EVENT SOCIAL MEDIA IS MORE THAN MARKETING: IT’S THE VENUE, THE COMMUNITY, AND THE LEGACY — ALL-IN-ONE 

If your event strategy still treats social media as marketing, you’re already behind — it’s now the venue, the community, and the legacy all at once.

Dr Aaron Tham (University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia).

This article is based on: Tham, A. (2024). Social media and events: A curated collection of articles published in Event Management from 2015 to 2022. Event Management, 28(8), 1215–1224. https://doi.org/10.3727/152599524X17046754077307

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • Social media is no longer peripheral to events — it is the event. From livestreaming and crisis response to immersive virtual platforms, social media now shapes how events are designed, delivered, and remembered.

  • Event professionals and researchers are lagging behind practice. Despite widespread usage, many still treat social media as a marketing tool rather than a core part of event infrastructure and strategy.

  • Social media platforms serve three critical roles: infrastructure, event space, and legacy builder. Events unfold in digital environments as much as physical ones, with platforms hosting, extending, and sometimes challenging official narratives.

  • The industry underuses valuable data and faces growing ethical risks. Social media data can offer powerful insights, but remains under-analysed — and poorly governed — in many event contexts.

  • To stay relevant and resilient, events must build platform-diverse, accessible, and ethically grounded digital strategies. This means upskilling teams, co-creating with younger generations, and embedding social media thinking into every phase of the event lifecycle.

Is the most powerful event platform no longer a place — but a profile?

At a packed music festival, a fan waves their phone, capturing a thirty-second clip destined for Instagram. Thousands of miles away, someone watching that clip on TikTok decides to attend next year. A virtual avatar walks through a Metaverse art fair, interacting with other guests, sponsors, and holograms — all without a physical venue. And at the next business summit, only 6% of attendees will bother engaging with the official event app — even though they’ll be posting elsewhere all day.

Welcome to the new frontier of event experience — where social media isn’t just a promotional tool or digital add-on. It is the venue, the vibe, and often the value. And yet, as Aaron Tham’s meticulous curation of 21 articles from Event Management (2015–2022) reveals, events scholarship has only just begun to grapple with this shift. There’s a lag between practice and research, and a deeper lag between the platforms that dominate our personal lives and those shaping event strategy.

INTRODUCTION

Drawing on insights from the curated collection and a wide-ranging podcast interview, this article explores what we’ve learned so far — and what event professionals, researchers, and policymakers need to prepare for. Because as Tham argues, we’re not simply attending events anymore. We’re co-creating them, streaming them, reacting to them, and sometimes being them — through avatars, AI, and algorithmic identities (Azara, Pappas & Michopoulou, 2023).

So the real question isn’t whether social media will continue to transform events. It’s whether events professionals are ready to transform with it.

“We’re not simply attending events anymore. We’re co-creating them...and sometimes being them”

THE PROBLEM AND/OR OPPORTUNITY

For over a decade, social media has been quietly reshaping the events landscape — not just how events are promoted, but how they are experienced, evaluated, and even staged (Harb, Fowler, Chang, Blum & Alakaleek, 2019). Yet, as Aaron Tham’s curated analysis of Event Management journal articles (2015–2022) reveals, academic research has often lagged behind real-world innovation. Despite the mass adoption of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok — and the meteoric rise of livestreaming, influencer culture, and immersive digital events — scholarly engagement only began to gather momentum in the mid-2010s.

This lag isn’t merely academic. It reflects a deeper disconnect in how events are designed, funded, and evaluated. Many business event organisers still underinvest in social media, assuming it is a secondary tool rather than a primary site of value creation (Pino et al., 2019). Event tech platforms continue to struggle with low adoption rates (Talantis, Shin & Severt, 2020). Meanwhile, new generations of attendees demand experiences that are hybrid, participatory, and shareable — often judging an event’s success not by what happens on-site but by what happens online (Ozturk, Wei, Hua & Qi, 2021).

