If your company is exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2010, I’m sure by now your team has had discussions that begin with the question, “what are we going to do to get people to our booth?” By now, I’m pretty sure you’ve come up with some awesome ideas ranging from product or cash giveaways (SWAG), special promos on your products or services, booth “babes”, beer (always a crowd pleaser!) and food, etc.

All of these are great ideas and I’m sure we’ll see some even more creative ideas at this year’s show, but maximizing your efforts goes beyond simply ordering promo goods. What are you doing to make sure attendees to the show know about them in advance and make sure they make time to visit your booth?

Here are a couple of ideas for promoting your CEDIA Expo 2010 activities:

Public Relations – Reach out to the industry trade media outlets and give them a brief overview of what your company has in store for the show. This can be done with a nice press release, but in lots of cases, a simple well-written paragraph or two will also work. (Tip: Act now on this one as most of the print publications are wrapping up their pre-show coverage now.)

List Rentals – Most of the leading industry trade publications offer email and/or mail lists that you can rent to send out your message to a larger audience. These lists can be pretty extensive and include a large number of CEDIA Expo attendees so you can ensure you’re hitting the right markets.

Social Media – If your company is engaged in social media (personal note: by now the question should be “if” your company is engaged, but rather “how is” your company engaged), make sure you’re spreading the word about your booth, specials, giveaways via networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.

SEO your Website – Make sure your company website has a single dedicated page that will serve as the “info center” for attendees who may be interested in visiting your booth. Incorporate elements of SEO (Search Engine Optimization)—such as keyword integration with phrases like “CEDIA Expo 2010”—to ensure that your company ranks high when potential visitors to your booth are searching Google for the best booths to visit at the show.

CEDIA Follow Me App – This year, attendees to CEDIA Expo can download an app for their smartphones that will provide them with instant access to interactive maps, the show directory, press releases and other exhibitor information. Contact CEDIA to get your login information and make sure you have your company profile up-to-date.

By using some of these tactics, you can help drive traffic to your booth and maximize your investment in exhibiting at CEDIA Expo 2010.

Tom Sant, author of Persuasive Business Proposals, shared five rules for making anything you write more readable. Microsoft Word can automatically tell you if you’ve met four of the rules: short sentences (average 17 words or less); short words (average five characters or less); 10th grade reading level or lower; and less than 10% passive voice. I’ve been writing for years and never knew about the “Readability Statistics” tool in Word. The fifth rule is no fluff, guff, geek or weasel words in your writing.

Press F1 while in Word to pull up the Help/Search menu. Search for Readability Statistics. Follow the instructions to turn on the feature. If using Word 2007, the “Word Options” choice is at the bottom of the right hand column of the main Word pull down menu. Once the feature is activated, you have to manually check the Spelling and Grammar of your document once. At the end of the process the summary pops up. Cool feature – I’m at a 7.0 grade reading level, 4.5 characters per word, 16.3 words per sentence and 8% for passive voice for this insight. I was higher on all these statistics and made adjustments.

Whenever I get the opportunity to play a part, albeit small sometimes, in helping to make a bad situation good, it always makes the day a little better. Recently, a writer had some not-so-favorable things to say about one of our clients. They weren’t overly negative—well, he did compare the company to the sinking Titanic—but it certainly warranted an immediate discussion with our client and a few recommendations of courses of action.

When you find a client in the middle of negative press coverage, there are a couple of approaches you can recommend:

The ostrich with its head in the sand*: This is when you try to pretend the situation doesn’t exist. NEVER, EVER a good idea. Whether you like it or not, the negative press coverage is there and in today’s interactive media, it can spread quickly and escalate into an even bigger mess if not addressed properly.

I know you are, but what am I: This is when you go on the defensive and try to dispute every single claim made against you. Unless the facts presented in the piece are just out-right incorrect, then this isn’t typically a good idea. Often times, the opinion the journalist is presenting is close to the public perception of the company/product. Your job is to help change that perception, not tell people they are wrong.

Taking your medicine: One of the best things you can do to build customer loyalty is to admit when your company isn’t performing at its best. By saying, “yes, we’ve made some mistakes. We’ve heard what you would like for us to do better and this how we are working towards that,” you’ll demonstrate your company’s commitment to customer service.

We presented our client with a recommendation on what an appropriate reaction would be to this particular blog post—after all, that’s what we do.

Led by an individual whose sales and marketing acumen often makes me jealous, our client took the ball and ran. The result? Check it out for yourself here:

http://johnsciacca.webs.com/apps/blog/show/3991233-well-played-mike-well-played-

*Fun Fact: According to Wikipedia (its always right, right?), “Contrary to popular belief, Ostriches do not bury their heads in sand. This myth likely began with Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79), who wrote that Ostriches ‘imagine, when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed.’”