wooden bridge into sea labelled "expectation" white tents, chairs at night labelled "reality"

Fyre Festival, The issues of false representation on social media

We all know social media is a powerful tool.

One recent documentary showed the world just how powerful social media and video marketing really is.

Netflix and Hulu have, this month, released tell-all documentaries about the infamous FYRE Festival. On April 27th 2017 social media influencers from around the world boarded their ‘private jets’ from Miami to Exuma, Bahamas for the new, massively hyped FYRE Festival. Little did they know what they were in for.

The first social media presence the festival gained was on December 12th 2016. Some of the world’s biggest influencers and models were paid to advertise the festival; posting on Instagram an image of an orange square and telling their followers just how excited they were to be attending FYRE Festival. By clicking on this post, followers were then taken to a promotional video showing models on a tropical beach, having the most fun and included enticing promises in the aim to sell this brand-new festival to the general public.

This promotional video and advertising did so well that within 48 hours the festival was sold out.

Social media presence was vital at this point.

Bearing in mind the organisers had approximately 5 months to arrange FYRE Festival. Whilst constant setbacks occurred throughout the process, FYRE’s social media was busy hyping the festival, counting down the days and announcing the line-up. All this time, attendees were drawn in to this false representation plastered across social media and they could not wait for the “immersive music festival…on the boundaries of the impossible”.

Well, it turns out, it was impossible.

The weekend of FYRE Festival came around. Festival-goers arrived at Miami airport and boarded their flights with very little information, aside from what they had seen on Instagram. Upon arrival, attendees began to realise the promises they were fed through social media were in fact, not reality.

At this point, we’re going to suggest you watch the documentaries to gain a further understanding of what actually happened in the lead-up and during the weekend of FYRE Festival.

However, something we can all take away from this is that social media is so powerful and there should always be a true representation when adopting any form of social media presence; otherwise, you’re just going to get yourself in a pickle.

CI TOP TIP

With mobile usage and social media addiction at an all-time high, there is no denying the impact that stories can have within any event experience, and in this case, it was a definite negative for the organisers.

So make sure when you are running adverts promoting a service, product or an event on social media that you are ready to deliver. Social media is a powerful tool and this is a classic case how powerful it is.

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