Do you know why the expression is “a view from 30,000 feet?” I didn’t, so I looked it up. The consensus seems to be that it’s a common altitude for air travel, and the highest point in the sky many of us ever achieve. From this vantage point, we are able to see things clearly from a distance, even see things we never saw before, or see them in a different way.
I certainly thought my view from The Printerverse, the “social media hub” of PRINT 13, was from 30,000 feet. Between my accounts and those of the Printerverse Alliance Partners we had a steady flow of information running in the relevant channels, and our collective audience was steadily sharing that information. It wasn’t until last week’s #printchat I realized gravity had a much stronger hold, and my perception of the bigger picture was obscured by rose-colored cloud formations in the lower altitudes.
There are few things that connect people with information as easily as social media does, and on this front the feedback suggests a social disconnect between those who attended the show, and those who didn’t. When asked if they could name any product or service buzzed about at PRINT 13, the #printchat -ers could not be specific. They “heard” there was a lot of cool new software, and “heard” there was a lot of “inkjet” technology.
When asked, based upon information shared through social channels, what PRINT 13 exhibitor product or service stood out as something they would want to know more about, again not one specific product or service was recalled.
If you aren’t resuscitating your PR/Marketing department at the moment, now is the time to reflect on how you are sharing information, and with whom. Are we as exhibitors (and attendees) so myopic that we have socialized ourselves into a funnel?
I am going to flip hats for a second since I wear a few when I work with GASC. As a media person, I was inundated with Press Releases and requests for me to request meetings and interviews, or requests for me to attend meetings and conduct interviews. I am just one person and there was just no way I could possibly read it, or post it, or address it all. A few companies out there had information coming several times a day from different PR people… at some point, a switch turns off.
Wearing another hat, as an attendee or potential one, I didn’t get any information from the same exhibitors that were bombarding me with Press Releases. That info was coming in a nice flow from GASC in the form of direct mail and email blasts. What I saw socially (from the same companies sending me Press Releases) was directly correlated to being in Chicago and visiting a booth to get information, in essence leaving out those who weren’t attending.
Putting on my last hat as an exhibitor, although technically I am not an exhibitor but a very grateful partner of GASC tapped to create/manage a Show Floor Feature at GRAPH EXPO/PRINT, I know I used the #print13 hashtag like oxygen – sucking it in and blowing it out as unconsciously as breathing. Did I alienate some of my audience? Sort of like talking about and promoting a party they weren’t coming to?
I am posing rhetorical questions because the answers to them are individually based. Did you increase your followers, your “likes” and your connections during the show? Did you get any unfollows? Was your information shared exponentially? Were people engaging with you and asking questions about your products, services and presence at PRINT 13? Did you monitor your social efforts for PRINT 13?
Here is some good news… I did.
Without a doubt The Printerverse Alliance and the information we shared was well received and well shared by the #printchat – ers and beyond. In the five days I was in Chicago I had 1157 Twitter interactions – aka mentions, re-tweets, making my tweet a favorite and direct messages JUST on @PrintMediaCentr. I stopped tracking @PrintPros on day two but I can safely and conservatively add another 700 interactions over there. That is 371 interactions combined a DAY of information shared about the show, and especially about our Alliance Partners and programming, with the world… and just from ME!
In the same five-day period I gained almost 200 new Twitter followers, 6 people unfollowed me, and my LinkedIn group grew a few hundred members – none of which I can “prove” are a direct correlation, but with Twitter it’s more logical to be the case. On the Facebook front just a handful of new likes, but those were connection over-achievers or random occurrences since I wasnt really sharing much over there.
My Livestream broadcast from The Printerverse provided a real time connection between PRINT 13 and the home audience. Viewers did a great job asking questions through social media and through the event chat room, and also sharing information during the sessions and panels, and after. To further seal the deal on the broadcasts’ success, many Alliance Partners were contacted through social media after they presented, mentioned in channels, and contacted via email by viewers. This, needless to say, made for some very happy people!
So here is my 30,000-foot view of my PRINT 13 social experience now that I’m back on the ground: I need to be more social.
I didn’t MAKE the time to just share something I saw or a picture of a friend who dropped by. I didn’t share any of my human experience being at the show, and the kind of things that connect us in the ways only people in our industry understand.
I’d give myself an A+ for marketing, but probably a B for being SOCIAL, and there is a big difference!
GRAPH EXPO 14 is 370 days away. That gives me time to practice my social skills, and you time to make plans to come to Chicago and HELP ME! I am going to create a Social Media Mafia who will hang out with us and help us be social from all over the show floor and from home. You’ll even get a cool nickname! Join us… it’s an offer you can’t refuse!
