Published 2/27/2018

Tradeshow Tuesday: Twitter on the Tradeshow Floor, Part 2

This week in Part 2, I cover Twitter basics so you can leverage this social media platform as a communications and marketing tool on the tradeshow floor.

Edited by: MMT Editorial Team

How to Use Twitter

Accessing Twitter. Visit twitter.com and download the twitter app on your phone/tablet. Create an account and login (remember, it’s free). Company branding and a logical naming strategy for your Twitter handle and profile will clue other Twitter users in to who you are or who you are with and will make you more easily recognizable to your audience.

Company branding and a logical naming strategy for your Twitter handle and profile will clue other Twitter users in to who you are or who you are with.

Sending a tweet.

From the home page of your account, you can type a tweet straight into the box at the top of the page that say’s “What’s happening?” From the home page in the app, there will be a little feather with a plus sign in the upper right-hand corner that you can click on to type a tweet. Above shows a sample tweet that I have typed into that box from my home page.

From left to right, these buttons upload videos or images, GIFs, polls, your location, another tweet (if you have a long message that you can’t fit into 280 characters or fewer) and the Tweet button, which functions as a “send” button for publishing your tweet. When you are using Twitter on the tradeshow floor, remember what I have said about taking images and videos—you want to hold the phone or camera horizontally so that it will look its best in platforms like Twitter!

The intelligent use of emojis, images, GIFs and videos enable you to engage your audience in lasting, meaningful ways. These items will make your tweets more compelling and will make you and your brand more relatable.

The intelligent use of emojis, images, GIFs and videos enable you to engage your audience in lasting, meaningful ways.

Twitter Terms to Know

Tweet. Tweets are the messages themselves. They can be 280 characters or fewer (it used to be 140, and then Twitter decided to double everyone’s character limit). They can include video clips, images or GIFs. They can also include emojis, poll questions or your location.

Retweet. You have the option to repost another twitter user’s tweet to your own account. You can simply retweet the other user’s tweet or retweet the message with a response of your own.

Hashtag. These are marked by the # symbol. Hashtags denote key words or phrases that point to an issue or theme within a tweet. You’ll see in the sample tweet above that I used the hashtag #marketingtips to describe a tweet that’s about this blog. Hashtags enable other users who are tweeting about the same topics to find your tweet more easily.

Need another example? #moldmaking brings up a page that shows all tweets that include “#moldmaking.” When you are new to Twitter, hashtags help you find other Twitter users who tweet about the same things, to help you meet others, discover other shops and broaden your networks. At trade shows, popular hashtags include #amerimold, #IMTS, #NPE2018 and industry-specific terms like #moldmaking, #additivemanufacturing, #plastics, #injectionmolding or #automation. You add more than one hashtag to a tweet, and you can search using more than one term to bring up only those tweets that use both hashtags.

Here are the top searches (as of this writing) for #NPE2018 and #injectionmolding (note that both terms are bolded in the results):

Mention. Sometimes called replies, mentions help Twitter users engage with other Twitter users in their tweets. Mentions are marked by the @ sign, and they are a part of users’ account names. Whenever you include someone else’s account name in a tweet with the @ sign, your tweet will show up in the user’s notifications tab. If I send out the sample tweet above, for example, the @MMTMag account will be notified that I sent out a tweet mentioning the magazine. Get it? So, if you want to include someone in a tweet and possibly get that person’s or company’s attention, mention that person or company in a tweet.

Follower. When you send a tweet, your tweet will appear in the twitter feed of all your followers (your twitter feed is the ever-evolving list of tweets that pop up on your home page). You can follow other twitter users so that their tweets will appear in your feed, and they can choose to follow you.

Now you have what you need to know to start tweeting! Be sure to lookup MoldMaking Technology, the editorial team and the upcoming trade shows to get connected to the latest news and information: