With the right mix of informative and entertaining content, social media can help make an impact for your business at your next trade show. Here are some tips.
1. Follow the trade show’s social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter. Like and share the show’s posts. (You scratch our back, we’ll scratch yours. Eh?)
2. Use the official show hashtags to share news and events with attendees.
3. Post early and post often. Don’t wait until the week of the show to start beefing up your online presence. Infrequent posts cause you to lose your connection with your audience.
4. Publicize your booth number. Up the ante by offering a special prize for those that share your post or tweet out a selfie from your booth.
5. Host a contest related to your product or service to collect leads for potential customers before or during the show. (CONEXPO-CON/AGG recently completed a social media contest that resulted in more than 1,500 attendee prospect leads.)
6. Share your blogs or opinions about the industry to establish yourself as an expert in your product or service area.
7. Connect with potential customers to start building or deepening a business relationship prior to the show.
8. Post photos and videos. Demonstration videos are a great way to educate prospective customers about your product. Share updates live from the show floor for those who couldn’t attend.
9. Plan ahead. Even if you plan to have a team member dedicated to social media onsite, it is always a good idea to schedule key posts about your booth number, product/services and special show offers in advance.
10. Social doesn’t end when the show is over. Go through your leads and invite potential customers to connect with you on LinkedIn. Even if they weren’t ready to close the deal at the show, you never know when they may want to rekindle the conversation.
