Incorporate social media into your next trade show and you’ll find that it can boost trade show success in many ways.

5 Ways Social Media Can Lead To Trade Show Success

Social Media is Easily Integrated into Your Contests

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Giveaways are standard at trade show booths, but you don’t have to stick with boring swag. Include a few big-ticket items that will draw more interest to your booth.

To snag these top prizes, visitors must interact with your social media sites.

There are lots of creative options. Tweet that the first person to come to the booth and share your code word will get the prize.

Allow prize entries for a brief period for each item. Post the schedule on Facebook.

You Can Continue Promotions Beyond the Trade Show

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Encourage trade show visitors to follow your social media sites by letting them know that you’ll run a whole week of special promotions after the trade show. Each day offer a new deal such as 25% off certain services, free upgrades, BOGO offers, and more.

This strategy will keep your potential customers involved long after your booth’s dismantled.

Social Sites Offer a Powerful Destination for QR Codes

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If your trade show booth space gets swamped with visitors, passers-by may not want to stop and wait for personal attention or push through the crowd to peruse your giveaway pens and notepads (after all, the next table has similar stuff.) Include a large QR code on your booth that makes it easy for visitors to snap and move on.

Make sure the page you direct them to has easy links for following all your social media sites. In the days and weeks after the event, direct your posts to your new and hopefully curious followers who want to get to know who you are.

Include lots of features that will help them find out what you’re about.

Event Pages Hype the Event

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Set up an event page on Facebook that’s focused on the event alone. This is a great way to get attendees excited and promote the many activities that will be going on. Interacting with customers before the show will give you a better idea of what they want to see.

Don’t waste time lugging all your multimedia equipment along if a survey shows that they’re most interested in one-on-one conversations with sales reps. Use the funds to take more people along with you instead.

Blogs go In-Depth Where your Booth Can’t

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Trade show attendees want to hit a lot of stops in a limited amount of time. You can send them home with a pile of literature, but it’s likely to get lost in the cavernous swag bag. Instead, blog about common questions before and after the event and direct your leads to this resource as an informative way of getting to know you better.

Integrate your social media marketing strategy and your trade show event for a seamless promotion that will draw in lots of new customers. Never underestimate the power of a well-managed social site.

Did you create a social media campaign for your recent trade show event that brought the attendees to your booth? Or have you seen some great uses of social media at recent conference or convention? Would love to read it.

The post 5 Ways Social Media Can Make Your Trade Show A Success appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Surprisingly, many businesses overlook the “social” part of social media, creating a Facebook page that garners no enthusiasm. Here’s why your Facebook page stinks and ways to make it sweet instead.

8 Reasons Why Your Facebook Page Stinks

1. You Haven’t Set a Clear Goal

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Unfortunately, the goal is not simply “set up a Facebook page.” There actually has to be some thought and a clear goal behind it. What is the ultimate goal of the page? Do you want to find new customers? Build better relationships with your existing customer base? Inform people of exciting developments?

State your goal clearly before attempting to design your Facebook page. If you can’t tell what your goal is, don’t bet on your visitors figuring it out either.

2. You’re Not Updating Frequently Enough

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If someone comes to your Facebook page and your last update was in May 2012, there’s obviously no reason for them to stick around. After all, they’re there to engage with you and find out something new.

Daily updates are a good idea, but at least shoot for one update per week. Let visitors know you’re still out there somewhere.

3. Your Page is Boring

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When you look at your page, what interests you? What would cause visitors to want to come by and stick around awhile? Give them information, offer them tips and do something to get them interested.

People love to engage in polls, give their response to intriguing questions and learn ‘behind the scenes insider info’ and generally get to know you socially – that’s why it’s called social media. Boring your visitors is one of the 7 deadly sins of social media.

4. Your Page Doesn’t Answer the Customer’s Obvious Questions

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You own Zoopapooha Corporation. But this isn’t very informative for the casual visitor who knows absolutely nothing about your company or what you do.

When someone comes to your Facebook page, give them immediate access to who you are, what you’re about and why you’re different from your competitors. Never assume a visitor knows anything about your company.

5. Your Page Isn’t Visual Enough

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Pictures, graphics, videos – all these things make the page more interesting and inviting. If you want to engage visitors, make it visually appealing so they’ll stick around and give you a follow.

Bland text doesn’t really inspire much social media action.

6. You’re Rehashing the Same Stuff Over and Over

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Are your updates and posts redundant? You’ll need to create some fresh, new material to garner interest in your page.

Post relevant news, new technologies or put a new spin on your ordinary business communications.

7. You’re Not Responding to Comments

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Nothing says, “We don’t care about our customers,” like unanswered Facebook comments.

