Today’s post is from my colleague Michael Thimmesch of Skyline Exhibits who writes for his blog: www.skylinetradeshowtips.com.  Enjoy!!

There are two main strategies exhibitors can choose to leverage Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter before their trade show:  Either they communicate with their own network they’ve already built up over the long-term on those social networks, or quickly tap into the groups that already exist for their trade show on these 3 huge social media sites.

Long Term: Build Your Own Social Media Following

The first strategy is a more long-term plan, because it takes time and effort to build up your own following, whether they are called fans and friends on Facebook, connections and followers on LinkedIn, or followers on Twitter.  (A nuclear bomb’s worth of electrons has already been consumed on how to best grow your army of social media followers, so I won’t go into that here.)  If you’ve already built up a following, then voila!  It’s a short-term plan for you.

When you have gained a group of followers, communicate to them before the show with a potent reason to meet you in your trade show booth, much like you would with other media.  Overall, if your clients, prospects, and influencers are into social media, then building your own following is the way to go anyhow, and using your home-grown network for pre-show promotion is a bonus.

Short Term: Leverage the Trade Show’s Followers on Social Media Sites

The second strategy can be achieved in a relatively short time.  It’s to tie into the people who have connected to your trade show’s presence on these big three social networks.

So for Facebook, it would be getting your comments, in-booth contests, or new product news seen on the show’s Facebook fan or group page.  For example, you can make a post asking people to come see you at your trade show exhibit, load up your product photos to the fan page, link to a YouTube video, or make comments to the news the show posts themselves.

For LinkedIn, within the trade show’s LinkedIn group, you can post news items about your new products, or join discussions about what will be happening at the trade show.  As an exhibitor, you will almost certainly be accepted to the show’s group.  If the show doesn’t have a LinkedIn group yet, then ask the show to start one, or search using your industry keywords and find the best groups for your industry, and start a discussion asking who is going to the show you are exhibiting at.

For Twitter, leveraging the show’s Twitter followers is achieved by sending tweets filled with great reasons to visit you at the trade show, and including in your message the hashtag for the show (like #CES for the CES show) and hoping you get read by attendees who are reading that hashtag Twitter stream.  If the show doesn’t retweet your message, you can direct message the show’s Twitter account, let them know you are an exhibitor, and ask them to retweet your message to share it with their followers.

Just remember that if you would consider a message to be spammy in email, it’s even more so via social media, so tread lightly in these arenas.

Get More Visitors to Your Trade Show Exhibit

My intuition says you will have greater interest from people in your own network (strategy 1), but fewer of them will be going to the show.  You will have greater opportunity for new connections leaning on the show’s network (strategy 2), but won’t always have the power of an existing relationship, and will have to have an even more potent message to stand out — just like all pre-show marketing.

And while I’ve focused on the pre-show promotion aspect of leveraging these social media sites, because so many attendees will carry and view their smart phones right on the show floor, it applies to at-show promotions, too.

In the short term, you can leverage the group of followers already congregating online for the show you will be exhibiting at.  In the long term, it’s best to build your own tribe on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, and include your invitations to meet you at the trade show as just part of an ongoing conversation with them.

Sound like a good plan?  Are you doing some or all of this already?  By all means, please share with us in the comment box below how you’ve used Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter before the show to help generate more traffic in your trade show display during the show.

Michael Thimmesch is Skyline Exhibits’ Director of Lead Generation and Industry Relations, with over 20 years of Marketing and Trade Show Marketing experience.

Last week I conducted a webinar for the exhibitors of PRSM ( Professional Retail Store Maintenance Association) in preparation for their upcoming Orlando show April 18 – 20.   Post show lead follow up was a discussion point in the presentation.  After the webinar I talked with one of the  participants, Bob Micunek Director of Marketing & Sales for Springwise Facility Management. He shared with me the structured process they use for  trade show lead follow up and I wanted to pass it along to you.  Here is his great material:

We just returned from the SPECS (Store Planning Equipment and Construction Seminars) annual event in Orlando, FL at the Gaylord Palms Resort. In addition to some of the things that you recommended like getting the salespeople involved on the front end with invitations to visit your booth, here are a few other things we do to increase our chances of developing a revenue stream from each and every contact at a trade show:

• Stay the day after the trade show ends and do a complete debrief of every person that we met face-to-face whether it was in the booth, at breakfast, lunch, dinner or cocktail parties. We assign a lead salesperson to follow-up with each person. We do have geographic sales regions but for this exercise we make it the responsibility of the person that had direct contact with the prospect in the booth or had the best connection with the prospect.
• Send written thank you cards to every person we meet face-to-face 48 hours after the show closes.
• Send a thank you email to every person we meet face-to-face within in one week of the show closing in addition to the written thank you note. The more specific you can be in the note, the better it is received since it increases your credibility with the prospect. Generic mass emails don’t work nearly as well . . . it’s the personal touch that gets the responses.
• On a side note, I always try to mention a positive experience that I had at their store/restaurant/company. It tells the prospect that you are also a consumer of their goods or service.
• Send “Sorry we missed you at SPECS” to the people in attendance a the trade show but didn’t meet face-to-face. It’s amazing how many of these messages are forwarded to the appropriate people in the organization if the prospect in attendance was not the decision-maker for our services.   A tool that we use is Jigsaw to compile email addresses of attendees since most trade shows won’t send this information on the master attendee list. This is a lot of extra effort but well worth the time.
• Track communication with each and every attendee at the show. This takes a lot of extra effort but is the only way to measure true ROI of each trade show. Senior Sales Management needs to mandate this otherwise the follow-up won’t happen.