But there is an opportunity in this gap. As Tham and his co-hosts discuss in their podcast interview, the post-pandemic period has accelerated digital experimentation across the board. We are now entering an era where social media can support more ethical, inclusive, and data-rich approaches to event planning. Events that fail to adapt risk irrelevance. But those that embrace social media as an event site — not just a tool — may unlock new forms of reach, resilience, and relevance.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER NOW?

The urgency to reframe the role of social media in event management has never been greater. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve seen a dramatic pivot toward virtual and hybrid experiences, powered almost entirely through social media platforms (Porpiglia et al., 2020). Festivals moved online. Conferences became Zoom-led communities. Activism, crisis response, and even wedding celebrations played out on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. What began as an emergency response is now standard operating practice — yet many event strategies still treat social media as peripheral.

Meanwhile, the social media landscape itself is shifting rapidly. Twitter has become X, a paywalled and politicised platform. Instagram reels and TikTok trends shape consumer expectations at lightning speed. Influencers and micro-creators increasingly dictate how events are discovered and perceived (Sun, Leung & Bai, 2021). Governments debate bans, data regulations, and algorithmic control — meaning event professionals must navigate not just opportunity but volatility. As Aaron Tham warned in his podcast: “We’ve all grown up assuming these platforms will always be there… but what if they disappear tomorrow?”

Beyond platforms, the concept of the “event” itself is being redefined. Tham notes the rise of Metaverse platforms like Decentraland, where events are fully digital and experiences are mediated through avatars. Even physical events now generate data-rich “event mobility” patterns through social media engagement — offering new insights into attendee behaviour, brand perception, and spatial flow (Gursoy, Aktas, Tecim & Kurgun, 2023).

For researchers and practitioners alike, this convergence of real and virtual spaces demands urgent attention. We are no longer asking whether to integrate social media into event planning — the question is how, to what end, and on whose terms.

HOW DOES THIS ADD TO WHAT WE ALREADY KNOW?

While previous studies have explored social media as a promotional tool or a channel for user engagement, Aaron Tham’s curated collection pushes the field toward a more expansive understanding: social media as an event site in its own right. His synthesis of 21 articles shows a clear progression — from early explorations of eWOM and brand loyalty, to more recent concerns with crisis communication, virtual event staging, and metaverse-based interaction.

Crucially, the collection also reveals where our knowledge falls short. There is limited cross-cultural research. Methodological innovation remains rare, particularly in analysing visual and video content. And despite social media’s growing role in accessibility, legacy-building, and data analytics, most studies remain anchored in Western contexts and single-case designs.

This article builds on Tham’s work to reframe social media not as a supporting actor, but as a central stage — and to offer practitioners a new model for navigating this complex, fast-evolving terrain.

“We’ve all grown up assuming these platforms will always be there… but what if they disappear tomorrow?”

WHAT IDEAS DRIVE THIS ARTICLE?

This article synthesises insights from Aaron Tham’s curated collection of social media-focused research published in Event Management (2015–2022), supported by a wide-ranging podcast interview in which Tham reflects on the evolution of digital event spaces. The curated collection analysed 21 peer-reviewed articles across varied event types — from music festivals and marathons to conferences and crisis-driven gatherings — spanning platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and emerging metaverse environments.

The method behind the collection is a form of meta-review: searching, filtering, and classifying all articles in the journal with social media keywords across titles, abstracts, and keywords. From this, patterns in geographic focus, platform usage, theoretical framing, and methodological approaches were identified. This article takes those patterns and reinterprets them through a critical-practice lens — asking not just what has been studied, but what that tells us about the gap between theory and action in event design.

  • For years, event professionals treated social media as an add-on: a useful way to generate buzz, boost ticket sales, or push branded content. But as Aaron Tham’s review shows, this mindset is dangerously outdated. In many cases, social media has become the invisible infrastructure underpinning the entire event experience — from pre-event anticipation to post-event legacy.

