Using Social Media to Create Preconference Hype

How to get better return on your conference and tradeshow investments via social media.

Attending and exhibiting at conferences are expensive endeavors. If you’re going to do them, you’d better make the best use of every resource you have to get the most return on your investment. One valuable asset: Your social media presence.

Social media can play an immense role in connecting to exhibitors, speakers, and attendees prior to an event. Knowing how to use social media leading up to a show can make a vast difference in the turnout at your booth, leads gathered, and overall ROI.

Fix that Profile

The first step in using social media for a conference? Update your profiles. An abundance of tweets will not make a difference if your followers have outdated information about your company—or don’t realize that you’ll be in person at an upcoming show.

Be sure to include specific information about what your company will display at the conference, your booth number, and what presentations your team is scheduled to give. If the conference has sent you graphics to announce your appearance, you can add them as well.

Research and Reach Out

Often, conference organizers will put social media tools in place to help awareness efforts, including designated hashtags, specific events, on-line groups or discussions, and dedicated social media pages.

Do your research ahead of time to uncover the conference’s social media tools and use them to research and identify attendees that you want to meet. Reach out to key prospects in advance of the conference to set appointments during the meeting—don’t wait on the start of the show. And RSVP to events you will attend to ensure you get updates, see who else will be there, and become part of any event-related on-line conversation.

Engage with Quality Content

Engaging content is critical for social media success at any time—and a planned conference appearance is no exception.

Prior to a show, focus your social media content on teasers related to what you plan to present at the conference, what you look forward to most at the meeting, what you hope to learn or gain from the show, and how attendees can get in touch with you. Share insights and thoughts on the industry. Analyze your audience’s expectations and needs and craft content that caters directly to them.

And consider multiple types of media across your social channels. Why default to a blog post when you can mix things up using a video?

Interact

Interacting with your industry via social media prior to a conference is critical to generating buzz and improving ROI. Here are a few tips:

• Create conversation around industry-leading topics by asking questions.
• Listen to industry and conference buzz and share your insights.
• Answer questions posed by others in the industry and attending the show.
• Respond quickly to questions posed and comments and responses submitted.

Need Help?

FrogDog to the rescue. We’d love to help you make your next conference appearance a stand-out success.

And if you’d like a few additional tips on how to attract the right people to your booth at a show, read our article on attracting quality booth traffic.

Image credit: Image courtesy of smarnad/FreeDigitalPhotos.net