Is it beginning to feel like your company maintains different social media accounts just for the sake of having them? This flood of online marketing trends has created an arms race mentality where companies focus energy on social channels simply to avoid being left behind by their competitors, rather than strategize what posts and audience reach is going to find traction with their potential visitors.
Today’s featured post is by Timothy Carter discussing how each social channel is best utilized for pre-tradeshow and on-site brand awareness. Every social channel has its own strengths, weaknesses and overlap with one another. Read on to better learn how to use social media to make an impact at your next trade show.
Facebook
Millions of Facebook users log-in daily via their smart phones to stay in touch with family and friends. Increasingly, they are following their favorite brands and companies on Facebook.
- Follow the trade show’s Facebook page.
- Post questions regarding the trade show, the special events at the show and other relevant information (like where to stay or best places to eat in town) that will help you get more engagement and exposure.
- Promote the trade show, your booth number in the exhibition hall on your company brand page.
- And don’t forget to “friend” attendees or fans of the trade show exhibit’s page.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a powerful social network with over 100 million users in the United States. LinkedIn has a fantastic “groups” option, so getting everyone into a particular trade show event is easy. Hopefully your upcoming trade show event manager has created one for their trade show. And that’s just one of the LinkedIn tools that can be used for a trade show.
- Join groups and engage in “conversations” or start one yourself in trade groups related to the show. Share your blog posts (if you have them) and thoughts about the industry or market to establish yourself as an authority in your industry.
- Use your LinkedIn “share an update…” to show your upcoming contest, special events leading up to the trade show.
- Connect with people going to the show. Tell them where to find you at the show. Start building a relationship with them.
- Don’t forget to look for similar business interests/connection that you have in common with fellow attendees. Use that “common ground” as a reason to have a conversation at the trade show. It’s a powerful way to genuinely build a business relationship with a prospect or deepen one with an existing customer.
Google+
Google Plus has the distinct advantage over other social media networks simply by being Google. Drive traffic and interest to your trade show booth and consider after-show bonus content. It will be indexed into Google’s search results.
- Post updates with pictures. Keeping your feed moving with images, thoughts and ideas about what’s happening at the trade show.
- Live video streaming with Google Hangout. Google hangout allows you broadcast from your event (hopefully the exhibition hall has WiFi or your company has planned for it) for people who aren’t there to see what’s going on and what you’re presenting.
- Circles and events. Google+’s Circles feature give you the chance to organize your Google contacts based on where you met them or what type of person they are: prospect, customer, partner, peer, etc.
YouTube
YouTube is owned by Google and provides a powerful visual opportunity to build trust, buzz and connect with people interested in your products or business.
- Create quick little testimonial videos from customers. If you have a current customer visiting your booth, it’s a great opportunity to capture a quick 30 second video testimonial. Powerful stuff.
- Take a video of the activity at your booth. Show off the number of people visiting the booth. Participating in the trade show contest (you do have one don’t you?), a presentation being given or special event speaker.
- Don’t forget to link to your company’s website within the description of the video as you upload it to YouTube. And make sure your description describes what is happening in the video. Don’t just upload videos with no information.
Interested in discussing what types of exhibit kiosks and technology can be used to compliment your pre-show marketing? Our exhibit experts are always happy to discuss options and recommend the best display for your company’s needs.
The Monster Displays team can be reached at Sales@MonsterDisplays.com or call (888) 484-3344, we’d love to put our experience to work for you.