    Consider how platforms like Facebook and Instagram are now primary channels for registration, live updates, Q&A sessions, livestreaming, and post-event evaluation. Events like the Super Bowl and the Olympics don’t simply use social media — they depend on it. These platforms drive sponsorship ROI, influence the event’s perceived success, and create a digital afterlife long after the stage is packed away.

    Yet Tham’s findings reveal a striking mismatch. Despite widespread usage, most event organisers — especially in the business events sector — underutilise or undervalue social media’s potential. In fact, adoption of official event apps remains dismally low (as little as 6–10%), even as attendees flood other platforms with content.

    This highlights a missed opportunity: treating social media not as an external marketing tool, but as core infrastructure — one that requires investment, planning, and strategic design just like lighting, transport, or health and safety.

  • One of the most powerful insights from Tham’s collection is that social media is not just where we talk about events — it’s where events actually happen. During the COVID-19 pandemic, platforms like Facebook Live, Instagram Stories, and YouTube became the main stage for countless concerts, festivals, and conferences. In some cases, entire events were designed and delivered within social media ecosystems — shifting the event site from a physical venue to a digital environment (Estanyol, 2022).

    This shift has profound implications. As Tham notes, platforms like Decentraland and other metaverse spaces now host virtual gatherings where avatars attend performances, network, and even conduct transactions. These aren’t gimmicks — they represent the next evolution in hybrid events. The boundary between digital and physical is blurring fast (Piccioni, 2023).

    Yet events research and policy have struggled to keep pace. Few studies deeply explore these immersive environments, and there’s limited guidance for practitioners on how to design for engagement, ethics, and equity in such spaces. What does accessibility look like in a virtual concert? How do we design for co-creation when attendees arrive as avatars?

    Recognising social media as a place — not just a pipeline — demands a rethink of event planning, stakeholder roles, and evaluation metrics. It also opens up new creative possibilities and risks that must be taken seriously.

  • Legacy has long been a core justification for hosting major events. But in the social media era, legacy is no longer confined to physical infrastructure or long-term programming — it’s also built, challenged, and redefined in real time by digital communities.

    Tham’s curated research reveals how social media can both reinforce and destabilise legacy narratives. On the one hand, it enables ongoing engagement with past attendees, builds community memory (as seen in Chinese music festivals on WeChat), and fosters brand loyalty. On the other, it also empowers resistance, critique, and activism — especially around contested events or corporate sponsorships. One paper in the collection documents how unmoderated social media posts heightened perceptions of danger at a major international event, undermining the organiser’s messaging.

    Social media also drives new forms of digital legacy. Hashtags, memes, livestream recordings, and influencer coverage can become part of a cultural record — shaping how an event is remembered, referenced, and reinterpreted. Yet most event planners remain focused on traditional media metrics, missing the opportunity to design for long-term digital resonance.

    The implication is clear: social media is not neutral. It can amplify inclusion or exacerbate exclusion. It can extend impact or expose flaws. Either way, it’s shaping legacies — whether organisers plan for it or not.

  • Despite the volume and richness of data generated on social media during events, most organisers and researchers barely scratch the surface. As Tham points out, while platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer real-time insights into engagement, sentiment, and attendee behaviour, only a handful of the 21 studies in his review used sophisticated methods like social network analysis or visual content evaluation. And few explored the full potential of this data for strategic decision-making.

    Why? In part, it’s a technical challenge. Many event professionals lack access to data analytics tools or the skills to interpret findings. In part, it’s a structural issue — with API restrictions, rising platform costs, and growing privacy concerns complicating data extraction. But there’s also an ethical grey zone. Just because data is publicly visible doesn’t mean it should be mined without consent or context.

    Tham rightly asks: what is event data in the digital age? Is it tweets, livestream comments, avatar movement across virtual spaces? Who owns that data — the platform, the organiser, the user? And how should it be used responsibly?

    Until the events industry addresses these questions head-on, we risk both underutilising a valuable resource and mismanaging the trust of our audiences. A smarter, more ethical approach to social media data is not optional — it’s overdue.