By the way, if you monitored your social activity at PRINT 13, or you monitor it in general, I’d love to know how you measure success. Also interested in your thoughts about being SOCIAL on social media – if you are a business does it matter? Leave comments below!
5 Responses
I did my best to follow along at home, but most of the tweets came from manufacturers. I interacted with a few attendees and gained some followers, no complaints or unfollows. But I was disappointed in the lack of socializing as you described i.e. pictures of friends or tweets about cool demos. I asked my manager who attended and he informed me that Print 13 isn’t for fun; it’s a place to make serious business decisions. I see no reason why there can’t be both!
Wow – Deb’s getting deep here, and not before time too.
I guess the 30,000 foot question is (or is it the $64,000 one?) – “What’s it all about?”
Why do we attend trade shows? Why do we use social media? What do we have a website? Why are we even reading this article?
If you haven’t got the answer coming to the tip of your tongue before I finished typing it, shame on you. But when was the last time you REALLY considered why you do all of the above?
I consult with many companies wishing to improve their marketing, and it’s staggering to report that many do not have a clear path to a concise answer.
The answer is of course, to generate sales, or inquiries to sales. This is a long and complicated process. I hate the term ‘sales pipe-line’, but for ease of expressing my point, I’ll use it. Where are your customers along that process? Are they researching the market? Are they qualifying you as a supplier or are they hot to buy? You might admit that unless you know that information some of your effort might very well be wasted?
I believe the answer is in a single word – ‘relevance’.
To engage your prospect customer are you being relevant in your effort to progress the sales effort to a likely sale? Are you providing the right information at the right time to the right audience? When is the time to provide static information and when is the right time to get up close and personal? Unless you know, or have an inclination about the answer to these questions, you might very well be missing the mark with your efforts, wherever they might be.
I know I may not have answered Deb’s question directly, but the reason is, ‘it depends’. Whether or not we need to be more ‘social’ depends on the place we are in the process. If we don’t offer ‘connectedness’ at the right moment, we will surely lose the sale as someone else gets it right. What is required is that we simply recognise these things and do the best we can to accomplish them.
Then what we must do is measure the activity. Truly measure them. Do you know where and when and in what way you converted your present customers? What work have you won directly from previous trade shows? What work has turned in because of a tweet? When were you last contacted on LinkedIn which turned into a customer. Or did you simply network at the right event and make a valuable connection?
To sum up – be relevant – at the right time, and measure what activity actually delivers results. You need to be at 30,000 feet – and sometimes at 3 feet. Get better at knowing what and when.
Nigel, Spot on!
The challenge every business has is measurement and understanding what the information is telling them. Not just that, what to measure, how to translate this into valuable management information to create meaningful opportunities for the business.
This in turn can then offer strategies for content that engages customers, creates interest, trust and then the opportunity to create purchasing through respective channels or opening up a multi-channel approach.
Deborah, you clearly had a key objective and measured this, if all businesses just measured the social media in this way, it might make them focus more on what they offer through these platforms.
For me it is keep it simple, focused and then you can work out if you need to be a 30,000 feet or back at the coal face just 3 feet away.
Relevance is key, but remember brand is how you need to engage with this.
Unfortunately I was unable to attend Print13 this year, but I feel like so much of what you said rings true with social media in general. If everything we post, tweet, pin, etc. is business and lacks that human component, we’re missing out on the chance to really connect with our audience. Thanks, Deborah!
At GASC we continue to adapt to help our industry – Thank you Deborah Corn for the second year of PRINTERVERSE at GRAPH EXPO and PRINT this year! We understand that not everyone can attend the show so we launched The GASC Channel over a year ago to highlight great technologies (Equipment, products and software) in brief video clips. If you would like to see the Must See Em’s winners, Hot Products, Co-located event info and Get Smart video clips please visit http://www.gasc.org
Also, we recorded many of the seminar and theater sessions which will be added to The GASC Channel weekly. Each of these contain best practices and actionable take-away’s for viewers long after the show floor closed. One of the things I find very exciting is that we participate in this multi-channel world knowing different people consume content and messages through more information conduits than ever before. We are committed to deliver valuable content to help the 12 graphic communication industry segments learn and adapt, much deeper than just on a trade show floor. We are the leader and only show who has created a relationship with a dynamic social media GURU like Deborah Corn as is demonstrated by PRINTERVERSE. Rest assured none of us are sitting still and we will evolve (almost daily). Many thanks to the Alliance Partners, Printerverse presenters and groups as well as all the followers of social media related to our industry events. Super special thanks to Deborah Corn and crew for helping us be cutting edge and sharpening that edge on an ongoing basis! Looking forward to even more dynamic, relevant and valuable “dialog sharing” leading up to and at GRAPH EXPO 2014!