There was plenty going on at this year’s ICSC RECon deal making conference in Las Vegas. From seminars, education series, a social media pavilion, vendor marketplace, cocktail parties and back to back meetings, Las Vegas definitely had an extra buzz about it with the close to 35,000 retail real estate professionals about. I spent most of my time at the social media pavilion in the vendor marketplace exchanging social media talk with the fabulous Sarah Malcolm, New Media Manager for ICSC, industry-known blogger, Duke Long and the knowledgeable PR Extraordinaire, CJ Powell with Cohen Marketing. Here are my notes:
Get Social, Make Deals -Duke Long mentions a great LinkedIn group called Social Media for Commercial Real Estate. I recently became a member and there are tons of good discussion topics like: the best mobile apps, LinkedIn tips, YouTube and Commercial Real Estate and the list goes on. One thing that Duke said that stuck with me was, “Put personality out there but relate it to the field…relate your profile, show value and be online to get face to face.”
Social Media and Public Relations – Angela Sweeney with Peterson Companies says “get to know your local media with twitter”. She especially notes @SCTNews @AssocBisnow @angelasweeney @wsjrealestate @NRFnews. She concluded with, “Make sure your bio is complete, don’t stalk the reporters, and have a dialogue.” I found Angela’s talk to be very informative. I like getting concrete information and less theory.
What’s So Social About Maps – Dave Lewand spoke about new communication technologies in website design and mapping. “Old school CRE data is painful and ugly,” he says and “info graphics are missing the tie to location.” From this seminar I noted that you do not need to be paying for mapping products. Dave notes, “there is something to be said for things that are the most common”, when talking about Google maps and Google Earth. Social versions are much more cloud based like Urban Street Maps, Art GIS and WordPress. Free demographic data can also be found on government websites. For example, simple google “City of Chicago”. Traffic counts can also be found on these websites.
Pinterest – Lisa Wieting with Cohen Marketing delivered the hot topic of Pinterest. Her seminar had a great attendance as everyone was/is curious about how to leverage the new amazing photo sharing site for business. Lisa started by mentioning, that people are “spending more money on Pinterest yet engaging less time on it than on Facebook”. She shared some case studies with us including a Valentine’s Day promo that Ann Taylor did. Ann Taylor had people create Valentine’s Day pinboards where they must pin at least 5 Ann Taylor products. Whoever received the most votes/comments/positive reaction received a $200 gift card. Over 1,000 people entered the pinboard contest = not bad for a promo that cost $200. She also mentioned case studies by Guess, West Elm and BMI. Some tips Lisa had on how to use Pinterest was to add the Pinterest button to your website, showcase your personality and use hashtags. The site is clearly female dominated (what seems like 85%) but Lisa said the male demographic is growing with tool pinning pages.
Creating A Great Mobile App – Mobile Fringe Co. kicks the seminar off by saying mobile apps are “no longer just for the big boys anymore”. What makes a great app you ask…interaction, innovation and integration. Mobile Fringe said to think of a mobile app like a mini kiosk that can serve many more people. I agree, investment in mobile is smart because we know it will stick around unlike traditional marketing (billboard etc). “Marketing really has changed the most with technology unlike other departments, you always want to take it to the next generation and integration,” said Mobile Fringe. How great would it be to be able to type in “red dress” at a shopping mall and see all of the stores that have a red dress?! So what is coming next? Mobile Fringe said the next mobile trends are mcommerce and loyalty. “It used to be just gift cards, now it’s much more complex – shop online then bring the QR code to the store so the associate can find what you’re looking for”, said Mobile Fringe. One example given was shopkick by Simon.
Google+ – CJ Powell. CJ’s honesty shines through as he admits to not using Google+ much personally and questions the engagement of the system. With 170 million users in one year, the social media system has got to be doing something right though. One new thing they launched recently is “Search, Plus Your World“. CJ notes to use Google+ because it will affect search results (as it shows in the video on the above link). As great as this is, there is a bad part about this CJ said. “Why doesn’t the general public understand Google+ yet?” Come to think of it, he has a really good point. I don’t know many people that are super active on it yet. Luckily, CJ gave us some examples of retailers that are using Google+ quite well! Cadbury has more Google+ followers than Facebook likes and they host a number of hangouts. H&M was mentioned as well as Android – very visual including mobile usage with compelling info graphics, and discounts are offered to people on apps if they are connected on Google+.
Social Media Strategy – I realize this is getting long but I had to mention one last speaker, Randa McMinn with SRS Real Estate. She did such a flawless job with her presentation. Randa went over the basics of social media and told people they need to take advantage of these free syestems. She mentioned utilizing Facebook insights and getting your team on LinkedIn. One of the things she said that resonated with me was, “Community engagement is king, we don’t even have to fight our own battles anymore,” (in reference to people posting positive comments on top of negative ones – people are identifying with brands and sticking up for them).