KEY ARGUMENTS

CONCLUSIONS

The evidence is clear: social media is no longer a secondary tool or optional extra for events — it is central to how they are imagined, delivered, and remembered. Aaron Tham’s curated analysis makes it impossible to ignore the reality that events now unfold as much in digital spaces as they do in physical ones. Yet many practitioners and researchers still approach social media with outdated assumptions: that it’s a marketing add-on, a post-event archive, or a youth-driven trend that can be managed by interns.

This underestimation is costly. Events that fail to integrate social media as core infrastructure risk reduced engagement, missed sponsorship value, reputational vulnerabilities, and disconnection from future generations of attendees. Meanwhile, platforms themselves are evolving rapidly — with the rise of avatars, AI, and algorithmically driven content changing not just how people engage with events, but what they expect from them.

We need to act now — not just to catch up with innovation, but to shape it. That means embedding social media expertise into event design teams, building ethical data strategies, and encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration between technologists, event organisers, and social scientists. It means rethinking accessibility, sustainability, and legacy in light of how digital interactions extend and reshape every phase of the event lifecycle.

In short: we must stop treating social media as something that happens around events. It is the event — and the sooner we accept that, the more prepared we’ll be to build experiences that are not only visible, but valuable, in a digitally saturated world.

“We must stop treating social media as something that happens around events. It is the event...”

PRACTICAL ACTIONS

To adapt effectively to the realities of the social media era, event professionals need to shift from reactive use to strategic integration. Here are six actionable recommendations for embedding social media into the heart of event planning and policy:

1. Design Social Media as Infrastructure, Not Add-on
Treat social media platforms as core infrastructure — on par with venue logistics or health and safety planning. This means budgeting for social media strategy from the outset, integrating platform functionality into the event journey (e.g., registration, navigation, real-time updates), and ensuring all stakeholders — from tech teams to frontline staff — are aligned in messaging and tone.

2. Embed Digital Legacy Planning
Plan for your event’s afterlife. Assign teams to monitor hashtags, preserve livestream recordings, capture highlights, and curate user-generated content. Develop a digital legacy toolkit that ensures meaningful content continues to circulate post-event — amplifying impact, memory, and sponsor value.

3. Upskill Teams in Analytics and Ethics
Invest in training for event teams on interpreting social media metrics, basic sentiment analysis, and ethical data practices. Understand the limitations of platform APIs, and avoid exploitative data scraping. Create transparent policies about how social media data is collected, used, and stored — especially in hybrid and virtual environments.

4. Diversify Platform Strategies
Avoid relying solely on dominant platforms like Facebook or Instagram. Different audiences cluster on different apps — TikTok for youth culture, LinkedIn for business, Discord for communities, and metaverse platforms for immersive interaction. Develop tailored strategies for each platform based on audience behaviours, not institutional habits.

5. Centre Inclusion and Accessibility
Ensure your social media content and platforms are accessible: use captioning, alt-text, multiple languages, and inclusive design principles. Design for different levels of digital literacy, and recognise that marginalised audiences may rely on different platforms or modes of engagement. Inclusion in digital events is not optional — it’s a baseline requirement.

6. Collaborate Across Sectors and Generations
Partner with tech developers, digital anthropologists, and early-career creatives to stay ahead of platform trends and audience preferences. Build bridges between researchers and practitioners. Tham emphasises the value of engaging the next generation — both as event designers and as users who live in digital spaces. Co-create events with them, not just for them.

By taking these actions, event professionals can build events that are not only more resilient and engaging, but also more transparent, equitable, and future-fit. In an industry built on connection, it’s time we connect more deliberately — not just in person, but across platforms, generations, and experiences.

IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES

While integrating social media more deeply into event strategy offers enormous potential, several limitations must be acknowledged.

First, platform volatility remains a major risk. As Tham highlights, changes to ownership (e.g. Twitter becoming X), API access, or paywall models can disrupt entire communication strategies overnight. Relying too heavily on any single platform is a structural vulnerability.

