Trace Cohen is the Co-founder of Launch.it, the only Event News Management Platform for expos, tradeshows and events to increase their social engagement, buzz and revenue with their exhibitor and show news by creating a Digital Media Center for them.
As the event industry continues to adopt and grow its digital presence through various social networks, we always need to zero-base and remember why we are doing it. First off, it allows organizers and everyone at the show to interact with everyone else on multiple levels for lots of different reasons in basically real-time like never before. Below are a few reason why your show needs to go digital:
1. Customer service and feedback
Shows are busy, people are running around and things tend to go wrong sometimes – this is where twitter can be amazing! If you have an active account, attendees can tweet at the show or ask a question with the show # (hashtag) and you can answer them directly (hopefully in a timely manner). This will really make someone’s day.
2. Digital publishing of news
This is a growing trend because once the news is online, there is so much you can do with it. You can send it out via your social networks and newsletters, while also having it on your show site. Most people go to shows to find out what’s new so you want to make sure your news can be easily found and shared, so someone can discover it.
3. You can support all of your exhibitors socially
It’s great that your exhibitors have a physical booth at the show but now you can support them digitally! You can take pictures, send out their booth number, share their news and direct interested attendees to them.
4. You can reach people who couldn’t attend
Your show is awesome and while everyone wishes they could go, sometimes they just can’t. Luckily, you’re show is now digital, so you can share all the speakers, booths, news, and insight from the show. This will help build buzz (FOMO) and make sure they plan ahead so they can definitely attend next year!
5. When you’re digital, the show never ends
While the physical show may be over, if you were active online, you now have a huge backlog of information and news that you can continue to share throughout the year until your next show.
6. Everyone is mobile now
Almost everyone has a smart phone these days that links up to their favorite social networks so they can find out what’s going on in real-time. They also want to take photos and share them as well, so make sure you have the digital infrastructure in place to capture and amplify their engagement. As we transition away from the laptop driven world, there are so many opportunities to take advantage of as people walk the show floor.
7. It’s green and environmentally friendly
The more initiatives you make digital, the less paper waste and garbage you have at the end. Digital can scale infinitely while with paper you need to print out more copies, which takes a lot of time and supplies.
8. (BONUS!) It can save money!
Events, while they are a business, are also an experience for everyone there, so you want to make sure you make it the best one possible. The “if you build, they will come” phrase should really be more like “If you strategize, set up the social networks properly, inform everyone about them, monitor them and engage, they will come and be happy!”
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