other hand, define the level of comfort achieved when interacting with the customers. There is the need to maintain the healthy relationship with the clients to avoid running at a loss. Businesses and event organizing firms utilize various ventures to provide incentives to clients to generate a healthy relationship between them and their clients. Through organization of various events, a level may be achieved that create healthy interaction with the clients.
However, the event management has been threatened with poor budgeting and lack of flowing information to the supplier and the organizer. There are various forms of tools involved in the preparation process and there needs to be the appropriate resources to organize a successful event. A wedding would need to employ services of the best chef and furniture decorator in town, to create a successful event and are qualities that need intense research to produce exemplary result.
Management is conducted in the time, quality and the financial expenditure to be incurred by the sponsor. Event management is a topic that requires experience in socializing with various individuals within the society to gain access to top notch services. Most events require careful planning and arrangement of their details to produce successful outcomes. Most spontaneously organized events normally lead to a wastage in variable resource forms and may fail to achieve their intended purpose. A successfully organized event would lead to better customer relation because the motive would be driven towards achieving a healthy relationship to boost cohesion.
Role of Social media in event management and building customer relations
Social media has been advanced to businesses and organization of events due to its flexibility in allowing operation successes. Most organizations have realized the need to input social media within their marketing strategies because it has become the main component of communication. Majority of individuals in the society is increasingly participating in online businesses and interactive measures (Leung 2007, p204).
This is due to the competition advancement in the 21st society that limits social life with individuals mostly concentrated in their office cubical. Academic knowledge has been accessed online and qualifications accorded to the participants who look for easier measures to complete tasks. The computer age has developed various vices and norms to replace the ancient traditions that people of the recent decades considered the appropriate means to task completion.
Internet is a broad network that contains a list of variable sources of information with easier access accorded to the participants who are updated with the system. Organizations are inputting measures to build and retain customers who had been included in their business development (Kumar & Reinartz 2003, p77). Events are applied to utilize the opportunity to drive new strategies and implement the agreed changes with their clients. Customers are the key to driving businesses and there is the need to establish a healthy relationship to maintain the returns as expected by the company’s policy (Rogers, M. & Peppers, D 2011, p24).
The measure applied to a social system is the exchange of information through words and blogs that may be of a commonly discussed topic or information shared by a source. This service is advantageous because there are fewer expenses incurred by marketing individuals because the services applied are free reaching a maximum population within a short time. The resources it provides can be exploited by any organization because it does not provide limits or discriminate against a group. Social media is diverse an available across continents and does not limit its availability to developed countries.
There may be variable language forms adjusted to communicate easier to individuals with different background and understanding capacity. Graphical images, charts and videos, are incorporated in social media to provide an easier communication channel giving evidence to what a service may involve (Smith 2011, p1). Social interaction has been limited to computer means because people in the society would rather log in to their personalized accounts to chat with their friends that setup physical interaction that they consider more expensive, and time engaging (Aloisio 2011, p2).
The social media technology provides a diverse dependency because each presents separate needs that need fulfilling. It regards every user as consumers and includes a network list that reflects on the normal life activities. Consumers who present a list of demands from psychological to social requirements operate social media. However, to access its services, individuals are required to connect to the internet to gain the desired information.
Social media is addictive because it presents a system that the individual or company is constantly receiving messages that may require prompt response. Most businesses and organizations have developed a fan base who issue comments about their service delivery. This serves as a platform that boosts references to successful companies that may be required in event management.
Social media has found application by the companies to communicate with their consumers and introduce new brands through forums within social media like Twitter. Social media is incorporated in marketing strategies as they offer links that can lead consumers to the desired brands. Social media develops the identity of users through introducing a system that enables their page visitors identify likes.
It endeavours to build relationships with newly found individuals that may not have necessarily been former mates. Social media is applied by event managers to access information about participants within the service delivery business that may provide an easier operational platform. For a rookie event manager, they are capable of gaining experience due to the diverse procedures that are contained in social media networks.
It is through accessing certain pages that knowledge on a desired entity is relayed. There are the famous personalities and professors who witness joint participation in the user group of these forums. Social media can serve to sharpen the event management skills learnt in the education institution
Through social media, topics that discuss the benefits and procedures that are utilized in the discipline and provide practical examples of successfully implemented measures. The students are able to travel to the venue of the activity, and witness successfully applied measures online as they chat with vital members of the society. The interaction methods that social media may provide are in direct messaging form and video conferences, with a list of pictures to give further instructions on the entity to be applied.
Education is made easier, and research fulfilled as members are provided measures to complete tasks issued and examples given. The advantage with social media is that it offers a relaxed mood for the learner, and may give a private system of education where the user is accorded personalized lessons by their contact.
