What? You’re done already? Seems to me that you just got started! I mean, there’s so much left to do. Why, it felt like just yesterday that June arrived, all full of too many Oregon rainclouds and green grass. Now we’re already past that Thanksgiving turkey carcass and ready to wrap and then unwrap presents. Holy Christmas, indeed!
So what did you accomplish, 2010? Your Facebook website passed 550 million users and more than 3 million active business pages. But there’s still plenty of room to get involved. Your Twitter users passed 17 million, and thousands (probably tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or even millions) of companies are seeing the value in the real-time customer engagement that you facilitate. But still some company bosses think it’s kid stuff. Right. Well, in a year or two, those folks will be wishing that had seen the light in 2010.
Speaking of carcasses, I see that MySpace did a complete makeover earlier this fall. I keep getting invitations to go back to my page, but the few times I’ve bothered it hasn’t intrigued me much. So…probably not. Sorry.
Personally, it was a challenging and enlightening year. But aren’t they all? I bought an iPhone during spring so that I could see what the fuss was about. And of course, to see how that whole smartphone thing works. After all, how can I blog about mobile marketing and tweeting and stuff if I wasn’t personally involved?
And as for the iPhone itself, so far I’m only mildly impressed. Yes, it’s only a 3G (got it right before they announced the 4G) and it has a few minor issues. But overall, a nice piece of gear. But I’m already thinking about what I might replace it with when the contract winds down.
‘Twas certainly a good year for some personal-growth-type stuff as I continued to expand boundaries. It was great to be involved with a number of live speaking gigs and several webinars (thanks to Classic Exhibits to helped promote them), topped off by the presentation at the Exhibit Designers and Producers Association annual conference in Jacksonville, Florida earlier this month. I hope/plan to see more of those in 2011.
As for the Great Beyond, 2010, you claimed some of the Greats indeed. We said goodbye to folks such as J. D. Salinger, Leslie Neilsen, Gary Coleman, Tony Curtis, Eddie Fisher, Patricia Neal, Dennis Hopper, Frank Frazetta, Lynn Redgrave, Fess Parker, Don Meredith, Dino De Laurentiis…the list is too large. Can you just hold off for a little while so we can enjoy some of these people while they’re still around?
So, 2010, you give way to 2011. What can we expect? More of the same? Or perhaps some new thinking? Oh, you’re right. It’s up to us. WE have to decide to change. You don’t just make things better because the days on the calendar have flipped over.
Okay, well…let me think about it. And see if I can come up with a blog post that’s actually WORTH reading!
If you have a blog, do you look at your visitor stats to see what’s popular and what’s not?
While I don’t obsess with stats, I’m curious enough to take a look every few weeks. I’m interested most in what types of posts and content draw the most views, which (theoretically) helps guide me to create more posts on those topics.
So, the top five most viewed separate posts of the past quarter:
It doesn’t surprise me that social media and tradeshow marketing are the three of the top four posts. Social media is exploding; many folks are still trying to get a handle on it, and the interest is extremely high. Expect to see more. Not only does it make sense for me to provide more of social media-related posts for you, dear reader, but I have a damn high interest in the subject.
As for the ‘Beatles as Marketing Models’ post, I think I can attribute much of that traffic to the heavy influx of organic traffic that came through search engine referrals with people searching for ‘beatles marketing,’ ‘beatles boots,’ ‘marketing the beatles’ and similar terms. Another lesson: if you want some good organic traffic it doesn’t hurt to invoke the name of a very popular rock band!
The top five ranking of the ‘Keen Tale’ post sort of surprised me, given that the article was posted on March 4th, over 8 months ago. Again, much of that traffic came as a result of good keyword SEO: ‘Keen warranty’ received more traffic in the past quarter than any other search term (with the exceptions of the Beatles combinations). If you recall the post, it had to do with my experience interacting with Keen shoes in Portland when I had an issue with one of their shoes (which was satisfactorily concluded). If you’re blogging (and you should be!), this is a good demonstration that even older posts can get a lot of views and bring people to your blog.
