Best tradeshow marketing tips and case studies. Call 800-654-6946.
Best tradeshow marketing tips and case studies. Call 800-654-6946.

All posts by: Tim Patterson

Tradeshow Marketing Expert & Dynamic Public Speaker/Trainer

7 Ways Your Social Media Tradeshow Marketing Sucks

On, no! Not another list post! But they’re so fun to write! Not only that, but putting thoughts into a numerical list makes it much easier to digest.
Here are a few ways that you may be coming up short, er, uh, sucking…at your social media tradeshow marketing.
  1. You’re not taking and sharing photos. People love photos and love to spread them around. Next time at the tradeshow booth, have your smart phone handy, or a digital camera. Take photos of visitors, get their names, post on Facebook, or if you have a lot, put ’em up on Flickr. Then share them throughout your social network.
  2. You’re not consistently tweeting. Just one tweet about your special tradeshow booth guest or author isn’t enough. Get it out several times a day. Post ahead of time by a few days. Use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to schedule your tweets.
  3. You’re not shooting video and sharing it. Videos can be extremely useful, especially if you’re shooting videos of customers talking about how your products can help them (testimonials). Don’t worry about professional quality. Just keep it short and to the point – two minutes or less – and you should be fine.
  4. You’re not mentioning anything about your tradeshow appearance on your blog. Yes, your blog isn’t supposed to be rife with tons of posts about your company. It’s not a place for press releases and company awards your CEO just won. It’s for helping readers solve problems and answer questions and gain insight into your industry and products. But there’s nothing wrong with mentioning upcoming events you’ll be involved in, especially if there’s an opportunity for visitors to get questions answered or see how your products and services can solve problems.
  5. QR Nametag

    You’re spending too much time reading goofball posts and not actually creating good content. In other words, it sucks because you’re allowing it to be a time-suck. Be thoughtful and conscientious about your approach to social media marketing and the time you spend, and you’ll do a lot better.

  6. Thinking that each tweet, Facebook post or video that you post will translate to a sale. Social media and sales will probably never converge the way that marketers and sales teams wish they would. But if they understood how social media could build a tribe of followers and like-minded people, those connections may eventually ring the cash register. Not only that, it can create a tribe of people that will go to bat for you and help spread the word about your product or service. Face it; social media connections are generally fairly weak. Believing that each ‘like’ on your page means you’ve just gained a great friend or customer is wishful thinking. Instead, think of it as an introduction during a busy party. Once that introduction is made, look for common ground, offer useful information, respond to questions and engage without looking like a stalker. And DON’T try a hard sell – if you do, those casual connections will vanish.
  7. You’re not involved at all. Yes, it would be easy to write off social media as a weak marketing effort. If you do, though, you’re letting a terrific opportunity to meet and greet with no pressure slip through your fingers. Instead, look at social media as a way to continue to make connections, and even though they’re weak at the beginning, if you are a real person behind a brand, those connections will strengthen as you spend time working them.
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 photo credit: CUhomepage

#WDS World Domination Summit Redux

As a first time attendee at the World Domination Summit over the weekend in Portland, I had nothing to compare it to. Oh, sure, I’d read the blog post on Chris Guillibeau’s blog last year that attracted my attention and ultimately led me to grab a ticket in a very short window. On opening night during the street festival/carnival in northwest Portland, several people I spoke to tried to explain why they loved the first year and came back the second year.

The most memorable description of the event came from Cynthia Morris, whom I met on Friday evening at the street fair and opening party (and who later gave a workshop on creating a book-writing map) said that we’re all on a fool’s journey in this life, and this conference is here for all of us who recognize that and want support for that journey.

Of course it’s much more than that. The World Domination Summit is the brainchild of blogger, author and intrepid traveler Chris Guillibeau, who’s made a name for himself (and what caught my attention) by attempting to visit every country in the world (he’s still about 20 countries from completing the task). He’s created products and written books around the idea of being remarkable and non-conforming in an increasingly average world. The WDS is a gathering of people from more than a dozen countries: bloggers, authors, software writers, photographers, cubicle workers and more. The thing that I think drew them together (and ultimately led me to commit to return in 2013) was that all of them had a palpable generosity of spirit.

