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5 Tech Questions To Ask For Your Trade Show Booth At Each Show

5 questions about trade show technology to ask for your next trade show booth

It goes without saying, but here it is anyhow: It’s no longer your father’s trade show.

Sure, trade shows are still about face-to-face conversations with real, live humans. It’s still about pressing the flesh and building relationships. But most exhibitors now augment that valuable personal interaction with some kind of digital technology in their booth.

From mobile phones to tablets to flat screens and touch screens, exhibitors bring the same tech they use at home and work into the trade show arena.

So, to help ensure you have a smooth tech integration at your next show, and every show after, here are 5 questions you should answer before the show starts:

1. Does our upcoming trade show provide lead retrieval machines and/or an app that works with the attendees’ badges?
While most exhibitors simply gather business cards for their trade show lead management, many rely on the lead retrieval machines they can rent from the official show provider. However, more and more shows are making a lead retrieval app available for use on smart phones and tablets. And some shows are even discontinuing lead retrieval machines in favor of these apps. So you need to figure out which of these you are doing at your show, so you can not only order the one you prefer, but then also customize the lead retrieval machine or the app to match your at-show lead qualification questions, and your post-show data format needs.

2. Do they have an official on-site tech rental company for tablets, monitors, and touch screens?
Because tech rental at a trade show can cost about the same as buying it, you may own your tablets and monitors, and are happy to ship them to the show and back repeatedly. If you don’t like to own trade show tech because of concerns about breakage, set-up, and obsolescence, then on-site rental is the solution. Just make sure they have in inventory what matches your needs, and that whatever applications you run will be loaded on them, and compatible with them. And get their phone number before the show starts, so if you have issues during set up or the show, you can quickly reach them – that support is also what you paid them for!

3. What kind of internet connection is available from the show?
Many exhibitors who use tech (like our trade show booth games) need to have the Internet in their booth, whether it’s for their lead retrieval app, showing off their website, or to present with an internet-based app. And so almost every show offers both Wi-Fi or hardwired Internet to exhibitors – at a very high price. If you use the show’s Internet, you get support and ease of use. And if you have a mission-critical need for dependable Internet or higher bandwidth, you may have to go with a hardwire connection. Since the FCC ruled that wifi blocking is illegal, we have found that using a hotspot or your own wifi is a viable and reliable solution in many venues.  Talk to your company’s I.S. department about your options, including getting your own wireless internet hub to bring to shows.

4. What is the show’s hashtag?
Social media has become one of the strongest forms of pre-show and at-show promotions. As you publish messages on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn (at least on the LinkedIn app, for now), use the show’s hashtag to give your messages the chance to be found by even more attendees – and even people who won’t attend, but are good prospects for your products. Just be sure to go to the show’s website and find out what their official hashtag is for that show, and even that year of the show, as it can change! Some shows include the year in their hashtag, and some don’t. And sometimes the show even changes its name! Also, click on the show’s hashtag on each of the 4 social media sites mentioned to see who included the hashtag in their messages, and then determine if they are people who you’d like to invite to your booth.

5. Does the show or show owner have its own LinkedIn group?
People you want to meet at the trade show are already gathered virtually in many LinkedIn groups, but especially if the show has their own LinkedIn group. You can research the group’s discussions to see who (among buyers) is already talking about going to the show, and reach out to invite them to visit your booth. You can also post your own discussion about what great new things you will be launching at the show inside the show’s LinkedIn group. If there is not a group owned by the show, then find the largest, active group that caters to your buyers, and get involved there.

Tech is here to stay at trade shows. Exhibitors like you have embraced the attention-getting power of digital devices and screens to get more attendees and create better experiences. Use these 5 questions to ensure you are prepared to get the most out of the tech you use at every trade show.

If you’d like to see more about how you can drive more booth traffic with our interactive trade show games, feel free to contact us with questions or to discuss your event with one of SocialPoint’s Digital Strategists. We’ll help you generate more booth

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5 Ways Our Trade Show and Event Customers Boost Results With Our SocialPoint Challenge Bar Trivia

Challenge Bar Trivia game for trade show games and interactionsOur SocialPoint® Challenge Bar Trivia platform gives clients several ways to easily collect valuable attendee data and engage their attendees in a fun activity. It works because everyone loves trivia.

