With the powerful force of social media supporting you, you can generate traffic to your trade show like never before. All it takes is knowledge to harness this power before, during, and after the trade show. You can maximize exposure and generate interest in what people have to gain by attending. Below is everything you need to know to use social media to draw the crowds.
How Social Media Can Impact Trade Show Traffic
Create Buzz Leading Up to the Event
Buzz Photo via Shutterstock
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
Excited Photo via Shutterstock
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
Thank You Photo via Shutterstock
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.
Ti Roberts
Social media can have a huge impact on trade show traffic. I’m surprised that more biz’s aren’t utilizing it.
Ti
Martin Lindeskog
How about creating a specific hashtag for the event and have a prize or some some other token of appreciation if you use a location based service and checking-in at the fair?
Timothy Carter
Martin that is a great idea/option. 🙂 Thank you for sharing it.
You need to making sure you compliment your physical show with a digital one. Social media can increase the reach and visibility of your show tremendously and increase your brand by engaging people on another level at the show and around the world. This is what we do for our clients with our Events News and Social Engagement Platform.