Hence, the World Domination Summit. Version 2.0 doubled the attendee list, and tickets still sold out five months in advance.

While I could go on at length about the various speakers and breakout sessions and the countless attendees I met, I was curious to look at WDS from an event execution standpoint.

Non-commercial: WDS had no branding whatsoever except its own. No corporate sponsors, no branded spaces, no onstage interruptions to thank some company for ‘helping to make this possible!’ This gave the attendees a feeling of togetherness that kept the outside world at bay for the weekend. More on this later.

Staging: the main stage at Newmark Theater in downtown Portland was sparse but effective. The design team created a unique, identifiable and effective onstage statement.

Interactivity: WDS created an online smartphone connectivity platform at WDS.fm that encouraged attendees to find, indentify and connect with each other. They created an online task list called ‘The Unconventional Race’ which awarded prizes to the top three finishers. While I gave up after several hours after realizing that my phone wasn’t quite capable of easily completing the tasks, I followed the regular race updates and was interested to see how others reacted. Some folks really jumped on it and others said it didn’t appeal much to them. The portal also gave individual attendees an updated schedule that – once you logged in with your user account – was unique to you. If you needed to know where to go next, the easiest way was to pull up the portal and find the info at your fingertips.

Variety of speakers: Since the speaker line-up was the biggest part of the event, Chris and his team brought a remarkable array of known and unknown presenters. Some were authors, bloggers and successful business people. Others were world travelers sharing tales. Others yet shared amazing stories of extreme life changes and the creation of powerful and effective non-profits. Each speaker, whether an experienced presenter or not, brought passion, uniqueness and touching and inspiring stories.

Crowd-sourced workshops: Months before the event, the 1000 attendees received an invitation to offer their expertise in smaller workshop breakout sessions. Once those submissions were gathered and filtered, the attendees then voted online for the ones they wanted to attend. As a result, several weeks ahead of the event, some 80 breakout sessions were offered on a first-come first serve basis. Once you made a selection, that workshop would then show up later on your personal schedule on the WDS.fm portal.

Loads of networking opportunities: Time was set aside each day for attendees to just talk. And talk we did! I forget how many people I met or how many asked me for a card. The first two most common questions seemed to be ‘Were you here last year?’ and ‘Where are you from?’ From that starting point we’d learn about each other’s reasons for showing up, the projects they are involved in and the dreams they’re chasing.

Powerful close: at the end of the second full day of speakers, Chris got back up onstage to thank everyone for coming, to spread his appreciation around to all of the (unpaid) speakers who volunteered their time to show up and share their experiences. Then he reminded us that he did say there would be a surprise at the end. At which point he discussed the economics of the event. Chris reminded us that last year’s event lost about $30K. But this year, with twice as many attendees, and thanks to an anonymous donor who wanted to support the World Domination Summit, they had quite a bit of money left over. And, as he put it, it turned out to be about – on average – $100 for each attendee. So instead of keeping the money, they decided to give it back to the attendees. As we left, each one of us was handed an envelope with a $100 bill and a small card instructing us to ‘start a project, surprise someone, or do something entirely different- it’s up to you.’

Bottom line: the World Domination Summit is unlike any event I’ve ever attended. Its uncommon lack of convention created a huge demand: 5000 people were on the waiting list for tickets in January with only a few hundred available. Its pleasantly surprising lack of corporate sponsorship creates a welcoming community that says ‘hey – we’re here for you, not to make money. Please join our family of like-minded individuals. We want you to learn and enjoy!’ It’s near flawless execution made it extremely easy for attendees to willingly partake, meet people, soak up the atmosphere and information and engage.

I am so there in 2013.

Links:

Photo Credits Armosa Studio, used by Creative Commons permission

 

What’s your Social Media Reputation?

