Month: March 2019

Short Reflection: Research Process on Online Promotion

At the start of my research process, my group and I were grouped together based on our similar topics. We created a hypothesis and decided to proceed with our research plan a few days after our preparation. I decided to investigate about online promotion of street dance events in Hong Kong.

My group created a survey regarding the use of social media, which had over 50 participants. It was a bit of a struggle to compile our topics together, in order to create a survey that can benefit all our topics. But in the end, we were able to put the right amount of questions for our survey that wasn’t too long and boring for the participants to do.

We had also conducted a focus group interview with 3 of our classmates. Each member was able to ask around 3 questions each, giving us to talk for around 3-4 mins. The focus group interview went smoothly like a breeze, with not much trouble other than the camera’s battery getting low at some point.

The survey results has helped us tremendously with our project, as well as our focus group interview.

Personally, I was able to learn how to write down specific questions for a research project, and how to conduct a research interview for a focus group. I have created surveys before back in my Associate degree and also high school, but this would be a first for being in a group and conducting a research project. It was also my first time to conduct a focus group interview in my life. I believe these skills were able to benefit me in the future if I decide to pursue in a career that involves data collection. In general, this is a useful skill that can be used if I want to investigate an issue, conduct the research and analyze the data.

However, there is certainly room for improvement for conducting a better research process in the future. Although I believe I asked specific questions in my survey, I believe it was still a bit broad and it can be dived in deeper. Being a bit broad would probably be my weakest factor throughout my research project. I did not add an “other” option in my survey questions, which prevented me from getting to know new information that I may not know about it. This mistake definitely hindered the quality of the research project, as I could have provided new information for myself and interested parties.

Overall, I was able to understand on a deeper level on the importance qualitative and quantitative data, and how to use them effectively. Conducting a research project and using the data collection right is not as easy as you think, but now I am able to learn from this project and use it more effectively when needed.

 

 

Opinion Piece: Online Promotion on Hong Kong Street Dance Events

Online promotion of street dance events in Hong Kong is their main gateway to advertise their events, the norm in this urban city. Event promoters rely heavily on online promotion, due to the lack of support from the government or corporations to sponsor them. This leads to a lack of popularity to this niche market, where in reality, these events could be more popularized if they were promoted more efficiently.

“Being ready isn’t enough; you have to be prepared for a promotion or any other significant change.” – Pat Riley (1994)

I conducted a little research project, interviewing 3 event promoters and 10 street dance participants, in order to find ways to promote a street dance event more effectively. I did interviews with 1 event promoter and sent out surveys for all of the participants in this project.

Factors to Consider when Promoting Street Dance Events

Online Platform

Considering which online platform to use when promoting street dance event is essential to reach a mass audience, and also the right audience. According to my research project, it is uncovered that 79% of the survey participants will use Facebook and Instagram more, when they want to see street dance events. Due to the popularity of Instagram, with the support of Facebook’s event page function, it is more reliable with “easy to use” functions for event promoters and the participants. YouTube is another great online platform for promotion, but it will be more effective if it is combined with another social media platforms. Twitter and Snapchat were not as effective based on the data results, as they do not reach a large audience more effectively compared to Instagram and Facebook.

Venue, Popularity and DJ

72% of my survey participants stated that the venue, popularity and DJ are the most important factors for what attracts them to a street dance event. Venue plays an essential role when trying to attract a mass audience to a street dance event. Underground events like in factory buildings provide the “ghetto street vibe” but may not be as popular as venues like Tamar Park or Asia World Expo. Of course, creating a wide scale events will need a tremendous amount of financial support. This can be done by making a qualifier of a world class event, or collaborating with other promoters to increase popularity in the street dance scene and for the general audience. According to Halifax Convention Centre, an author for EventManagerBlog.org (2017), “Launch your Event with a Partner” is mandatory in order for your event to succeed in terms of popularity.

Having the right DJ for the event is vital, as different DJs have different music styles and also which genre they specialized in. The wrong type of DJ could potentially destroy event’s vibe, even if everything else in the event went smoothly.

