Satellite 2010: How to use social media to support sales at a trade show

My colleague Marc Hausman and I set up a blog (What's New at Satellite 2010) to support and cover the time we spent at the Satellite 2010 trade show. As you can guess, this show, held every year in DC, is the premier trade show for the satellite and space community. Since 1995, we (Strategic Communications Group) have been working with leading satellite companies to develop and execute PR, communications and now social media marketing campaigns. Our client roster over the years has included firms like:

• SES Americom
• Datapath
• Microspace Communications Corp.
• Knight Sky
• Thrane & Thrane
• Tachyon Networks
• Integral Systems
• Helius
• Stratos
• IDB Mobile Communications
• Worldspace

For those of you that read this blog, you know that what differentiates Strategic is its sales-oriented approach to social media engagement, and proven ability to leverage all of its industry connections and market relationships to identify sales, partnership, employee recruitment and financial/M&A opportunities for its clients.

Inviting trade show participants to be interviewed on the blog (http://whatsnewatsatellite2010.com) served not only as a non-salesy, value-add icebreaker with established relationships but allowed us to approach new contacts positioned as industry thought leaders. We pulled in some industry related content via RSS feeds and promoted the site via our satellite related twitter feed, @SpaceTwits, as well as targeted LinkedIn groups. Add in leads generated from inbound comments, and the site turned out to be a low cost, high return trade show sales support success story.

Here are some of the posts we wrote:

See you next year at Satellite 2011 (don’t get lost!)

When Satellite Goes Mainstream

Spending Time with MPEG-4’s Champion

News Coverage of Satellite 2010

Hughes’ Bardo Sees Growth in Broadband, Reliability

Govt Sat Service Buying Remains Disjointed

Great Opening Panel at Satellite 2010

Quiet Press Room Betrays Exhibit Hall Buzz

Satellite 2010 and Social Media

Top Trends to Look for at Satellite 2010

New Location for Satellite 2010 This Year (No, not Las Vegas)

Now That’s Global Connectivity

Local Press Coverage of Satellite 2010

What do you think of the site? Does your company execute tactical social media programs like this to support sales? Do you think they are worth the effort?