Events and “recreational discovery” are being transformed by social media, as evidenced by the development of Eventbrite, a new ticketing platform, and Goby, which helps consumers find things to do, including travel.

Eventbrite CEO Kevin Hartz noted that his company, founded in 2006, produced gross ticket sales “approaching a half billion dollars” plus thousands of free events. The company recently provided tickets for Shamrock Fest, an Irish festival at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C. This summer, it is going to provide tickets for a 65,000 ticket event.

Hartz noted that the new era is marked less by search, which he describes as algorithmic discovery,m as by social discover via “shares” from friends, colleagues or others with tastemaker authority.Every Facebook share of a music concert is worth $12 in sales. Facebook is by far the most influential for sales; Twitter is #3 and LinkedIn is #5. “The local proximity of friends is the prevailing thesis here,”says Hartz.

The company’s current focus on events, ticketing and registration is a possible precursor for other verticals. “Events are naturally social,” noted Hartz. Events, ticketing and registration are a precursor to other verticals. Event are naturally social. Attend with friends or professional events with colleagues or people they admire.

Goby CEO Mark Watkins, meanwhile, noted that his company’s focus on recreational experiences in 350 categories is underappreciated. “A lot of focus on the restaurant space, but the experience is important too. He noted that it is sometimes more effective than other means for discovery. Local search, social networks, travel sites and mobile all have their own issues that keep them from being ideal, he said.

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Eventbrite Director of Marketing Tamara Mendelsohn told us at SxSW Interactive that because “events are inherently social,” the online events organizer and ticketing exchange in uniquely positioned to leverage social media to allow literally anyone to post and share events.

But Mendelsohn’s team is amplifying its social strategy beyond simply enabling site visitors to engage in a variety of social actions (sharing, “liking,” tweeting). The company has customized a suite of analytics to granularly measure the effects of social integration on social commerce. In its first social commerce report, Eventbrite calculated and compared dollars per event share (DPS) across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, establishing Facebook as the clear leader in both DPS and referrals.

In the second installment, Mendelsohn does a deeper, more platform-agnostic dive to understand when social sharing is occurring (before or after purchasing an event ticket). The results are clear: The post-purchase point in the consumer funnel is significantly more conducive to social activity (see infographic below). As a result, post-purchase sharing drives a much higher ticket-sales-per-share percentage.

Meanwhile, Facebook continues to maintain a heavy edge over all other platforms, notably Twitter, in DPS. In fact, a Facebook “like,” on average, nets  $1.34 in ticket sales to only $.80 per tweet.

Of course, not all events are the same (both in terms of shareability and social commerce revenues), and the report breaks this out across several categories. Moreover, the pervasive social nature of events cannot be generalized across other verticals. Kudos, however, to Eventbrite for substantiating its social case with solid metrics, not just mushy “social speak.”

Eventbrite cofounder Kevin Hartz is appearing on the “Turning Events Into Local Online Gold” panel at ILM East, March 21-23 in Boston.

Source: Eventbrite

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