Managing your social media reputation may be something that you’ve never even thought of. Or it may be something you obsess over! Either way, there are a few things you can do to control, or attempt to control, your social media reputation.

March-October 2011 Countries SpamRankings.net

First, you must spend time just getting out there. Establish your online reputation by appearing on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media outlets. People will look for you on Google (for the most part – over 90% of searches), so besides your company website, they should also find you on Twitter, Facebook and perhaps on YouTube, Flickr or even Wikipedia. Searchers won’t find those results if you aren’t there, and not only have established a presence, but are actively working those platforms.

Second, if the conversation about your products or brand turns sour, you’ll need to jump on the situation immediately. The famous United Break Guitars incident shows how lack of response can cause the chatter to blow up beyond having ANY control. But by monitoring your channels, when something does pop up, you are prepared to respond quickly. That quick response will help you acknowledge any complaints and address the situation so that your followers understand what’s going on.

Third, keep your ears to the ground! There are myriad tools out there that help you monitor what’s going on in regard to your products, company and competition. The best are Google Alerts and Social Mention. There are also several premium products on the market that allows you to drill down into social media platforms to follow those conversations.

Bottom line? You have the power to take proper action and control your social media reputation. And if you value your bottom line, you MUST be proactive in monitoring and responding when the conversation turns negative.

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 photo credit: faul

Top Eleven Reasons to Use Social Media at Your Next Tradeshow Appearance

So the guy in accounting loves hanging out on Facebook, checking status updates and posting photos. Your sales manager loves Twitter. And the installer-guy checks in on Foursquare all day long.

But you’re still trying to make the decision on whether or not your company should get involved in all of those platforms for your next tradeshow appearance.

Not to fear! Here’s an incomplete list of reasons why you should seriously consider using social media to engage with potential clients and visitors at your next tradeshow appearance.

  • Most, if not all, of your potential booth visitors are already using social media.
  • The entry level to using social media is cheap, if not free.
  • Most, if not all, of your employees are familiar with, if not adept at, social media.
  • Tradeshow are a visual medium. It’s easy to share visual images of the show and your booth through photographs and video.
  • Twitter is a great tool for capturing attention and broadcasting to attendees through the use of hashtags. Hashtags are the magical currency that moves people from place to place and alerts visitors, thanks to the near-instantaneous spread of information.
  • Tradeshows are social. Social media is social. People love to connect, either in groups or one-on-one.
  • Social media actually makes in-person events more attractive, not less, as was thought years ago when it first came on the scene.
  • Tracking metrics via social media can be extremely useful to your long-term marketing efforts. By uncovering information about your visitors, you can use that info to determine where they hangout online, what gets their attention, and what they respond to, so at future shows you’ll have more insight into their actions.
  • Social media allows you to build buzz before the show.
  • Social media allows you to stay connected during the show.
  • Social media allows you to continue to drive online traffic and keep attendees and followers informed and interested long after the show doors have closed.

No doubt you can come up with more for this list. Suffice it to say that social media gives you tools, insight and leverage that you didn’t have before. And you can be assured that whether you use the tools or not, your competition is definitely using them!

In fact, feel free to download our free Social Media Tradeshow Marketing Checklist if you’re just getting started. It’s a freebie with no strings attached and no opt-in required: PDF download – right-click to save to your hard drive.

Ten ways to use Social Media to Drive Traffic, Get More Leads and Close More Sales at Tradeshows

Here’s a ‘cheat sheet’ for a webinar I’m going to give in about a month.

I’ll show you the ten ways I feel are key pieces to creating more buzz and driving traffic to your booth. Some of them are fairly easy and quick, others take time, energy and some investment, whether of money or people. Some are hard to learn to do properly and take time, others can be understood if not mastered in short order.

All of these pieces are worth taking a very good look at, and whether you choose to engage in blogging, or using Twitter or spending your time on Facebook or YouTube depends on your particular skill or knowledge level and your company’s situation in regards to personal and position in the marketplace and what you’re willing and able to commit to. But understand, it IS a commitment, and it is not to be taken lightly.

