A trade show is a big investment of time, money and energy, and you may be asking yourself: is it even worth it? With the rise of digital and online events, YouTube and social sharing, traditional trade shows can feel outdated and inefficient.
However, trade shows are still the one of the best ways to make an impression with a relevant audience. According to the 2017 report from the Content Marketing Institute, 68% of B2B marketers utilize in-person events as part of their marketing strategy, and 36% of them say the events are effective. While trade shows may no longer be top dog for B2B marketers, they are still one of the five most critical tactics for content marketing success and are a major part of many B2B marketing plans.
Get the most out of your trade show by building a comprehensive B2B digital marketing plan to support it.
Even though the emphasis on these types of events has dropped since 2016, social media has skyrocketed to the forefront of content marketing. 83% of B2B marketers say they use social media as part of their overall strategy, making it the most widely used form of content marketing.
The prevalence of social media and an increased emphasis on visual content have changed the landscape of event marketing strategy, and should be considered at every stage of your trade show planning. Read on to learn about how you can leverage social media tools before, during and after your next big trade show event:
Full Spectrum Social Engagement:
Leverage Twitter Hashtags and Moments, Follow Up with LinkedIn Connections and Engage Event Attendees
Before the Trade Show 
Certain trade shows and conferences will offer your organization a contact list of attendees depending on your own participation level in the event. For instance, if you are a sponsor/ exhibitor, you may be more likely to receive a comprehensive list of attendees, key speakers or partners.
Leverage your attendee list by following them on Twitter and creating a Twitter List to help you organize them into one, dedicated Twitter stream. Utilize social listening tactics to gain insights into what topics attendees are most interested in or what sessions, keynotes and presentations they are planning to attend.
Additionally, most events start using their official hashtag to tweet content, promotions, live chats or sneak peeks of the event lineup weeks or even months before the big day. Increase your engagement with the audience by using the hashtag in your tweets as you promote your participation in the event. The earlier you start building relationships with other key players, the better chance you will have of increasing visibility, credibility and anticipation before the event begins. Feeling extra creative? Develop a companyspecific hashtag to use alongside the event’s promotional hashtag.
During the Trade Show
Live tweet, live tweet, live tweet! Remember those hashtags you created for your company? Put them to work by having employees and booth visitors snap photos, shoot video or post a tweet on your behalf and have them include your company-specific hashtag and Twitter handle. Want to shake up your live tweeting game?
Here are a few ideas:
- If there are panels or speakers at the event, tweet quotes and mention the speakers in your tweets with the “@” symbol.
- Take pictures of booth visitors interacting with your product and tweet them out with fun captions or “first-impressions” quotes.
- Host a live tweet “scavenger hunt” for show attendees by hiding promotional materials around your booth or trade show arena; winners claim their prize by tweeting a photo of their finds using your company hashtag.
- Think you’ll be too busy to tweet during the show? If you have a social media management tool, schedule some “live” tweets beforehand that you can supplement with in-the-moment posts when you have time.
After the Trade Show You met a lot of great new potential leads and got their contact information: now what? Event follow-up is just as important—if not more important—than event planning. While LinkedIn is hard to use in the moment at events, it’s the perfect channel to reach out and reconnect with the people you met while onsite. Have your Marketing and/or Sales team follow up with them via InMail with a short message telling them it was nice to meet them and that you’d like to stay in touch. Consider sharing a piece of gated content that will be useful for them, refer them to a company blog post or invite them to an upcoming webinar or other event.
Looking for an easy way to repurpose your event tweets? Twitter Moments allow you to compile a list of tweets, add videos and photos and write a short post, then turns the “Moment” into its own page.
Simply open the “Moments” tab in your Twitter feed, click “Create a New Moment” and then select the photos, videos and tweets you want to add to the moment. Then, you’ll be able to tweet the link to your “Moment” out to your followers.
Compile your live tweets and mentions using the company trade show hashtag to create a quick and easy event recap. You can also create “Moments” as you go during the trade show, creating day-by-day recaps or summaries of events, panels or talks. For a step-by-step guide on setting up your first Twitter Moment, refer to this guide.
