Taking part in a trade show is not something you will take on lightly. It can be expensive both in monetary terms and your time to organise everything.  You will however reap huge rewards if done properly. To get the most out of your exhibition or trade show experience, you need to publicise the event and your involvement in it, so that your prospective customers will know how, when and where to find you.
Whether you’re up to date with social media trends or not there is no denying that used correctly, it can be a very powerful marketing tool…… and it’s free!

Here are some things you can do using social media to attract and inform your potential customers;

1. Create a ‘Facebook’ page for your business then email your customers or prospective customers and invite them to become a ‘fan’. You can then post updates directly on to your page and reach several people at once. You could even post some kind of special offer to be claimed at the show if people sign up as ‘fans’.
2. Open a ‘Twitter’ account and again invite your prospects to follow you, You can keep people updated with the lead up to the show and even “Twitter” during the show so that people who may not be able to attend will still be able to keep up with any exciting new product releases or special events.
3. Start a company ‘blog’. It’s all about keeping your customers in the loop and providing information. With a blog site you can educate your customers a bit more as to who you are and what you can offer. You can write brief but detailed articles on individual products and provide clients with a link direct to the product which interests them.
4. Leave comment on other blog sites and articles which are aligned with your company or product in some way. You may be able to use the platform of a larger, more well-known company to plug a new product release or event. Be careful not to blatantly advertise though – it has to be of general interest to readers of the blog.
5. Film some product demonstrations or staff interviews explaining your product or service. You can use AV equipment on your stand to play these back. You can also upload the video to ‘You Tube’, post it on your blog site,  your ‘Facebook’ page and your own company web-site. Maybe take some video at the show itself.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 1:44 am and is filed under Event Marketing, Event Planning, Resource Centre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.