With social media becoming a hub of connection in both business and personal worlds, it’s a good time to look at how you’re planning and implementing your online social media strategy to connect with your customers and potential customers, whether you’re a B2C or B2B entity.
Just being on Facebook, Twitter and your own online website, whether a blog or a static site, is not enough. Writing blog posts and tweeting about them is not enough. Sure, all of that is good – but if you’re just putting a few random online tactics into action your overall strategy will likely suffer. (
Depending on the situation and the size of your company, you may be the only person that handles the company’s online presence and social media activity. Or there may be a concentrated group that works together.
Among the main areas to focus on:
- Overall editorial/marketing social media strategy
- Website/blog
- How to tie those and other social media entities into your tradeshow schedule
Once your tradeshow schedule for the year is confirmed, or at least penciled in, get together with your team and come up with several ways you can create buzz or interest for your show appearance.
Create a brief plan for the year, which might look like this:
Show 1:
Objectives: a) sales, b) connecting with current customersShow 2:
Objectives: a) lead gathering, b) adding to our e-mail listShow 3:
Objectives: a) new product launch, b) new branding/look (new booth or graphics)Show 4:
Objectives: a) sales of new product, b) introduce company to new area of country
and so on.
Once your plan is outlined, start filling in the holes, and answering several questions that relate to your Social Media efforts:
- Who’s going to lead the charge?
- Who’s on the front lines Tweeting, updating the blog and Facebook pages? What will the tweets consist of? What will you do online to draw booth visitors?
- If you are going to put up videos on YouTube and your blog, who’s going to write, shoot and produce (and upload)?
- Once the plan is finalized, who will need to sign off on it? Who is required to implement the plan?
Moving your messaging for the company across all of those various platforms, online and offline, in a unified manner is not simple or easy. In fact, there are very few companies that get it right and consistent across all platforms, so don’t feel bad if you are missing some components.
Internal coordination and communication will be essential to carry off the plan – a hard enough challenge even when all hands are on deck and aiming for the same objective. This is where double-checking and back-tracking will pay off in ensuring the appropriate messages are going out on the right channels.
Another important aspect of your social media is listening. What is the marketplace saying about your products, or similar products from your competitors?
In a recent Twitter exchange and recaptured in a blog post, Steve Farnsworth of Digital Marketing Mercenary asked that question of his followers:
@Steveology: What are some of your favorite social media listening tools?
* @IanBragg: Twhirl, IceRocket.com and Hashtags.org. For Facebook, I use my own profile, not a 3rd party.
* @chadhorenfeldt: addictomatic, tweetdeck, Google Reader
* @kkmett: We have been using Filtrbox, not as fancy as Radian6, but easier on the budget.
* @SashaHalima: I like Twitter…a lot. Treat it like an RSS/wire thing sometimes. It’s what I use the most, followed by FB.
* @DannyBrown: Social Mention (http://socialmention.com), Google Alerts, Twitter 🙂
* @Aerocles: Tweetbeep for brand mentions & Hootsuite’s ow.ly for link tracking and stats…those are the 2 that i use the most
* @ginidietrich: My fave social media monitoring tools are here! (Click To Read Her Post)*
Listening to your market’s conversation about your products and services should be a continuous process because the conversation is always changing. Sifting through the various conversations using keywords will take some getting used to. Could be this is one area where you might really considering bringing in a pro.
Being hesitant to be proactive about social media strategy is what holds many companies back. After all, it’s new. Fitting it in with the hundred other things you do daily can take away from your current focus.
But there’s always going to be something new. It’s just that this is a ‘new’ thing that your current and potential clients are engaging in and embracing with a passion.
Don’t be afraid to try something new. Or ask for help from other people in the company, or if appropriate, outside the company such as consultant or adviser.
Lauren Vargas ,
The key is to integrate your social media strategies into your overall business goals and how your organization is already fostering relationships. If you think of social media strategy in a silo, it will remain a short term focus or added work…let it compliment what you are already doing to generate buzz about your show. By learning the lingo and how your community is embracing your brand, you are not just listening, but open up a channel to engage.
Lauren Vargas
Community Manager at Radian6
@VargasL
Tim Patterson ,
Lauren, thanks for the comments. All good points.
While I think that the term ‘social media’ is going to eventually melt into the background like ‘new media’ and Web 2.0′, it’s my experience that a lot of companies are still trying to ‘get it’, still fumbling around with what social media really is, and how to engage. A lot of them don’t even know what questions to ask yet. So to focus on social media as a unique entity for at least the short term helps them in their learning curve. Once they’re up to speed and figuring out how they’re a part of the social media landscape, they can more easily integrate it into their overall marketing.
As an aside, it wasn’t more than 5 or 6 weeks ago that I became familiar with Radian6 because of a friend’s referral and took a look at your excellent tools for working within the social media landscape. Cool tools, too, and new to me. Just another illustration that no matter how much I think I know, there’s always more to learn (and that’s good – and fun!)…
Developing Your Social Media Tradeshow Strategy for 2010 « Expopedia ,
[…] Developing Your Social Media Tradeshow Strategy for 2010 By expopedia With social media becoming a hub of connection in both business and personal worlds, it’s a good time to look at how you’re planning and implementing your online social media strategy to connect with your customers and potential customers, … Continue reading … […]
Trade Show Exhibits ,
Thank you for posting this article and I have to tell you this is one of the best articles I have seen to date to explain a concept of using social media trade shows for events.