With the big rise in social media, everyone has so many attractive options right now, they can pick and choose which event to attend, what to read online, what causes to support, which store/restaurant to visit and so on.
In a town like DC, there's always been a plethora of events. The only issue, we didn't know about 90% of them. Unless someone emailed you or called you directly, you were oblivious. Now just about every open event can be marketed to anybody which leaves a socially active person with dozens of choices a day (not to mention, his/her personal events).
Yes social media is a double edged sword -- it gets the word out to the masses but it also makes marketing massively difficult. Last week, I attended a happy hour organized a major national company -- with less than 10 people showing up. There were more people from the organization than there was of us. At the end of the evening, I was assured a raffle prize because there were only 3 attendees left. I won the T-shirt and 2 tickets to a concert.
With Yelp, diners have the final word, and if they are not completely satisfied with their dining experience, they can certainly make the restauranteurs regret it -- so yes, restauranteurs have it a lot tougher today, also.
So the power of peeps has risen astronomically. For us marketeeers and event planners, it's getting harder and harder to attract people to take a look, to read, to subscribe, to attend, to shop. Even worthwhile events that are free have trouble attracting attention. Many people are also signing up for multiple events at the same time ,waiting until the last minute, or simply not showing up.
Now if content online is not targeted directly at you, no one is going to pay attention to it. Today, all the online ads are targeted to you and you only -- this is called door-to-door marketing. In the future, all online news will be targeted to the individual.
This is becoming the same with events. So what's good for the peeps is now tougher for the planners.
This is becoming the same with events. So what's good for the peeps is now tougher for the planners.