Trade show clients are interested in the following:
• Driving higher booth traffic
• Generating more leads
• Capturing marketing follow-ups
• Teaching people about their products and services
• Get people to visit other stations in their booth

Internal meeting clients have different objectives:
• Create a fun team game
• Teach individuals about new products, policies, etc.
• Measure performance against learning objectives

Having said that, here are the five most common uses of our Challenge Bar Trivia Platform:

1. Trade Show Booth Lead Capture
The most common use of our Challenge Bar Trivia is with our “Three Strikes and You’re Out” game in a trade show booth. This game is effective because the questions are randomized, so it’s a new game each time you play. Which gets people to come back to exhibitors’ booths again and again.

2. Team Game Show
Some clients like to use our Trivia Platform to run team games in their events from the stage. From back stage, the production team pushes the questions to the tablets. Teams answer the questions and the scores and correct answers are revealed on the big screen. The crowd goes wild!

3. Activation with a Street Team
Brand Ambassadors and street teams are looking for a quick activation. They want to capture a lead, get some marketing follow-up data and have a 4-8 question game that is only played on an iPad. This generates lots of leads.

4. Multi-Language Game
International clients like to give players an opportunity to choose their language, before playing the game. We allow you to setup the game and questions in English, French, German and Italian. Parlez-vous marketing?

5. Multi-Category Game
Finally, some clients use our multi-category game configuration to allow attendees to choose the kinds of questions that they want to answer. Some answer customer service questions, while others answer engineering questions. This way, you can setup the game to appeal to the strengths of different attendee types. So everyone is more likely to be a happy winner.

Bottom Line
Our Challenge Bar Trivia Platform offers our clients a lot of flexibility, so they can generate more leads, interactivity, and engagement at both trade shows and their internal meetings, with the same technology.

If you’d like to see more about how you can drive more booth traffic with our Challenge Bar Trivia Platform, feel free to contact us with questions or to see a demo of the product.

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How to Drive Trade Show Booth Traffic with Interactive Technology

trade show games bring in more booth traffic

Booth traffic. Over and over, clients tell us they want to drive booth traffic. They are constantly looking for interactive technology ideas that will help them get more people into their trade show booth.

And we’ve heard it for a long time. We’ve been working with interactive, digital, and social-media driven attendee engagement in events for more than 10 years. Some of our over 1,000 activations have worked very well. Some have not. So let’s give you the best of those 10 years.

Here are 5 lessons we’ve learned about attendee engagement that should help you as you plan your next trade show booth experience:

1. Think About Breaking the Ice
When visitors are tired after a long day of exhibiting, the last thing they want is for you to launch into your 10-minute canned spiel, then poke them with your lead scanner. What you really need is a way to break the ice. When our clients think like this, they usually open their mind to fun, new ideas that can help them capture leads and learn about their booth visitors. (Read: Using Digital Trade Show Games as An Ice Breaker with attendees)

2. Keep It Simple
Attendees are walking the trade show to find answers to their business problems, so they have plenty on their mind already. Giving them a complicated game to play, with lots of rules and steps, will only annoy them and turn your potentially good experience into a bad one. So design your digital interaction to be as smooth and seamless as possible.

3. Make It Big and Bold
Your screens are a unique opportunity to draw people in from the aisles – but only if they can see what’s going on! We always recommend that our clients make sure that content is BIG and bold. Stop putting your website or a PowerPoint presentation on the screens. Striking visuals – such as our leaderboard graphics – can pull traffic into your booth from the aisles. Also, resist the urge to put anything that you can’t read from 10 feet away. People in the aisles can’t see all of that small copy. (Read: 8 Content Ideas for Your Screens)

4. Give Visitors Love
Attendees love to see their name in lights and their picture on the big screen! The bigger the screen the happier they are! So, why not give them what they want? Social media walls, leaderboards, idea boards help you show attendee-generated content from the event and draw people into your booth.

