April 6, 2017
Winter is a busy, bustling time at Aria. Not only are we hard at work compiling the year’s editorial, speaking and award calendars for our clients, but we’re also gearing up for the season’s biggest healthcare IT conference – HIMSS! We consider HIMSS our Super Bowl because it’s our biggest media outreach event, but it’s also the ‘Mack Daddy’ when it comes executing a great tradeshow social media strategy. This year, we live-tweeted, hashtagged and posted pics more aggressively than ever, and the results we achieved highlighted a few best practices that we’ll take with us into our spring tradeshow season. For those interested in adapting a winning social media strategy for your next event, remember these tips:
- Do your homework.
Pretty much every event, conference or tradeshow these days has a Facebook page and Twitter hashtag, at a bare minimum. Look them up, write them down and determine how you can work them into your strategy. Live-tweeting from an event without the official hashtag is a missed opportunity of epic proportions. Ensure you also identify who the top social media influencers are and come up with a plan of attack for getting on their radar early and keeping them engaged throughout the event.
2. Post thoughtfully, post often.
Regular posting is the first commandment of social media success, and tradeshows are no exception. But knowing your audience and catering content accordingly are also critically important factors for ensuring your message doesn’t fall on deaf ears. During tradeshows, it’s important to keep posts focused on only the most interesting soundbites and key takeaways. Avoid being too promotional and pushing the same content over and over and you’ll keep people interested.
3. Capture results for future refinement.
Now that the tradeshow is over, take the time to reflect on your social media results and determine how successful you were in accomplishing your goals. How much interaction did you have with top social media influencers? Were any posts re-tweeted or shared with outside networks for increased visibility? Where did the campaign fall short? Taking time to analyze outcomes and understand where to pivot your strategy next time is essential to building an optimal social media program over time.
To learn more about social media tactics for tradeshows, or how Aria can help your organization at the next big event, email us at info@ariamarketing.com.