However negative or meaningless, take the time for a polite response and, when necessary, follow up with an email.

8. Your Updates Are Too Wordy

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Long posts look exhausting to online readers and most get skipped entirely. If you’ve got information to share, keep it brief and interesting. If it’s a complex subject requiring further explanation, include a link to your website where the whole story is available.

This is why your Facebook page stinks. But at least you can fix it. Remember, it takes a long time to build a social media presence and most Facebook pages take a year or more to fully mature.

The post 8 Reasons Your Facebook Page Stinks appeared first on Small Business Trends.

How Social Media Can Impact Trade Show Traffic

Create Buzz Leading Up to the Event

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Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linked In, Pinterest and YouTube are excellent tools to get the word out about your trade show. Don’t just announce it, generate buzz about it. Write high quality copy about who will be there, free giveaways, and how people can benefit from attending.

It’s best to do this in small bursts instead of a single press release with all of the information. Create an account on each of the social media sites listed above, and post one or two times per day with exciting news, unique information and teasers leading up to the event. Make it exciting so people will want to share your page and your posts with others.

Generate Excitement During the Event

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Make it possible for users to check in to the trade show on Facebook. Make a hashtag so people can keep up with what’s going on via Twitter. Designate someone at the event to keep up with the social media conversations, so you’ll know if the response is positive or negative. After all the planning involved, you want to make sure people are enjoying themselves.

Regularly post updates to all your social media accounts during the event. Announce giveaways, special appearances, entertainments, drawings, freebies and other things to lure folks over. Be sure to include high quality photos and videos, because people pay more attention to visual cues than written content only.

Post to Pinterest, YouTube and other highly visual sites where people interested in your topic are likely to see what you can provide them. Encourage attendees to engage in the conversation by hosting voting polls and online contests, in addition to the drawings and giveaways at your booth.

Keep Up Communications After the Event

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Promotions don’t end when the trade show closes. Use your new contacts from the event to keep people involved and interested in you and what you have to offer. Post highlights of the trade show on YouTube and other social media. Send out a hearty “thank you” to those who attended on Twitter and Facebook.

Don’t leave out the people who, although interested, were unable to attend the trade show for some reason. Reach out to them with information they’ll find helpful, such as videos of demonstrations or speeches they could learn from. Give them as much of an experience as possible without actually having been there.

Trade shows and social media have one thing in common: They’re both excellent opportunities to build relationships with customers.

Today’s consumers aren’t just looking for one-way advertisements. They want to feel like they’re a part of the conversation. Trade shows are a great way to gather followers for your social media marketing messages, so make it worthwhile by giving them something valuable and useful.

The post How Social Media Can Impact Trade Show Traffic appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Below are four steps to improve your Google Plus profile visibility in search engines and make your online profile stand out from the others.

Improve Your Google Plus Profile for Business

1. Create a Strong, Simple Tagline

Taglines need to be strong, yet brief. Remember, the tagline might be the only thing people see, so create one that’s interesting and alluring and gets to the point quickly. Readers scanning websites online won’t likely take the time to read a long, drawn out tagline.

For example, a heating and air conditioning contractor might select a tagline such as, “Offering [your city] the best service and lowest prices. Period.” A restaurant tagline might read, “Best Buffalo wings south of Buffalo.”

The point is, to get to the point quickly and make it easy for readers to grasp what you’re about in an instant.

2. Add a Professional Photo

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A grainy, out of focus or unprofessional looking photo is an instant turnoff. The photo is your one shot to grab and hook the casual reader who’s scanning for information. It’s best to invest in a professional photographer to get a clean, good-looking shot.

Many businesses add photos of their owner or staff standing around smiling. This is fine, and adds a personal touch. But action shots paint a more alluring picture and draw in readers. Consider a photo of your best chef working over an open flame, or one of your contractors hard at work performing his craft.

Give readers an instant visual image of your business in action.

3. Be Sure Your Website is Linked

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Always link up your Google Plus account to your website and post all of your articles or blog posts to Google Plus. Make sure to select “public” for all posts, so they’ll be visible to everyone. Posting regularly is also important. Google rates pages higher when they’re frequently updated with quality information.

Which brings us to another point: Only post quality content and only link to quality content on Google Plus or any other social media networking site.

Google and other search engines are working hard to promote excellent content in their search results and severely punish poorly written or spammy content.

If you’re going to post, make sure it’s content that’s valuable to readers.

4. Adjust Your Visibility Setting

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One of the things that attracts users to Google Plus can actually be a downside to business. Google Plus more emphasis on protecting personal privacy than Facebook and some of the other social networking sites. The defaults are private and you have to manually set them as public.

