With Smart Pairing Of Social Media & Banners Stands, San Antonio Exhibitors Multiply Traffic

Social media has become a powerful force in all aspects of our society, especially marketing. But, how does social media overlap with trade show marketing? If you make a smart plan, your company’s social media and trade show marketing efforts will feed each other and produce an impressive upward spiral of traffic and, ultimately, sales. Large corporations have already begun pumping a great deal of money into researching and developing ways to make a profit from social media. For small and medium companies, though, social media remains underused because it can demand a lot of time and attention. Social media marketing is continually and rapidly evolving, and just keeping up on the latest trends can be a full-time endeavor. You don’t need a dedicated social media manager, though; to reap some big benefits from combining social media marketing with trade show marketing.

The Rise Of The #Hashtag

You can’t go online without seeing hashtags all over everything these days. They serve as a way for users to index social media content, either when they post or when they search. Many business owners mistakenly believe that they don’t need to worry about “that hashtag business” because their target demographic is older than the Millennials, who pepper every online conversation with them. The truth is, every business with an online presence need to learn how to wield the power of the hashtag because it’s not just Millennials who are using them, and the applications for them is growing. Some large companies are developing ways for customers to make online purchases using hashtags: Love them or hate them, they’re not going away any time soon.

Start Your Marketing Snowball

With some pretty basic background work, your company can use social media to bolster your trade show marketing efforts, and your trade show marketing campaigns can expand your presence and exposure on social media. It also allows you to see how your hashtag is being shared online, and gives you a look at who is sharing it. It’s kind of like pushing a snowball to the top of a hill, then letting it go: It will grow and gain momentum on its own after a point.

• Be Mindful – Choosing hashtags for your business, your products, campaigns, and promotions takes some thinking. Choose as short and simple a hashtag as possible, while being distinctive. Start by searching any hashtag you are considering using on each social medium. If it’s already in use, try again. If something similar (for example, something that people might commonly mistype for your hashtag) is in use and you don’t want to be associated with that, consider choosing something different. Hashtags are not case-sensitive, but you can use capitals for readability. Just be mindful of what will happen if someone writes it without the capitals you intended (like the Swiss Hobbit hashtag which used the country code CH to poor effect: #HobbitCH), and also look at what happens if someone misinterprets where the spaces between words should have gone (like the ill-considered hashtag for Susan Boyle’s debut album party #Susanalbumparty). You want people to remember your hashtag, but not because it was accidentally profane…or worse. Poor Susan.

• Get The Conversation Started – There are a lot of ways to expose people to your hashtag, but in the case of trade show marketing, you get a little bit of a head start. Tag your pre-show posts with your own hashtag and that of the show itself. If we were promoting our presence at South by Southwest, for example, we’d tag our posts #SkylineDisplays and #SXSW or #SXSW2016. If you’re promoting a give-away, include #EnterToWin, as well. Using established and popular hashtags alongside your own increases your hashtag’s exposure exponentially. Hashtags work on all of the most popular social media, and search engines also recognize them, so each tagged post also helps your search engine result ranking a bit.

• Offer Something Post-Worthy – This may seem like it would be a big, expensive proposition – and it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. You can place banner stands with funny or philosophical sayings or pictures on them around the hall (with your hashtag on them) and people will take pictures and post them. An exhibitor at a show in Utah had a banner stand with a picture of a huge crocodile on it; the aisle was jammed with people waiting to take a photo with the crocodile. Just a crocodile and a hashtag: Nothing else! Depending upon your target demographic, you might choose place a related series of images or sayings on banner stands around the venue and encourage people to post photos of them all, like a scavenger hunt.

With Some Creativity And Skyline Banner Stands, San Antonio Exhibitors Get Big Results

For more creative ideas to get your company’s exposure snowball rolling using Skyline banner stands, San Antonio area exhibitors can contact Xtreme Xhibits online or by phone at 210-299-5000. Our experts can help you plan a successful and profitable marketing campaign, design custom-graphic banners, and everything else you need to help your company’s trade show marketing efforts more effective and efficient.