Beyond those top five posts, the single page promoting the Blogging 101 webinar from August garnered the most views – three times more views, in fact, than the top individual post. Of course, it was being promoted that in conjunction with Classic Exhibits, who sent a handful of e-mail blasts to their contact list. It also was promoted heavily throughout our social media world, so again it’s no surprise that there were that many views. The Blogging 101 webinar was a success; I may look to do more similar webinars in 2011 as I plan out what I’d like to do over the next year.
Another high-traffic page is the Tradeshow Marketing Newsletter. Definitely feel-good for me, since I love to see more and more people grabbing the newsletter. While the 2-page PDF edition is available for download, I also send out a monthly e-mail with links back to other posts, along with comments and other goodies.
If readership over the last few months is any indication of what you’ll find the next few months, expect more of the same: social media/tradeshow/event marketing, posts at least 2 – 3 times a week if not more…and who knows…the occasional Beatle reference!
Want to learn about blogging? Want to know how WordPress works? Here is video playback of the Blogging 101 webinar I hosted in late September with the assistance of Classic Exhibits.
Keep in mind this is really aimed at beginning bloggers or those who are still trying to figure out what it’s all about and how they might use it. So if you’re an advanced blogger you could probably give this webinar!
After my Blogging 101 webinar earlier this week, I connected with a couple of folks who attended that were interested in finding out more. One question came from Sarah Meeks of Configurations in Florida: what B2B blogging resources are my faves?
Well, actually she asked which was my fave – singular. But I can’t stop at one!
So here’s the brief list I came up with – I think highly enough of these resources that I thought it would be worth a blog post:
Lots of great blogging resources…some of the more consistent and useful include:
www.problogger.net – Darren Rowse’s deep pro-blogging resource – the more you browse the site, the more great stuff you will find.
conversationagent.com – Valeria Maltonia; a blog not necessarily about blogging, but a great resource for creating business conversations – plus Valeria is a great blogger and I learn a lot from her.
We check on how the tradeshow floor can be used as a research lab; look at new gadgest for exhibits; finding out what happens if your boss goes undercover; launching a new product; cutting costs at a convention, and look at how tradeshow planning increases your chances of success.
The Research Lab of a Trade Show Floor
The Fall trade show season is upon us. It is time to show off our products and services to prospects and customers. But another big opportunity can present itself on the trade show floor and that is to “listen in” on all the conversations.
Twitter Ticker: A New Gadget for Trade Show Exhibits
More and more companies are turning to Twitter to amp up the excitement before a trade show. Once you get to the show you want to keep the momentum and communication going. This can be easily accomplished with Twisplays- a new LED sign that lets you display your Twitter streams.
My mind has been pondering this question for awhile. However it was brought front and center when I read this announcement in the September 21 issue of MeetingsNet Extra. They had a brief about a hotel executive who is featured on the CBS reality show, Undercover Boss.
Launching a New Product and Utilizing Your Tradeshow Display
An exciting event that can occur within your trade show display is the launch of a new product. Many businesses use the venue to spread the word about new products and services. A successful product launch takes a lot work and preparation. Only those that put in the hours behind the scenes find success while exhibiting. There are three steps that cannot be overlooked during planning.
The recession may be over, but companies are still trying to recover from their losses by cutting costs. Trade shows are now more important than ever, since they allow you to promote your business/products in a venue with hundreds, maybe thousands, of attendees. There are ways to participate in exhibits without having to spend a lot.
Thoughtful, strategic trade show planning is essential to achieving your exhibiting goals and maximizing your return on investment, which includes both your money and time.
I love these short statistic-packed videos that keep popping up and lay out the latest data on online consumption. And yes, we are a world of ‘net consumers. Watching videos (average of 182 a month!), blogging (53% of all websites are blogs!), sending emails, dealing with spam…it’s incredible how the numbers stack up.
Tradshowguy Blog was launched early in 2009 for several reasons. While it’s been almost a year – but not quite – I thought it might be a good time to turn the spectacles to the past year.
First, I started the blog because I had been itching for an outlet for thoughts, ideas, interviews and other assorted ‘stuff’ on or about the tradeshow industry.
Secondly, I was hoping to do some personal and company branding, for both myself and the company I work for in Salem, Oregon – Interpretive Exhibits.
