With 2 weeks to go, now is the time to think about your social media strategy. Promoting your attendance through posts on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook can provide you with a great opportunity to get your message out, start planning now with the following top tips:
1.Follow and be followed: Prevailing ‘netiquette’ dictates that if someone follows you on Twitter then you should follow them back. So make sure you are following everyone who you want to follow you and on LinkedIn, send out your invitations to connect this week.
2.Spread the word: Include your social media addresses on all your trade show promotional material, as well as on your exhibition stand. Publicise these addresses this week, upload a press release on to your website and send out a link to the press release via social media.
3.Assign a lead: Decide who is going to be your social media lead at the show ensuring they are familiar with the different channels you want to communicate through. Get them tweeting from today highlighting what you’re doing in preparation for the show.
4.Utilise hashtags: Use the trade show’s Twitter hashtags, #Seawork #CommercialMarine and connect with the people who are using it. Be an active participant in conversations linked to these hashtags. Be willing to comment and retweet interesting updates.
5.Plan your tweets: trade shows can be exhausting so it’s a good idea to pre-plan your tweets. Aim to send out 1 an hour talking about the show’s news, highlights and any interesting statistics/occurrences.
6.Give credit: Wherever possible, try to include links back to interesting online content – ideally from your own website, but don’t be afraid of referring to someone else’s brilliance if you think they deserve it.
7.Get your camera out: Take lots of pictures and short video clips providing snapshots of what’s happening on the ground, especially at your stand. Any decent smartphone is more than capable of capturing good quality images/videos if handled well.
As you work through these steps always keep the desired outcome in mind to make sure your communication is super effective.
