Managing a Music Festivals Online Presence.

Having an online presence for a music festival is essential for generating interest, making ticket sales and presenting an overall brand. It is becoming more important in the ever increasingly competitive world of music festivals that an online presence is visually impactful, professionally managed and up-to-date.

The ability to have an online presence has evolved over time with websites being a priority 20 years ago but this has expanded to use of popular social media channels as each one gained popularity. For music festivals that have been around for some time they have had to adapt to this change over time and this has caused some disconnect in how they present themselves online. Any quick search online for a specific music festival often reveals results to websites and social media channels that are inconsistent, out-of-date or even have different branding.

Website. 
Almost all music festivals have a website and it is to some extent the anchor and primary source of information about a festival. It remains important because the site content helps drive SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) search rankings and by tagging the site code enables great measurement and analytics of site traffic. Ticket sales through the website are generally easier to manage and can be more secure than offering sales options through social media channels. Every page of the website should have current and up-to-date links to the festival’s social media channels too.

Social Media Channels. 
The most popular social media channels used by the music festival industry are Facebook and Twitter closely followed by Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat. Whilst many festival organisers may focus on just Facebook and Twitter some will have a presence in all channels although that can increase the management time required. Social media channels are great for making announcements and posting regular content as followers usually have mobile device notifications from these channels switched on.

Consistency and Timing.
One of the current issues with many music festival's online presence is the distinct lack of consistency. It is not unusual to see news of line-ups being posted on a single social media channel and not replicated on the website for example. Equally there are some festivals that update their branding for next year’s festival on Facebook and Twitter but leave the website with the previous year's festival branding. This lack of consistency makes the festival organisation look disorganised, is frustrating for potential ticket buyers and can impact adversely on SEO performance.

News. 
There are some festivals that are good at making regular press releases and receiving great coverage in the media but if the same information is not posted on a dedicated news section of the website and across all social media channels that great media coverage is wasted. Seeing a statement form a festival organiser about forthcoming dates and line-ups in the press only to find the event's online presence is 6 months out-of-date is unlikely to generate ticket sales.

It may be a resourcing issue internally within the festival organisation that is causing these issues but it should be easily fixed and managed at little cost. Any music festival that has a disorganised and out-of-date inconsistent online presence does not inspire confidence that they can organise a great music festival.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by Tranmautritam via Pexels

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