Introduction

There was a time when the trade show was the place buyers went to learn about various companies’ product offerings. If someone was in the market for widgets, he could go to the annual trade show and compare your offering to those of all your competitors.

Exhibitors simply set up shop on the trade show floor for three days and pitch their products to buyers. You were there for one reason and one reason only—to sell more products or services. Buyers were there to research and get the information they needed to make a purchasing decision.

The Internet and social media have created a fundamental shift in attendees’ goals and objectives in attending a trade show. Today, buyers are doing their research online and creating a shortlist of vendors based on information available on your website, on industry blogs, and through customer reviews and social media chatter.

They come to your booth armed with information, like a patient who visits his doctor after diagnosing himself with the help of sites such as WebMD. They come to your booth already knowing what your products or services can and cannot do for them. They have researched what your current customers and industry analysts think of those products and services and how they compare to similar offerings. If your booth staff is prepared to teach these buyers only what they already know, you are facing an uphill battle.

So what is the modern exhibit manager to do? First, you must understand why attendees now go to trade shows. They are there to network. They are also there to find new product and service offerings, and they want their specific questions answered by companies on their short list.

By using social media as a communication tool before, during, and after the show, your company can be the attendee’s go-to source for networking, industry trends, new product and service information, and information related to his specific needs. Let’s take a quick look at how including a social media strategy into your exhibit program can help attendees achieve their goals.

• Networking—Social media provides a platform to develop a community that will make it easier for attendees to connect with like-minded individuals who share similar work-related experiences, issues, and problems.

• Product/Service information—Social media provides a platform to disseminate real-time information across a wide audience.

• Relevant information—Social media provides a platform for companies to listen to what their customers and potential customers identify as their pain points and the solutions they are looking for to solve their problems.

Expanding the Audience

For every attendee who comes to a trade show, there are hundreds just like them sitting back in their offices trying to accomplish the same things—and do so cost-effectively. They are doing their research online, trying to connect with peers in their industry, and scouring industry news for new products and services that will solve their problems. By incorporating social media and virtual event components into your trade show strategy, you can extend your reach beyond just the attendees to those customers back in their offices across the globe.

The current economy has made it difficult for customers to attend industry events. Budgets are being cut, so fewer employees are being sent to industry trade shows. In the past, companies might have sent four or five team members to an event, but these days they typically send only one key member. Shrinking budgets also mean more work is piled on shrinking teams. Customers simply do not have the time to leave their offices to attend trade shows the way they did in the past.

Trade show and conference organizers are tuning in to this and opening their events to a wider audience. They are using social media and virtual events to include those who are unable to travel. Smart show organizers are providing ways for their exhibitors to connect with those audience members who are unable to attend.

Consequently, proactive exhibitors are creating ways to connect with their customers and their potential customers, not just at the event location, but miles away and across time zones.

Expanding the Length of the Show

Just as you expand your audience by incorporating social media into your exhibit program, you can also extend the length of the show. We have to stop thinking of trade shows as just two- or three-day events. There was a time when we would spend a year planning for a show, fly in, construct our booths, sell our products, tear down our booths and stick them in storage, and then begin planning for next year’s show.

Event organizers are realizing this, too. Their live events are now just one moment in a year-long continuing conversation. They are providing their attendees with a platform where they can network throughout the year with online communities. Software companies and other solution providers are coming up with new community applications for show organizers every day.

Show organizers understand their attendees’ desire to make their time at the show more productive. Because attendees typically want to do their research prior to arriving in the exhibit hall, organizers are providing their exhibitors with robust tools to get product/service information into the hands of buyers before the event. Exhibitors are able to upload brochures, whitepapers, product information, and special offers right onto the event website.

Show organizers also understand that buyers are looking for ways to connect with exhibitors whose products and services will best help them solve their problems. Many shows are now providing tools that allow attendees to preset appointments with exhibitors on their shortlist to maximize their time at the show. More and more trade shows are also showcasing new products and service offerings in the exhibit hall, on the website, and in show directories. Attendees can easily find up-to-date information on industry trends without having to stumble on it when navigating the trade show floor.

Show organizers are beginning to understand that the global marketplace and the current economic budget constraints require that they find ways to reach people in their industry who cannot attend their events in person. Incorporating a virtual component into their face-to-face events is a practice that is becoming more and more necessary. This combination of the two is referred to as a hybrid event. While still in its infancy, event organizers are experimenting with different virtual and hybrid solutions to pull in a wider audience.

Exhibitors who do not jump on board with the new opportunities and advantages their show management are providing will be severely limited in what they can accomplish. They will quickly fall behind the competition that is not afraid to thoughtfully experiment and participate in these services. Fear is not an option.

It’s Not About the Tools

Tools will come and go, but social media is here to stay. In 2008, MySpace had 300 million accounts and in August of that year, it announced a record-breaking 122 million visitors to the site, according to comScore, Inc. But in 2009, traffic had dropped so significantly that it failed to satisfy a minimum traffic level needed for a three-year $900 million advertising deal with Google. Executives at NewsCorp estimated that MySpace lost about $100 million in that deal.

Twitter is a different story. The micro-blogging service boasted 6 million users in 2008. In 2009, it had jumped to 18 million. On March 11, 2011, the day a tsunami hit Japan, Twitter reported 177 million tweets sent. It also reported that on March 12, 2011, users created 572,000 new accounts. In 2008, Twitter had only 8 employees, and by January 2011, it had grown to 350 employees.

When Facebook was launched in 2004, the social networking site was limited to Harvard students. In 2006, Facebook opened the network up to anyone 13 years and older with a valid email address. As recently as January 2008, Facebook reported just 60 million active users. By January 2009, a Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users, surpassing MySpace. According to Facebook, it had more than 750 million active users at the time of this writing, making it equivalent to the third-largest country in the world.

Today the blogosphere’s newest romance is with Google+. Many social media bloggers are predicting it will be a fierce competitor to Facebook. But keep in mind that much hoopla surrounded Google Buzz and Google Wave, and they are nowhere to be found just years later. For now, Google is quiet about Google+’s actual numbers, but several bloggers who claim to have a formula that will give a close estimate were reporting more than 9 million users by July 2011. That was two months before going public.

So what’s my point? If you spend your time jumping on the latest social media tool bandwagon, you will never catch up. If you base your entire efforts on one or two tools, in a year or even months, those efforts may be wasted as the tool becomes obsolete. However, if you create a solid social media strategy that focuses on your audience, you can insert tools appropriate to that strategy to connect with your audience. You can easily upgrade the tools with the latest applications. For example, a plan that involves collaboration between your customers and sales will guide you better than one that is focused on Google Moderator, the tool itself.

Throughout this book you’ll find examples of the various tools available today to accomplish your strategy—but the tool is secondary to your strategy. You may be comfortable using a hammer, and it could be your favorite tool. However, you are not going to consider using it to fix a porcelain vase. You must know your goals and objectives before you can decide on a strategy. Only after you are set on your strategy will you begin to choose your tools.

The main focus of this book is on social media in general, including virtual events and how you can harness its power to fulfill an in-depth, robust exhibit strategy. Just as there is no magic booth giveaway that will guarantee success for your exhibit program, there is no one social media tool that will be right for every situation. You will learn how to create a strategy, and then find the appropriate tool to reach the goals and objectives you’ve defined.