| More

Did Bizzone miss a trick?

What is so special about a business exhibition these days? If you have been to one, have you been to them all? Or if you went last year, will it be the same this year?

I asked myself the same question after visiting the Bizzone expo last week, and having attending the same event last year too, I think there are some opportunities to bring it in to the 21st century.

Talking of 21st century, we have some great tools that are available to us at a fairly low cost save for time, so why were they not used?

Take Facebook for instance, there is a very mediocre business page for Bizzone, but it may as well not be there. There is no video, information, few pictures in the gallery and definitely no interaction or value. Why would I “like” their page?

This is a trick well and truly missed. With close to 500 million people on Facebook, and growing daily, it is a captive community, with more and more people searching for brands they are interested in to follow and gain value and interaction from.

So what could Bizzone do with their page?

Well, first off, if you have 25 fans or more, you can create your own vanity URL, so the page address would read www.facebook.com/bizzone rather than extra blurb and numbers that Facebook give you when you first start out with your page. This is important as you can easily point people to the page to promote it with a simple address. Try remembering all the blurb in a facebook address that has not been shortened, virtually impossible.

Secondly, fill out as much info as you can under the info tab, and include your website address and other ways to get in touch such as your Twitter name, telephone details etc. Make it easy for anyone to get in touch, any way they want.

Thirdly, add value to your page by adding in other useful information that the audience may find interesting, and that might not necessarily be about your company. For example, on this page, why not feature something from the companies who have paid for a stand, an opportunity to showcase their customers and give even greater exposure.

Forth, what about some video footage, even if it is from last year’s event, but better still, from the “stuff up room”, even if it is just a snippet to wet the readers appetite.

And finally engage your readers with questions and ask for feedback about what they may like to see from your page. All useful information to act on.

There are many ways to make your Facebook page a success, and I have given just a few ideas so that you can see what it could be like with a little effort. Social media is a new and extra way of doing business, and companies need to find a way to add it in to their marketing mix.

So how could Twitter have been utilized?

With only 4 tweets this year, a tribe has not been created to tweet to for these events, so another missed opportunity. Twitter is a slow burn; it takes time to create that following, so it is important to create value in order to create followers, so that when you do have something to shout about, you have some ready listeners. Twitter can be like a focus group on steroids, a group of people that find what you have to say interesting and like nothing better than to contribute in some way. Imagine if you asked a question to 2000 followers, and they gave you their input, how valuable could that be?

When you have a large group of followers, why not tweet live from the event about what is happening? With the use of #hash tags, you are able to follow a topic easily, even when you are not following a particular person who may be tweeting. Use it by tweeting the key points that each speaker has to say during their presentations, competition winner announcements, or quick quotes from attendees that are live at the event.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to rip in to the expo, but I am trying to show you how they could have made a whole lot more, and created a bigger buzz, by utilizing social media. And that is only with Facebook and Twitter, what about the other sites such as LinkedIn and foursquare and………