Does your blog (assuming you have a blog) have a Facebook page widget inviting readers to connect (like) with you? That’s a must. Every one that likes your Facebook page through your blog is another person that you can connect with in another place. And the good thing is that they are able to do that without even landing on your Facebook page. If you don’t have a blog, at least put a widget on the front page of your website. They’re easily configurable, and easily found – just go here and follow the instructions. You may need the assistance of your web guy or girl to install the code, but really, it’s pretty simple!

At the show, plan to post photos and updates as often as time allows. Encourage people to upload their own photos of your booth and/or staff to their pages. People love to share, so make it easy. In fact, you might even create a special backdrop where they can have their photos taken. Get creative – put up a photo of Brad Pitt or someone famous, or perhaps a famous scenery such as Yosemite Valley or Grand Canyon, or some other place that might relate to your business.

If you have a smartphone, get the Facebook app set up on it, and log in before the big day. Spend a little time getting use to how to take photos and upload them to your company page. Once that’s done, you’ll have a much easier time doing it while in the chaotic time crunch on the show floor.

Once you’re to the point of posting photos from the show floor and encouraging visitors to do the same, don’t forget to monitor the page. No doubt you’ll be getting comments on a regular basis – or at least feedback on the photos. Chime in to the conversation and respond to questions or concerns. This is great customer service: not only do you show customers that you care; you show potential clients that you’re proactive about dealing with issues as they come up.

With Facebook usage and time-spent data continuing to ramp up, it behooves you to do the best you can to be a part.

Source: Tim Patterson (Trade Show Guy Blog)

I had my trusty camcorder with me and caught part of the day’s education.  Below are 2 segments each from DJ Waldow and Jason Falls presentations.  Enjoy!!

I will share the rest of the content from these videos a bit later. Let me know if they are help for your social media strategies and tactics.

Source: Joyce McKee (Lets Talk Trade Shows)

So what can you do to get people to actually close a deal?

First, you gotta HAVE a compelling deal. If all you’re offering is a warmed-over widget with a new color or a fancy flag, you’re not going to really inspire visitors to WANT to have it. No, you have to make them feel like they NEED it. NOW.

Is your deal compelling? Are you making an offer that is irresistible? Is the product something they can’t get elsewhere or won’t be able to get in this form until a certain amount of time goes by? Is it NEW? Is it UNIQUE? All of these can go towards making an IRRESISTABLE OFFER.

Next, your sales staff at the booth needs to be good LISTENERS. Many visitors to a booth will say a lot, dropping several code words that indicate they’re ready to buy, but if the sales person isn’t trained to notice those words and follow up with appropriate questions, the visitor will most likely walk away – to another booth where the sales staff senses what’s going on and makes the sale.

Train your sales staff properly and you’ll reap the rewards.

Third, as visitors walk by your booth, have a compelling question ready. Catch their attention, ask the question, and if it’s the right question, it’ll immediately do two things. First, it’ll qualify or disqualify them. If it qualifies them, it’ll get them interested in finding out more. The question should relate to a solution that your product or service offers, and get them curious about how you might solve it.

Fourth, have a plan to handle hot prospects. If someone is obviously interested, have an action plan for the next steps that it takes to get them to the sale. Does it take a follow-up call from someone back at the office? Does it take filling out an order form? Whatever your process involves, make sure that the steps are easily understood, not just by your sales team, but also by the prospect.

Fifth, you should have a strategy in place to grade your leads. The ‘hot’ leads are handled first, the warm leads are handled next and the cool leads are put on a mailing list of sent a white paper or something. Whatever your system is, make sure it happens. More sales are lost due to lack of follow up than any other reason in tradeshow marketing. It’s been reported that approximately 4 of 5 leads are never followed up with. That’s money left on the table.

Finally, assume the attitude that you’re there to HELP someone solve a problem, not SELL him or her a pre-packaged solution. People don’t like to be sold, but they love to buy a solution to their problem. Keep asking your questions, look to peel the onion down to uncover the visitor’s real issue, and then explain to them how your product or service will benefit them. Yes, it sounds great in theory, but in the real world it’s probably more clunky and funky to actually make happen. But it can. Eyes light up when your visitor sees a solution to their difficult problem. And more importantly, wallets open up. Willingly.

photo credit: vigour

Source: Tim Patterson (Trade Show Guy Blog)

Well, that is what will happen in the online event, From Conversation to Contracts!! The show organizer community WANTS to tell you the most effective way to reach them. What a remarkable time it will be, to listen to what works and what is a waste of your marketing dollars.

Last Friday, I had a conference call with our first panelists, going over my questions so they would be familiar with them.  Afterwards, my excitement level was off the charts!!  First f all, the WANT to tell you what matters to them.  They cannot produce their events without trusted partners, so you all are very important to them.  However, in the process of selecting these companies, there are some best practices which surface.

For those of you who are just learning about this eLearning event, please click on this link to get a better description of what will take place the week of September 26th.  And as you are reading the outline, note that if you have a schedule conflict and cannot watch it live, it is being taping and you and your team can view it at another time.

Here is a short video on the event:

Source: Joyce McKee (Lets Talk Trade Shows)

Socialwalk business match making team were present there to help exhibitors to find the right visitors and let them to schedule meetings to do trades.

Water Malaysia

Here’s the trade report for Water Malaysia 2011:

Water Malaysia 2011

Socialwalk provides online and onsite business matching service to help exhibitors and visitors to find their perfect match and schedule meetings without the need of middle man!

International Furniture Fair Singapore

Here’s a real sample of a trade report for International Furniture Fair Singapore that Socialwalk team produce.

International Furniture Fair Singapore Trade Report

The registration was scheduled to start at 8.00am. However by 7.30am there’s already a lot of excited attendees arriving and waiting patiently for the registration counters to open. When the counters finally opened at 8.00am, there’s healthy line of crowd in each counter. Despite the amount of attendees, the registrations are smooth due to the strong collaboration between The Gathering of Great Minds organizing committee and Socialwalk’s ground zero personnel. The fun officially kick started at 9.00am and lasted the whole day until 6.00pm. With a strong crowd of more than 200 attendees, the Gathering of Great Minds Series 1 is a huge success. Keep in mind that this is only the beginning and there’s 2 more series to go with more awesome speakers set to make their appearances. We in Socialwalk promise you this; there will be more great experiences to come. See you in the next series!

*Click here to visit the official website of the event*

This year the organizers of SME Expo decides to try something new and gave online business matching platform a try. This is where Socialwalk comes in as the Official Software Partner where all the business matching between foreign buyers and local sellers were made through our system.

More than 80 meetings were made successfully using our system. The foreign sellers were able to complete their business matching with the help of Socialwalk’s SMS Business Matching Reminder. Our system sends reminders to both the buyers and sellers via SMS informing them of the time and place to meet 1 hour prior to every meetings. This paperless solution proved to work great as the venue of the event is huge and yet, the sellers are able to travel from one booth to another with the guidance provided by Socialwalk’s SMS reminder.

All in all the event was once again a great success and the SME Expo 2011’s date has already been officially announced on the official website. We in Socialwalk hope that we will get to be part of the event again and perhaps, play a bigger role in it. In the meantime, keep your support coming!

*Click here to visit the event’s official website*