Social Media Tips for Fresh Summit

Quick Tips

• If you’re sending out a tweet, make sure to tag #FreshSummit and @pma.
• For Instagram and Facebook, tag @producemarketingassociation and #FreshSummit.
• On LinkedIn, tag @produce-marketing-association
• Make sure to always note your booth number in related posts, so people know where to find you! 

Pre-Show Social Media Prep 

Don’t leave all the posting for when you arrive! If you expect to do all of your Fresh Summit social while on the show floor, you are sure to either 1.) be disappointed in the quality of your results, or 2.) overwhelmed with how little time you end up being able to dedicate to this endeavor. Either way, this is not ideal! To help prevent social media from becoming a daunting task, here’s a quick outline of what you need for successful pre-show prep:

• Content Scheduling: Use platforms with pre-scheduling capabilities (such as Gain, our own personal favorite) to help with preparing content. This tool will allow you to create content before the show AND schedule it to post it in real time, without you or your team ever having to give it a second thought at the show.
• Go in with a Plan: Determine your game plan for collecting post-worthy content while on the show floor. Is there someone who can be assigned to taking photos for social media, or can your whole team collaborate and contribute? If the latter, make sure everyone is on the same page. That way, when you get to the show, there will be clear expectations around what you need to walk away with. 
• Know your Log-ins (and it never hurts to check twice!): Make sure every team member attending Fresh Summit is logged into each of your social media accounts beforehand, so they can participate in real-time when needed (without any hiccups!).

Live Social Media Content at Fresh Summit

Although pre-scheduled content is a major time-saver during the madness of Fresh Summit, it’s also important to participate in conversations happening throughout the show. This may sound overwhelming, especially if you don’t have previous experience in this area, but luckily, there are some pretty simple ways to achieve this feat:

• Re-Share and Retweet: There will be a number of people and brands already participating in the Fresh Summit conversation. The easiest way to join in a pinch is by re-sharing and retweeting worthwhile content. Additionally, the great thing about Twitter and Instagram Stories for this purpose in particular is that they allow you to post much more often than usual without overwhelming your audience with notifications or clogging up their newsfeeds or timelines. Feel free to retweet and re-share anything (and everything) that is relevant using both of these tools!

• Tag and Hashtag: Make sure that when creating posts, stories, tweets, etc., you are tagging and engaging with other exhibitors where relevant–and hopefully they’ll return the favor! It’s also important to use the Fresh Summit hashtag (#FreshSummit). This will allow your content to be visible to more people because it will automatically populate whenever someone searches for Fresh Summit content.

Utilize Your Home Team to Post on Social Media

We all know the show floor is a busy place, and thus not the most ideal location to compose a clever caption and post. Enter: your home team! If you don’t have time to create posts in the moment, snap those pictures and task your home team with helping write and post the actual content. When using this approach, make sure to have a touch-base huddle prior to going onsite in order to set expectations and get everyone on the same page.

Whenever sending a photo to a remote team member, be sure to provide all necessary details and context you can, so (s)he can share appropriately. Include names of people in photos, social media handles where applicable, and information about what’s actually happening in the photo, so they can craft accurate, compelling captions that are relatable for other attendees. 

Pro-tips:

• Turn on real-time notifications for all your social media apps, so you can quickly chime in on conversations and respond to @mentions when you have a few free minutes.
• Utilize Instagram’s recent feature that allows you to follow specific hashtags (like #FreshSummit) and populate your feed with relevant content for easier engagement.

Executing a social media plan for such a large tradeshow can seem intimidating (hey, we get it!), but armed with these guidelines, you can travel to Anaheim equipped for Fresh Summit success on social. We’ll see you there! 

Have something to add? Leave us a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter @TheCoreBlog!

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