  1. Blogging
  2. Twitter
  3. Facebook
  4. Photo sharing (Flickr and Facebook)
  5. Video Sharing (YouTube and Facebook)
  6. Contests and cleverness
  7. Famous or notable people in your booth?
  8. Pinterest?
  9. Have a Social Media Point Person
  10. Train your staff, not only in Social Media, but also in handling the traffic.
  11. Preparation makes it all work

I’ll take all of these various elements and spend 3-5 minutes on each. Stay tuned for more. In fact, if you’d like to be on the notification list for the sign-up, just make sure you’re subscribed to the Tradeshow Marketing Newsletter – the form is in the upper right side of the page.

Podcast: Derek Mehraban Interview

This podcast interview is a follow up of a previous interview we did with Derek Mehraban back in September, 2010. Back then, Derek had some great ideas on how to use social media to build buzz at a tradeshow through the use of a virtual tradeshow website. Lots of good info there – you should check it out if you haven’t heard it yet.

This year, Derek’s company, Ingenex Digital Marketing, went back to Lightfair in Las Vegas and worked again with OSRAM Opto Semiconductors – with some very interesting results. Listen to the podcast here while you check the links (which all open up a new window to allow you to continue to listen with no interruption).

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RELATED LINKS

Ingenex Digital Marketing – Social Media Agency

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors at Lightfair 2012

During the show (you’ll hear in the podcast), Ingenex Digital worked with Lisa the Contortionist – and set her up with some social media outposts to help spread the word before, during and after the show:

15 Ways to Stand Out in the Social Media Crowd

It seems everyone tweets. Everyone has a Facebook page. If they’re not on YouTube with their own channel, it’s coming soon. Your competition is popping up on Pinterest and Google+. So how do you stand out from the crowd, especially if you want to stand out at a tradeshow, event or conference?

Let’s count the ways (an incomplete list!):

  1. Create good content. Whether it’s a short tweet or a longer blog post, or a photo of your new tradeshow booth, find ways to deliver something GOOD to your followers.
  2. Be responsive. If you get a comment be sure to respond.
  3. Don’t belittle your competition.
  4. Do things differently. You may do the same thing or provide a similar product as your competition. Can you find a way to do it differently to stand out?
  5. Do different things. Don’t do the same thing everyone else is doing. Search for ways to do different things.
  6. Take risks. Risks are just that: risks. But if you don’t risk, you don’t get the reward. Take a risk now and then. Small, medium, large risks…they’re all worthwhile at some point.
  7. Work hard. You don’t necessarily have to outwork your competition, but you do have to work hard. Good hard work is important and it shows, especially when compared to others that may not be working as hard.
  8. Have good manners. Politeness counts for a lot!
  9. Think for yourself. Take input from your colleagues and assess what the market is saying – but at the end of the day, think for yourself and make decisions based on what YOU think, not what others think. After all, it’s your life and your business.
  10. Don’t follow the crowd. Following the crowd makes you one of the crowd. Not a good idea, since the idea is to stand out from the crowd.
  11. Do what you’ll say you’ll do. It’s amazing how such a little thing like keeping promises is important to standing out in the crowd. You’d be surprised – or maybe not – by how many people don’t keep their word.
  12. Show some initiative. Don’t wait for the boss to ask you to do something. Don’t wait for your partner to give you an idea to pursue. Come up with your own ideas and follow them. Initiative helps you stand out from the crowd.
  13. Be attentive. When people are in your booth, or responding to your online postings with comments and questions, act as if they’re the most important thing in the world at that moment. The attention you give to them will be remembered.
  14. Make people feel good. By spreading a little happiness, you’ll be remembered. Find something about your followers or visitors that you can compliment.
  15. Be consistent. Yeah, really. That’s important, too!

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Tradeshow Guy Blog by Tim Patterson

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