You won’t see it on any calendar, but we all know what time of year it is: it’s trade show season.
Not long after 2013 hit, the personal holiday season was put aside and trade show season kicked into full gear. Team CMD is, and already has been, planning for events that will set the tone for many of our clients’ marketing campaigns for the year.
What does it take to succeed at a trade show when it comes to social media? Here are four tips I’ve learned that can help push you over the top and make your tradeshow investment worthwhile:
Start early: Get a jump on activities and start engaging with the audience ahead of the event. Start a month early with a pre-show blog, use the show hashtag in content, and post a video telling the audience what they can expect at your booth. Starting early will help with search results and with your show-specific content metrics.
Find partners: It’s noisy out there in the social media universe. Find partners to help amplify your content to their audiences, and do the same for them. A collective effort helps everyone rise above the noise and increase the odds for success.
Support goals: Tie your social content into supporting your overall show goals. What do you really want to achieve from the investment you make to attend the show? Determine that first and then produce content to support your mission and goals.
Measure: How do you know if you’ve succeeded with your trade show social media effort? Measure against your key goals, established at the outset. At a recent event, CMD was tasked with driving attendance. By planning how we were going to track our specific efforts, we were able to gauge exactly how successful we were in generating booth traffic. We surpassed one million social media impressions for a client’s show and could track exactly how we got there. Measuring is the only way you will know if your social media activity at a show worked, whether your goal is impressions, engagement or attendance.
Good luck during trade show season 2013! And remember to wash your hands frequently. It’s also flu season.
What strategies are you using to ensure success for clients at trade shows and events?