The secret is long-since out on social media. It is an incredibly effective way to market your company and your brand and allows you to connect and engage with your customers, clients and the public in many ways. So, that means that at your next trade show every company is going to be encouraging attendees and visitors to tweet, post, pin and blog about their trade show display. But, how do you actually get attendees to your trade show displays to do this? Do you just mention it one hundred times? Do you make sure that your display has huge graphics which demand that they ‘like you on Facebook’? Is any of that really going to work?
Well, the short answer is ‘no, probably not’. The longer answer is that these types of appeals are probably only going to really resonate if your trade show display is seen as worthy of being tweeted or blogged about in the first place (which means the display graphics are unlikely to push anyone over the edge, so save them for more important branding and messaging). The best way to get your company some of that good social media buzz at the next trade show is to have a trade show display that is interesting and innovative. Of course, your company’s ideas, products and services are also going to go a long way to determining how much buzz you will generate.
So, that’s the simple truth. But, thankfully there are ways to encourage attendees to engage with you on social media that can help you to increase your social media presence. You’ve probably already seen many of them. Usually, they come in the form of contests which simply add the line ‘and win’ to the aforementioned social media appeals. This can be effective, but really generating that buzz means going a little bit beyond this, and (dare we use that cliche again) ‘thinking outside the box’. What about creating some interactive displays which give attendees the chance to remix or redesign one of your products and then share it through Pinterest or Facebook? Not only would you be much more likely to get more shares, likes and buzz this way, but you could also get some keen insight into what your customers are looking for–two birds with one stone.
So, at your next trade show, make sure that your trade show displays provide a reason for attendees to engage with your company on social media. Don’t just demand (or politely ask) that they do it, give them a reason to want to.