Exhibiting at a trade show is a great way to market your business and make new connections. But, how do you get people to actually stop by your booth? How do you engage and market your business to those that visit your company’s booth? How do you follow up with your booth visitors? The answer is social media.
The Power Of Social Media
Social media is a powerful marketing tool and a great way to market trade show attendees, including both prospects and current customers, before, during, and after the show.
Ideas For Marketing To Attendees Before The Trade Show
According to Social Media Today, you should start promoting the fact that your business will be at the trade show a good “2 to 3 weeks beforehand in order to capture the attendee mindshare while they’re in the schedule planning phase.”
Here are some ways you can market to attendees before the tradeshow via social media:
- Post your location to your social media channels. If you are going to the event, let your current followers know that you’ll be there and where exactly you’ll be located by providing your booth number.
- Use the show’s official hashtag. Use the show’s official hashtag in any social media posts you send out prior to the show.
- Create a YouTube video to promote new products or services. If you are about to release any products or services during the trade show, create a teaser video and post it to YouTube.
- Create a landing page. Create a landing page where you can post-event information as well as where you will be located during the event. This landing page will come in handy later when you send an after event email because it will allow you to track any page traffic you get.
Ideas For Marketing To Attendees During The Trade Show
- Run a contest. Run a social media contest during the event by having attendees like, comment, or post a photo to your social media accounts, like Facebook or Instagram. Have the winner stop by your booth to claim the prize.
- Live tweet. Social Media Today suggests live-tweeting useful event information, like helpful hints for navigating the event hall, where to find phone charging ports, and the great insights you’re hearing from the event speakers.
- Incorporate a Twitter wall. This will allow you to run a live broadcast of your tweets and any tweets attendees are writing about your business.
- Post a video to YouTube. Post a video of your team at the event. Or post videos of attendees trying out your products.
- Set up a photobooth. Set up a photo booth where your booth visitors can take selfies and post them to their social media channels and tag your business.
Ideas For Marketing To Attendees After The Trade Show
- Write a blog post. Craft a blog post about what you learned at the event, and once it’s live on your site, share it on your social media channels. Don’t forget to incorporate the event’s official hashtags in any of your posts.
- Connect with your leads. Go through the leads you acquired at the show and connect to them via your social media channels.
- Send out a post-event email. Send an email to the leads you met at the show and invite them to connect to your social media channels.
- Share your content. If you presented at the show, post a video of your session or create a pdf of your presentation and share it via your social media channels.
At the end of the day, there are so many things you can do to integrate social media marketing into your next trade show. We hope you found this guide helpful and that your next trade show is a success!
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