Third – and more selfishly – I wanted to have some fun with the social media aspects of blogging.
No doubt I accomplished all, to my continuing satisfaction.
What I didn’t expect was that I would meet a ton of great people and start new friendships and relationships with them.
Tradeshowguy Blog has opened up a lot of doors to people and businesses I didn’t know existed.
Take Ken Newman of Magnet Productions. Ken found me through a Twitter search for tradeshow people one night last February. The next morning he sent out a tweet that caught my eye. Flattery! Buttering me up! What the hell?
So I went to his website, found his phone number and rang him up. Ken and I had a great conversation and while getting to know each other found we had much in common. Later in the summer I stopped and had a cup of coffee with him in San Francisco. We’ve struck up a long-distance friendship which will no doubt continue.
Then there’s Steve Farnsworth, also in San Francisco. I found Steve through a Twitter search for PR professionals. Turns out Steve stopped doing PR a couple of years back and now helps IT companies find their way through the Social Media landscape.
Steve helped a lot – he offered to publish one of my articles on his (very well-read) blog; he set up a Twitter chat with me; and he’s been very willing to have a few extended chats to share his thoughts about his Social Media experiences.
From there I can point to many people that I would never have met if not for my interest in hearing from different voices for my blog and podcast: Emilie Barta, tradeshow presenter; Jeffrey Brown of Tradeshow Blues; Karen Silvers, promotional products expert and distributor with Lee Wayne Company; David Schenberg of Busy Event.com; David Fugiel of Nimlok; Kenji Haroutunian of Outdoor Retailer in Salt Lake City; Jay Tokosch of Core-Apps; Mike Morrison of Smart Radio Now; Della Reese of DWA Tradeshow discussing ‘green’ tradeshow graphics; Heidi Thorne of Thorne Communications; and model and event tour organizer Tunisha Hubbard (who turned in the most popular podcast of the year on Tradeshowguyblog.com).
There were others, of course. Guest posts included Dennis Salazar of Salazar Packaging, Roger Pike of Communication Steroids, Kevin Ehlers of Event Technologies, Rose Esposito of the Marcomm Group – and more to come.
Fun videos – some I filmed, some that were done by others but made sense to share on the blog.
I also did a survey towards the end of the year that was intended to give insight into how tradeshow managers and organizers used Social Media in their tradeshow promotions and appearances. Much of that information should find its way into a webinar / teleseminar planned for the first quarter.
All in all, after almost a year of blogging on Tradeshowguyblog.com, I feel like I’m just getting started. Just finding my feet, as it were. Some posts got a lot of attention that surprised me. Some posts I thought would get great readership did not.
If you’ve made it this far – thank you! I appreciate your time and attention – and I don’t take it for granted.
Let’s see what we can get up to on 2010, eh? And, oh by the way – the proper way to say that is ‘Twenty-Ten.’ In case you were wondering.
With social media becoming a hub of connection in both business and personal worlds, it’s a good time to look at how you’re planning and implementing your online social media strategy to connect with your customers and potential customers, whether you’re a B2C or B2B entity.
Just being on Facebook, Twitter and your own online website, whether a blog or a static site, is not enough. Writing blog posts and tweeting about them is not enough. Sure, all of that is good – but if you’re just putting a few random online tactics into action your overall strategy will likely suffer. (
Depending on the situation and the size of your company, you may be the only person that handles the company’s online presence and social media activity. Or there may be a concentrated group that works together.
Among the main areas to focus on:
Overall editorial/marketing social media strategy
Website/blog
Twitter
Facebook
How to tie those and other social media entities into your tradeshow schedule
Once your tradeshow schedule for the year is confirmed, or at least penciled in, get together with your team and come up with several ways you can create buzz or interest for your show appearance.
Create a brief plan for the year, which might look like this:
Show 1:
Objectives: a) sales, b) connecting with current customers
Show 2:
Objectives: a) lead gathering, b) adding to our e-mail list
Show 3:
Objectives: a) new product launch, b) new branding/look (new booth or graphics)
Show 4:
Objectives: a) sales of new product, b) introduce company to new area of country
and so on.
Once your plan is outlined, start filling in the holes, and answering several questions that relate to your Social Media efforts:
Who’s going to lead the charge?
