Social Media presence is huge in marketing your business, so why not use these tools to get your brand and solutions noticed before the trade show or business fair you plan on attending?
To build a stronger following, make sure to have professional business social media accounts before the trade show. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn (and even Instagram and Pinterest, depending on what your business is) are recommended social media platforms. Make sure to have the usernames and handles reflective of and representing your business appropriately.
Before The Trade Show
One of the first things you can do to begin with building a social network presence is finding out if there are any existing trade show-specific hashtags or profiles set into place for each specific convention. If you are on Facebook, for example, make sure you have “liked” and are following the trade show, and potentially anyone else that you recognize to be a key player for that trade show.
When you are on Facebook, you can promote yourself with your booth number, business information, and business landing page specially in relation to the trade show. If you are on Twitter and LinkedIn, you can also follow those who you feel will be important at the trade show, or even prospective customers.
Another item you can do in preparation for the trade show is to create a short preview video! It can be anything relevant to your company such as a video blog, a short clip on what your business will be representing, or even a short 30 second testimonial from a customer. Bonus: You already have something to share ahead of time! If you decide to do a short video, you can post, tweet or send it out to get your visibility started early.
During The Trade Show
Fast forward 2-4 weeks to the trade show. You still want to remain active in your social media accounts and build your network at the trade show. Make sure to have access to your social accounts so when you meet and speak with important figures or even fervent customers excited about your products or what you can do, you are able to immediately connect socially.
To promote more engagement, take a short video clip, written testimonials, or even pictures with individuals who come through your booth and post them on your social media accounts as active participation throughout the day. Taking it a step further, if you have time and budgets allotted, a fun way to get people to pass through your booth is to hold contests or raffles and post the winners on Social Media. Positive interaction always helps build a professional relationship and creates a longer lasting impression to consumers.
Make sure that any piece of material you have available to attendees invariably points back to contact with your company – the website, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. You want to keep all the information consistent and easy to find.
Post Trade Show
Go back through any images, testimonials, presentations etc. that you have recorded and recreate a post or even tag (or tweet) the individuals that interacted with your booth during the trade show.
While you’re at it, don’t forget to go through the business cards and other leads you collected and make sure you’re connected via social media! By doing this, those who came through your booth will be reminded of your business and it will circle back to bring traffic to your site and social media accounts, which will foster an ongoing relationship with your audience!
Interested in more social media engagement and tactics?
I highly recommend checking out the book “The Social Trade Show” by Traci Browne.