Case Study: SXSW achieves real-time social monitoring and rapid risk mitigation with Hootsuite

How SXSW successfully supported over 72,000 attendees through Hootsuite’s listening capabilities and app integrations

SXSW, the world’s largest film, interactive and music festival with about 72,000 attendees in 2014, faced the challenge of filtering extreme volumes of social conversation to keep attendees safe, informed, and entertained. The festival’s digital media team needed a single control center to monitor event chatter, detect security or crowd issues, and coordinate rapid responses across many venues.

Using Hootsuite Enterprise with the Nexalogy integration, SXSW set up keyword and hashtag streams, a command-center pod, and assignment workflows to visualize trends and flag incidents in real time. The result was full visibility into social conversations—allowing the team to reallocate security, diffuse overcrowding (for example during a band’s lineup issues), redirect attendees from over-capacity events, and quickly amplify positive moments while mitigating risks.

SXSW

Melissa Golding

Digital Content Manager