Justin Kozuch

I recently attended a conference and I was surprised at the number of booths I saw that failed to grab my attention, engage me or didn’t provide the tools I would have needed to sign up for a service, product or even a mailing list.

In the age of instant subscription - yes, I’m coining a new buzzword - and the existence of technology that allows you to engage users and find new fans, I often wonder why organizations don’t take advantage of the plethora of free tools that offer these benefits.

As I walked around from booth to booth, I started to think about what I would do if I was an exhibitor at a conference. Of course, this is by no means a complete list. I’m sure if I spent an hour thinking about it, I could come up 10 more ideas. Here are 3 different tactics I came up with that you can employ to rock your next tradeshow appearance:

User Signup

If your company measures success in terms of the number of users (daily active or otherwise), provide visitors to your booth with the ability to sign up for your service. Hopefully, that service already exists on your site, so put it to good use. I’d put good money on getting a decent visitor to new user conversion rate.

Bonus Tip: If email marketing is part of your communications strategy (and it should be), offer booth visitors the ability to sign up for your mailing list. I’m a big fan of Mailchimp and have been a loyal user for a number of years. As it turns out, they have an iPad app that I can use to sign up subscribers to the Pixel to Product mailing list. It’s free, customizable and is a low-tech way to putting your content on the screens of your customers. In turn, they can share this content with friends, colleagues, and their social networks. Put your content to work for you.

Social Media and You

Is your content already being spread through social media? (If not, ask yourself why.) Are people talking about your product or interacting with you through these channels? (Chances are it’s already happening.) Listen to what they say and look at the sentiment. If it’s bad, why? Do you have a strategy in place for prioritizing and engaging with those making these remarks? (You should. If not, here’s a few suggestions for dealing with negative feedback.) If it’s good, thank them and build relationships with them. Keep in mind the path people take to talking about your product: Interest -> Action -> User -> Fan -> Advocate. If there’s mass adoption of your product, even in a small market, highlight the adoption and make it visible to your visitors. As a rule, visual content draws people in. Display the content you (and others) are creating and don’t be show it off!

Bonus Tip: If your brands hashtag is particularly active, use a free tool like VisibleTweets to show others what the conversation online looks like in real-time. You can also use the Twitter search syntax to display mentions of your company, your product and other social objects using one search query.

Foursquare

Create a venue for your booth on Foursquare and encourage people to check in at your booth to win a prize. Add a tip to the venue where your booth is located with a description of your company and bit.ly the link to your company’s website so that you can track how many people clicked on it.

Bonus Tip: If you have the financial means, create a badge that people can unlock when they check into your booth. As a Foursquare user myself, I love unlocking badges and incentives (10% off my next purchase, preferred seating for the mayor, etc). Use the platform to your advantage. Foursquare has a decent venue analytics platform, and allows you to view data such as total checkins, new and unique visitors and social reach (shares to Twitter and Facebook), as well as age breakdown and who your visitors were (and how to get in touch with them).

Over To You

What about you? If you had a booth at a tradeshow, how would you rock it? What would you do? Let me know by way of a comment below.

davidtopping:

It’s the holidays. Some people are going to be idiots and drive drunk. Since 1977, police across Ontario have been trying to stop them by running spot checks as part of the Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere, or RIDE, program—which aims to not only catch drunk drivers, but deter them altogether….

This.

I learned that hustle is important, but taking a break and spending time with family is more important. Family is everything, and in the end, they are the ones that will stick by you no matter what.

I learned to trust my instincts. Always. If something feels strange, act on it. There’s a certain type of poetic logic behind the saying “Trust your gut”. The voice inside your head is there for a good reason.

I learned that there is a BIG difference between management and leadership. Management is a task, an activity, something that people do because that’s what they’re required to do. Leadership is a quality. It can’t be taught, it can’t be passed down, it’s not genetic. You’re either a leader, or you’re not.

I learned that I’d rather have a few strong advocates than a few hundred or even a few thousand friends. The concept of strength in numbers only applies to the military. I think it’s not about who you know, or what you know, but how strong those bonds are. And more importantly, it’s about how care for those advocates.

I learned that there’s no problem that cannot be solved by taking a few minutes to talk it through. Removing yourself from the equation is often the solution to a tricky problem.

I learned that leaping before looking is not always a bad thing. The great thing about this is that you will inevitably find yourself doing something you absolutely love. And if you don’t, then you’ve taken an important step in figuring what you want to do.

I’ve learned that questioning what you do is an important part of figuring out your career path. On occasion, I’ve questioned if what I’m doing makes me happy. Sometimes it’s yes, sometimes it’s no. Regardless of how I feel about what I do, I’ve realized that if I can help someone, I’m doing the right thing.

I learned that bad days happen to everyone. They’re a part of life. It’s what you do with them, what you learn from them, and how you deal with them that matters the most.

I learned that relationships are like plants. You invest in them, you take care of them, you nurture them and you give them the attention they deserve. Without healthy relationships, you’ll be unhappy, unproductive and be left feeling unsatisfied.

I learned how to learn. Not just from the signals that came from within, but to listen to the signals being emitted from others.

I learned to listen instead of just hearing. Silence is golden and is often rewarded with real understanding.

I learned that there will always be those who will detract you from your goals, that there will always be those who are jealous, or spiteful, or will do everything they can to discredit you. I learned that they don’t matter.

I learned that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Just because someone else is doing something, doesn’t mean you should. If it doesn’t fit with your business or personal objectives, then you probably shouldn’t do it.

I learned that it’s OK to say no. Sometimes, you need time to focus on what makes you happy. Sometimes, you need to stand your ground. Sometimes, you need to be more vocal about a bad idea. There’s no shame in not being part of the masses.

I learned that it’s OK to be an introvert. Sometimes being that person who stands back and watches the crowd is an important part of understanding the dynamics of professional relationships.

What did you learn in 2011?

food-fix:

Geek Cake Shop (by Cakehead Loves)

What? No Facebook? ;)

barackobama:

It’s nice to meet you.

There are lots of reasons we’re excited to be launching the Obama 2012 campaign’s new Tumblr today. But mostly it’s because we’re looking at this as an opportunity to create something that’s not just ours, but yours, too.

We’d like this Tumblr to be a huge…

This is a nice looking Tumblr.