What do you think of when you hear "trade shows?"

• A free business trip to a usually nice city?
• Sore feet from walking around a large building multiple days in a row?
• An overwhelming sea of new products, business pitches and opportunities?
• An open door into the activities of competitors?
  

The exhibitions allow businesses in a specific industry to congregate, share and promote new products/services to retailers, media and potential partners. More than 2,500+ trade shows across the United States allow for face-to-face interaction with key people associated with your business, but getting their attention before, during and after the experience is competitive.

With social media becoming a larger part of marketing strategy, it provides a unique asset for ensuring a successful trade show experience. If you want your business to attract the right buyers or media attention to your trade show booth, incorporating social media tactics into engagement allows you to easily and in real-time, connect with those people in the online world. They'll be eager to see what's going on and share news related to your business and other trade show activities, even though they couldn't be there in person to check it out.

Today, even trade shows themselves are using social media, with Twitter the second-highest driver of participation at BlogWorld. To get started, here are some tips that can help:

Before a show -

Target attendees. Twitter is a great way to identify people attending a trade
show through hashtags (#) and searchable conversations. Start following them and have a dialogue about what your company will be doing. Send out event invites and tease images or information. You can also easily see if there are people who want to attend, but can't. Consider sponsoring a relevant blogger so they can check out the experience (with full disclosure).

During a show -

Share your day's activities. Every participant can't and won't visit your booth every day, so choose what and when you want to promote. Do giveaways at certain times throughout the day, or feature special promotions. For example, encourage people to visit by offering an incentive - like X dollars off an order, or a gift certificate to a restaurant while in town - to the first ten people that repport to your booth after seeing a tweet. Post photos of the event with attendees and share updates to Twitter or Facebook.

After a show -

Touch base again on Facebook or Twitter. Ask what your new followers or fans enjoyed about your booth/announcements and what they'd like to see next year. Keep them informed throughout the year with interesting news. Re-tweet articles they post, or share them on Facebook. The key post-show is to keep engagement consistent and relevant. In other words, don't forget about the people who showed interest.

What are your tactics for getting attention at a trade show and how could you use social media to enhance visibility and ROI of the experience? Follow me on Twitter (@Jessicah07) and share your recommendations!

Permalink 1 | TrackBacks (0) |

There has been a lot of discussion and opinions circling since the release of the FTC's revised guidelines around endorsements and testimonials in advertising online.

Zócalo Group President/CEO, Paul Rand, provided some initial insights on the topic directly following the FTC's announcement last week and continued the dialogue at a panel hosted by the Publicity Club of Chicago. Fellow panelists included Esther J. Cepeda, Columnist at Chicago Sun-Times and Self-syndicated columnist of 600 Words; Toure Muhammad, Chief Creative Strategist at Bean Soup Times; and Daliah Saper, Principal Attorney at Saper Law.

The conversation centered around what an endorsement in the online space means - basically anything brands or marketers offer of value to someone who can publish it online - and what marketers and advertisers can do to ensure that the guidelines are upheld. In summary, transparency is key - endorsers should disclose the fact that they are given free products or services. Some interesting perspectives offered by Daliah Saper on the ambiguity around copyright infringement and defamation in the online space were also an important focus of the panel.

From an agency perspective, I found the following key takeaways helpful:

• In a post, the consumer should be given the information they need to make their own purchase decision. They should be able to say to themselves "I know blogger x got this product from company x, so I will take that into account when considering the product for myself."
• As agencies continue to communicate directly with consumers who have the ability to publish content, open communication becomes more important than ever. Encouraging full disclosure becomes imperative as marketers have less control over how their brand message is shared.
  
• Disclosure needs to be clear, open and simple. It should be easy to see in the body of the article or post so that there is never any question regarding intent.
  
• Marketers have an obligation to guide and train the bloggers they choose to work with - often times, these individuals haven't had the same level of training a traditional journalist would receive through school, or their employer.
  
• Legal departments are taking different approaches to social media. Copyright infringement can be found in everything from a brand name's hyperlink to a competitors website to a song being played in the background of a YouTube video. It's important to be aware of a brand's legal department's stance on sharing content via social media. 
• If incorrect or negative information about a brand is shared, or if full-disclosure is not evident, then a marketer or brand has a right to approach the writer, asking for edits or to have the conversation taken offline. It's easy to overreact when new rules are put in place, but engaging a legal team should continue to be a last resort.
  

What is your opinion of the new guidelines? Will this change your marketing approach?




Permalink 1 | TrackBacks (0) |

A recent article on eMarketer asked "Are Women Really Ignoring Social Network Marketing?" providing statistics revealing that although women are active in social networks, 74.8% of them reported that social networks do not influence their purchase decisions.

Seen as a prime target, brands have been throwing themselves at women online in recent years and figuring out new ways to engage them. Branded MySpace pages, Twitter accounts and profiles on Facebook have proliferated the space offering discounts or giveaways in order to entice fans. We know women talk about products online and use social media to offer product assessments to others, so marketing on social networks is worthwhile.

Here are a few recommendations on things to do, and avoid, when participating in the social network marketing space:

DO:

• Offer value - Think creatively about how to offer value to women - which doesn't just translate to coupons. Connect them in weekly chats with product development for recommendations on current products, or ideas on potential products, and let them know when their thoughts are implemented.
  
• Change it up - Don't host the same type of contest or expert article every week. Look for new ways to engage - what are the new applications on Facebook that could be fun and relevant to encouraging women to share? 
• Connect offline - Give women in-person experiences that makes them want to engage more with your brand online. Launch a tour to introduce your marketing team with women in casual, local market get-togethers.
  

DONT:

• Rely on "spikes" - Sustainable conversation and real relationships won't develop from giveaways. They're good for generating traffic, launching a page or creating temporary buzz - but probably won't be influential in driving a purchase decision.
  
• Focus on graphics - A branded presence is pleasant and official, but adding flash or making all the text embedded in an image will be overwhelming and too much like an advertisement.
• Consider every fan/follower an "advocate" - Just because they joined your Facebook page or started listening to your tweets doesn't mean they are a hardcore fan. They may have just joined for a contest or because their friend told them to. Regardless, make sure you continue to "court" them and offer them more reasons to fall in love with your product or service.
  

What brands do you see marketing in social networks well? What Dos and Dont's would you add to this list?




Permalink 1 | TrackBacks (0) |