Monday, March 15, 2010

MIPIM week - social media or socialising with the media?


It's that time of year again.

Back in the day when I had a proper job the MIPIM event in Cannes was always one of the biggest weeks of the year.  For those who have never indulged (and I use that word advisedly) it's a huge property exhibition with senior property folk flying in from all over the world.

Major land owners, developers, investors, occupiers and agents (to name but a few) also attract the big names in property journalism and I always found it exciting that I could be walking along the croisette and just bump into so many reporters at all hours of night and day.

This year though I suspect that socialising with the media will be second on the agenda of many marketing people to social media.

It seems to me that everyone is talking about it but that many property folk are scared by it (whatever "it" is).

It takes me back to all the board presentations I made when the internet first began taking off and particularly to the many discussions I had with a large selection of senior partners/chief execs when property listing sites were in their infancy (Primelocation, Rightmove, Propertylink et al).

I see that JLL are blogging at MIPIM (following the excellent Notes from Davos they produced) and of course Estates Gazette are also leading the way.

But, the property world is still just scratching the surface - I'm not a huge fan of mixing facebook business with pleasure but for sure blogs and twitter could bring immediate benefits to just about any property related business that took the plunge.

I can make a direct link to new business, increased PR exposure (Telegraph, Independent, specialist press) and even industry awards - if I can do this from sunny Cognac then what could the big boys in Berkeley Square or Hanover Square achieve?

To help them find out I'd point them towards http://www.grahamdownie.com/

I'm not giving up the day job of working as a buying agent here in SW France but property marketing is an area that I'm so passionate about it would be nice to get involved again & work with one or two forward thinking agencies to help them exploit this window of opportunity.

www.cognacproperty.com

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