SELFLESS; Social Media | Exhibitor training 28 of 36

The final part of our exploration of how to maximise return on investment on the day of the expo concerns a well-known topic: Social Media. This is the final 'S' in our acronym SELFLESS.

'Social media presents excellent opportunities to promote your organisation on the day of the event and to invite visitors to your stand.'

Social Media Videos

Video posts usually command much higher rates of engagement on social media than text and images. Whether you use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram, why not take advantage of this fact and create short 30-60 second clips inviting visitors to your stand? You can produce one after you’ve set up, another when the expo opens, and a few more to explain what you’ll be doing, how things are progressing, and a final summary at the end of the event. Use the event's official hashtag throughout. Some expos have social media screens; this offers another avenue for you to encourage visitors to your stand. Taking pictures with visitors and with fellow exhibitors is a fantastic way to create engagement. You may choose to install a 'selfie frame' for taking pictures of visitors at your stand - another great engagement tool and clever online branding for your organisation. Taking videos and pictures will also help you to build a great video library which you can use as marketing collateral after the event. It's also a useful tool for post-event evaluation.

During The Expo: SELFLESS Show Offers

Remember Your Visitors

Remember to get busy on social media without making visitors feel you are disengaging or just idle on your phone. Let them know you are creating a post, and ask for their social media handles to tag them in. Use social media to promote others and, by default, you will naturally tend to get promoted. If you are running a competition at the event, don't forget to promote it on social media. For example, you might want to update your social media posts with the latest scores or leader-board details.

Your priority is to spend quality time with visitors so be mindful about how you use social media on your stand. It can be a good idea to allocate someone in your team to look after your social media on the day or agree a social media rota. The challenge is to take advantage of social media platforms whilst still prioritising time spent with your visitors. Before the event, you can schedule the release of some pre-prepared posts. This will ensure that you'll be producing at least some social media activity on the day, even if visitor numbers at the expo mean you're struggling to get time out.

Summary

Social media offers plenty of opportunities to engage with visitors, increase visitor traffic and create a buzz on your stand. Remember to keep your followers updated with posts and tweets. A library of pictures and videos of the event could be useful to your future marketing, so spend time planning what to capture.

Next: What To Do After The Event

Follow Us...

This marks the end of our SELFLESS section, covering what to do during the expo itself. Next, we will look at what you can do after the event to maximise your return on investment.

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