Social media provides practical and intellectual knowledge in the event management discipline. It further cuts costs because it does not involve any expense in delivering services. Instructions can be easily issued to the organizers on measures to undertake to organize a successful event. Social media lays a platform that can advertise events without incurring unnecessary costs, because the event managers include all the details about their project on a page without any fee charged.
The next procedure needed is to offer references to users who frequently visit the page (Deery & Jago 2010). Social media provides a platform for easier and faster advertising measures that reach a diverse group of local and international customers. The event manager is able to expose his services to a larger number in his quest to generate maximum profit. Event organizers are provided with a platform of exposure and limiting communication as it provides a channel to implement creativity in advertising. The necessary implication is the direct and convenient communication with clients as the terms and service principles are communicated. Once the event is arranged, social media provides an interactive forum that boosts communication between the attending parties to make prior arrangement before the venue is reached.
There are numerous structural benefits in the design of this technology as it issues direction and actual images of the venues. Social media like Facebook provides a record of direction to the events and gives further instruction that may not have been included in the initial agreement. The event management business is fostered through simpler communication techniques and directional issue that saves on the time spent when tending to the event (Stratten 2012).
Information is acquired within the social media is applied to the managers in obtaining external services from service delivery organization. In management, it is not a necessary procedure to implement personally all the stages to success. A successful manager employs the services of other specialists in the event to generate a compiled effort, therefore, holding a successful event. In a wedding, for example, there are chefs, decorators and music professionals to be employed. Successful event management incorporates these ideas to make a single entity according to the customer requirement.
Social media gives a list of preferred individual capable of delivering the services without creating a disturbance in the events. Through pages and groups that advertise these services, the event manager is capable of determining the right client to be utilized and services they accord at the reasonable price. This would limit the transport and research fee that would have been used through the traditional system of research.
Social media mainly applies safer and faster communication channels, giving managers a platform to get feedback on their services. These sites may be used to conduct research on the type of service expected and cost the consumers are willing to spend. It offers better managerial skills through flowing information compiled over the internet. The important implication that event managers need to apply when utilizing social media is polite language. The social media promotes event management through its advertising expertise. There are calendars, shooting small video clips and designing posters that can be posted for consumers to access by the click of a button.
These are the modern communication inputs applied to generate consumer awareness. Marketing is made cheap by the social networks because there are minimal costs incurred in communicating to the clients. Successful event management handles all the costs appropriately minimizing any expenditure that may threaten the budget. The most influential strategy in any planning process is the necessary information needed in its structure and the proper planning of the resources it involves. Socialization skills are bolstered by the social media with the interaction of variable individuals discussing topics that can be accessed through the search engines.
Social media’s role in event management is witnessed in the planning and research discipline that is pertinent in preparing the events. Event managers are able to find further information on professionals that they incorporate services leading to successful preparation. The modern media has applied the use in marketing event management firms and created user feedback forums that lead to positive changes in the discipline.
Conclusion
Social media is a communicative tool that has driven changes in the speed of communication and information acquisition between individuals. Event managers are provided with a platform that encourages easier research programs in developing their attained skills. Through social media, there is the possibility to regulate information faster and get instant responses from the information source with limited barriers in service delivery.
Social media has been used to explore new educational channels and explore new grounds that the traditional system dictated incurring extra expenses. However, the limitation presented by social media is its ability to promote addiction and lack of concentration on real development projects. Some programmes and ideas that are relayed by social media may be flawed and not applicable in real experiences.
Event management is a discipline that incorporates proper planning and implementation of strategies that lead to a successful event organization. Event managers need to be equipped with the latest software entities and communication devices that heighten their organization ability. It is through social media that individuals learn the implication of applying faster measures to express their desires to their target. Customer relations are built through social media as free communication channels introduced. Social media, therefore, presents tremendous benefits in event management.
List of References
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Kumar, V. & Reinartz, W 2003, ‘The Impact of Customer Relationship Characteristics on Profitable Lifetime Duration’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 67. pp 77-99.
Leung, L 2007, ‘Stressful Life Events, Motives for Internet Use, and Social Support Among Digital Kids’. Journal of Cyber Psychology & Behaviour, vol.10 no. 2, pp. 204-214.
Rothschild, P 2010, ‘Social media use in sports and entertainment venues’. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, vol. 2. no. 2, pp.139-150.
Sharpe, S 1990, ‘Asymmetric Information, Bank Lending, and Implicit Contracts : A Stylized Model of Customer Relationships’, The Journal of Finance, vol. 45. no. 4, 1069-1087.
Smith, B 2011, ‘Becoming “Quirky” Towards an Understanding of Practitioner and Blogger Relations in Public Relations’. Public Relations Journal, vol. 5. no.4, pp. 1-17.
Stratten, S. 2012, UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging, New jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Print.
Rogers, M. & Peppers, D 2011, Managing Customer Relationships: A Strategic Framework, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Print.