If you wonder how technology that enables people to avoid human contact can be called “social” – or if you can’t see how the wildly-popular network that your friends and family use to keep up to date can help you sell B2B widgets – then you might be heartened to know that the most traditional of truly “social” media – trade shows – are still holding their own in the marketing mix.

In fact, in a recent survey, B2B marketers identified their top three media for lead generation as trade shows, company Web sites and conferences, in that order. The top three media for branding were the same three in a different order: company Web site, conferences and trade shows.

So while the news is dominated by the social media explosion, and B2B marketers are rightly increasing spending in this and other interactive tactics, they continue to fund and find ROI in the “social” atmosphere provided by trade shows and conferences.

Why?

Because people buy from people, so shows and conferences perform an important “social” function. And technical buyers still like to see, touch – “experience” – the product…and the company.  Once they do, they are much more inclined to buy it. Facebook may be catching on in B2B, but face-to-face still gets the job done. So it’s not surprising that shows and events get much more funding and contribute more to the bottom line.

Of course, since “trade shows and events” sounds so last century, there’s even a new name for these tactics: experiential marketing. Whatever you call them, they work. We know they work even better if they are tightly integrated into the entire marketing program, pre-show, at-show and post-show. Including a host of interactive tactics including, yes, social media. Read more.