5. Draw A Crowd With A Crowd
People have a fear of missing out – if you can leverage this to create a crowd environment in your booth, you can expect others to follow. One of the great benefits of our Challenge Bar Trivia game is that people often huddle around the gaming stations to play the game and watch their friends. Without a doubt, whenever there is a crowd around the stations others will naturally wander into the booth to see what’s happening. You can do this too. Try it – it works!

Bottom Line
After over 1,000 events, we’ve seen our clients who succeed follow these ideas. It’s not complicated, it’s just what works. Follow these lessons and you’ll have more traffic in your trade show booth, and ultimately more leads and sales, too.

If you’d like to see more about how you can drive more booth traffic with our interactive trade show games, feel free to contact us with questions or to discuss your event with one of SocialPoint’s Digital Strategists. We’ll help you generate more booth traffic.

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5 Valuable Benefits Many SocialPoint Game Clients Discover Only AFTER Their First Trade Show

Happy trade show game clients

Ever have a friend that was so attractive, it took a while for you to realize what a great listener they were, too?

We know what that’s like.

Our new customers are usually so excited about getting more booth traffic, taking more leads, and looking more fun and high-tech with our trade show games, that they often overlook many of the other significant advantages they receive from working with us.

But after a few more shows, we regularly hear how they also value these 5 other benefits they receive from using our interactive trade show games:

  1. Ability to compare shows to each other

When an exhibitor uses a game like our Virtual Prize Wheel or the Challenge Bar Trivia, all the leads they take are housed in the same reporting system.  So, after several shows, our clients can not only see how many leads they took at every show in one place, but they can also compare their lead counts from show to show.  For some of them, this is the first time they have a consistent measure of their trade show lead generation, which sparks some big “Aha!” moments.

  1. Initiate more open attendee conversations

A surprising number of trade show attendees are reluctantly walking the show hall, fearing scary encounters with overly-aggressive booth staffers.  When our customers return from their first show, they tell us how our interactive games brought people into their booths, who, after playing the games, became more open and willing to talk to booth staffers.  Attendees’ answers to the games become safe conversation starters, which then transition to more open and meaningful business conversations.   So, our tech becomes an ally in fostering better human interactions.

  1. Easy to set up and use

Anything relating to technology strives to be simple, but more often than not, ends up being beyond the tech skills of the average person.  And when you are dealing with an unfamiliar technology that has been customized for your unique needs, and then given to a new person to use, half a country away, well, the expectations are low.  So, we understand how our clients are surprised how easy they found to set up and use our interactive games at their first trade show.

  1. Responsive advice and service

Admit it, you’re worried that working with a tech company is going to put you in contact with a bunch of geeks.  Or even worse, you can’t actually get ahold of anyone.  Our customers are pleasantly surprised at the experienced advice they get in setting up their games, and the responsive support they get to help them set up at their first show.   After over 1,000 events, we know what works, and are more than happy to guide you towards a more successful show.

“The SocialPoint game was an innovative interactive approach to drawing attendees to our booth. But the care and set up approach by the SocialPoint team also make this a win.  They think of everything and and make it easy to get help along the way.”

  1. Lower cost for shows after the first show

SocialPoint customers buy our software and support and find it a worthwhile investment for their first show.  But when they continue to use our interactive digital games and get our support during show number 2, 3, 4, and more, they find they are getting that same boost of leads and great customer service, but at a fraction of the cost they paid for their first show.  So the ROI from using our interactive games continues to increase as the price goes down.

Now that you’ve read this blog post, you don’t have to wait until after your first trade show with SocialPoint to discover how we can deliver these benefits!

If you’d like to see what our interactive trade show games can do for you, feel free to contact us with questions or to discuss your event with one of SocialPoint’s Digital Strategists.  We’ll help make your trade shows more fun and successful, in oh so many ways.

