Building community 24/7 around an event held but once a year is hard! This deck was designed for small and medium sized exhibition and conference producers with real time tips on using what they already have to be more successful. This was the deck from a Webinar for the Canadian Association of Exposition Management CAEM).

1. S
Building Community
Around Your Event
Monday, January 27, 2014
Presented by Stephanie Selesnick, President, International Trade Information,
Inc.
stephanie@intltradeinfo.com
@StephSelesnick

2. INTRODUCTION
S Community building and engagement is not easy. It takes
a plan.
S It takes a commitment of resources – not necessarily in
terms of money, but in consistency.
S Exhibition organizers are bad at year-round community
engagement. We build up 2-3 months in advance and
maybe pay attention for 2 weeks to a month post-event.

3. What do we mean by
Community?
1. Who is it composed of?
S Exhibitors, Visitors, Sponsors, Media
2. What do we mean by consistency?
S Year-round engagement. Not ads, but content.
S Pull marketing vs. Push marketing
S 1 in 10 posts may be promotional in nature.
S 1 in 8 if absolutely necessary.

4. Community
S 3. Your organization may say,
“Our industry is mature. People
don’t engage on social media.”
S How many people do you know
who don’t engage in any kind of
social media?
S 4. All of your social media efforts
should answer the question,
“What’s in it for Me?” from your
community’s standpoint – NOT
YOURS!

6. Our Agenda Today
S LinkedIn Groups
S TweetChats
S Google Hangouts
S Video: Vine,
YouTube
S Photos:
S Snap Chat
S Instagram
S Pinterest
S Blogging
S Content Creation

7. LinkedIn Groups
S Engage. Question. Take note of current trending topics.
S Always, always, always moderate.
S Microsoft excel posts should be taken down asap
S Trending topics should become fodder for your education, blogs
S Post interesting, informative articles you find from everywhere
S Humor has its place!
S See what your competitors are doing.

8. TweetChats
S Regularly scheduled conversations on
Twitter around a specific topic and
designated by a #.
S Why do it?
S Take your most ardent twitter followers
and engage them!
S Find out what your community REALLY
thinks
S Get ideas for blogs, educational
sessions (webinars and face-to-face)

9. TweetChats
How:
S When do you hold it?
S Day and Time most convenient for your audience
S What’s your hashtag (#) going to be? (Short is good!)
S Double-check and make sure it’s not being used
already
S Maybe use the show name and “chat” at the end?

10. TweetChat
S Must be held regularly
S Once a week on average, you can go to once every
2 weeks or once a month for 6 months between shows,
but it’s not recommended
S How long? One hour
S Tweetchat.com – Free! Automatically adds the hashtag
S You will have to “authorize” it to access your twitter account.

11. TweetChats

12. TweetChats
S Decide on series of topics
S What’s relevant? Anything from
your LI groups?
S Controversial is good
S Ads are bad – use REAL Content
S Get a speaker/keynote to be a
guest
S Come up with at least 8 questions
per Chat

13. TweetChats
S Publicize it regularly at many different hours in different
channels
S Email – with link to topic questions
S Twitter
S LI groups
S FB if your audience is there
S Use Storify to recap and post on your website

14. TweetChats
S Be patient – they take awhile to build! Some weeks are better than
others.
S Don’t let others hijack – keep it to the relevant topic
S Jokes and laughter are good! Makes it fun!
S Follow up if you have questions
S Moderating can be scary until you get used to it
S Use a couple of different team members to be moderators
Questions so far?

15. Google+ Hangouts
S Can be fun – either everyone may be seen or just your speakers.
S It’s Free
S It’s relatively easy to use once you get the hang of it
S Allow extra time for the first one!
S Easier to invite those with gmail.
S You can record & post it later
S Some groups use this instead of tweetchats – or both!

16. Videos: Vine
S 6 seconds of video can tell a big story
S May be edited (easily)
S Fast growing, post on Twitter & Facebook (owned by Twitter)
S How can we use this for our show?
S Pre-Show, On Site, Post-Show
S https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170317#
S Or Google “Vine”…

17. Videos: YouTube
S The largest social media platform!
S More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
S Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—
that's almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50% more than
last year
S 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
S 80% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
S YouTube is localized in 61 countries and across 61 languages
S According to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34
than any cable network
S You can take content from other places and post it
S Have links to your YouTube videos from your website

18. YouTube
S Using it for community building:
S Hold contests around themes related to your show!
S Example: Why people are attending your show?
S Give cool event-related prizes (hotel rooms, restaurant
coupons, comp educational sessions)
S Ask Speakers for videos
S Have Board members post content

19. Photos: Snap Chat
S A photo messaging application developed by Stanford University
students. Using the app, users can take photos, record videos,
add text and drawings, and send them to a controlled list of
recipients. These sent photographs and videos are known as
"Snaps". ...
S See it once and it’s gone – it “lives” for 1-10 seconds.
S Like many internet apps, started with sex
S Free and the latest “big thing”
S Play with it and see if it works for your show

20. Photos: Instagram

21. Instagram
Statistics:
S 150 Million: Monthly Actives
S 60%+: People Outside U.S.
S 16 Billion: Photos Shared
S 1.2 Billion: Likes Daily
S 55 Million: Average Photos Per Day

22. S For the “shoppers” in the group! Founded in 2010
S Grown 66.52% from 2012-2013
S Drives more referral traffic than Twitter, LI and Reddit
combined
S It’s visual. It’s a Search/Discovery Tool. Designed to send
traffic out, not bring it in.
S Suppliers should be using it.
S Boards should be relevant to your audience!

23. The Rule of Six!

24. Business.Pinterest.com
S Free for businesses! Easy to convert from a personal page
S Experiment with what works for you
S Follow key exhibitors and suppliers
S Add text to pictures! (Use PicMonkey.com for help combining text with
graphics.) For example: 5 Reasons to Attend
S Make images tall rather than wide
S Use infograms! (piktochart.com)
S You can place boards in order of appearance
S Cross promote pinterest and instagram accounts

25. S Should be done by Senior Management - may be
ghostwritten – just make sure they suggest content,
READ IT and approve it.
S Great way to share opinions on your show, industry
trends and what else?
S Should never be an ad!

26. Blogging
S Use speakers to write guest blogs
S Be consistent – every week?
S Every day is TOO MUCH
S Think one thought per blog. Average between 200-400
words
S How long are the blogs you read regularly?

27. Content Development
S Content comes from everywhere.
S Recorded sessions may be edited down.
S How can you use the same content & multipurpose it across multiple
channels?
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest
White Papers
Your Exhibitors
Your Sponsors
Industry Bloggers
Your Speakers

28. Summary
S Social Media is not the enemy. It’s a fact of life.
S Be the connector for your community!
S Using a combination of platforms, you can and should engage
your community 12 months out of the year – not just before and
after your shows.
S Community is not a four-letter word. Neither is Engagement.
S Content comes from everywhere.

29. Questions & Answers
S Stephanie Selesnick: stephanie@intltradeinfo.com
S @StephSelesnick