Hi John -- In a recent #eventprofs chat, I laid out our approach to contributing to the backchannel. People in the chat tended to agree and like what I had shared. Hence, I wrote an article with tips.

Social Networking for Exhibitors: Joining the Conversations at Events
http://blog.omnipress.com/2010/03/social-networking-for-exhibitors-joining-the-conversations-at-events/

And, yes... direct selling is not a favorable thing to do.

John - I have personally found the vendors/exhibitors to be very respectful and mindful of not direct selling. In fact, I attend one convention every year, and normally on the last day - a Saturday, they are packing up and getting out hours before the official time because most of the association members are leaving too.

This past October I passed through the expo and was astonished to look at my watch and see that it was "quittin' time" and all of the exhibitors were staying put to chat to the few of us that were still there. My point is it is a sign of the times that business is becoming much more social across all channels.

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt to make some guidelines available, but I believe a light touch is all that is necessary. If anything, I believe what will be most helpful is not what not to do - but what to do - i.e. how to use the darn hashtag!

We'll be covering some of this in our April 7 and April 21 webinars here on Engage365. Please tune-in. I've interviewed quite a few association execs. Now you've given me the idea to do the same with vendors.

I'll share what I learn. :)

Jeff

My experience has been that most exhibitors that understand what a hashtag is generally understand and respect the underlying social etiquette of using it.  There will always be that one person that just doesn't get it, but for the most part all they are doing is hurting themselves and fairly easy to ignore.

@Chris - excellent article with tips on how exhibitors can best use the event hashtag.  I like the idea of mentioning the dropper-by's.  It's a passive approach to getting the exhibitor name out there and the attendee appreciates the shout out.

Another strategy that worked well for Fatburger was to have a hamburger eating contest at their booth while at Blogworld last year.  The Twitter stream became flooded as everyone gathered to watch some top bloggers feed their face with one of the biggest burgers I'd ever seen! 

A contest gives you the promo opportunity to get the word out and involve the attendees to make it viral.  Just a thought...