Optimize Trade Show Investment through PR and Social Media
Wondering how social media and trade shows can interact to help your business?
Simply put, social media can enhance your trade show investment and give you more material for post-trade show interaction with potential clients. Here's how it works.
The Build-Up
You can't expect to neglect social media up until the trade show and then get any benefit from it. Develop a social media plan for your business to generate contacts. You can do this through a blog, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, or other social media venues, but you need to build up a substantial following.
To do this, you could produce daily blog posts that elicit interesting comments from followers. When you respond to these comments, you build a genuinely social relationship with potential clients. Once these clients trust you, they'll be interested in receiving more information from you.
One to two months before the trade show, begin posting information about your exhibit at the trade show. Tweet about incentives and promotions, introduce people who will be at the booth, and provide a map so they can find you.
At the Show
You've used social media to attract people to your booth at the trade show. How do you use social media now?
Use Twitter and Facebook to post what's going on at your booth. Post pictures of the event, including interesting people and displays. Ask visitors if they'd mind being interviewed on video, and post these interviews to YouTube. Of course, you'll also post these videos to your blog later on.
It's a good idea to have someone back at the office monitoring all social media and replying to feedback and comments from your followers. You may not be able to keep up with everything from the booth.
After the Show is Over
Use your blog to report on the trade show. Perhaps you made some interesting contacts at the show that your followers would like to "meet." Share photos of the trade show on Facebook and Flickr.
The show itself can be fodder for your blog for weeks afterward if you're smart and mine it well. Tell about the prizes you gave out and the people you gave them to. Solicit feedback from visitors to your booth, asking what worked well and what they would like to see next year.
Remember that social media and trade shows can work hand in hand to better your company's PR.