Impact of Social Media on Global Events

This essay discusses how social media plays a crucial role in promoting and generating revenue for global events such as FIFA. It highlights the use of social media platforms to promote events, increase awareness, and generate sales for companies associated with those events.

Introduction to Critical
Thinking

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Comparing and contrasting the impact of social media on promoting a major global event
against more traditional methods................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Social media has transformed the lives of human beings. It has created a great impact on
the world’s economy. In the recent era, social media is highly used in promoting global and
famous events (Bartram, El-Bizri and Gittens, 2016). This is done to create awareness about
event in the minds of people. Also, social media is a platform from where promotion can be done
at the global level. With this, a large number of people can be attracted. Social media has created
a positive impact on the minds of people. They get all the information about a particular event. It
also saves the time and cost of organisation that conducts an event. Furthermore, it has provided
a source of earning for companies as well. This is the main reason why it is important to promote
global event and this was not possible in traditional times. For this report, the event taken is
FIFA World Cup 2018 that was held in Russia.
MAIN BODY
Comparing and contrasting the impact of social media on promoting a major global event against
more traditional methods
Every global event that is organised has to be promoted effectively. It not only helps in
creating awareness but also in creating anxiety among people. Besides this, it provides
information to people about where event will be held and when. This is the main medium of
people to get data and information of event. With this, they remain updated about how far event
has reached. World cup is a global event in which FIFA spends a lot of money to make it
successful.
FIFA is an international football association that conducts world cup in every four years.
In 2018, it was held in Russia. It is the major and most popular global event. Before the event
was started, it was highly promoted on various social media platforms. This was done to make
people aware about the event (Jackson, 2015). The main aim was to generate income from
different sources. For example – promotion helped in increasing the viewership of people on TV,
mobile, etc. Also, it helped in generating sales of various football teams and players. Moreover,
companies that are involved in sponsoring the event also promote it through social media. In
FIFA world cup, many companies were involved. But among them, there were two main
1

companies that were Nike and Adidas. The promotion of event helped them as their sales and
profits increased.
Earlier, there was no craze of football in many countries. Also, there were very few
mediums of promoting the world cup. This affected the event as people were not aware about it
and due to this, they cannot watch it. The promotion was done only through TV, newspaper,
radio, etc. Also, the reach of these sources was limited. Moreover, it was very expensive to use
this method. So, due to this, the cost of event was not covered. In addition to this, in traditional
method, famous football players were involved in promoting the world cup. So, it didn't have a
great impact on people. Also, FIFA was not able to generate high profits. People got information
about the event on radio and newspaper (Butler, Pentoney and Bong, 2017). So, they did not
know what was happening. Due to this, companies were not getting profits.
But, in the recent era, there has been a significant change in the mind-set of people. They
have started taking interest in watching world cup. In a research, it was observed that almost 3.3
billion people watched FIFA world cup that was held in Brazil. This was due to effective
promotion of event through social media. It created awareness among people. The reaction of
people was very positive. This helped FIFA to focus more on social the media. It is because;
many youngsters spend a lot of time on social sites such as Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Furthermore, such a big event requires that results of matches must be updated. So, people can
easily check the results on it. In addition to this, social media has connected people with each
other. It has brought people of different caste, creed, race, etc. together. This has also united
them.
In 2018 world cup, there was a great impact of social media. It was a very successful
event. In this, FIFA earned huge profits (Stevens and et..al 2016). Besides this, people also
supported the event. They were highly involved in this. By doing comment and sharing
information, people created awareness about this event. FIFA also advertised in on TV. But in
the world of digitalisation, internet proved to be a better media. FIFA generated a major part of
their revenue from promotion. This attracted several companies to sponsor the world cup. With
this, it was easy for them to do marketing. People got to know about different companies and
2

their products. The promotion of global event on one social media platform also leads to put
impact on another. The world cup theme song that was released. Many people watched it on
YouTube. So, this site also earned from this. Similarly, Twitter, Instagram, etc. benefited from
each other.
The main aim of promoting event is to generate huge profits. It is because; the rights of
viewership are sold by organiser to different country’s broadcasting companies. They bid for
rights and pay specific fees for it. This generated income and helps in making the event
successful. In today's era, social media has reached to the rural areas through technological
advancement (Herrick, 2015). This is the reason why everything is promoted through it. FIFA
world cup started its promotion in the beginning of January 2018. This gave an insight to people
that world cup is going to begin from 14th June. Slowly people also started getting involved in
advertising. After that, they started getting aware about the world cup. In February, FIFA
released the ticket’s price. It was displayed on networking platforms so that people can start
planning to go to Russia. Alongside this, social sites was helpful in keeping people updated
about what happened in each match.
Another goal of using social media in such a big event is that it helps in connecting
people of different nations. Football is all about respect. Players also get involved in creating
awareness. Along with this, companies take advantage of world cup and advertise their products.
By this, they can attract people. In 2018 world cup, social media played a vital role. It created a
great impact on the minds of people. As it was observed that countries like Iceland and Panama
played world cup for the first time (Davies and Barnett 2015). Apart from this, social media
also helps people to support their countries during world cup. As more and more people engage
with event it helps in making it successful.
Therefore, it is necessary to resolve the issue by developing appropriate strategies. This
will help in effective promotion of the event. Also, it helped in generating sales of various
football teams and players. Moreover, companies that are involved in sponsoring event also
promote it through social media. In this regard, FIFA can implement some strategies that will
help in effective promotion of next world cup that will be held in Qatar in 2022 and in US in
3

2026. FIFA can develop a different platform on social media where they can provide complete
information regarding their upcoming events. FIFA is also involved in various corporate social
responsibilities (Harvey, 2018). This is done to build a positive image. By developing a separate
page on networking sites, FIFA can give update of any seminar or exhibition. It will help in
involving more people with them. With this, it can be evaluated that social media has impacted
global events in a positive way. Many events have been organised successfully. It has increased
the range of area of promotion. Now, people remain updated about any global event that is going
to happen. Furthermore, companies are earning a large amount of revenues from social media.
The success of events has increased the profits of FIFA. Now, events are organised more
effectively. Also, a lot of amount is spent on the promotion in order to get double return on
investment.
CONCLUSION
This essay concluded that social media plays a crucial role in promoting the global
events. It not only creates awareness but also helps in generating the sales of companies that are
associated with that event. It is concluded that FIFA generated a major part of their revenue from
promotion. This attracted several companies to sponsor the world cup. With this, it was easy for
them to do marketing. Moreover, many other things were involved in the world cup. The 2018
world cup was promoted on Facebook, Instagram, etc. This resulted in generating huge profits
for FIFA as well as companies.
4

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bartram, A., El-Bizri, N. and Gittens, D., 2016. Introduction. In Recto Verso: Redefining the
Sketchbook (pp. 23-32). Routledge.
Butler, H.A., Pentoney, C. and Bong, M.P., 2017. Predicting real-world outcomes: Critical
thinking ability is a better predictor of life decisions than intelligence. Thinking Skills and
Creativity, 25, pp.38-46.
Davies, M. and Barnett, R. eds., 2015. The Palgrave handbook of critical thinking in higher
education. Springer.
Harvey, F., 2018. Critical GIS: Distinguishing critical theory from critical thinking. The
Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien, 62(1), pp.35-39.
Herrick, P., 2015. Think with Socrates: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. Oxford University
Press.
Jackson, S.L., 2015. Research methods and statistics: A critical thinking approach. Cengage
Learning.
Stevens, C., and et..al 2016. A within-instructor evaluation of three scientific thinking modules:
Description of activities and evaluation. Copyright and Other Legal Notices, p.116.
5