Tradeshows are time and budget intensive investments for any company. Historically, tradeshow marketing focused solely on communicating to event attendees, with most activities being booth-centric or requiring sponsorship of items like badge lanyards and bags.

Today, Twitter is a non-optional marketing activity for every successful event. Done right, strategic Twitter posts before, during and after an event can be the glue that creates and sustains an event vibe and presence that extends from your company out to the entire market – well beyond the limited physical and time boundaries of the tradeshow floor.

Rainier’s award-winning social/digital media campaigns have included planning and executing highly successful tradeshow tweeting strategies. The tips below are some of the basics all marketers should consider:

Pre-Show

• For larger shows, keep apprised of show-related tweets throughout the year and retweet, when appropriate, using hashtags provided by event organizers
• Tweet about how your company will be exhibiting, speaking, sponsoring or attending events, starting about six weeks before the show and continue to tweet leading up to the event to generate excitement – always include your booth number
• Include the show’s Twitter handle and any hashtags associated with the event
• Retweet, tweet and favorite relevant news leading up to the tradeshow such as non-competitive news, speakers’ agendas, and your own observations heading into the event
• Post news about the tradeshow to other social channels, such as LinkedIn, a few days before the show

At-Show

• Take pictures and videos as they are far more likely to be shared
• Great pictures include:
• Speaker presentations
• Happy and/or engaged people
• Funny or busy tradeshow booths
• Any activities within your own booth
• Booth giveaways and contests
• Photos of the host city
• Tag people in photos when sharing on tag-able social channels
• Tweet about interesting comments from speakers, especially if they’re relevant to your technologies or markets
• Encourage everyone in your company to favorite, retweet and share your posts to all their social channels and groups
• Retweet show handle and hash-tagged tweets to show support for the trade show, and participate in the overall conversation thread
• Participate in the electronic social media “wall” at the show

Post-Show

• Continue to post comments and tweets about the show, and tweet any articles that appear in the media covering the event (don’t forget to include editor Twitter handles in your posts)
• Use the #ICYMI – in case you missed it – hashtag when posting links to recorded sessions or other interesting happenings at the event
• Share event presentations on sites like SlideShare and provide links in tweets and on LinkedIn