Social media at trade fairs - 7 tips for successful use

Proper planning before the trade fair is the be-all and end-all of successful social media marketing. Who is my target group, what do I want to achieve and which formats and measures do I use for this? These questions should be answered in advance, as should the responsibilities - i.e. who posts which content on which channels and when. Don't forget: find out the right hashtags and accounts to link to in good time, as large events usually have one or more official event hashtags, as well as their own social media accounts, which make your content visible to an even larger audience.

2nd tip: Arouse interest

Attract attention to yourself. This applies during the trade fair itself, of course, but especially in the weeks leading up to the event. After all, your target groups should know that you will be there and why your stand is worth a visit. So tell them about your offer in advance in the form of pictures or videos on social media. If you are planning great goodies, competitions or other attractive offers during the trade fair, then it's okay to publicise this.

3rd tip: Use the right tools

Let the technology work for you wherever possible. To make social media work easier, there are now a variety of tools that can be used to better manage or completely automate numerous processes. These include the scheduled publication of posts as well as community management, keyword and engagement monitoring and competitor analyses. Tools such as Swat.io, Hootsuite or Facebook Creator Studio enable cross-channel planning of your social media activities, giving you more time at the trade fair to focus on interacting with your audience.

About the audience: Interaction with stand visitors is the gold of the trade fair presence and also of any social media measures. Likes, comments, sharing or saving posts not only promote brand loyalty among your target group, but also the reach of your posts, as they characterise the relevance of content for the algorithm. Incentivising to increase interaction is therefore a particularly hot tip for social media at the trade fair. This works very well with competitions, polls, quizzes and asking the right questions for your interest groups. Sharing user-generated content - i.e. photos and videos of participants in connection with your products - also helps to increase interaction

5th tip: Content creation

"Content is king" is common social media wisdom. And on-site at a trade fair is the ideal opportunity to quickly create large amounts of valuable content - whether time-lapse videos of the set-up, short interviews with the team and visitors or reels of interaction with your exhibited products. This content can and should be posted directly on your social media channels, but you can also "recycle" it again and again, for example to illustrate blog posts and newsletters or as photo material for press releases and your website

If you have prepared an editorial plan in advance and have already planned many posts for publication, you are on the safe side. But unforeseen things can always happen at a trade fair. Perhaps the result of the planned interviews is not as good as expected or unexpectedly good shots of the set-up are taken? Flexibility is required here. You shouldn't deviate too far from your original strategy, but if opportunities arise spontaneously or creative ideas pop up, then you should make the most of them.

7th tip: Evaluate the measures

Have you set your goals in advance - as described in tip 1? Then after the trade fair is the right time to evaluate the measures taken and analyse the relevant KPIs. Valuable information can be gleaned from such reports and the social media strategy can be optimised for future trade fair appearances.