January has always been known as the month where everyone attempts to live up to the resolutions that they made on New Year’s Eve. For those in the BAS space January contains the dates where the largest HVAC marketplace is held – the AHR Expo.

The AHR Expo is a fantastic opportunity for companies to generate leads and set-up business opportunities for the rest of 2014. This article is going to provide some tips to leverage social media to help drive traffic to your booth and generate more leads.

5 Tips for leveraging Social Media at the AHR Expo

1. Always start at the source. For those that have not yet been to the AHR website it can be found at http://www.ahrexpo.com/. This site has a wealth of information and is extremely well set-up. Make sure that all staff attending are registered and pass the link off to the marketing department, so that they can use it in standard corporate social media strategies.
   

2. At the bottom of the main page you will find the icons for the social media feeds that the AHR Expo will be using. For those that have not yet visited the site the platforms are: Twitter, Facebook, and Google +. Here is a quick explanation of each of the three social media platforms that the AHR Expo chose to use and how you can leverage them:
   

1. Twitter-The AHR Expo has embedded a Twitter feed directly on the center of website homepage, posting a tweet is simply free advertising for any company attending the Expo. It also provides instant exposure for your company to all of the followers of the Expo’s twitter feed.
   

2. Facebook- Posting booth location and pictures of people at your booth are always good for generating interest in your Facebook page. Tagging someone who has visited your booth will naturally get them to want to follow your company page and probably get them to share the photo with their followers. This gains you nothing but more exposure for your company and products.
   
   
3. Google+ - Posting your booth number here provides exposure to all of the Google Followers, but also gives you the ability to conduct a hangout. As I have discussed in previous articles companies at a tradeshow could leverage hangouts to have an unofficial training session, or discussion, with up to 10 people at a time.
   

3. Right in the center of the website is the official AHR Twitter feed. Take a good look at the feeds and note the different hashtags (#) and mentions that are being made by different companies. These are things that any company or individuals attending the expo will want to use when promoting that you will be attending the show. Some examples from the feed are: @ahrexpo, #NYC, #HVAC, @hpacmag. By checking out the Twitter feed you will also be able to see what products competing companies will be bringing to expo and be prepared to have products with similar functions at the show.
   
   
4. [an error occurred while processing this directive]Post and Tweet directly from the show. This is a great way to conduct contests and giveaways during the show to try to pull more people into your booth. If you are giving away an iPad at your booth you could push out a tweet that the draw for the iPad will be at four o’clock. You can also announce the winner via Twitter or Facebook and then post a picture of you and the winner online. This makes the show very interactive for the end-users and it demonstrates to those who come to your booth that you are a tech savvy company who embraces new forms of communicating with clients. As in real estate everything hinges on location. If you do not appear where your potential clients are looking they are more likely to stop looking for you and choose a company that is seen where they are looking.
   
   
5. Leverage LinkedIn to stay connected with important contacts and potential prospects. I realize that the AHR Expo is not using LinkedIn, but every sales rep that is attending the show is. Always keep track of important contacts that you meet at the show (potential partners, distributors, and advertising opportunities) by using LinkedIn. I always ask people that I meet if I can connect with them via LinkedIn because LinkedIn provides me with a ton of valuable information about the people that I am connecting with. At a show like the AHR Expo a rep can very easily get overwhelmed by the sheer number of people that they will meet. Connecting with them on LinkedIn will easily enable reps to be able to contact them in a more personal manner, while providing information about who the person is and what company they work for.
   

These are only a few of the tools that companies can use to generate more leads while at the AHR Expo. I have no doubt that there are many more that will present themselves while at the show, but at the minimum the above tips should help companies get more out of the show with regards to lead generation and brand awareness.

Keep posting and have a great Expo!

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