Archive for April, 2010

“The Hard Knock Life of an Entrepeneur” Part 3 – Change is Good!

April 26th, 2010

Guest Blog by Ashani Mfuko


Have you ever hit a stalemate in your business? Maybe you’re in slow season, or maybe things aren’t bad, but they’re not growing either, they’re stale. Well, years ago you might have considered printing and handing out flyers to promote your business, maybe advertising in a newspaper or trade magazine, doing a mass mailing, or, if you had the budget, doing some radio or television advertising. These are all very traditional forms of marketing your business which are effective, however, they will also affect your budget in a significant way. Times have changed, and the world is getting and sharing information in brand new ways, and it’s called, Social Media.

Social Media did not just come onto the scene, it’s been around for many years now. However, there has been a significant growth spurt and demographic transition and expansion for those using social media, and it’s one that you need to pay attention to. Remember, change is good!

Here are the top 3 reasons why some people don’t participate in social media:

1) I don’t understand it.

2) I don’t have the time.

3) I don’t see the point/benefit for my personal brand/business.

And my response:

1) I don’t understand it. – Well, let’s simplify it. All you need to do is 3 things: a) Determine who your target audience is b) Share useful information that is of interest to that audience c) Engage in conversation and offer support to your audience.

2) I don’t have the time. – You don’t necessarily have to spend 10 hrs a day on your social media accounts. And furthermore, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Linked in accounts can all be connected to one another. You can schedule your updates ahead of time on a website like http://socialoomph.com. Or you can start off by simply dedicating 30 min. or 1 hour a day to social networking, and take it from there.

3) I don’t see the point/benefit for my personal brand/business. – First and foremost, when anything hits the masses and is acknowledged by television, radio, and global businesses, that should tell you that it is definitely beneficial for your brand.

I know this from experience. One example of this is, the “America’s Best Dance Studio Contest” that my company, Kiner Enterprises Inc. created. It’s all about showcasing excellence in dance studios across America, in celebration of National Dance Week. All of our contest sponsors were acquired through social media, and the success of the contest is solely based on social media, as we have done no other type of promotion or print advertising for this contest.

When done right, social media can help grow your business, enhance your brand awareness, and ultimately increase your bottom line. The best part, however, is all of the wonderful relationships that you will build with great, passionate, and hard-working people just like yourself. You’ll gain motivation, inspiration, and learn A LOT.

To read parts 1 and 2 of this series, visit the Kiner Enterprises Inc.’ Dancer’s Blog

Folllow Kiner Enterprises Inc. on Twitter

Become a fan of Kiner Enterprises Inc. on Facebook

Become a fan of the America’s Best Dance Studio Contest on Facebook

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The Canadian Special Events & Meetings Expo (CSEME) Recap

April 26th, 2010

We had a great time exhibiting at The Canadian Special Events & Meetings Expo (CSEME) in Toronto this year.   CSEME 2010 provided us the opportunity to meet our existing clients F2F and new ones as well. It is imperative to exhibit in our industry to continue to build on our relationships and establish new partnerships.  We understand attendees are always looking for new products and it is why we focus on exhibiting at many industry shows to promote our new backdrop designs and to obtain feedback for new ideas.

For CSEME, we decided to showcase our custom paparazzi backdrop to highlight our friends from Croce Consulting beautiful table setting.  They did an amazing job creating a retro Hollywood theme! Three lucky attendees won a free backdrop rental.  However, all attendees that stopped by our booth received our Canada ROGO Show special:  Rent One Backdrop Get One Free.

We found that CSEME is a great opportunity for attendees to learn from event professionals in the business through many educational sessions.  There were many great seminars that offered marketing tips and event design education for all levels.  The seminar speakers consisted of David Merrell, Debbie Meyers, Jaclyn Bernstein, Jared Golberg and many more.

We thank all our friends who stopped by our booth and look forward to working with you on your next event.

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Maximize your trade show sponsorship with Foursquare

April 9th, 2010

Backdrop Warp Blue Backdrops Beautiful

As we all know we sometimes get bombarded with sponsorship opportunities at the many trade shows we exhibit.  In an effort to maximize our brand awareness we usually sponsor one of the many available opportunities when our budget allows it.  I think it’s important that we do more to capitalize on our sponsorships.  In fact, it is essential we find creative ways to expand our exposure at these events.   There are things we can do to create an experience rather than just a glimpse of a sign with our logo and/or name that we pay for to be seen throughout the conference/tradeshow.  We have the technology and it is up to us to brainstorm and create an interactive experience for our prospective clients to engage and take something more than just a 5 minute sales pitch and our literature.

For example, let’s discuss the possibility of creating a virtual event within the expo for the sponsors.  Depending on the sponsorship and tradeshow, you can suggest to the show host to set up a foursquare event prior to the tradeshow to allow plenty of time to promote.  The event would consist of the already participating sponsor companies and the expo attendees. Each company would be assigned a virtual booth space by the coordinator setting up a venue on Foursquare to reflect their booth.  If your show host doesn’t have a clue on how to set up a venue, refer them here: Eric Lukazewski from Echelon Design Inc. recently posted “A Practical Guide to Creating foursquare Events.”

To encourage attendees to visit each sponsor, there would have to be incentives at every booth with a chance to be entered into the grand prize raffle upon completing every check-in.  The booth incentive can be a special offer or an extra discount that could be combined with your ongoing promotion for your product or service.  The grand prize could be a trendy gadget such as the iPad that could be purchased in advance by the host at the expense of the participating sponsors.

Procedure for the event:

  1. Attendees would need check-in at every booth and include in their shout out an assigned hashtag that would be provided by the tradeshow host to reflect the expo’s name (this would amplify the buzz, not just on foursquare, but also on twitter – given that the attendee also has a twitter account).
  2. The participating sponsor would then provide each attendee a unique code that they would also need to post via the “add a tip” function for every virtual booth they visit.

Attendees would need to make sure to stop at every participating booth to be automatically entered into the raffle.  The winner could then be announced at one of the tradeshow events or gala.

If the tradeshow hosting company decides not to participate, you can easily team up with a handful of exhibiting vendors and co-manage the event.

In exchange for a virtual check-in, the attendees receive real incentives and take home a unique experience!  How have you implemented social media to maximize your sponsorship investment?

Posted in Conferences, Events, Ideas, social media, Tradeshows | No Comments »

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