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8 Content Ideas for the Screens in Your Trade Show Booth

Digital flat screen monitors in your trade show booth.jpg

If you are like most exhibitors, you have screens, monitors and tablets in your booth … but you aren’t really sure how to best use this powerful digital tech to create more impact.

According to a 2015 white paper Tech for Trade Show Exhibitors from Skyline Exhibits and Access Intelligence, most exhibitors are still putting PowerPoint slides or their own websites on the screen.  That’s probably because they don’t know how easy it is to create content that will go beyond websites and PowerPoint and generate more leads and sales.

So here are 8 better ways that you can use your screens to draw people into the booth and engage them once they are there:

  1. Video

Video tells a story quickly and with visual impact.  You can have short, splashy videos that get people to stop, and more meaty (but still short) videos you use to demo products or tell client stories when talking to attendees.

  1. Custom App

You can tell your story with a custom build presentation that allows for big visuals and intuitive navigation with apps that let you go beyond PowerPoint, and show visuals in a bigger and faster way than your website.

  1. Games & Contests

Games and contests are a great way to draw people into the booth. These games allow you to break the ice with prospects before you start talking to them about your products and services.  And with the games set up on multiple tablets, you get more and more people into your booth, as a crowd draws a crowd.

  1. Leaderboard

Everyone wants to see their name in lights. Everyone.  When you put the best scoring attendees’ names on a game leaderboards, it drives the competitive spirit of attendees so they want to play your game.  The result?  They come into your booth, play, and deepen their relationship with you.  Some even come back again and again. (Read More)

  1. Touch Screen Voting

You can feature the best social media images and comments that are on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram about the trade show on a touch screen in your booth, and let attendees vote for their favorites.  It’s a visual feast of people and ideas they care about that pulls them in, plus it starts a conversation and creates engagement.

  1. Social Media Wall

Even if attendees don’t vote on their favorite social media of the show, just seeing the most popular images and messages in a big, colorful, constantly moving format pulls them into your trade show booth.  And it makes your company look more tech savvy.

  1. Virtual Prize Wheel

Virtual prize wheels on digital screens are very popular for many reasons:  People like to get gifts, they like to play games, and they are attracted to movement and excitement.   You can offer several different prizes to give people more reasons to play. Best of all? You capture their lead contact data when they start the game.  Talk about win/win!

  1. Demo

For many companies, their products include software and applications that can be demoed on your digital screens.  Guided tours of your product show attendees you can do exactly what you said you can do.  Just consider going with larger screens, so when you demo for one person, more people can see the demo, too.

No matter which of these 8 you choose, we always recommend that our clients make sure that content is BIG and bold.  Stop putting your website (or a PPT presentation) on the screens.  Striking visuals – such as our leaderboard graphics – can pull traffic into your booth from the aisles.  Also, resist the urge to put anything that you can’t read from 10 feet away. People in the aisles can’t see all of that small copy.

Use these digital content ideas to make sure you get the most of the screens in your booth!

If you need an extra hand, feel free to contact us with questions or to discuss your event with one of SocialPoint’s Digital Strategists.  We’ll help you get social media right at your next event.

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Turning Attendees into Active Participants Just Got Easier with SocialPoint

SOCIALPOINT AUDIENCE RESPONSE

New and improved SocialPoint Audience Response App, plus new engagement displays make it easier than ever to “Google the Audience” and tap into the wisdom of the crowd. 

Every 4-6 weeks, we make improvements to our SocialPoint Audience Engagement platform.  In May, we rolled out a Virtual Prize Wheel for trade show booths. Today, I am excited to share that we made several wide sweeping improvements to our Audience Response Solution.  These updates make it easier for speakers, facilitators and CEOS to “Google the Audience” and tap into the wisdom of the crowd.

Here are some of the improvements.

(1) New and Improved Mobile App:

Our new web based app looks and feels more like a native app, but it can work in your browser or saved as an icon on an iPad or iPhone. The app is fully brandable, configurable and customizable to your event themes.