Bob’s last comment about have Senior Management involved is critical for this process to work.

I appreciate what Springwise Facility Maintenance is doing – it is the correct path to ensure 100% lead follow up.  Every exhibitor should discuss a plan like this within their company.

When I was at TS2, I met Nancy Trent and we immediately bonded (new Best Friend).  She is very gracious to provide us with relevant information about PR and the world of trade shows.  Her material is below:

Trade shows are where new products are launched, concepts are introduced, trends are found, sales and contacts are made, networking is fostered, and business is set in motion.  No matter what ends of the industry you’re in, exhibitors, attendees, sponsors, and partners can all benefit from being media-savvy.  Year-round publicity efforts can help trade show management companies increase awareness for each event, boost exhibitor and sponsor sales, promote sponsor and exhibitor loyalty, expand the audience and scope of the show, and can help build awareness for an entire industry.

Expos and conference are the best opportunities for face-to-face selling, buying, networking and advancing their business.  Here are PR tips for attendees:

Speak up! - Speaking opportunities are excellent publicity generators because they can enable you to obtain coverage among your peers and throughout the industry before, during and after your speech.

Make your trade show experience a social one – Most trade shows feature networking opportunities.  Whether conducted by the show or affiliated organizations, these events provide a great opportunity to make new contacts in a more relaxed setting.

Be a trade show advisor – Frequently, trade shows welcome the participation of retailers on their advisory boards.  Being on the board will provide you with the opportunity to expand your involvement and gain considerable visibility throughout the industry.

Trend Spotting- Be sure to set aside enough time for spotting the latest trends.  Each of us develops our own forecasting techniques.  We have our gurus who tell us what the general societal are and how they apply to our business.  Strolling up and down the aisles can give you a good idea on how those trends are being translated.

Mobilizing Merchandise PR – Most products and services have a PR and/or marketing person/agency behind them.  You need to learn how to get their share of this marketing potential.  Use the trade show as an opportunity to see how you can garner product PR to spur sales and employ PR as an incentive for employees, partners and clients, as well as generate or spot trends, and capitalize on them.

Exhibiting at trade shows brings new leads, the chance to meet up with clients and catch up with old contacts.  But in addition to sales and seminars, trade shows present many excellent publicity opportunities.  Here are five PR tips for exhibitors:

Don’t limit your time frame to the week of the trade show – Most trade shows are marketing to attendees year-round.  Contact the show organizers to find out how you can get involved in joint promotions with top spas and buyers across the country.   Always take advantage of pre-show marketing opportunities with the trade show.   Check if the show has a newsletter, or press releases they send out periodically, and see if you can get your product included.

Time your news announcement with the trade show – Schedule new product introductions or a corporate announcement in sync with the show and prepare news releases about your activities.  Contact trade magazines and daily newspapers with news about what you have planned for the event.  If you have a visually stimulating product or demonstrations consider contacting local TV stations.  Find out if the show is partnering with trade publications and be sure to target editors who will definitely be writing pre-show and post-show editions.  Obtain a copy of the pre-registered media list.   Send an informational letter, and try to arrange interviews for your spokesperson during the show.  Include your booth number and Web site in press materials so they know where to find you before, during and after the event.

Get involved in the show’s publicity efforts – Usually, trade shows have a press room.  Any exhibitor who doesn’t put materials in the press room is missing out on opportunities to obtain publicity.  Contact the trade show publicity office and ask if you can contribute information on new products and trends.  PR professionals are gathering information and insights for press materials and announcements to garner publicity for the show.  They will appreciate your input and can increase your exposure.

Decorate your booth with publicity – Getting publicity for your company and its products is important, but knowing how to use publicity as a sales tool is an important part of effective marketing public relations.  If your company was mentioned recently in an article, make sure it is visible at your booth, in the press room and even with your order sheets.  Everyone wants to be associated with people or products they read about in the press.  Publicity materials, such as article reprints, are especially useful as tools to help new or potential customers get to trust and know your company and your products.

Don’t forget to follow-up – Half of the reason you attend trade shows is for leads and potential business.  The same applies to future publicity.  It’s important to call or email editors you met at the show.  Ask whether they have any questions for you or how you can help with their post show articles.  Send a press kit consisting of press releases, facts and statistics, and bios of key team members.   Continue to keep them updated between trade shows about your company, and send them a flow of story ideas to write about.  Your goal is to become a resource for articles about the industry.