To make your Google Plus profile visible, go to the “about” section and select “profile discovery.” Then, make sure “visible” is selected. When you set up a Google Plus profile, “visible” is not automatic, so you have to do this before your profile is publicly seen.

Once you make these four easy changes to your Google Plus profile, you’ll soon see better local search engine rankings and enjoy more action on your site.

The post 4 Steps To Improve Your Google Plus Profile for Business appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Make as Many Connections as Possible

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Social media makes it easier for you to connect with others. Easier, however, doesn’t mean “effortless.” You need to put effort into forming connections to build a hive of interconnected colleagues.

Make a professional profile for yourself on LinkedIn and create profiles for your business on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+

Use these sites to branch out to other people and organizations in your industry. Don’t feel bashful about sending a friend request. They want to connect with you for the same reasons you want to connect with them.

Incorporate Social Media Into Your Blog Posts

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Ideally, you already have a blog that draws in readers with compelling content. If you don’t, then you need to get on that as soon as possible.

If you have great articles, videos and infographics, people will want to share your content with others. Honestly though, they will only share your blog post if they have an easy way to do so. Include buttons that let readers share your posts immediately on G+, Facebook and Twitter.

This lets them share your ideas without exerting any effort.

Create a Buzz Before the Show

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Use your social media connections to generate buzz before your trade show. The more people you can attract, the more people you get to influence with your presentation.

How do you create buzz?

Those social media connections will come in handy as will your content creation skills. Video content typically creates a lot of buzz. Exciting music, interviews and demonstrations can make your ideas more engaging. You can also mention contests and giveaways to motivate people with free stuff.

This is an essential step in the marketing process. If you don’t have an in-house video producer and director, then you should consider farming this part out to a local business that can help you. It will cost a bit of money but the potential returns are great.

Make More Connections at the Trade Show

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Social media marketing can increase attendance at your next trade show exhibit, but you shouldn’t think of that as your end goal. Consider how you can use this event to build a reputation, make more connections and attract a bigger audience to your next event.

How do you make more connections at the show?

Put tablet PCs on a table and ask people to sign up for a drawing by friending you on Facebook or sharing one of your posts.

As important as social media is, you also have to use your personality to work the crowd and meet new people. Smartphone apps such as Bump make it easy to share contact info with the people you meet. Always carry business cards for people who haven’t caught on to the smartphone revolution.

What are some of the best social media marketing strategies that have gotten you to visit a trade show?

The post 4 Social Media Trade Show Marketing Tips appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Social Media Increases Website Traffic

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Whether you prefer to tweet or post messages on Facebook, your small business can use social media platforms to increase traffic to its website.

In fact, 72 percent of small businesses find that going social boosts website traffic. Once customers visit your site, they can learn more about your products and services. If you’re really tech-savvy, you can even have an online store that will seal the deal without even asking customers to leave their homes.

Social Media Helps You Create a Personality for Your Business

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Advertisements don’t give you much time or space. At best, you get to tell potential customers about your products.

With social media, you can create a likable personality for your small business. Big companies spend thousands of dollars on branding. All you have to do is be yourself, post frequently and respond to your customers online.

Social Media Can Reward Your Customers With Discounts

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Social media makes it easy for you to reach out to your customers. If you’re having a slow day, you can use your Twitter or Facebook account to get more people in your store.

Just send out a message announcing a special discount for that day only. Ask your Twitter and Facebook followers to use a password to get the discount. That way, you know who pays attention to your posts and you make them feel special.

Social Media Makes it Easier to Generate Buzz

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Small businesses usually can’t afford to pay for big marketing campaigns. Social media gives you the chance to generate buzz without spending much money. It becomes even more important for small businesses who show off their products and services at trade shows to generate foot traffic to their trade show display booth. Social media sites like Twitter have the ability to amplify pre-show buzz with these 7 simple tips to build traffic to their space.

A lot of business owners find that it helps to use online videos. You could make tutorials and post interviews or review products. Spread the video with your social network channels to get more people interested in your business.

Social Media Brings in Customers With Geolocation

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Location-based social media apps can focus on followers in your area. Use these options to tempt them into your store. If someone uses FourSquare to check into a cafe down the street, you might send them a coupon for one of your services or products. Even if the person doesn’t take advantage of the offer, it still reminds her that your business is there and going strong.

Social Media Helps You Connect With Other Businesses

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Social media does more than just help you find customers. It can also help you connect with other businesses and entrepreneurs. Make a profile for yourself on LinkedIn. This will permit you to connect with businesses and professionals there. Making those connections now could benefit you in unexpected ways, so accept requests from reputable professionals on social media.

