Eventbrite Unveils Industry-First Data to Quantify the Value of Social Commerce

San Francisco, Calif. – March 22, 2011 – Eventbrite has released “Social Commerce: A deeper dive into the numbers,” to build upon the company’s findings in an initial social commerce report released in October of 2010. Eventbrite carefully tracks sharing behavior in an effort to help event organizers tap into a new world of distribution for their event promotion. But the findings apply broadly to all eCommerce businesses, because the foundations of ecommerce are shifting as the social graph becomes a meaningful influence in driving transactions.

Effective distribution and promotion is no longer reserved for those who can afford expensive media buys. Instead, social media has leveled the playing field — allowing event attendees to become promoters by easily and effectively sharing the events that they are excited about with their friends and colleagues. Thanks to mass consumer adoption of social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, tapping into online social graphs is virtually free. Optimizing social distribution, though, requires careful testing and study.

Social Commerce is the intersection of social media activity and eCommerce — where sharing leads to real dollars and cents, where a transaction can be traced back to a Facebook “Like” or a Tweet.

A Deeper Dive into the Numbers

Last October, Eventbrite reported that the average DPS (dollars per share) across all social media platform integrations was $1.78, and Facebook shares specifically generated $2.53 in ticket sales.

This aggregate data has remained consistent, but now Eventbrite has utilized greater volumes of activity to look more deeply into their data from the last six months to better understand the mechanics behind social commerce.

The point of sharing

People share events for many reasons: to gauge friends’ interest in attending, to show off something really unique that they discovered, or to encourage others to attend with them. Depending on that motivation, people will be more or less likely to share either at the point of discovery or post purchase.

On Eventbrite event pages, users want to share before they’ve made a commitment to purchase a ticket or attend an event. To support that initial, exploratory behavior Eventbrite features the Facebook “Like” button, the lowest-friction social sharing tool on the web. On order confirmation pages, Eventbrite integrated the higher-friction but stronger “Publish to Facebook” tool. It requires more work from the user to share than with a Facebook “Like,” but this is what this study reveals:

Over the last six months, 40% of sharing through Facebook occurred on the event page (pre-purchase) vs. 60% of sharing which occurred on the order confirmation page (post-purchase). This shows that the motivation to share is higher once the purchase is made and the attendee is committed.
To further underline this point, Eventbrite’s BSR (browsing share rate) is 1% — meaning that of the people who look at an event page before purchasing a ticket, 1% of them share that event. Conversely, the TSR (transaction share rate) is 10%, which means far more people share an event from the order confirmation page.
Not only is the motivation to share post-purchase higher, that share is more meaningful than a pre-purchase one. A post-purchase share on Facebook drives 20% more ticket sales per share than a pre-purchase one.

The sharing channel: FB vs. Twitter

Over the last six months, sharing activity on Facebook equaled almost 4 times the amount of sharing on Twitter. Eventbrite attributes this to Facebook’s reach (right now there are simply more people that use Facebook than Twitter) and the fact that connections on Facebook more closely mirror real-world, personal relationships.
The disparity between Facebook and Twitter is also highlighted in the raw dollars generated per share. Eventbrite offers and tracks multiple types of Facebook sharing options including “Likes,” wall posts (stream publish), and publishing to a Facebook Page or Event. A Facebook “Like” (the closest comparison to a tweet) drives on average $1.34 in ticket sales, compared with a tweet that drives on average $.80. Eventbrite has also seen the value of the Facebook “Like” steadily increase as adoption of it has taken off.

Sharing by event type: not all events are created equal

Networking events had the highest share rate, followed by business events and conferences and seminars.
When looking at dollars per share by type of event, though, Eventbrite discovered that shares are most valuable for music events and concerts, at over $12 per share. Next most valuable are shares for fundraisers, social events and mixers, and food/wine events. When looking at the bottom line of social commerce, it’s social events that represent the highest DPS. So while people are more likely to share business-related events, sharing information about social events drives the most sales.

Eventbrite’s Director of Marketing Tamara Mendelsohn concludes, “As we continue to learn more about how social media drives real transactions, we will share what we learn with the community. We’re big believers in the power of social media and its promise to disrupt stagnant industries. But it’s not blind faith; the truth is in the numbers.”

Methodology

Eventbrite uses a custom suite of social analytics tools that we have developed entirely in-house. This reporting lets the company track and analyze not only which sharing options users leverage, but where on the site each share action takes place. These tools also tie back into conversion funnels, so Eventbrite is able to attribute ticket purchases to the specific social distribution channel that drove them.

For the purposes of this report, Eventbrite defines social commerce as transactions that are driven through sharing on social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and through email sharing via the Eventbrite “email friends” application.

About Eventbrite

Eventbrite makes it easy for anyone to create an event page, tap into social media for promotion, sell tickets, and collect RSVPs. Hosts gain insight into attendee behavior with Eventbrite’s analytics tools. And Eventbrite makes check-in at the door easy with mobile entry management. With Eventbrite, anyone can host an event. Learn more at www.eventbrite.com.

Contact Info:

Vanessa Hope Schneider
PR Manager
(415) 963-4359
vanessa@eventbrite.com