How To Use Social Media At A Tradeshow

Scott Monty posted five tips from trade show product supplier Display Wizard to help readers succeed at their next trade show.  Read the entire blog here.

The Five Tips:

1. Use Facebook and Twitter to build anticipation
2. Promote your competition using social media
3. Comment on blog posts and news stories
4. Reach out to bloggers and journalists
5. Contact attendees via Twitter and LinkedIn

It's Not Personal

Seth Godin blogged a very valuable thing to remember when you're pitching yourself, your product or your services: it's not personal.  

Read his blog post, What "no" means.  

The SEO Guide to Google's Hummingbird

Search Engine Journal posted a very cool infographic detailing how to craft content for Google's Hummingbird algorithm that will help search engine optimization efforts be successful.

You can see their original post here: How to Thrill Google Hummingbird: The SEO’s Guide 

Transparency

Marketing is so often a game of deception - we try to make things look better than they are or make people feel a certain way to elicit a response.  

That's all good and well, but there has to be transparency for there to be success.  

Mitch Joel posted on his Six Pixels of Separation blog this week about the the need for transparency between agencies and brands regarding money.  His post, How much does it cost?, brings up lots of good points, but my favorite is the point about transparency.

"It sounds like bitterness, but it's really about transparency. 

This isn't about procurement or sour grapes, it's about a healthy and transparent partnership because that's what the best brand/agency relationships look like. If you're hiding what the true value of the work is from the beginning, the relationship starts out in a deficit. This is the marketing business. In business, all parties should be clear on how the process will unfold, who the participants in the competition are and what the prize will be for the winner at the end. This shell game of fishing for ideas, creative and strategy with no commitment to following through on the mandate is a thorn in the side of the marketing industry that doesn't need to be there. Things have, sadly, progressed to the point where agencies are putting weeks against a competitive pitch to only uncover that the project has been shelved, budget wasn't allocated or the brand was simply kicking some tires to see if a better solution was out there. 

Brands may think that this makes them smarter at the marketing game, but look at the overall results and costs for that effort? Sadly, this strategy seems like a lose/lose for all parties."

I firmly believe that transparency among partners is the only way to succeed in business.  If you want people to trust you, you have to be trustworthy.  Honesty between you and your vendor partners is the only way to ensure they will have your back and promote you.

Avoiding Project Apocalypse

Seth Godin's blog post today, The three toxic stooges of the project apocalypse, really resonated with me.  Seth names the three components that contribute to project failure: over promising, under sharing and lack of polish.

I cannot agree more with the first two components: over promising and under sharing or lack of communication are fatal to projects.

In my experience, people who excel at managing expectations and have strong communication skills tend to be good project managers because they minimize the chance for disappointment.

In my own career I have often been faced with the unpleasant task of bringing a team - or my boss - back to reality.  This is probably partly because I have been a part of companies that aren't well versed in digital and social media marketing, and so the constraining resources are less obvious to those around me.

It comes back to under promising and over delivering, which is an easy way to manage expectations.  When you under promise just a bit and communicate clearly what your objectives are, your clients are more likely to have realistic expectations for their project.  It also gives you just a bit of wiggle room to impress your clients, which tends to make them happy.  And happy clients are usual return customers who are more likely to refer you new business.

Don't Become a Victim of Change

Times are changing for businesses, Mitch Joel posted The Future Of Digital 2013.  The internet, social media and a multitude of other advancements in technology have changed the way companies interact with their reality.

It's too bad that businesses cling to the past and don't adopt and use these new tools to their advantage.  I suppose it's natural to stick to what we know, but when that happens at the expense of the success of a business it's inexcusable.  

When we fail to adapt to our changing environment, we run the risk of becoming a victim of the change.  

I experienced this firsthand as the telecommunications industry moved away from digital communications and into Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications.  Even though the entire industry saw the writing on the wall, not everyone acted in time.  The telecom dealers who didn't prepare for the shift from immediate income to recurring revenue found themselves in a squeeze as their upfront payments dwindled faster than they could build their recurring income.

The Importance of Google+

Don't take my word for it, check out Mitch Joel's radio clip posted on the Six Pixels of Separation blog on Monday:

Google + Is Still More Important Than Most People Realize

How Google's Hummingbird Impacts Social Media Marketers

Jeff Bullas posted a very concise explanation for how Google's recent Hummingbird algorithm update is going to impact social media marketers.

Check it out here: How does Google’s Hummingbird Update Impact Social Media Marketers?
Hummingbird isn't something to ignore.  It sounds like it's now more imperative than ever that we make Google+ a strong component of our social media strategy.