What are other ways social media has impacted your small business? Do you think it has had positive or negative effects?

The post 6 Benefits of Social Media for Small Businesses appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Keep up With Current Trends

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When you look at the number of people using social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, it quickly becomes obvious that businesses need to make this an essential part of their marketing strategy.

A local search study conducted by Localeze, comScore, and 15 Miles shows that 63 percent of the 4,000 people surveyed prefer using local businesses that offer information on social networks.

Websites like Facebook have become so prevalent, that people simply expect to find everything they need there. If they don’t find a business, they simply move on to a similar option that maintains a better online presence.

Establish a Brand Identity

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Local businesses face a lot of competition from larger corporations that often sell products at lower prices. As a smaller business, you have to convince potential customers that it makes sense for them to come to your store instead of that big box store with the big discounts.

Establishing a brand identity can help bring in customers who crave a personal shopping experience. Social media lets you create a personality for your business. Instead of a faceless corporation, you can make your local business seem more organic.

Using Twitter, for instance, gives your business a voice. Choose a voice that targets and motivates your intended audience.

Reach Out to New Customers

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Social media lets people share content with each other just by clicking a button. Local businesses can use this trait to reach new customers. To do this, though, you need compelling content.

Shareable content isn’t necessarily as difficult or expensive as you might think. Try using YouTube to let your customers get a behind-the-scenes look at your store. If you have a creative spark, you could even spice things up with music, a plot, or a humorous script.

If you make something that appeals to your customers, their more likely to share it with other people. That exposes your name to more people, who could potentially become your newest customers.

Get Your Customers Involved

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If you’re going to get the most out of Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and other social media outlets, then you have to be social. When you create content about your business, you’re not sending it out to an audience that never has a chance to respond. You’re communicating with people who can offer their own comments and suggestions.

Local businesses have several options that can get their customers more involved. You could set up a contest for people who share a photo or video advertising your business. Those who share the content get a chance to win a gift card.  You can also use services like Twitter and Foursquare to advertise limited-time deals. That can boost business on slow days.

Social media will continue to become more important to businesses of all sizes.

Which aspects of social media serve your business best?

The post Beginner Social Media Tips for Local Business Marketing appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Twitter is literally a zero cost way to make your trade show appearance a resounding success.

Below are seven steps to take on Twitter to make your appearance everything it can be:

1. Announce Your Trade Show on TweVite

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A successful trade show is like any other marketing campaign – it’s important to build interest before the event, during it and afterwards.

As soon as you book your booth, send out TweVites to your customers and let them know what booth you’ll be in and what you’re offering there.

2. Network With Others in the Show

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Don’t just depend on TweVites to bring customers in.  Take the extra step and begin networking with others involved in the trade show.

Be willing to get out interesting information on the other vendors and they’ll think of you when someone comes by their booth or business in need of something you have to offer.

3. Host a Retweet Contest

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Offer a price or discount for the Twitter follower who retweets your posts about the trade show the most times.

This gives them an incentive to do your advertising for you, and allows your message to reach hundreds or thousands more people than your tweets alone could reach.

4. Post TwitPics

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Today’s consumer is more visual than ever before. If you have photos of the trade show or event from last year, post them on TwitPics before the event to build interest and excitement.

Continue to post pictures during the event, so people can see what great fun they’re missing. Attendees are likely to retweet these pictures (because they’re part of the action), giving you even more exposure.

5. Post Twitter Updates During the Show

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Continuing to post updates does two things: it generates interest in people who haven’t attended the show yet.  It also attracts others at the show who haven’t visited your booth.

If trade show organizers have established a Twitter hashtag for the event, such as #OurTradeShow, be sure to include this in your tweet to draw in more new faces.

6.Tweet a Secret Password

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People love to be “in the know.” A secret password they can use and pass around to get a special discount, sign up for a drawing or get free goodies is a great way to create interest and get people buzzing about your booth.

Knock, knock, let me in.

What’s the secret password?

7. Don’t Stop After the Show

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If you’ve done everything else, you’ll likely gain a whole new following during the show. You’ll want to build relationships with these new contacts and keep in touch. Successful Twitter marketing means you’re always tweeting relevant industry information, news about your sales and new product offerings and recognizing your customer base.

Social media is the ideal way to keep people on your mind when they aren’t making purchase decisions, because that means you’ll be the first one they think of when they are ready to buy. Be sure to thank people who went out of their way to make the show (and your booth) a success.

Keep tweeting throughout the year to assure your booth a super turnout at the trade show next year.

The post Why Twitter Should Be Your Best Friend at a Trade Show appeared first on Small Business Trends.