Plan Livestream Activities like Product Demos and Giveaways to Engage Digital Audiences
Before the Trade Show
While livestreaming can be used for off-thecuff improvisational content, pre-planning your livestream content ensures that you can make the video as targeted, polished and branded as possible while still feeling authentic.
What are your goals for the livestream? Do you want the audience to engage with you by asking questions or requesting short demos? Do you want to direct people to a landing page during and/or after the stream? What takeaway do you want them to remember once the livestream ends? What value will the livestream provide for remote audiences who are viewing, but not at the trade show?
Asking yourself these questions and seeing how the livestream can fit into your trade show strategy (and marketing strategy as a whole) gives you a better chance at creating a more comprehensive experience with a message that meets your goals.
Don’t wait until the event itself to get the hang of the livestream interface. Whether you’re planning on using Facebook Live, Instagram Live or streaming live on YouTube, do some trial runs of livestream features to make sure everything goes smoothly.
During the Trade Show
Now that you’ve planned your content and practiced using the interface, be open to spontaneous opportunities! Stick to your livestream schedule but also be ready to whip your phone out if something unexpected pops up.
A booth visitor is especially engaged and impressed with your product? Ask if you can livestream your conversation as a nice quote/ testimonial. You realized your booth backdrop makes the perfect background for interviews? Stream your team members talking about why they believe in your company’s product.
Ultimately, livestreaming is a way to lift geographic restrictions and brings the trade show experience to people who may not be at the event. Instead of limiting your booth experience to the people attending the show, livestreaming leverages your trade show investment with a wider audience and gets more eyes and ears on the messages, products and experience you developed.
After the Trade Show
Save your livestream videos and edit them together to create an event recap highlighting your company’s overall presence.
Repurposing content should be at the forefront of every B2B marketer’s mind, even with content like livestream video that is meant to expire. While your livestream video may not be relevant forever, it can be leveraged in the days and weeks following the event to touch base with the audience you made an impression with the first time around.
Use Snapchat and Instagram Stories to Create Authentic, Spontaneous Video Content
Before the Trade Show
Spend some time researching social media platforms that have “Story” features to determine which one(s) you want to utilize. While Snapchat is the original 24-hr video platform, Instagram (and now Facebook) have added and, arguably, improved upon Snapchat’s interface.
Once you’ve narrowed down your platform(s) of choice, decide how you want to use their features.
Instagram Stories and Snapchat are meant to be more casual, personalized and brief, so this is a good chance to experiment with new things that you may not want to live permanently on your social feeds, blog or website.
Do you want to be funny? Silly? Trendy? Or do you want to keep things polished and professional?
However you decide to use the “Story” feature at the trade show, it’s a good idea to have a game plan before the event so that everyone on your team is on the same page.
During the Trade Show
Consider bringing a separate device—like a phone or tablet—that can be passed around to different team members. If there is a dedicated device or two, there will 1) be less of a chance that team members will mix up their personal social accounts on their phones with the corporate account and 2) be more opportunities for different people to take turns filming and posting.
Not sure what to put in your Instagram or Snapchat story? Try out these suggestions:
- Use Boomerang, an app built in to the Instagram camera, to shoot short, looping videos: think product teasers, booth panoramas, behind-the-scenes shots and more.
- Does the conference have a Snapchat geofilter? An Instagram location? Tag them in your posts so other people can find your content.
- Put the link to your landing page in your Instagram profile and use Stories to direct people there; if your account is “verified,” you can add links directly to your Story!
After the Trade Show
Before your stories expire, take a peek at the viewers to see if any potential partners or leads watched your story. Consider following them on the channel, or reaching out through direct messaging.
If you want to repurpose your Snapchats or Instagram Stories, you can save the posts directly to your phone and utilize them elsewhere. Consider using the multiple-photo feature on Instagram posts to make a short, fun and easy event recap: don’t forget to use hashtags!
If you want more quick, easy ways to use social media for your trade show, check out this blog post with 14 more ideas to make your trade show social media activities work for you.