I spent a few moments with Ariel Scott, the Marketing Manager with NextFoods at the GoodBelly booth in Anaheim this past weekend during Expo West 2012. Since I dig their products so much (tasty and good for ya), I gave her a chance to expound on the products. Then I asked her about how GoodBelly uses social media marketing…take a look:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvvU3z2-k7I&feature=youtu.be
I talked to a handful of exhibitors at Expo West and asked them about how they use the various social media tools available. Here’s a trio of the responses:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdJrEUmdIE8&feature=youtu.be
I’ve had the pleasure of representing Classic Exhibits, based in Portland, Oregon, for several years. They produce great products and work diligently with customers and end users to give excellent value. They’ve exhibited at Exhibitor in Las Vegas for years, showing off great new exhibits that lead the industry.
This year could be different. When I got wind of their exhibit this year, I just had to investigate. After all, that’s what I do.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBSTks50RnY
It can’t be the easiest thing to post video from a tradeshow floor, there amongst the chaos and cacophony of exhibitors and attendees.
However, if you make a plan to get some video out during the show, you’ll surely benefit from it!
So to make a plan, make sure you have the pieces you’ll need:
Once you have the first four items – the technical ability to shoot, edit and upload video – your next step is to create the shortlist of types of videos you’d like to shoot.
Some of those that you might consider include:
Once you create the list, you are ready for the show. To implement your plan, put someone in charge. Create a schedule, which may include dates and times for product demos, guests, etc. If you can schedule testimonials with your raving clients, do so. Other testimonials may just grow out of random visits from clients or customers. Look for opportunities to put them in front of the camera. If you have room in your booth, leave the camera up on a tripod and ask if they have a few minutes to discuss your product and how it works for them.
If you can follow this type of shooting schedule and compile several raw videos during the show, chances are you can find a few per day to upload to your YouTube channel or to Facebook (or both). Hopefully, you’ll have a lot of videos that will give you plenty of material that you can edit and release over the next several months, hopefully right up to the promotion of next year’s appearance at the same show.
You’ll benefit from posting video in numerous ways: showing non-attendees what’s going on by including them in your show; showing off the various people who do attend (people love the attention); increasing brand awareness, showing how a product works to someone who might not have otherwise ever seen in, which might create a new customer; putting a face on company employees who might otherwise remain nameless and faceless, which makes your company more attractive to people who like to know the kinds of people they’re considering purchasing from, and much more. No doubt you could add to this list of reasons why shooting video at your tradeshow is beneficial – in fact, feel free to do so!
Getting increasingly frustrated by the inability of my smartphone to scan QR Codes that show up in magazines, I thought it would be worthwhile to show exactly what happens (or doesn’t) when it’s time to find out more information.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzGphVznr8w
Pick up my Kindle download ‘QR Code Tradeshow Marketing Guide’ here.
Put a ‘like’ button on your website. Install a FB widget.
There has been a fundamental change in the way we connect with people for personal and business reasons. Have you noticed? It’s nothing we can control, and I’d wager we’re just seeing the beginning of the changes. Your best bet is to educate yourself, get started in social media (if you haven’t already) and start wading in. Eventually you’ll hit the deep end of the pool.
The question is: will you merely tread water, swim like a champion, or drown?
The new normal isn’t the old normal. Not only are the changes happening now, the pace of those changes is increasing. Does that make you upset, anxious and ready to crawl into a fetal position? I know it does for some people! When we don’t understand something, we as humans will often run from it. We’ll resist with all of our strength. We spend time thinking of what life must have been like in the Fifties, when business relationships were largely personal. When you went to the corner hardware store to solve a problem, you talked with the owner or manager, who was an old friend.
Maybe we fondly recall the technology of the 70s and 80s when fax machines, mass advertising and large-scale marketing were used by almost everyone. It may have been impersonal, but at least the changes were slow enough to assimilate.
Often we find ourselves wishing that the pace of technological acceleration was the same now as it was then.
But no. You’d be wrong. Those days are gone. Long gone. And they ain’t comin’ back.
Soooooo…what to do?
There is a small sign that hangs on my studio wall that reads “Start Now. Begin Anywhere.” It is a reminder that no matter where you start, it is better than not starting. So if it means setting up your first Twitter account, or posting a few tentative photos to Flickr, or seeing what it takes to start a YouTube channel, get going. You don’t have much time. Your competitors are saying the same thing: where do we start and what do we do?
I talked with a marketing person from a large multi-national company recently, whose corporate leaders still insist on ‘no social media’ in their world. As if it didn’t exist. As if by ignoring social media, it will go away.
Trust me, it won’t. They will lose ground, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but believe me; they will lose ground against their competitors who are moving into the world of social media. Ignoring the sea change will get you swamped.
As someone who swims in the social media sea on a daily basis, I have to occasional step back and realize that not everybody is doing the same I am. Companies still struggle with the changes. Even companies who appear to be happily involved in social media with Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube Channels and LinkedIn pages find themselves puzzled by what they’re doing – and what they SHOULD be doing.
It’s a challenge – and it should be. Significant changes to the status quo are often hard to take. But if you realize that everyone else is going through the same thing, that makes it easier.
