Create a social media buzz around your next exhibition

Hasn’t 2020 been a wash-out for exhibitors? I have a client who had booked several exhibitions with big ambitions to get in front of more of her ideal customers, but it was not to be as restrictions were put on us from all angles.

So the world of exhibitions went quiet for some months as everyone sat back and figured out a way of launching a digital exhibition.

Which is your favourite virtual exhibition platform?

My first taste of this was at the Digital Running Show, the platform was Hopin, which I was really impressed with as you could connect with as many of the attendees as you wanted. As the organisers were trialing it too, there were only a 20 exhibitors, which in hindsight was great for us as it meant fewer stands competing for the audience.

So you’re now thinking where does social media come into all of this?

The first thing I like to do is see if a group has been set up for the event on LinkedIn and/or facebook. If it has, join it and start connecting with other members of the group. Even if they’re all other exhibitors, they may still be (or know) your ideal client. Treat other exhibitors as complementary to you and your business. No-one is direct competition and no-one can offer what you offer, in the same way that you offer it. They could be your collaborative partners of the future, so get social with them - exhibitors offer a valuable source of supportive energy and camaraderie as you’re all in the same position.

Use the right hashtag

Next, check to see if a hashtag has been set up for the event. If so, search it on your social media platforms and check out the activity associated with it. You can then engage with others, who may be visitors and they’ll be more likely to come and see you on your stand as you have already initiated that first point of contact.

Ensure you tell your existing audience that you’re attending - and use that hashtag! And I don’t mean simply in your posts, but list it as an event on your social channels. If the organisers have already listed it as an event, you’ll find it really simple to share the event to your page. If not, set up the event from scratch, with a link to the registration page to encourage your followers to join you there. You’ll find I’ve covered listing and promoting events on facebook in an earlier blog and do remember that LinkedIn offers the event-listing functionality too. Once this is listed, you can interact with this event post and schedule your posts to incorporate a countdown to the event.

Let the countdown begin

If you’re an instagram user, instagram stories has a countdown sticker so use this and as the date approaches, you’ll get notifications to use the post again to remind your audience too.

I’d recommend posting about your attendance every couple of days - remember 100% of your audience will not see 100% of your posts, so even if you feel like you’re being repetitive, you can be sure that you’ll still have connections telling you afterwards that they didn’t know you were exhibiting or attending the event!

In the days when we used to meet the other exhibitors on set up day(s), we had the opportunity to have a chat with our expo neighbours when things were quiet.  You can often create ambassadors for your brand with these interactions and at the very least you’ll make a happy connection. Just because things are virtual now doesn’t mean you can’t do the same. Connect, follow and like on social media as a follow-up to these conversations, show your support for these other businesses and you’ll soon find a flood of support coming your way. It’s these human interactions that are becoming more important to us than ever, so replicate them on social media - it’ll help us all feel more connected.

Who’s coming to the expo?

Encourage your clients and followers to attend the event too and create a real buzz so that the event organisers also appreciate your promotional efforts - why not use this as a bargaining tool for your next trade stand as you’re adding value to the event by promoting it so widely?

On the day of the event, post that you’re ”set up and ready” to welcome visitors to your stand and remember to tag in the event and the hashtag to encourage searchability. It can be quite difficult to keep an eye on your social media as well as the event platform, so make sure you can set aside at least 30 minutes during the event day to have a good scout round of who is there.

One of the positives of a virtual event is that even if you don’t have hoards of visitors on your stand, there are networking areas available for all to visit and get involved in. If you were at a physical event, you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of this as you’d be pinned to your stand. And often the virtual platforms will see visitors listing their contact details more freely than if they were in a room with them so follow up on LinkedIn and/or facebook and continue the conversation over there, after the event has finished. Having recently represented a client at the Women in Business Expo, I used the “networking area” to mention our stand location to encourage visitors to come and see us. It worked - we had a number of visitors who otherwise may not have ventured across to see us. There were also a number of high profile speaker sessions and at the end of each, there were comments, so having the opportunity to interact with those comments was a valuable exercise too.

Is there an Expo app?

I’ve also seen events that run an app which enables sharing of details - just be aware if the app closes down after the event that you’ve collected all the relevant social handles from your new contacts before it does.

And, of course, the major thing is to follow up. Please don’t think that because you’ve attended the event your work is done! You’ll have a whole load of leads to nurture over the coming days, weeks and months to bring them into your world with your social media and digital marketing plan. Just like a new friend you wouldn’t forget them immediately, you’d want to get to know them more. So lead them from your social platforms onto your email list so you can regularly update them with how you can help.

Speaking of help, if any of the ideas are resonating with you and you’d like some support with your social media projects whether for the long term or for the lead up to a particular event, you can get in touch with me by emailing me on nicola@mosssocial.co.uk or calling 07432 766001. I’d love to chat through your plans with you.