Who’s on the front lines Tweeting, updating the blog and Facebook pages? What will the tweets consist of? What will you do online to draw booth visitors?
If you are going to put up videos on YouTube and your blog, who’s going to write, shoot and produce (and upload)?
Once the plan is finalized, who will need to sign off on it? Who is required to implement the plan?
Moving your messaging for the company across all of those various platforms, online and offline, in a unified manner is not simple or easy. In fact, there are very few companies that get it right and consistent across all platforms, so don’t feel bad if you are missing some components.
Internal coordination and communication will be essential to carry off the plan – a hard enough challenge even when all hands are on deck and aiming for the same objective. This is where double-checking and back-tracking will pay off in ensuring the appropriate messages are going out on the right channels.
Another important aspect of your social media is listening. What is the marketplace saying about your products, or similar products from your competitors?
In a recent Twitter exchange and recaptured in a blog post, Steve Farnsworth of Digital Marketing Mercenary asked that question of his followers:
@Steveology: What are some of your favorite social media listening tools?
* @IanBragg: Twhirl, IceRocket.com and Hashtags.org. For Facebook, I use my own profile, not a 3rd party.
* @chadhorenfeldt: addictomatic, tweetdeck, Google Reader
* @kkmett: We have been using Filtrbox, not as fancy as Radian6, but easier on the budget.
* @SashaHalima: I like Twitter…a lot. Treat it like an RSS/wire thing sometimes. It’s what I use the most, followed by FB.
* @DannyBrown: Social Mention (http://socialmention.com), Google Alerts, Twitter 🙂
* @Aerocles: Tweetbeep for brand mentions & Hootsuite’s ow.ly for link tracking and stats…those are the 2 that i use the most
* @ginidietrich: My fave social media monitoring tools are here! (Click To Read Her Post)*
Listening to your market’s conversation about your products and services should be a continuous process because the conversation is always changing. Sifting through the various conversations using keywords will take some getting used to. Could be this is one area where you might really considering bringing in a pro.
Being hesitant to be proactive about social media strategy is what holds many companies back. After all, it’s new. Fitting it in with the hundred other things you do daily can take away from your current focus.
But there’s always going to be something new. It’s just that this is a ‘new’ thing that your current and potential clients are engaging in and embracing with a passion.
Don’t be afraid to try something new. Or ask for help from other people in the company, or if appropriate, outside the company such as consultant or adviser.
I recently posted this query on LinkedIn’s Trade Show Marketing Group discussion page:
I’m looking for blogs that focus on tradeshow or event marketing. I’d like to create a blog post with a list of useful related blogs. Any suggestions?
The best blogs (to my mind) are the ones that have useful information, insight into industry happenings, active readers participating with comments and are updated at least once a week. A good blog also features a mix of media: audio and video and photo collections are a plus. Guest bloggers also add new blood to the cauldron of posts. Variety is indeed the spice that draws more readers.
I do not want to know of corporate blogs that are basically a platform for pitching products and services.
Would love to hear what blogs you’re reading event/tradeshow/conference industry!
I did get some responses – enough to put together a short post to look at the blogs and make a few comments:
Hi Tim,
I recently started a blog at http://2xhib.blogspot.com. I agree with your description of a good blog. My blog may not have all the ingredients yet you describe, but I am learning… like so many of us who started leveraging social media. Good luck with your blog.
Nick
As Nick said, his blog is brand new – just four posts as of this reading. However, his posts are informative and worth reading if you’re in the tradeshow industry. Nick, I’d urge you to try and post a few times a week. By doing that, you’re telling the world a few things. First, it shows you’re active. The more active you are, the more interested your readers will be. Secondly, it’ll give Google and the other search engines some content to crunch and log – and that will start sending more traffic your way.
Nick’s also getting started on Twitter. Keep it up Nick…always good to see relevant, worthwhile content.
We also now have a blog dedicated to exhibit and event marketing called Total Solutions Marketing, written by the TS2 show team at http://www.ts2show.wordpress.com.