#   #   #

About the author:

Nancy Trent is the founder and president of Trent & Company Marketing Communications.  Trent & Company is uniquely positioned as trade show experts. A former journalist for New York magazine, Nancy serves on the editorial boards of several industry magazines and travels around the world speaking at conferences and trade shows on marketing trends. She is a recognized expert in PR with more than 20 years of experience creating and managing highly successful campaigns.

The deeper I get into Social Media world, the relevancy of this tool Twitter and what it can  achieve must be explored by those who are trade show exhibitors and show organizers.  I am attending the Inbound Marketing Summit hosted by New Media Labs.  They are providing great education on Social Media and what can be experienced today if used properly.

Yesterday when Chris Brogan was on stage and giving the opening remarks, the first thing he did was to make sure the audience knew where the location via the hash tag on Twitter was so we could monitor the conversation.  And the location is ims09.  The conversation was continuous throughout the day and into the night.  I missed the party but could keep up on activities via Twitter.

During the lunch break, I had  a chance to grab Chris and ask him a question – what should exhibitors do with Twitter at a show.  It is only a minute or so, but please listen to his words of wisdom.

He shared that he will be at IAEE’s EXPO EXPO in Atlanta with Rick Calvert.  I want to find out more about their presentation – I am sure it will be one not to miss.  Speaking of Rick Calvert, Nora Johnson from Experient shared this with me via my LinkedIn.

Last month, Rick Calvert, CEO and Co-founder of BlogWorld and New Media Expo, spoke at a local industry educational program. He shared the concept of placing flat screens around the convention space so that people could follow the Tweets for that particular event (via a designated tag).

Among the many benefits realized were building community and spreading positive word-of-mouth to those at the show, and more importantly, to those who may not be at the show. People could see that individuals were using Twitter to broadcast where they were – inviting others to join them – and also to share their thoughts around the content and value of the show. In one sense, every speaker, vendor and exhibitor also had to keep the bar raised, as anyone – at any time – could Tweet about their experience or impression.

In general, the running Tweets supported an active, relevant and credible convention where people networked with one another and truly found value.

Need to leave for day 2 of the Inbound Marketing Summit.  I am looking for more tidbits of wisdom and insights on how to use Social Media.  Nothing can replace face-to-face meetings, but Twitter along with face-to-face can be a dynamic duo.

What if you could tell your boss the last trade show you exhibited in had a 12:1 return on the investment you made.  Would they perk up and pay attention to this valuable marketing activity?  I bet they would!!

Even though we are in the throws of a down economy, this does not mean that the trade show activity is useless.   In fact, it quite the opposite.  The remarks I have been hearing – the overall numbers of leads are down, but the quality is up.  And really, which do you prefer – I am sure it is “quality”.

There is a free industry tool which can help you evaluate what the return was at your last trade show.  It is called the ROI Tool Kit.  I have mentioned it before.  But today, I want to show you an example of what a completed summary would look like and challenge you to go to the site and fill out the numbers for your latest trade show.

This information has been provided by Skip Cox from Exhibit Surveys.  To access this free tool, go here.   The show Skip chose to review is Linux World and one of their exhibitors.  As you can see there are pieces of information you need from the show organizer.  A phone call to them will net you the desired information.

If you have questions regarding this fabulous tool, feel free to contact me.  I have created a new service to help you with the ROI of your last show.  So email me – joycemckee (at) letstalktradeshows.com.  Or check out further details about this service here.

Until later…

For the exhibitors who are participating in trade shows now, showing the value of those efforts to senior management is important.  I have spoken of this before, Exhibit Surveys has created an ROI Tool Kit which can be used to show a return on event marketing efforts.

On this site I have a two part webinar with Skip Cox on the ROI Tool Kit.  Just click on the Resources tab above and you can view these presentations.  The first part covers the background research which went into developing this Tool and the second part goes over how to use the Tool Kit.  All of this is free.  Note: the two webinars are about an hour and half in length.

To sign up for this free application, head over to here.

If any one has used the ROI Tool Kit and wants to share their experiences, i would welcome your comments.

There are millions of companies who are asking that question right now. Some have even made the decision to forgo their booth space purchase and pull out of a show. Now I must say IF YOU ARE NOT PREPARED TO GO – DO NOT GO!!

However, in this tight economy, buyers are showing up for shows and companies are in the evaluating process, even purchasing products and services they have seen on a show floor. See my recent blog post about Mortex Manufacturing and the two recent shows they attended with great success!

Reports from the show floor are as varied as people’s opinions. But if you want to know how to tackle this conundrum, listen to this brief presentation I pulled together for you.  This will be the first of several videos I will offer to help you tackle this tough question.

Feel free to leave your comment!