How do you drive more visitors to your stand at an event?
One very successful way to do this is to harness the power of social media. It is a very effective way to build powerful relationships even before you meet a visitor. It helps you control a good flow of interested prospects. It helps you make sure you achieve the best possible results for your exhibition and event activity.
Channel Partners that ignore social media for this task risk having poorer results from exhibitions and events. They won’t control the same amount of prospects. They are less likely to attract visitors who have already started a virtual relationship with your company.
Here are three ways to use social media to win more visitors:
- Use social media to create a pre-event build-up.
Social media is a good way to get people excited about what you will be showing at an event. You can use social media to share press releases and sneak-preview videos. It is also a good way to share teasers about what people can see at your stand. Finally, using social media can be a highly efficient way to automate appointment setting.
Remember to share this information on more than your general social media streams. The information should also be shared in LinkedIn groups, the social media connections of your sales team and also on LinkedIn publishing. However, using social media before an event should only be the start. - Use social media to broadcast your event activity.
It is always good to share activity from your stand during the show. Again, video content is a highly effective way to show what is really going on. It is easy to create video content on your mobile and share it quickly. Make sure you add the relevant hashtags for the show.
There are three advantages to creating and sharing this content during the show. First, you may attract people to visit your stand, even if they hadn’t initially planned to. Next, you create interest for those who cannot visit the event. They may be tempted to contact you for more information.
Finally, you are likely to extend the reach of your social media as these posts are usually shared by the exhibition organisers. However, be sure to carry on your social media activity after the show. - Use social media to follow up on event interest.
Remember, much of the content you create for an event or during a show is evergreen. In other words, you can continue to share it. This gives you a chance to extend the life of your show activity.
You can also use social media to share any post-event activities that you organise. Most of your competitors will not carry on with this sort of social media activity so your feed will attract more attention.
Here’s One Last Tip for Social Media Around Events
Make sure you share posts from other exhibitors as well (unless they are direct competitors). There is a good chance that people will return the favour. They will also share your content and you will increase your social media exposure. You could even enter into informal social media agreements with companies that offer complementary services, such as workflow companies.
Just as important, if you share a lot of interesting print-related content, people are more likely to stay engaged with your social media feed. You will become a “go-to” social media stream.
Here Are Three Action Points for Your Next Event
- Find out what hashtags are being used for the event. Make sure you add them to your social media posts
- Share your activity to relevant LinkedIn groups. Make sure you include the group for your event
- Check out the twitterfeeds of other exhibitors. Find out who is active and what is worth sharing
Now you are all ready to make sure that you drive the maximum number of visitors to your stand from using social media.
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