(2) Expanded Agenda and Session Information:

If you don’t want to use an Event app, you don’t have to now.  Our Agenda has been expanded to include detailed session information, room information and speaker profiles.

(3) Brainstorming:

Brainstorming has not always scaled well in large groups in events.  Now it can. Our new Audience Response App gives all stakeholders a voice in idea generation, evaluation and decision making.  Now, you can have attendees submit ideas around a discussion topic, moderate those ideas, then vote on them. Voting can be restricted to a certain number of votes per topic or allow attendees unlimited choices. Either way, attendee’s get to have a voice and you get buyin from the audience.

(4) Multiple Surveys Per Session:

It’s great to collect feedback forms on the sessions to get feedback from the audience. What if you wanted attendees to complete a rating survey after each speaker? Or what if you wanted to capture lead information? or some research insights along with the feedback form. You can do that with our platform now.

(5) Real Time Results in More Places:

Real time poll results and voting results now appear on your mobile devices and on the big screen. Speaker Q&A, Word cloud, Caption This, poll results and idea voting results can appear on branded displays on the big screen.

(6) Download to Excel:

With the click of a button, you can download all questions, ideas, polls and surveys right into excel from each session.

(7) New Show Flow Mode:

Easily juggle, polls, Q&A, discussions, word clouds, idea voting and surveys with Show Flow Mode. This new feature makes it easy for you to setup, re-order and push polls, questions, discussion, word clouds, idea voting and surveys to attendee’s devices or to the big screen.

(8) Reusable Branded Templates:

Save time at setup and onsite by creating reusable branded templates for polls, word clouds, speaker Q&A, discussion, etc that can be applied across sessions.

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Spin To Win Virtual Prize Wheel That Captures Leads

prizewheel-pulse

Everybody – and I mean everybody – loves to spin the prize wheel.

Our virtual prize wheel is no exception.

Recently a gala used our prize wheel to manage prize giveaways (and inventory) during an event. Everyone loved pushing the spin the wheel button. The gala sold out of 100’s of prizes in 30 minutes.

What is the virtual prize wheel?

The Virtual Prize Wheel is a digital, self-service game that pulls trade show attendees into an exhibitor’s booth to play because it is great looking, fun, and offers the chance to win free prizes. Which drives higher lead counts for exhibitors!

The game has colorful, attractive screens that are easily customizable to include an exhibitor’s logo and match their brand colors. Exhibitors can set up the game by themselves or with the support of a project manager. Screens can be on tablets or large screen monitors, both horizontally and vertically.

How does it work?

Attendees who play the Virtual Prize Wheel game willingly provide their contact and survey info to play. They spin the virtual prize wheel, and then see the prize they won. Prizes are chosen and customized by the host marketer. Prizes can have sponsors, pictures, and logos. The Virtual Prize Wheel also monitors the exhibitor’s prize inventory, so they don’t give away prizes they don’t have in stock.

What type of data can I capture?

There are four different pieces of data to capture.

  • Lead Contact Information
  • Answers to Lead Qualifcation questions
  • Marketing Next Steps (register for newsletter, request demo or a digital document, etc.)
  • What prize the Lead won.

Using custom lead capture and survey forms, we will help you capture the data that you need to followup quickly. The data can be instantly downloaded into a spreadsheet – one record per lead.

Your sales team will love it because they can concentrate on following up with warm leads right away rather than doing all of that data entry. You will love it, because you will increase the number of leads that you can add to your marketing followup processes.

How can I keep track of my prize inventory?

The virtual prize wheel can hold an unlimited number of items. So, you can have 5 prizes or 50.  Our system will keep track of the number of prizes that you have in stock, how many were given away and who earned those prizes. This way, you won’t give away prizes that you don’t have.  We have a real time report that will show you how many of each item you have in stock.

Depending on your business process, you can setup a per event inventory or a daily inventory. You can easily add, remove or change inventory items. Some clients have a base package for all shows, while others change items frequently.

How are people using the virtual prize wheel?

