Trade Show Spotlight

Trade shows and special events can seem daunting when it comes to making your brand stand out on social media; while you want to spark buzz, you also want your audience to be engaged in your message. Here’s a few ideas to help you do both with social media.

Facebook

• Use Facebook’s events capability.
  Create an event on Facebook for your tradeshow event, and invite people to come to the event. Post the event page on your other social media outlets to reach out to others who aren’t necessarily your Facebook friends. Here, you can post updates and news about the event in one central place.

Twitter

• Claim a hashtag – and use it – months before the event.
  If you don’t know what a hashtag is, it is a pound sign before a word that you want to tag. Example: LJF marketing is #awesome. – Twitter makes a link out of the word “#awesome” that users can click on. When they click on that link, or tag, Twitter filters all other tweets with the same tag in it, so if you create a hashtag specific to your event and use it, then anyone who is interested can get all of the tweets from your event and see what the buzz is about. For a tutorial on how to use a hashtag, click here. The nice thing about this is that you can send out updates that aren’t limited to an event page or website, and so can other people. Additionally, people can provide some commentary on a presentation – to many, it has become socially acceptable to tweet during a presentation, so leverage that.
• Have Twitter contests during the event.
  Most likely, there is something you can give away at your event that people will be interested in winning. Use Twitter to start a contest for it… perhaps the most tweets wins, or the best picture wins. The contest can be whatever you want it to be, but the important thing is that it gets people excited about something.
• Post pictures during the event.
  This is a fun, interactive tool. Post pictures of happenings at the event, before the event, and after. Make sure you use the event hashtag; if you do, people who have come to the event essentially have a photo album of wonderful memories.

LinkedIn

• Post articles about some of the companies or speakers at the event.
  You can do this for sponsors, or if there are no sponsors, pick a few businesses to highlight a week (if you’re not picking sponsors, make sure you highlight everyone; you wouldn’t want to upset businesses that are paying to be there by not giving them the same amount of publicity.
• Post industry-related articles.
  Maybe there’s an online journal you are subscribed to and you see an interesting piece. Post it for others to see on your Linkedin if it relates to the event. This will provide a humanistic touch and boost your credibility as an event.

Foursquare

• Make your booth into a location and give a special offer when people check in.
  This can be a percentage off your service, or even a free consultation. Just provide an incentive for event-goers to visit your booth rather than others.