The Role of Social Media at Your Trade Show or Conference

Lately, we have been discussing ways to drive traffic to your trade show exhibit or conference, but have not touched on the importance of social media in today’s high tech world that supports our need for instant information. Many people, especially the millennium generation, use social media as a decision making tool. These people want to know what others think and feel, before making an important decision. There is no escaping the fact that social media has become an integral part of our everyday lives and as a trade show or conference manager this is a highly effective medium to promote your next event.

First, focus on building brand awareness, before the show. It’s important to have a strategy beforehand, the key a successful social media campaign is planning. Potential customers need to know what products and services your company offers before, during, at and after the event. Providing this information on a highly used medium through well thought out posts, will entice consumers to remember your brand, making them more likely to purchase your product or services.

Here are some useful tips for using social media to advertise your exhibit or conference.

1.  Make sure you are following the main pages of the show organizers on all the social media sites you utilize. Then retweet or repost information they give to increase the likelihood of your posts being seen by show attendees.
2.  #Hastags are used most often on Twitter. Many shows already have them in place, also make sure you are using the predetermined show hashtag if you are utilizing it. Using #hashtags in a sentence is good practice.
3.  LinkedIn caters to the business atmosphere. Use this site to determine who you want to market to. Post links to your blog LinkedIn to pique the interest of potential customers.
4.  Planning is important to avoid spelling and grammar mistakes. Remember, you are representing your business on all social media sites. Make sure you are doing it well.  
5.  Planning content is especially important on Twitter where you only have 140-characters to get your message across.
6.  People are visual. Use lots of pictures and videos to grab and hold their attention.
7.  Post demonstrations videos to your company’s YouTube page, then add the links to all your social media sites.
8.  Only use social media to promote predetermined, structured events such as product demonstrations or special events in your booth. Do not use it as a way to pass the time by typing whatever comes into your head on show floor. When in doubt, refer to the strategy that was created before the show.
9.  Don’t just use social media before the trade show or conference. While you are there, take pictures, showcase products, keep tweeting about show only specials, anything to stay at the top of the news feed.  
10.  Have fun while engaging potential and current customers with your brand.

Social media is a great way to reach current customers, potential clients and vendors before, during and after your trade show or conference. It’s easy and only takes a little time to increase the ROI for face-to-face marketing events, all it takes is a little planning and imagination. Utilizing social media to promote your trade show or conference will increase the company’s brand awareness while helping you become the qualified #leadschamp of your office.