SocialPoint Virtual Prize Wheel

Recently a gala used our prize wheel to manage prize giveaways (and inventory) during an event. Everyone loved pushing the spin the wheel button. The gala sold out of 100’s of prizes in 30 minutes.

At a recent 1 day B2C street fair – one of our clients setup 5 virtual prize wheel stations on iPads. They collected nearly 1,000 leads and survey results. That was pretty cool.

We even brought the virtual prize wheel to a small 2 hour B2B trade show recently. We collected 45 leads ourselves in 2 hours in a tiny 10X10 booth.

 

 

 

 

Are there any reports?

There are several different virtual prize wheel reports that an exhibitor may use.  Our dashboard will automatically report on the number of leads capture by prize wheel and by day. This dashboard helps you get a real time view of what’s happening in your trade show eco-system.  It’s especially helpful if you are managing lots of events.

Here are some other reports that will help.

  • Prize Winner Report: Provides an ordered list of each prize that was won.
  • Lead Report: Gives you the Lead Information, Survey data and Prize won.
  • Inventory Report: Keep tabs on your prize inventory from day to day or show to show.

 

 

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The Key to Choosing the “Right” Social Media Wall Content

Social Media Wall | Live Social Media Feed Content

You’ve got your event budget approved.  You’ve ordered your flat screens and custom monitors.  You are set for social media display success!  Just one minor detail.  What are you going to put ON those screens?

More often than not – we see people trying to make the social feeds on the screen look like a giant iPhone. And, in our opinion – it just doesn’t work for events.

Here’s why.

(1) Events are branding opportunities. Your digital screens and décor need to work together to promote the brand. Social media is visual today. Usually more than ½ of the content is photos anyway. A big giant iPhone of Twitter text content does not really get the job done.

(2) Size Matters. Dude – attendees have to be able to see the content from 10-15 feet away. Just because size 35 font looks great on your laptop – don’t assume it will look good on a monitor from 15 feet away. It will probably look tiny.

(3) Location Matters. What’s going on around the monitor? Is this where people will hang out for a few minutes and look at the screen? Or will they be sprinting by from one meeting to another?

So how do you get the content right? Here are 5 Key Factors to Take into Account when Choosing Social Feed Content for Your Event:

1) Plan content for your event environment.  Is your social feed going to be featured on a 16 foot video wall where attendees will walk close by? If so, feel free to try to get content on the screen that people can read or look at. Conversely, if this same 16 foot video wall is going to be the backdrop for a band where attendees will be 40 feet away or further – then you need to put less content on the screen and make it readable at that distance.  Don’t waste space on content that can’t be seen clearly.

2) Be Visual.  Based on the data that we collect from our customers’ events – more than ½ of the social content from an event is photos. Photos add bursts of color to color to your social displays. Let the images speak for themselves through Instagram and Twitter photos displayed on a large screen.

3) While pictures are powerful, don’t discredit text statuses. Even if your content is visual, a good text comment can mean more to attendees than a great photo. Authors make a living by explaining things in infinite detail. A good review or testimonial can sway audiences as well. Think about how you can “highlight” these brilliant comments.

4) Sponsor Messages & Branded Content. Think about what brand messages, sponsor messages and highlighted content you will need to provide. Then ask yourself how can you get those messages on the screen. It is very likely that someone will want to show a walk-in slide loop to give sponsors love, highlight upcoming events, etc.

5) Public vs. Private Content. Maybe public streams of photos, videos, and status’ aren’t appropriate for your company. There are some industries that are highly regulated and require extensive legal disclaimers and authorization for any content to be publicly distributed. (Think pharmaceutical companies, medical device companies, political organizations, financial institutions, etc.)

This is where private social media comes into play. Using the traditional networks of email and SMS you can capture private messages, pictures, and videos that your event attendees want to share in a less public way.  Private media is just as effective and easy to share as the public social streams but gives you total control over how the content is shared.

The Social Point

Social displays are a fun and interactive way to make attendees feel like they are a “part of the action.”  If you add these tips to your planning checklist, you can feel confident that you will execute a well thought out social display.

P.S.