Shauna Peters, Marketing Manager at National Trade Productions, Inc
Let’s Talk Trade Shows is hosted by Joyce McKee, a tradeshow marketing expert and consultant that I met years ago before blogs and podcasts were a ‘thing.’ I even had her on a phone interview at one point.
Joyce’s blog has a lot of good stuff, including audience ‘attractors’ like free e-books, papers, and lots of relevant posts. She also has started doing more video, which I always recommend because, let’s face it, some people just like to watch short videos. Not only that, but having a video shows your audience who you are, how you act, and how you talk. It humanizes you. As a result, it tends to attract people that like what you do, so they’ll come back more often.
Tradeshow Scoop, on the other hand, looks like a de-humanized blog. Yes, it has a lot of information about various aspects of tradeshow marketing. But there’s no face to it, no human element. The archive listing shows that it’s been on since March 2007. But there’s no information on the “About” page. After running across a few grammatical errors (‘there’ for ‘their’), and seeing no graphics, videos or other ‘eye-candy’ I realized that I would probably never return to this blog.
Finally, Shauna, I liked the Total Solutions Marketing blog. Good information posts, added graphics and photos to break up the copy, and at least a couple of posts a month for the past several months. It appears that the blog is taken seriously by the owners, and I would encourage more posts – and hey, get out that little Flip video camera and get on-screen for a few short informative posts!
Hi Tim,
We just started a blog that has a focus on face-to-face marketing. http://gallowire.blogspot.com/
We will be adding a wealth of content moving forward.
Thanks!
Valerie Hurst, Inspires GALLO Clients with Effective Trade Show Exhibit Marketing, Events & Environments in Cleveland & Beyond
Again, a new blog with just a handful of posts since launching in mid-September. This blog looks to have a more ‘human’ element with one post titled “Musings of a Guy Who Used to Play Football…Without a Helmet.” With a title like that, you’re drawn in to find answer the question ‘what the hell?’
I’ll check back and see how the new blog develops – thanks for the tip!
Let’s look at the Optima Graphics Blog first. At first glance, I can see there’s a pretty high level of fun and creativity here. They took the time to put together a video which – in ‘old-time’ fashion – showed what a ‘rapid response’ is. Yes, it’s just a commercial, but clever.
After looking a little deeper, it appears that the blog – while definitely a corporate blog – is set up to show the human side of Optima Graphics, while still pitching products and service. They have so far managed to walk the line between pushing products and having fun and showing their human side.
On the downside, I noticed a lack of ‘widgets’ or further information in the right-hand sidebar. This is a good opportunity to put link listings, previous post listings, free e-book downloads, links to graphic templates, and links to other pages where we could learn who’s actually behind the blog. The more human face we see, the more inclined we are to want to do business with someone.
Display Diva, hosted by Tracey Lindsay, is certainly an active blog. It’s fun to read, with off-topic posts such as quotes from Mad Men’s Don Draper, complaints about Twitter and more. Tracey does get in tradeshow and exhibit-related articles and posts, but doesn’t flinch at putting something up just because she finds it amusing or entertaining.
I would also give her high marks for having her Twitter feed displayed (in spite of her dissing Twitter in a recent post!). There are a few points of dissonance, such as the upper-right hand “Archive” header, which then offers links to her Twitter account and the main page at LinkedIn (where’s the link to Tracey’s LinkedIn page?). I also feel that she’s missing an opportunity to put previous post links, free e-books, etc., in the sidebar instead of leaving it mostly blank.
Finally, I wanted to take a quick look at the blog from Classic Exhibits. Mel was too humble to ask me to review it, but to my mind, it’s the epitome of what a ‘corporate’ blog should be. It has useful information and articles posted regularly; it offers opinions on the state of the tradeshow industry, and it showcases new company products. Most of the articles are posted by Mel White, Classic Exhibit’s VP of Marketing and Business Development or Kevin Carty, the VP of Sales at CE.
The blog has a distinct personality which makes it fun to read – and to even get a little riled up about if you’re an exhibitor. Kevin and Mel have obviously made a decision to call ’em as they see ’em by posting opinions on various aspects of the industry. It makes for engaging reading.
I also like that the blog is seamless integrated into the overall Classic Exhibits website, making navigation back and forth effortless. Kudos to Kevin and Mel and their C.E. team for continuing to stay on the leading edge of online marketing and social media.
