Inside Facebook

Virtual event hosting site Unisfair has just received $3.2 million of an expected $9.3 million in funding to help develop and expand its already comprehensive offerings, including a recent integration with Facebook. The company creates a virtual meeting place for events, such as job fairs, that give its clients a low-cost alternative to hosting real events.

Each virtual event consists of a variety of portals through which attendees can view live and on-demand presentations, chat with company representatives and more. These virtual events can bring together thousands of people from all over the world — so far more than a half million people have participated in over 500 virtual gatherings, presentations and job fairs arranged through Unisfair.

Unisfair recently im its virtual events by integrating with social networks like Facebook and Twitter to create new avenues for companies to bring in participants and increase brand awareness. Attendees of virtual events are exposed to various forms of advertising and branding throughout the meeting halls and showcases and they now have the opportunity to share what they see back on to Facebook. This gives the sponsors and partners associated with events the ability to further spread word of their brands through news feeds, also promoting the Unisfair service and future events. The service also supports 15 languages, so Unisfair is able to reach out to the expanding international contingent on Facebook.

With more and more companies wanting to both access potential employees and clients through social networks and cut back on operating costs, Unisfair’s service is another way to reach a potentially large group of people. Unisfair also offers a full range of statistics to track where and how people used the meeting place, along with a chronicle of posed questions and a record of interactions.