In March 2019, Hong Kong has made a Hong Kong Qualifier for an internationally dance competition “World of Dance”. It was held in Ocean Park and it has sparked a lot of attention towards dancers in Hong Kong and nationally. The event’s success has made more noise in the street dance scene, demonstrating it is possible to grow this niche industry in Hong Kong, when done efficiently.

Consistency

When promoting an online event, consistency is vital for the event’s success. Constant updates of the event is essential, as it reminds participants that there is an event in the making. This hypes up the audience who are interested, and also brings in new people to know about the event with consistent posts regarding the event.

A street dance event promoter called “Good Job Brother” is a perfect example for consistency. They make use of the Instagram story and highlights functions and consistently post about their events, even after the event has finished. This has tremendously contributed to their event’s popularity, due to this online promotion strategy.

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With these factors taken into consideration, street dance event should be able to reach a mass audience in no time!

In the 21st century, it is essential for people to follow the trends, and online promotion is the way to go!

References

Individual Research Project on Online Promotion: Comparative Analysis

In my individual section of the research project, I focused on online promotion towards street dance (i.e. Hip Hop, Breaking) events in Hong Kong.

I have used both quantitative and qualitative methods: Handing out an online survey and conducting a focus group interview. My group has received over 50 responses for our survey and conducted our focus group interview with 3 people.

Quantitative Analysis

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Figure 1. Most Used Online Platform for Promotion 

In Figure 1., over 15 participants selected Instagram and Facebook as the top 2 online platforms, with also YouTube being in the same rank but is not seen in this graph. Twitter and Snapchat were ranked the lowest for barely being used or never. Twitter has received the most responses for never being used as an online platform for promotion. This shows that Facebook and Instagram is the most commonly used online apps in terms of online promotion.

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Figure 2. Attractiveness of Street Dance Events

Over 30 of the participants selected that what attracts them to these events would be the venue and the popularity of the event. Good promotion strategies came second while DJ came in third. This shows that events will only be more popular based on how they advertise their event and also the music that is involved in the event.

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Figure 3. Improve the Popularity of Street Dance Events 

In Figure 3., “Connect more with the fans on their event page” received over 30 responses for how it is beneficial, and having ads on bigger online platforms and government support came in second. The Figure also shows that participants think it is not necessary to have an app for these events specifically.

The 51 participants were as follows:

  • 46% Male and 54% Female
  • Majority were 21-23 year old’s
  • 84% from Hong Kong, 12% Australia, 4% Others

Based of their demographic background, this suggests that the participants were having a local perspective on the issue, while a minority may be referring to their own’s country’s technological environment.

After the survey results, I felt some of the questions were too broad and was not specific enough to draw up a finalized answer.

Hence, I planned to ask a more specific questions in my focus group interview.

I decided to go more in depth of the promotion strategies and what attracts individuals to attend these events. I also asked questions about their knowledge of street dance events, to see their general knowledge for this particular area.

The following questions asked in the interview:

  1.  Do you know that street dance events rely heavily on online promotion?
  2. In your opinion, which social media do you think is most suitable for promoting street dance events? Why?
  3. These events are not as massive as other events (i.e. Clockenflap). What do you think these events are missing in terms of promotion compared to those wide scale events?
  4. Would you go to these events?
  5. What would make you want to go these events?

From my survey results, it has informed to me that there were multiple answers but was not able to predict a finalized answer from the results.

Here are the results from the focus group interview:
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Figure 4. Focus Group Interview Results

Qualitative Analysis

Based off the focus group interview results, there are several patterns that can be spotted. It is seen that the participants do not have any general knowledge of street dance events, showing how these events are in a niche market. The participants are also willing to go to these events if it is on a more massive stage or if they have any peers joining the event, as support. They also agree that Facebook is a suitable online platform to promote street dance events as Facebook allows organizers to create an event page and also post videos without any time limit as compared to Instagram with their 1 minute max duration.

However, the responses of the participants were too broad to draw up a more specific conclusion for any further research development in the future. Despite the broadness of the responses, this has still helped with my research process as it provided a clearer view on how the general public knows about the street dance events and how online promotion can be improved tremendously.