SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR SHOPPING CENTRES Presented on behalf of Roland Dransfield by Claire Lancaster & Carla Burns

1. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR
SHOPPING CENTRES
by Roland Dransfield PR –2012

2. What we are going to cover
 Introduction to RDPR
 Overview of the social media landscape
 Commercial benefits of social media in retail
 Social media for shopping centres
 Manchester Fort case study
 How to deliver social media
 Q&A

3. About Roland Dransfield PR
 Largest property PR team in the North West
 Leading specialists in social media for the property sector
 We use social media to deliver great results for retail, commercial and
residential property clients and schemes
 15 years track record
 UK-wide client base
 Full service innovative PR
 Extension of our clients’ own teams

4. RDPR clients

5. The social media landscape

6. Key social media platforms
 Facebook
 Twitter
 You Tube
 LinkedIn
 FourSquare

7. Why social media?
1. The internet changed how people gather information, communicate &
decide
2. Social media changed how, what & when information is presented
•Essential platform – lead by example
•Additional touch-point for business and consumer engagement
•Direct engagement - difficult to reach individuals
•Increase sector and national/regional visibility
•Support scheme marketing strategy
•Increases your Search Engine Optimisation & digital visibility

8. Social media is not scary
 Email & websites proved not to be scary
 These are just new communication tools
 There are many successful case studies & learnings
 Mistakes avoided with planning
 Learning should be constant
 Employees, consumers, clients & competition use it

9. Social media & the marketing mix
 Marketing has evolved a new COMPONENT
 Social networks are communications tools
 Effective, interactive, powerful, fast & measurable
 They are fully open & transparent to the public
 They do not replace brand websites or assets
 Social media requires strategy, planning & time
 Integrated campaign – part of your planned activity (ibrochure, website,
events, forward features, etc…)

10. What does social media actually do?
 Increase traffic to your website
 Relevant and cost effective traffic
 Amplify all other marketing & promotional communications
 Connect you with your influencers
 Allow you to listen to & connect with opponents
 Facilitate access to key journalists & media
 Recruitment, advertising, research, customer service, feedback, drive
mentions, build frequency, generate new business, new contacts &
introductions...

11. Social media & retail
 Consumers use social media
 Social media influences purchasing behaviour
 Retailers strive to influence consumers
 Consumers are online in store whilst shopping
 Retailers, brands & products are engaging with social media
 Social media presents opportunities which over time will create genuine
loyalty & revenue
 Social media activities help to attract retailers as well as footfall

12. Social media for shopping centres
 Who are your audiences
 Retailers and restaurant owners
 Local occupiers (from shopping parks, within 10 miles of you)
 Active retail agents
 UK national & regional press
 UK national & regional retail press
 New and current customers
 Residents in your surrounding areas


13. Social media for shopping centres
 What are your challenges
• Larger shopping parks pose more competition
• Better retailer opportunities at other local shopping parks
• Customers see better opportunities elsewhere
• Retailers see better opportunities/better competition
• Agents not recommending your retail parks to their clients
• Negative connotations about smaller retailer parks having less choice
• No one knowing about your offering
• No interaction/negativity from your retailers


14. Social media for shopping centres
 What you need to consider
 Liaisons with retailers:
 Regularly
 With central marketing & unit within centre
 Chains and independent retailers
 Independent retailers present more unique offerings
 Negative issue handling
 Stock levels - promote what you have & need to sell
 Basic comments – how can we help, we're listening & hear you, we're sorry
 Addressing mentions openly can calm situations to create loyal customers

15. Social media for shopping centres
 What you can do
 Establish and maintain a website (if not already!)
 Engage with your retailers initially & regularly
 Establish Twitter and Facebook pages with consistent key messages
 Develop weekly activity schedules
 Raise awareness of your centres news, views, events & retailer discounts/offers
 Establish conversation to encourage information sharing with your retailers
& customers
 Evaluate activity to ensure you are reaching the right audience & what works best


16. MANCHESTER FORT CASE STUDY

17. Case Study
Facebook, in the last three months Twitter, in the last four months

18. Case Study
Increased footfall to Won Green Apple award Marks & Spencer opened
Manchester Fort by 9% in in 2011 for the parks its first food store at
the past year through sustainability Manchester Fort at the
social media alone achievements end of 2011
MF now has a total of 73.45% of website
MF website in April and
521 likes on Facebook visitors were new and
May had a total of
and 768 followers on 26.55% are returning
23,337 visitors
twitter visitors

19. DELIVERING GREAT SOCIAL
MEDIA ACTIVITY

20. How to deliver social media
 In house
 Outsourced
 Established, specialist, flexible resource
 Straight forward briefing process
 Transparent measurement & reporting

21. How to deliver social media
 Setting up brand owned social profiles
 Liaising with retailers, central brands and independent stores
 Creating a social strategy, plan & activity calendar
 Establishing online community connections
 Listening, creating & participating in conversation
 Optimising social opportunities - digital eyes, ears & voice
 Creating, publishing & promoting content
 Managing social profiles
 Blog creation, management & outreach, Twitter/Hashtag events,
seminars, events, podcasts, video content, foursquare promotions etc.

22. Finally
 Social media is mainstream*
 84.2% of UK population is online, 52.7 million people
 Over 70% of internet users use social networks
 RDPR
 Experienced in social media & property sector
 Cost effective social media solutions
 Not in isolation - integrated PR marketing partner
* Source: Internet World Stats, April 2012

23. Thank you for your time
 You can find RDPR in all the usual
places...
 www.rdpr.co.uk
 www.facebook.com/RolandDra
nsfield
 Tweet us: @RDPRTweets
 Call us: 0161 236 1122
 Email us: Enquiries@rdpr.co.uk
 carla.burns@rdpr.co.uk
 claire.lancaster@rdpr.co.uk
 Write us: Just kidding!