6 Uses for a Microsite at a Trade Show or Live Event
Posted by Valerie Hurst on Mon, Feb 20, 2012
An event-specific microsite for trade show or product launch is an informative digital method
to launch a time-sensitive discussion between you and your audience. Microsites are useful for hosting information in the online venue -- separately -- away from officially branded corporate sites-- so that engaged customers can have meaningful interactions with your brand, conveniently.
Here are 6 Major Uses for a Microsite at a Trade Show or Live Event:
1. Social Media Streamlining
A busy customer or prospect may miss your vital information on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, but if you cluster all of your social-media activity (and videos) on one microsite, you can direct attendees at your trade show to follow you there pre-show, throughout the show, and post-show to make sure they stay up-to-date with information about your event.
2. Community Building
A microsite will encourage discussions to begin even before your trade show. Getting the conversation started early allows you to start the in-person event with clear direction and increased engagement around specific issues.
3. Product Launch
A dedicated microsite for a new product/announcement can increase press coverage and demonstrate your company's support toward a new venture-- either for yourself or an important client.
4. Special Events
A microsite could allow for a virtual tour of your event space, event specifics, and up-to-the-minute schedule updates. You can even create a Twitter hashtag and run the feed on the microsite. It's a visible, targeted destination for attendees to locate valuable current information.
5. Virtual Tradeshow
Having a place for all of your vendors to reach clients who could not attend the in-person event allows your audience to stay infinite, giving your clients an advantage over other shows.
6. Internal Training
You can have a dedicated site for your booth staff to stay aware of the booth duty and show schedule, booth attire, protocols, and announcements. It's a place for employees-only that protects your internal messaging needs.
Microsites are strong tool for targeted advertising campaigns that incorporate media-rich messaging points. If your event microsite is a dedicated microsite for trade show, you can use it to involve attendees prior to your event and throughout the live show. You can begin dialogue that will continue throughout the event, which can help you monitor the patterns of engagement throughout.
A microsite can use QR Codes, social networking sites, and internal messaging to track new leads and continue in-person conversations once your event wraps. A microsite also allows you to aggregate specific data sets from one web place, giving you a clearer idea of the power of each individual messaging source in your company's network.