Recently we featured a blog post titled, The Secret Formula for Getting Social Media Walls “Right” where we shared four social media wall must haves.  Things like Wifi, making attendees feel the love, etc.

If you need an extra hand, feel free to contact us with questions or to discuss your event with one of SocialPoint’s Digital Strategists.  We’ll help you get social media right at your next event.

 

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Block Trolls! 5 Tips for Moderating Social Media at Events

This is likely NOT what you had in mind when you talked your boss into using a Live Social Media Feed at your event!

We recently wrote a blog post highlighting the Top 4 Event Social Media Wall Must Haves.  One of our main points was that live social media feeds are a great way to let attendees participate real-time and feel “a part of the conversation” at events.

Great in theory, but what happens when the “freedom of speech” that we hold so dear, shows up in the form of a crazy jumbo-sized social media post on your event wall?  As you know, anyone and everyone at an event can share their thoughts – right, wrong or just plain inappropriate.

How do you keep out the trolls, the party poopers, the folks that wouldn’t be happy if you bent over backwards for them??

Enter the fifth event social media wall “must have” – a content moderation strategy.

Don’t get me wrong.  You can’t and don’t want to regulate what people say, do, etc. on Social Media.  That goes against the core values most social platforms were founded upon.

You also don’t want to seem like Eastern Europe before the Wall fell, blocking all content that doesn’t agree with the Party Line.  But that doesn’t mean that you have to have random content, (ie “What were they thinking??” tweets and photos) show up on your Social Display.

Just say “NO” to Tweeters and Instagrammers who may be temporarily insane.

How?  Moderate.  Moderate.  Moderate!

Here are our 5 Tips for Moderating Social Media Content at Events:

1)   How restrictive do you need to be?  If you trust most of the participants at your event, but want to block certain “trolls,” only block those users.  Let everyone else post freely.  (Most people really don’t like to look crazy to a room full of their peers!)  The key is to maximize audience engagement while minimizing inappropriate or offensive content.

2)   All content is not created equal.  You know your audience.  You may want to give a free pass to tweets and moderate photos and videos.  This will help you be more efficient in getting content posted to your displays.

3)   Do you have a General Session strategy?  You will want to be more restrictive of content during those times where it is displayed on the big screen.

4)   Auto approve your industry experts, your CEO, etc. What they have to say is important and timely.  This will keep your content stream flowing with regularly updated, quality content.

5)   Reward your influencers and sponsors.  Call out their tweets or photos.  When you are in control, you can give certain content a little more priority that makes a big difference in the eyes of the participants.  (Who doesn’t like to see their posts featured on the big screen?)  It’s a free way to “show a little love.”

We know that not everyone has the time or money to assign a full time moderator at every event.  That is why SocialPoint developed a moderation tool that comes built in with every Social Media Display we create.

We’ve saved many clients from embarrassing or inappropriate content being broadcast live.  Our motto is: Moderate out the bad content AND at the same time reward good behavior!

Contact Us to speak with one of our SocialPoint Digital Strategists and learn how you can avoid a social media nightmare with simple moderation tools at your next event.  Trolls are scary.  Keep them at bay.

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7 Things We Are Thankful for in 2014 – It’s the Little Things that Count

It’s time to start packing up the kiddos up in the family truckster to head down the road toward your holiday destination.  Right about now, you are likely hit with that familiar sense of sentimental reflection that Thanksgiving brings. As we count our blessings, it’s easy to forget to appreciate some of the “little things” that consistently make our lives better in big ways.

Here are our Top 7 Life-Saving Event “Thankfuls:” Social Point | Digital Event Solutions Social Point | Event WiFi Solutions Social Media Ideas for EventsSocialPoint | Mobile Event Marketing Photo Sharing Solutions | SocialPoint Events Trade Show Game Ideas | SocialPoint Digital SolutionsDigital Solutions for Events | Interactive Meetings Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at SocialPoint and Interactive Meeting Technology. What are you thankful for this year?  Share the love at: #HappyThanksgiving or @IMTSocialPoint

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