Talk given by Sanjay Mehta, Jt CEO, Social Wavelength, at the IE

1. Social Media for
Exhibitions
SANJAY MEHTA
Joint CEO, Social Wavelength
Twitter: @sm63

2. Wheredo these insights come from?
About Me..

4. One of the Top
5 IT Companies
in the World

5. Agenda
 What is Social Media?
What can Exhibitions and Exhibitors use it for:
 Promoting the Event
 Driving Traffic to a Booth (and hence to the show)
 A simple to-do list
 Summary

6. What is Social
Media?

7. Accha….Facebook?!

9. “
Social Media: The online technologies and practices that people
use to share opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives.
Making new friends Affinity to groups
why Keeping in touch
Displaying Creativity
Exhibitionism Getting validation
Altruistic impulse Paying it forward
Peer pressure
how
Blogs
User generated videos and podcasts
Social networking sites wikis
Ratings and reviews
tagging
widgets RSS
Forums and message boards

10. How Big Is It

11. >500 million regd users
Every minute – 60 Hrs worth of
new video uploaded; 1 hr/second
If Facebook was a country.
Population? > 900 million!
Over 362 million people read more
than 2.5 billion pages on
Wordpress.com every month

12. “ By the time there is a case
study in your specific
industry, it is going to be
way too late for you to
catch up - Seth Godin

13. HOW CAN YOU USE
SOCIAL MEDIA?
Some Tips for Exhibitors

14. PROMOTING THE EVENT!
BEFORE, DURING, AFTER…

15. Active Exhibition Groups on LinkedIn

16. Creating “events” on LinkedIn or on Facebook

17. When events become “social” on these platforms

18. The exhibition as a brand page on Facebook

19. Promoting an Exhibition
Get word out to target audience on social
media
Create event, showcase the show
Put out sneak previews, show specials
Give out benefits for signing up from SM
Encourage sharing
Create a community of common interest

20. During the event
Generate buzz
Live updates, tweets, images, videos
Seed these on online media and
interesting target communities
Online PR
Extend reach beyond the physical visitor
Create a hashtag for the event (#ieia)
Works well if there is seminar component
also

21. Post Event: continue the
engagement
Think of the exhibition brand in a long
term focus
Will reduce cost of reach subsequently
The “conversation continues”
Becomes an online “destination” for the
industry; exhibition being the one-time
networking opportunity
Potential to convert it into revenue
generating „online exhibition‟ property

22. THE EXHIBITION BOOTH:
IDEAS FOR AN INDIVIDUAL
EXHIBITOR

23. If booths drive traffic, exhibition
drives traffic..!
Having spent money, each exhibitor wants
to maximize the opportunity
Would like his key customers to visit
His competitors also present in event
Need to get footfalls, stand out, get
noticed, be remembered!
A case study..

24. IBM’s #SweetTweets idea

25. The Concept
 Lure with sweets -> bring them to the booth
 Once at the booth -> Engage
 Tweeted before the Web 2.0 Expo to generate
interest and curiosity about the IBM booth there

26. Set up at the booth
 Set up TweetDeck in
booth
 Generated lot of interest
for walk-in visitors
 Encouraged visitors to
tweet out
 People loved to see their
name on screen
 They tweeted and spread
word – beyond the show!

27. Great
response
generated

28. Results for IBM’s
#SweetTweetsidea?
Expectation: 200 leads
Result: 1,500 leads

29. A SIMPLE TO-DO LIST -
BEST PRACTICES FOR
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
EXHIBITIONS…

30. A few simple steps..
Start with defining your goals – reaching
exhibitors / visitors / media / consumers
Decide platforms that make most sense
depending on your target group
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs,
Slideshare, YouTube, Flickr, Foursquare,
Pinterest etc.
Typically one of these platforms becomes
the “hub” and others support or push
traffic to the hub

31. Get word out

32. Get word out..
Use all touch points to enable people to
find you
Your stationery, your business cards, your
website, your brochure, and your social
media platforms..all must cross promote
Start getting word out EARLY
Create anticipation, address queries,
enable people to plan their participation

33. Social Media is about
conversations…

34. Some other tips
Use hashtags – work well for Twitterati
Use photographs and video extensively
Share photos of previous events, share
live photos of inauguration, attendees
Likewise video is BIG. Share videos of:
 Previous events
 Invitation to participate
 Exhibitors‟ reactions
 Attendees‟ responses
 Celebrity visitors

35. Other interesting ideas

36. Tweetups at the event?

37. AND TO SUM IT UP ALL..

38. SUMMARY
 Social Media and exhibitions make a great combo
 Invest time and efforts
 To deal with change, you need to change
 Social Media‟s clearly a double-edged sword
 What it is NOT:
 A quick-fix to your marketing challenges
 Surrogate advertising
 One way promotion tool
 Can you get your exhibition brand out there on social
media now?

39. Thank you. And any questions??
SANJAY MEHTA
JOINT CEO @ SOCIAL WAVELENGTH
EMAIL:SMEHTA@SOCIALWAVELENGTH.COM
CELL: +91-98200-40918
TWITTER: @SM63