With all of the planning that goes into putting on and getting ready for a successful trade show, exhibitors often leave social media for the last minute. However, it is just as important to plan ahead for social media marketing that goes on during a trade show. Just as you would make your traditional marketing plan ahead of time, you should also plan out your social media marketing ahead of time. Getting everything set up ahead of time will ensure that you can create a successful buzz socially online during your trade show event.

Follow these 10 steps in our trade show social media marketing checklist for ‘buzzworthy’ success:

  1. Pick Your Social Channels. Not all social channels are necessary for a trade show social media marketing campaign. Think quality over quantity, especially if you do not have a dedicated team attending to social media posts and responses. Only set up and use as many channels as you can keep up with. Remember that questions and comments may be posted and should be responded to as soon as possible.
  2. Plan Ahead.  This is very important as part of the recipe to success. Once the trade show begins, most of the staff is busy setting up the booth and then attending to customers and attendees, so do as much ahead of time as possible. Write and schedule blog posts to go up each day, and then if possible just add pictures or some comments to the blog post to make it more relevant and timely. Write posts ahead of time, at least 3 – 5 per day for Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. They can coincide with a special for that day or feature a “product of the day”. Then you can also plan to add in other posts and pictures about things happening at the show. Set up and decide on a hashtag ahead of time, add that hashtag to the signs and displays on your booth.
  3. Create Social Events for Each Trade Show. Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social event sites like EventBrite are great for creating buzz online and inviting current or potential customer.
  4. Set Up Check Ins. Social check ins really help spread the word. Set up check ins for your booth on Foursquare and Facebook, then encourage visitors to check in.
  5. Run Contests on Social Sites. A great way to create social buzz during the show is to incorporate a contest that requires booth visitors to post a picture to Instagram or upload a picture to Facebook, for example.
  6. Execute the plan. Once you set up a schedule or calendar, stick to the plan and check on the progress several times throughout the day. Utilize any downtime during the show to take pictures and make new posts. Encourage booth visitors to engage with you on social media.
  7. Coordinate with other booths. The more, the merrier. Social media is meant to be shared, so setting up contests or campaigns with other booths that have related products will help get the word out. If coordinating with other booths isn’t an option, consider working with other companies that are local to the city holding the trade show.
  8. Find customers and attendees online. Search for trade show attendees online by seeing who has checked in to the trade show venue, searching for the name of the trade show on Twitter, or targeting people who live in the city. Then you can engage with them and invite them to your booth. Remember to keep it social and not overly sales-like.
  9. Follow Up After the Show. When the show is over, be sure to keep engaging with the attendees and your customers, or potential customers online.
  10. Review What Worked and What Didn’t. The best time to review what worked is immediately after the trade show ends. Everything is fresh in your memory and this is the best time to nix things that didn’t work and brain storm for ideas for the next trade show.

If you require further information or have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to give a member of the GoPromotional team a call on 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today.