How To Get The Most Out of

Twitter and Trade Shows Social

Media for Exhibitors

You’ve decided to take your company to an exhibition or trade show. You’ve got a shiny new product to promote, and a custom built exhibition stand that’s going to get you noticed from across a crowded exhibition hall.

But being there just isn’t enough. You need to make sure that the people that need to know about you being there know about you being there. And one of the best ways to do this is via Social Media.

Social Media is playing an ever increasing role in many businesses’ marketing efforts.

The viral nature of Social means that it can have tremendous value when it comes to building and promoting your brand.

It is a fantastic way of not only building relationships

with your existing customer or client base, but also engaging with potential new clients.

Twitter for exhibitors

Still huge, and showing no sign of falling out of favour,

Twitter is great for events as your updates are so short.

A few weeks before the event, see if there is an event “hashtag” you can follow.

You might find this on the event website, or the event organizers may Tweet it out ahead

of time.

You can then use this “hashtag” in a variety of different ways

See who else is talking about the event.

There might just be some potential customers or clients in there.

And you can also find out if your competitors are going along.

Keep track of updates regarding the event: guest speakers,

arrangements, advice…

During the event, you can Tweet using the hashtag. That way people at the event can see you’re there. If people can’ attend, they may still be following the hashtag for news and updates.

After the event, use it to thank people for visiting your stand, to thank the organisers, or to offer or ask for feedback.

Facebook for exhibitors

What would a post on Social Media be without at least a mention of Facebook? The Social behemoth is still the most widely used social network. And because it is so widely used, you need to make sure you’re making the most of it.

If the event you’re attending has its own Facebook page, You may get access to exclusive content if you do this too! Join in the conversation on the event’s Wall. On your page, post content about the event, such as photos of products you’re promoting, links to news items or your blog posts about the event, or info about any promotions or special offers you’re running on the day.

Pinterest for exhibitorsNow the third most popular Social

Network on the Internet (in the USA at least), Pinterest is a place where users

can “pin” and “repin” things they like, be they images, links, videos, ideas, pretty much anything. Why not try creating a Pinterest board for your company, and

pinning information about the exhibition there, such as date, time, venue, location

of your stand, photos of products, etc.

You could also pin photos of staff who will be on your stand, along with

personal messages.

And if you see anything you like about the event on other users’ boards, repin it. That user will be notified that his or

her content has been repined, and may well head your way to find out more

about you.

There are so many ways that you can use Social Media to promote your attendance at an exhibition.

But remember, too much self promotion is annoying to your followers and fans, so don’t post updates every five minutes. And keep your content varied across the various platforms.

Nobody wants to see you post exactly the same things everywhere.

Author bio: Helen Laird writes for Astro Exhibitions, a firm of exhibition

stand designers based near Manchester, UK.

Astro design and build exhibition stands for companies from all over the world, at venues right across

Europe. Their exhibition stand portfolio includes clients such as

Casio, Shell and BASF.