MIMA March Meetup Recap

Last week, 30 of our members discussed location based social media monitoring and consumer engagement in an intimate roundtable discussion. The meetup discussion was led by Emily Shannon, Digital Director at the Mall of America (MOA), and she dished awesome insights on how to better understand customers to deliver timely and valuable content.

Below are the biggest aha moments from this discussion with the great minds of our MIMA members.

• The Mall of America is “surprising and delighting” their audience by listening for relevant terms (not just brand mentions), and engaging users with valuable content/responses.

• It’s important to monitor social media for business insights. As an example, MOA identified a lot of people in Germany saying positive things about the mall. Now, they’re targeting that audience through marketing.

• Always remember the importance of listening on social media. MOA uses listening to be a “digital concierge” service, helping with everything from answering teenagers questions about what time they should be dropped off for an event to making reservations for people.

• You can take your listening a step further though geo-listening. The MOA is able to identify and target its audience through geo-listening. It’s also able to identify potential crisis issues before they blow up. As an example, someone tweeted about a car fire and tagged a media outlet. No bueno. MOA was able to identify exactly were this “car fire” was, which turned out to be a smokey old car. They then reached out offline to the media to let them know there was no story. PR crisis averted.

• Make sure you’re capitalizing on what people are saying to engage with your customers. MOA is capitalizing on the positive things people are saying about the mall and engaging users in a fun way, including playful conversations, rewarding users with a coffee after a long day of shopping, and gift baskets for influencers.

• Don’t be afraid to get creative and fun with your listening and engagement approach, and always think of how you can merge the online and offline experience together. For example, MOA targeted an influencer after he landed at MSP airport and tweeted about shopping. This influencer was so impressed with his MOA experience — both online and offline — that he posted a 7 minute YouTube video about it. Talk about positive word-of-mouth.

• Tool for your toolbox:  MOA uses Geofeedia as its geo-listening tool.

A huge shoutout to our members for providing another successful MIMA Meetup filled with inspiring conversation about the digital and interactive marketing world. Stay tuned for information on the next meetup, and remember: MIMA Meetups are only available to members and are limited to 30 attendees, so register early!