So you’ve been planning exclusive gatherings for close to a decade or more and using social media channels to boost your ticket sales? Let’s hop onto Pay2Stay’s train and take a trip down memory lane… 

Oh my, you’ve been through the trenches and seen a lot! And as if this wasn’t enough, you can now call yourself a “TikTok ban saga survivor”.

In fact, in the last decade, some of you may have experienced more downs than ups in your quest to leverage social media for your events and event business brand. But the bottom line is: 

🗓️ 2025 is here! 

😩 Social media platforms’ algorithms seem to have never-ending mood swings 

🤷 And quite bluntly, it is what it is! 

For event marketers, the time to explore new ways to convert social media users into event ticket buyers has never been riper than now. As Forbes noted in their key marketing trends projections for 2025, there are big opportunities to respond to (and monetize) consumers’ heightened cravings for human experiences this year.

Let’s dig in!

New opportunities on social media (2025)

As of October 2024, only 21.9% of global social media users above the age of 16 used social networks for “making new contacts”, according to DataReportal. This motive for using social media ranked 13 out of the 15 main reasons.

Yup, that low. What does this tell us?

Look, everybody has internalized it by now:

Cravings for human experiences can be better satisfied by connecting with people in the real world.

Event promoters and marketers, know this: The market for exclusive in-person events, therefore, exists. It’s there for the taking. But there’s a catch. It may be harder to get a hold of it, in this post-coronavirus era. 

The COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdowns, coupled with advancements in social media and the ever-increasing volume of information that flows in those streets, have altered a host of things. Namely, these include the way we structure our social life, reshuffle our circles, define entertainment, cure our boredom, consume content, get triggered to take action, and so on.

Are you intrigued yet?

The keyword here is “trigger”. On the internet, every content creator/marketer is pitching their personal or business brand or product. The goal is the same: Attract people’s attention and get them to perform an action that will boost your metrics.

Having said that, if you want to compete for someone’s attention, you need to know what they ARE looking FOR at a specific point in time. When you discover this, you can respond to their desire at that very moment and become:

• the object they CHOOSE to look AT

• the solution they CHOOSE to focus ON

• and the brand they CHOOSE to interact WITH. 

Basically, you can’t force social media users to give you their attention. You need to let them choose you. Event marketers on socials, know this, and know peace.😌

The graphic below sheds light on the top 10 reasons consumers above the age of 16 use social media globally. Take note to fine-tune your event marketing strategy.

The 39% filling spare time, the 30.4% looking for content, the 26.9% finding products to purchase, the 26.7% finding inspiration for things to do and buy, and even the 23.7% watching live streams all give us a clue:

These are the ones whose attention you'll want to compete for, as an event host or marketer fishing for guests on social networks. So let’s talk about the attention span of your potential attendees, shall we?

Debunking some myths about social media consumers’ attention spans

A January 2024 report from GWI revealed that Americans spend 2 hours and 18 minutes daily on social media – just a little less than the worldwide average of 2 hours and 23 minutes. That’s a considerable amount of seconds, minutes, and hours fidgeting with devices! In a year, this is equivalent to:

• 50,370 minutes

• or, 839 hours and 30 minutes

• or again, 35 days.

THIRTY-FIVE.

Americans spent the equivalent of 35 full days in 2023 using social media — an activity consumers (excluding content creators) aren’t paid for, generally speaking.

Ironically, there is a price to exist and interact on those free-to-use social networks. That price has two currencies: time to be spent, and attention to be paid. Consumers willingly give both away for whatever stuff resonates with them.

It must be noted that time spent on social networks globally witnessed considerable growth for 7 consecutive years from 2013 (95 minutes daily) to 2019 (145 minutes daily). The figure, SOAX reports, remained stable during COVID-19 (2020 and 2021) and picked up again in 2022 (145 minutes) and 2023 (151 minutes) before decreasing by 5.3% in 2024.

Nevertheless, since 2016, social media users (constituting the vast majority of humanity — 63.8% of the globe’s total population, to be precise) have allocated no less than 2 hours of their time daily browsing socials. And, guess what? They’ve never looked back since then.

Devices charged. Eyeballs locked on the screens. Thumbs scrolling. The world has decided that this addictive volunteer activity warrants 2 hours daily, and nothing less.

Amid increasing time allocated for browsing socials, human beings are compelled to multitask more than ever before. This doesn’t automatically mean that attention spans have shortened. More precisely, people are being asked to divide their attention in more ways than ever before. 

Showrunner CEO Shane Snow makes a good case for that in his op-ed on Forbes, meant to counter the internet's 2015 claim that “humans have an 8-second attention span” which is supposedly “less than that of a goldfish” and “getting shorter”.

The Dream Teams author and keynote speaker singles out “listening to a podcast while driving to work” as an example of “specifically dividing your attention” or “alternating what you're focusing on (driving or listening) while paying a low level of selective attention to both.” 

He goes on to state that, “some things, rather than simply getting us to selectively pay attention, can actually induce sustained attention.”

Shane’s argument? 

Science's proof that “humans have massive capacity for sustained attention, and storytelling unlocks it” as his op-ed's title declares.

Interesting, right? 

Contrary to popular belief, our attention spans can expand depending on the type of media or immersion we are encountering. This can get you wondering: 

“How do I factor in immersive storytelling in my event marketing strategy?”

Or again:

“How do I tap into people’s selective attention, when using social media, to build my event hosting brand?”

In a bonus blog post from these series on attention spans, we’ll dive deep into how to keep guests engaged from A to Z at your exclusive events. But for now, let’s tackle what stands in the way of converting target social media users into event guests.