To begin – if that’s where you’re at – take a few steps, measure the results and your ability to interact with those tools, and do it again. And again. And again. It’s just a matter to getting used to it.
At your next tradeshow, for instance, plan on tweeting out or posting on Facebook whenever the opportunity arises. Take photos of clients and post them (ask permission first). Tweet out any special deals you have. Ask for feedback on new products or services. Check the response, make any adjustments you feel should be made – and do it again.
Give yourself permission to screw up – nobody really gets this stuff 100% right, anyway, so don’t feel you have to do this perfectly. Just get in the social media water and start splashing.
photo credit: Justin Ornellas
Instead of posting another Top Ten List, I thought I’d put it to video. Just a smidge over four minutes long. Enjoy!
If you’ve read this blog for awhile or know me at all, chances are you have discovered that, yes, I am a big Bob Marley fan. Have been since the mid 70s. Saw the guy on tour. Twice. Not to mention the tattoo.
So I thought it might be fun to thumb through Marley’s extensive library and pull some song titles for social media tradeshow marketing inspiration. And I thought it might be fun to grab some YouTube videos along the way… So here we go…!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6U-TGahwvs
Before the show, get on Twitter and Facebook and let people know you’re going to be at the show. If you don’t stir the pot, so to speak, the only thing you have to depend on is how your booth is viewed and how your staff performs at the show itself. On the other hand, if you ‘stir it up’ on social media, you can spread the word about your booth (is it new?), where to find it, who and what are going to be there and generally create a bit of buzz.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7iXcKKpdx0
Not getting a fair shake from the show organizers? Getting a raw deal from a supplier? Well, don’t take it lying down! Get Up, Stand Up! Stand up for your rights! Be assertive (not aggressive) in making sure that you are getting the full measure of what you’re paying for. Be mindful of what you deserve – and think of those around you. Stand up for their rights as well when the time is right.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GVzsuDsxW8
Yes, you’re in the rat race. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of exhibitors who are all trying to stand out from the crowd. No worries! As they say in Jamaica, soon come! Just realize that you’re part of the mix. Not only will you have a lot of competition, you can BE a lot of competition for the rest of the exhibitors. Present your booth and staff on a Positive Vibration and you’ll find that you won’t be Waiting in Vain.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBDVarvFqYI
What’s your outlook? Are you spreading positive vibrations, or are you Mr. Stick-in-the-Mud? If you believe that the sun eventually shine down on you, let your followers and friends online know about it!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHbVa8CZZH4
Your clients and customers must feel some love for you in some way. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be buying your product or service. So return the love. When customers stop by, ask them if you can photograph them for your Facebook page. Or get them to sit down for a one-minute testimonial. Show them love by sharing the testimonial on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. They’ll love the recognition!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk-Mwh962c8
At some point you will be faced with a crisis – small, medium or (hopefully not) large. Keep in mind, this happens to everybody! If you can keep your head while everyone else is losing yours, you’ll appear as the cool, calm collected individual that people can depend on. Always have a Plan B in mind.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Y-KZ0CYDM
Tradeshows are a jam-packed, chaotic environment that goes by really, really fast! Before you know it, they’re over, and you’re left wondering ‘what happened?’ Don’t let that happen to you. Take a few moments during the show to bask in it – to soak it all in – and if the spirit moves you, to share it with your social media community.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWw_gP0vDfE
The show is over! Hallelujah! You can get back to normal, whatever that is for you. But at the end of he show, don’t forget about those social media followers. Tweet out your thanks, photos, videos and other items at the end of the show. It’ll help remind those followers who you are and what you do. And if you do take time to thank people by name (individual or organization), you’ll be seen as that much more human.
Let’s put a box around this: YouTube doesn’t make or break your tradeshow marketing success. Certainly you can find exhibitors that have never been on YouTube that have packed up after a show, ecstatic at the results they got at the show.
Nope – YouTube is essential if you want to delve into new media and touch people you’ve never reached before and have never bothered to see your booth at a show. Because, let’s face it, having a tradeshow booth is great. Tradeshow marketing, if done thoughtfully and effectively, can be one of the most worthwhile places to put your marketing dollars.
With YouTube, though, you’re moving into a whole new realm. If you haven’t added videos to the YouTube mix, here are a number of reasons why you should seriously consider using the platform as part of your tradeshow marketing efforts.
Video on is hot: YouTube almost half a million unique visitors a month. Together, those users spend 2.9 billion hours on YouTube during the month. That’s 326,294 years. You’ll find everything on YouTube, from business, biting babies and music videos to dancing cats.
By shooting video and posting it before your tradeshow to promote your appearance, you’re giving potential visitors a chance to find out more about you in a way they previously couldn’t.
By shooting video during the show you’re letting prospects and clients see what you’re all about – in living color.
By posting video from the show over the next few months, you’re stretching time to remind people of what you did at the show, and tease them on what they missed, and can likely see at the next show, whetting their appetite for the next go-round.
Video and YouTube may not make or break your tradeshow marketing, but it can exponentially increase your reach and influence. Which puts you miles ahead of your competition.
