In this day and age, it’s difficult to find anyone who doesn’t realize the power of social media marketing. The problem business owners face is how to put social media marketing to work for them, especially in their trade show exhibit. Sure, you can ask attendees to enter a contest where they must either post on Facebook or Twitter and tag your business, or post a photo from the booth, but some people don’t have the time to pull their phone out, compose a post, take a picture, and be sure to tag your business. I know my phone sometimes has difficulty when it comes to tagging, forcing me to wait until I am back at home at my computer (and I forget that I wanted to tag the picture or post in the first place!)
Isn’t there a better way? There sure is! There are a number of companies out there that seek to make life easier for both you and attendees by offering various solutions, most of them made possible thanks to the RFID chip. Let’s take a look at one of them, Events Linked Live, to see if it’s something that you should be incorporating into your exhibit booth strategy.
About Events Linked Live
This fun service allows guests to interact with your brand and post to social media in an appealing way that takes no effort whatsoever. Think about it – if they are going to check into your booth on their Facebook page, wouldn’t it be nice to offer them an easier way to do that? That’s exactly what you offer when you incorporate a product from Events Linked Live. People will love the simplicity, you’ll love the automatic branding!
Guests simply carry RFID tags around with them, which are linked up to their Facebook page. Every time they visit “Like Stations” throughout the event, which are linked up to brands’ Facebook pages, a status update is automatically posted that shows they stopped into your booth, and your brand’s logo is included in the post. This means that anyone who sees the post sees your brand!
Furthermore, there is a photographer wandering the show floor, snapping pictures just for Events Linked Live. They take pictures that are instantly uploaded to the attendees’ Facebook pages, complete with your branding.
How It All Works
Attendees first grant the associated app permission to access their Facebook profile. After these few taps and swipes on their touch screen, they are given their RFID tag upon signing into the show. These tags can come in a variety of forms – wristbands, badges, cards, or even key chains – giving them the power to post a status update with a simple swipe.
Whenever they come across a custom-branded “Like Station,” they just swipe their RFID tag. They can then customize a status update and post it to their wall. This is much easier than whipping out the smartphone, pressing the Home button, entering a passcode, searching for and opening an app, and tapping out the status update. It’s something that guests enjoy using, so incorporating a Like Station into your booth is a smart idea!
The photographers will take the pictures that the attendees can’t – pictures of them interacting with different brands, participating in interactive demonstration, or even shaking hands with a favorite colleague. And as that attendee’s Facebook friends peruse the pictures posted on their behalf thanks to the RFID tag, they see that brand logo time and time again. It’s the ultimate brand exposure, and you don’t have to lift a finger!
To get attendees using them, many venues entice them with a points program. The device will keep track of the activities they participate in, assigning each one a specific point value. At the end of the day, they can use those accumulated points for different things – a dinner to a local restaurant, merchandise, etc.
How To Get In On It
This is all set up by the event planner, so look for trade shows that feature this technology. If you’re an event planner, Events Linked Live will figure out the exact solution that will work for your venue and audience. Each solution is tailored to the specific needs of the user. All you need is an Internet connection, whether hard-wired or Wi-Fi.
Does this sound like something that would benefit your brand? Don’t worry – if you have a hard time finding a trade show using this technology, there are many others out there, which we’ll spotlight in a future article.