RISMEDIA, June 14, 2010—As the Rye Town Hilton in tony Westchester County was home to RISMedia’s 2010 Leadership Conference and “The Real Estate Social Media Summit,” the whole placed buzzed of blog-posts-in-the-making for the nearly 1,000 in attendence—as there was an overwhelming amount of information to soak up in 48 hours.
Being that it was “The Real Estate Social Media Summit,” much of the focus was on just that, however, throughout the conference, industry experts and icons such as john Featherston, president, publisher and CEO of RISMedia and Allan Dalton, president of The Top 5 in Real Estate Network® and chief marketing officer for RISMedia, also greatly emphasized the importance of Mobile Technology.
In fact, during both the opening general and closing session, Featherston championed the cause of Mobile Websites by utilizing an Android emulator to show the hundreds in the audience what a truly Mobile-Enabled Website should look and function like on a Mobile Device. During the Top 5 luncheon, which played host to dozens of top-producing real estate professionals, Dalton invited mobile expert John Lim, founder and CEO of Mobile Card Cast, to speak to honored guests. Not about product, but about importance.
Looking at the full scope of conference attendees, the importance of Mobile could be seen just by just watching the nearly 1,000 attendees at this year’s Leadership Conference—most in from out of town, all with Mobile Device-in-hand as they went from sessions to networking to meetings. They functioned over the course of these two days almost entirely by relying on their Mobile Devices for communication and information.
With such intense reliance on their Mobile Devices, what was surprising is that very few had ever stopped to visit their own website from their phone! As people flocked to the Mobile Real Estate ID booth to have their website entered in to the Android emulator (which shows what their site looks like when accessed by a mobile phone), they were shocked in many cases to see what came up.
Of course we have all experienced going to a website from our phone and having a less-than-desirable experience, but what’s important is to be aware of is what your own site looks like in that user experience. During the conference, what I think had the biggest impact of all was showing real estate professionals who have done such a great job building their brand, that when someone does a Google search from their phone they come up first – awesome indeed! But what their site looks like when clicked on…not so awesome; their site does not even stand at working on the phone and admittedly, many Realtors even said they wouldn’t use or want people to go to their own site from a Mobile Device.
At the end of the day it’s all about the integrity of your brand. Your brand in business is your most valuable asset and it goes without saying that how your brand is portrayed is an absolute priority for you. We could go into overwhelming detail and pile on the statistics for why people are going Mobile. The fact is that studies have shown it is currently the fastest growing form of Media. What’s most important is that when someone finds you, however they find you, you shouldn’t lose them because of they are on a Mobile Device.
The technology is available to ensure that your website is fully converted and Mobile Enabled. This will allow anyone who visits your site from a Mobile Device to have a visually pleasant and easy-to-navigate experience and more important, find the information they want quickly and efficiently. Most important, having a Mobile-Enabled website will ensure that the integrity of your brand does not suffer and is not sacrificed for Mobile users.
For a free consultation on whether or not your website is fully Mobile Enabled, you can contact John Packes, Director of Product Development for Mobile Card Cast, theotherjohn@mobilecardcast.com.
To see an example of what a Mobile Enabled Website looks like, visit www.randrealty.com or www.rismedia.com from your Mobile Device.
Seth Kaplan is the president of Mobile Real Estate ID. Contact him directly at Seth@mobilerealestateid.com.
For more information, visit www.mobilerealestateid.com.