Second, data ethics and privacy regulation continue to evolve unevenly across jurisdictions. Event organisers must navigate a complex and sometimes contradictory patchwork of global laws (e.g., GDPR, CCPA) while still aiming to personalise and optimise user engagement. Striking a balance between innovation and integrity is critical — and often under-resourced.

Third, skills gaps and generational divides persist across teams. Not every organisation has access to social media managers with fluency across multiple platforms, nor researchers equipped to translate social analytics into strategic insight. Upskilling takes time — and culture change takes longer.

Finally, access and equity issues must not be ignored. Not all audiences are online, and digital-first strategies can unintentionally exclude those with limited connectivity or digital literacy.

These challenges shouldn’t deter action — but they demand thoughtful, flexible, and values-led implementation strategies.

REFERENCES

Azara, I., Pappas, N., & Michopoulou, E. (2023). Revisiting value cocreation and codestruction in events: An overview. Event Management, 27(2), 157-162. https://doi.org/10.3727/152599521X16367300695672  

Estanyol, E. (2022). Traditional festivals and Covid-19: Event management and digitalization in times of physical distancing. Event Management, 26(3), 647-659. https://doi.org/10.3727/152599521X16288665119305 

Gursoy, I. T., Aktas, E., Tecim, V., & Kurgun, O. A. (2023). Beta tourist world: A conceptual framework for organizing an event in the Metaverse. Information Technology & Tourism, 25(4), 529-548. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-023-00266-9 

Harb, A. A., Fowler, D., Chang, H. J. J., Blum, S. C., & Alakaleek, W. (2019). Social media as marketing tool for events. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 10(1), 28-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-03-2017-0027 

Ozturk, A. B., Wei, W., Hua, N., & Qi, R. (2021). Factors affecting attendees continued use of mobile event applications. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 12(2), 307-323. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-03-2020-0058 

Piccioni, N. (2023). From physical to metaversal events: An exploratory study. Italian Journal of Marketing, 2023(2), 119-134. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43039-023-00068-1 

Pino, G., Peluso, A. M., Del Vecchio, P., Ndou, V., Passiante, G., & Guido, G. (2019). A methodological framework to assess social media strategies of event and destination management organizations. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 28(2), 189-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2018.1516590 

Porpiglia, F., Checcucci, E., Autorino, R., Amparore, D., Cooperberg, M. R., Ficarra, V., Novara, G. (2020). Traditional and virtual congress meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic and the post-COVID-19 era: Is it time to change the paradigm? European Urology, 78(3), 301-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eururo.2020.04.018 

Sun, J., Leung, X. Y., & Bai, B. (2021). How social media influencer’s event endorsement changes attitudes of followers: The moderating effect of followers’ gender. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 33(7), 2337-2351. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-09-2020-0959 

Talantis, S., Shin, Y. H., & Severt, K. (2020). Conference mobile application: Participant acceptance and the correlation with overall event satisfaction utilizing the technology acceptance model (TAM). Journal of Convention & Event Tourism, 21(2), 100-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/15470148.2020.1719949 65

AUTHOR(S)

Senior Lecturer, University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia).

Dr Aaron Tham is the Subject Component Lead in Tourism, Leisure, and Events Management within the School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. He is the President of the Travel and Tourism Research Association Asia Pacific Chapter, and 1st Vice Chair on the Council of Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE). Aaron's primary interests are around emerging technologies and event legacies, where he has led event workshops, delivered keynotes, and taught event studies as a Professional Fellow of the Asia Pacific Institute of Event Management (APIEM). Aaron is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been involved in event committees such as the Committee for Brisbane Taskforce for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Legacies, the International Congress and Convention Association Taskforce, and the Professional Convention Management Association Marina Bay Sands Australia Circle.

Disclaimer
The views and insights expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and reflect their research and professional expertise. They do not represent the views of the Centre for Events & Festivals CIC or its partners.