Social Media and Tradeshow Marketing (Results)

Echelon Design, in conjunction with Exhibitor Media Group, had sponsored a survey in October of 2009 to learn how companies are using social media tools for marketing purposes, including event and tradeshow marketing campaigns. On January 15, 2010, the survey results were tabulated and released. Selected data points from this study will be published in the January 2010 issue of Exhibitor magazine and the Spring 2010 issue of Corporate EVENT magazine.

383 completed surveys were tabulated by corporate exhibit and event professionals responsible for their organization’s tradeshow and event marketing programs. Below are some highlights from the results. You can access the full report here.

The Facts

respondents who have incorporated social media into their exhibit marketing efforts, along with 24 percent of respondents who have used social media as part of their company’s B2B and/or B2C corporate events.

have used social media for more general marketing and branding purposes, excluding exhibits and events.

respondents who have used social media as an exhibit-marketing tool set measurable objectives prior to implementing their social-media campaigns.

of those indicated their social-media efforts met or exceeded those preshow objectives.

respondents who believe social media has “limitless” potential in the context of exhibit and event marketing.

An additionalbelieve it has “moderate” potential.

companies that have not used social media as part of their marketing efforts cite “lack of time to dedicate to social media” as the primary reason.

respondents who expect the value and importance of social media as a marketing tool to increase “strongly” or “somewhat” in the coming year.

The Data

Social networking sites represent the most common tool used by companies to promote their corporate events

Currently, nearly half of all exhibiting companies (46%) report using social media for marketing as part of their exhibit promotion efforts

The Response

By using Twitter at a recent trade show, my company was able to drive brand awareness among attendees. We were also able to increase the amount of traffic to our booth.

Using social media, we increased attendance at our regional meetings by 50 percent over prior years, and did so at about 50 percent of the cost.

Every day I broadcast daily e-mail promotions on our Twitter account. We track clickthroughs and sales, and we can actually see incremental sales from our tweets.Twitter also allows us to extend our marketing reach to niche markets that aren’t available to us otherwise.

The use of a mix of social-media platforms has increased our booth attendance as well as increased participation in online events (Webinars, etc.) that translate directly into sales.

Social media has increased our search engine optimization scores/rankings. We plan to continue using it as part of our marketing efforts.

The Takeaway

These results are supportive of a tradeshow industry, and marketing in general, that is embracing social media on an increasing scale. As a sponsor of this survey, we are proud to provide you access to the full report. You can read the results in their entirety here.

Are you planning to use social media in your tradeshow marketing campaign? Are you already using it? We’d love to hear your success stories and comments regarding this survey. For a recent example, check out “How to be Social at a Tradeshow.”

1. 

   Dale says:

   January 21, 2010 at 11:13 pm

   Sad part is many business don’t know how to use social market to grow their business. Cellphone have made it easy to snap a picture and upload into the companies facebook page. This way people not attending can see what going on at the convention.

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     Eric Lukazewski says:

     January 25, 2010 at 12:06 pm

     Dale, you touch on a reasonable point; Social Media still has a lot of uncharted waters and even more skeptics and uneducated marketers. There are numerous quotes in the full report that validate this. I’m confident, however, like any new venture, the majority of businesses will adapt and learn to grow with it.

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     Jared Golberg says:

     February 25, 2010 at 1:30 pm

     The event industry just hasn’t adopted Social Media marketing as quickly as it should. The tools are there and I don’t know if it’s fear, or lack of time, but more people like YOU Eric, need to be out there discussing and pushing for adoption… Events are SOCIAL and the digital world has HUGE importance for engaging guests and for pre/post marketing buzz!

     Love your style of writing and the presentation/design of it.. Looking forward to chatting!

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       Eric Lukazewski says:

       February 25, 2010 at 4:29 pm

       Your comments are greatly appreciate Jared. I agree, there is a slight hesitation across the industry to embrace social media to its fullest potential. Of your suggestions, I think time is the largest factor. There are a lot of tire kickers watching from the sidelines looking for leaders to SHOW THEM how to utilize it in a fashion that warrants the time to develop a strategy, implement and monitor. However, I’m seeing those leaders, such as yourself, properly demonstrating those techniques at this very moment and I believe that, in the not too distant future, other industry professionals will start rushing to jump in the pool

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