Exhibitors: Create Great Booth Traffic with the Tweet Fest Plan

This post is courtesy of Joyce McKee of Let’s Talk Trade Shows. Check out her site and blog at www.letstalktradeshows.com.

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What is a “Tweet Fest,” you ask? Let me explain my idea and then share with you the actual plan on how to create a Tweet Fest for your next show.

Booth Traffic
A major goal for your exhibit is to get people into your booth. You want to facilitate conversations between your staff and the show attendees to determine the attendees’ interest levels and move these prospects into the sales cycle.

Twitter can be used effectively to help draw an audience to your booth. First, you need to have a following on twitter – no matter what! For the care and feeding of your Twitter followers, you should be providing quality Tweets (not self-serving ones). To do this, follow the 80/20 rule: 80% of your Tweets are about others and then 20% can be about you.

Exhibitors Helping Other Exhibitors
The challenge when Tweeting for a trade show is not constantly Tweeting about YOU! So take the initiative to connect with several fellow exhibitors (most likely your non-competitors) BEFORE the show and talk about the ways each of you can Tweet about each others’ products, services, white papers, speakers, etc. Find out the value-added pieces of content you all have. 

Then you can use a service like Social Oomph (formerly Tweet Later) to facilitate the Tweets during the show. You can have a master schedule of who is Tweeting about you and at what time.

The creative minds among this collective exhibitor team should net quite a buzz in each of your booths. And, this Tweeting effort can begin before the show, carry through the show and even continue after the show. I would not be surprised if this newly formed relationship might be an ongoing effort.

Get Your Copy of the Plan
To get your free copy of  the Tweet Fest Plan click here. It is a step-by-step plan to creating a BUZZ for your shows. 

You can be spontaneous and have your own Tweets to drive traffic to the booth for a prize or to meet someone. Using this technique, you will look to your audience as a contributor rather than an over-zealous marketer.

Examples of Good Trade Show Tweets
Assuming you have taken care of the 80% rule, here are a few Tweets that I consider to be good for drawing an audience.

Net Documents used gift cards as a way to entice their audience.

 

 

We would appreciate your examples of how you are using Twitter to gain an audience. Another idea is to have a Tweet-up at your booth. Happy Twittering!