Social Media Case Study : How Eventbrite Makes Cold Hard Cash Via Social Commerce

Social Media October 14, 2010 5 Comments

There is still always a lot of talk about social media and does it actually help to drive sales. The answer is that in many cases it doesn’t directly and but there are also lots of cases where we are starting to see social drive real tangible results. A clear example of this is Eventbrite who have just published a very interesting case study showcasing some of the revenues they have made from social commerce as they call it and there are some very interesting figures. Unsurprisingly it is Facebook which comes out on top and according to Eventbrite every time somebody shares one of their events on Facebook it effectively makes the company $2.52 in revenue. That is a very interesting figure and although events are by their very nature very social this is a figure that will make other industries sit up and take note.

The Social Currency Cycle

This little diagram really does show just how simple the circle is in terms of commerce through their site and social media platforms. The beauty of this model is that it just scales perfectly and is a never ending cycle.

Different Social Platforms Have Different Results

Eventbrite are clearly making lots of money through social media and they have developed their own in house analytics package to make sure they track where every single click is coming from. Here is what they say themselves….

When someone shares an event with their friends through social media, this action results in real dollars. Our most recent data shows that over the past 12 weeks, one share on Facebook equals $2.52, a share on Twitter equals $0.43, a share on LinkedIn equals $0.90, and a share through our ”email friends” application equals $2.34. On an aggregate level across Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and our email share tool, each share equals $1.78 in ticket sales. We’re seeing this number improve every week with the most recent four-week average equaling $1.87.

The Early Age Of Social Commerce

It’s very very early days in terms of social commerce but there is no doubt in my mind that this is the future and people will buy lots of goods and services via social commerce in the years to come. The most likely platform for most of this commerce will be Facebook and I think this is the very tip of the iceberg that we are seeing here and this is an area that will really explode over the next 12 -24 months. Fair play and hats off to Eventbrite for sharing this sort of information because this is exactly the sort of example others need to see to start expanding their own social commerce efforts.

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