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Using Social Media Complement Your Exhibition Stand
Posted on: Tuesday, 04 September 2018)Social media is a must for any business, and there are times where your company should really utilise the power of social media – exhibitions are one of these times.
These platforms can provide you with so many opportunities and the chance to interact with your audience while presenting a more ‘human’ face to your brand.
So, how can you use your social media accounts to complement your stand at the next exhibition? Here are some of our top tips.
Hashtags
All great events have their own social media team and will definitely be using an event hashtag to raise awareness of their expo.
When posting about the event and your attendance remember to use these hashtags to your advantage. They will increase the reach of your post because the people viewing the hashtag will see your post.
You can also search the hashtag to find other people who are talking about the expo; this may be other exhibitors or attendees. Interact with these accounts and create a connection before the show.
Create a Buzz
Don’t leave all of the exhibition marketing down to the organisers, of course they will be doing the main chunk of it, but this doesn’t stop you from encouraging your own audience to attend!
Post regular, engaging content around the exhibition in the lead up to the event. Once you have caught a user’s eye or they repeatedly see your content surrounding the event they will feel encouraged to attend.
Interact with other users, this will increase your combined reach, and will allow you to increase both your brand awareness but also the awareness of the event.
Remember, the more people that attend the event, the more chances of selling your service you will have!
Keep Users Updated
It’s important not to forget about your social media during the event, but at the same time, it doesn’t give a good impression if you have your nose pressed against your phone screen for the whole event. Take the social media creator in your team to the event to focus on the social content, or nominate a team member to keep the accounts updated.
Carry on using the event hashtag throughout the event; this may help to get your posts seen by organisers who are likely to repost. This will be seen by both attendees and exhibitors and will help to jog their memory about your brand.
Share your stand number so that people will know where to find you at the expo, sharing a picture along with this information will help them know who to look out for.
Are you going to be running competitions on your stand? If the answer is yes, keep your social channels updated, ask them the same question or share some good guesses.
Instagram and Facebook Live videos have the extra feature of alerting your audience of the fact that you’re live and will encourage them to watch your video. People like to see a behind the scenes view of events so are likely to view these types of video.
Share comments or quotes from any talks or events that you attend, again, users love to feel like they’re getting a behind the scenes look or an insight into the event.
After the Expo
Social media is an amazing tool to connect people together, so if you’re not using social media as one of your follow up methods, you better start now!
Follow the prospects accounts on social media; this will encourage them to follow your accounts back. If there were any hot leads from the expo, you could start a connection with these by private messaging them saying how great it was to meet them and you’ll be in touch.
Remember to thank the hosts and again, use the hashtag when you’re doing this!
Check back on the hashtag in the days after the event; this will allow you to join in any event conversations and keep your business in people’s minds.
The final thing you should think about doing is writing a blog post, summarising your time at the exhibition. Include lots of photos and insider information.
Hopefully a few of these tips will help you to socially prepare for your next exhibition and help your brand to utilise the huge power that social media has.
