Adoption of social network sites in the entertainment business – Case promotion of urban music events in Helsinki on Facebook

Abstract

Social Network Sites (SNS) have recently quickly grown in numbers and sizes as more and more people join them in an attempt to connect with others for various reasons. This research aims at finding the major factors that make social network sites appealing for use in promotion of urban music entertainment events in Helsinki nightclubs. Moreover, it examines necessary improvements on the use of Facebook and on its features while recommending previous marketing methods that should be maintained and improved.

The research examines the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations and uses the perceived characteristics of an innovation to analyse the adoption of Facebook in event promotion and find the major factors for it. The three perceived characteristics analysed were Relative Advantage, Compatibility and Complexity.

Personal observations and analysis were done after which a quantitative survey was conducted among the most prominent promoters and selected consumers who use Facebook. The observations and survey examined how promoters use various marketing methods including and particularly comparing to Facebook.

The research found that the major factors were Facebook’s ability to reach specific consumers, provision of multimedia content, and many event promotion-friendly features. Promoters should put photos and videos on Facebook event and group pages while Facebook should enable promoters to put photos albums on such pages. Promoters should have official website and use email/SMS mailing lists.