And a few final thoughts on blogging and social media in general…
A blog is a living, active thing; an online extension of who you or are, or what your company is. It needs to be fed regularly, like any living thing. Articles, quick posts, videos, audio podcasts, guest posts…whatever you can come up with to keep readers coming back.
And if you’re going to have a blog, make sure you’re doing all you can to drive traffic to it. I find that a third of my traffic comes from Twitter, a third comes from Google organic searches, and the rest from a variety of sources. Click-throughs are increasing from both Facebook and LinkedIn.
If you don’t have a Facebook page yet, look into setting one up. If you’re on LinkedIn, join some groups and start discussions. Nothing wrong with asking a question based on a recent blog, podcast or video that you posted and pointing people to your page. Some topics hit a hot button and the next thing you know you’ve got a few dozen more visitors.
Offer freebies – things of value – on your site. Write an e-book, put together a special report or other download. You’ll notice I have a page set aside on this site with a series of PDFs intended to help tradeshow marketers. Publish a regular newsletter. Contribute to other blogs.
Remember, in this world where social media is drawing millions of people, you are what you publish.
During a discussion with a friend of mine NOT in the exhibit industry recently we were curious if there were any good ‘informational’ tradeshow marketing blogs that were not just a shill front for a sales pitch in each post.
So we took a look, searching for ‘tradeshow marketing blog’ on Yahoo, Google and MSN.
It didn’t take long to find blogs that were corporate fronts that spent most of the time pitching a sale, a product or a service – but little useful tradeshow marketing information or tools.
It took a little longer to find actual honest-to-goodness blogs that seemed interested in helping you become a better tradeshow marketer.
So here was our bar: if you’re billing yourself as a ‘tradeshow marketing blog’ there should be at least 50% content that is informative and useful. Now that doesn’t mean there can’t be ANY pitches, but those blatant BUY SOMETHING NOW blogs didn’t make the cut.
In a brief time, here’s what we found:
EXHIB-IT! Blog is billed as a ‘Tradeshow Marketing Experts’ blog, and operated by DJ Heckes, owner of EXHIB-IT! Tradeshow Marketing Experts in New Mexico. I’d heard of her before, and can recall reading some of her stuff years ago. The WordPress powered blog appears to have been around since late ’07 or early ’08, but there appear to be only one or two posts a month. While not a terrifically active blog, there is good information here. (Alexa rank #3,839,792 most popular website)
Tradeshow Marketing Blog.com is full of great posts relating directly to tradeshow marketing. It’s the stepchild of Ideas 4 Now in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. It’s been around since June of 2008 and looks to have 3 – 4 posts per month. Traffic-wise, it’s Alexa ranking is 2,828,682.
Tradeshow Emporium’s Weblog (does anybody use that word ‘weblog’ anymore??) is a mix of useful tradeshow marketing information and industry news. It appears to have a little over half-a-dozen posts over the past month. While most were useful, there were a couple that were blatant pitches or product announcements. The blog, hosted on WordPress.org, didn’t have an Alexa ranking and didn’t offer any contact or ‘about’ information on the blog; I had to track it down through links in their product-pitch posts.
The Trade Show Exhibit Advice Blog offered useful marketing and information posts – about 3 or 4 a month – and is the blog of the Tradeshow Network Marketing Group near Chicago. The Alexa ranking is 4,371,558.
Heidi Miller’s Talk It Up! blog is mostly tradeshow marketing related, although other things slip in. Heidi is a professional tradeshow presenter so her insights are filtered through her experiences as getting up onstage at show after show. She’s a frequent post-er and uses embedded videos often to illustrate her point or to add to the variety of her blog. Definitely a worthy blog. Alexa rank is 1,118,497.
We found several more, but just wanted to toss a few out there as an ‘average’ sampling in a random search using just one term: “tradeshow marketing blog.’ Many that we found were just pitch-fests. Others offered useful information mixed in with a pitch or two.
And of course a few blogs that we’re aware of in the tradeshow industry didn’t show up with our specific search term.
What tradeshow marketing blogs do you like? Leave a comment with a link if you’d like!
