Eventbrite Weighs In on Social Commerce Value of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn Shares

What is the value of a Facebook share and how does it compare to Twitter? Those are questions online event service Eventbrite asked in 2010 and came up with the following numbers: one share on Facebook equaled $2.52 and a share on Twitter equaled $0.43.

Six months later, in March of 2011, the company took another look and determined a Facebook share drove on average $1.34 in ticket sales compared with a tweet that drove on average $.80

Now that Eventbrite has opened a UK office and is expanding globally, the company asked those questions yet again, comparing both the US and UK markets. Here’s a rundown of what it discovered:

• Facebook users in the US and the UK look similar demographically, with roughly 50% population penetration in both countries.
• Facebook has the highest value per share in the UK compared to other social networks, which mirrors the US. On average a Facebook share generates £2.25 in additional gross ticket sales, while a share on Twitter drives an average of £1.80.
• When someone shares an Eventbrite event through Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn in the UK, it generates an average £1.77 in additional ticketing revenue for the event organizer, while in the US, one share generates an average of £1.42 across the three platforms.
• When the numbers are converted to Pounds Sterling, the social commerce impact from Facebook is stronger in the US, while Twitter and LinkedIn are stronger in the UK
• In summary, a Facebook share in the US is 56% more impactful than in the UK. Twitter is nearly 10% more impactful in the UK than the US, while LinkedIn is 95% more impactful in the UK.

Regardless of how they break out, what these numbers really tell us is that social sharing results in sales transactions taking place. “When someone shares an event with their friends through social media, this action results in real dollars,” said Eventbrite on its blog.

In addition, Facebook sharing creates stickiness, which contributes to discovery. Not only is Facebook the #1 referring site for traffic to Eventbrite’s website, but shares from the social network result in clicks to the site by a 11:1 ratio (11 visits per share according to the 2010 report).