RISMEDIA, December 27, 2010—Twas the Monday after Christmas and all through the house, nothing was stirring, not even my computer’s mouse, but the blackberry was a buzzing, as it always does, and it will get my attention, as the device that I love. The device that we all love – our mobile phones, have never been better.
2010 was a very exciting year for the mobile industry as a whole. The competition generated by the release of the Android operating system and a slew of devices released across multiple carriers was a game changer in terms of mobile web adoption.
In addition, a lot of people, businesses and organizations started to recognize that mobile was not just a fad, but something that needed to be seriously addressed as part of the marketing plan. Here are the three coolest things that happened this year in mobile from my perspective.
3. Companies investing in a truly mobile-enabled website that reflects the integrity of their brand, provides a phenomenal user experience, and transforms them into a mobile destination for real estate information within their local market. While we worked with a lot of companies this year to help them with their mobile websites the two that stand out the most as we look back on the year are www.RandRealty.com (New York), www.PremierEstateProperties.com (Florida). Word of advice, if you are interested in seeing these sites, please make sure you go to these URL’s from your mobile device as the mobile website will not display on your desktop browser.
2. Associations and franchises recognizing the need to educate their members and franchisees on the value of mobile and leading by example. This year we here at Mobile Card Cast sponsored RISMedia’s Leadership Conference, the C.A.R. EXPO and the EXIT Convention and Gala. As part of our sponsorship, we created a mobile website for each event that allowed attendees to get conference schedule, speaker info, sponsor info and more right from their mobile device. It really doesn’t get much more practical than that now does it? Who wants to carry around a schedule? The fact that it became a trend here in 2010, which we can only hope continues into 2011, was awesome to see!
1. By far the coolest thing that happened this year was the investment made by real estate related companies into mobile technology because of how powerful a tool it is for REALTORS. The best example of this is what Home Security of America (HSA) did by partnering with us at Mobile Card Cast. They purchased all of the media rights to our text messaging lead generation platform for thousands of agents across the county. This subsidizes the cost for the service for real estate agents up to 90% and allows HSA to create a relationship with that REALTOR who is vital to the success of their product. Great idea and well put together by the folks at HSA.
For more info go to: www.mobilerealestateid.com/hsa.
I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and great start to the New Year!
Seth Kaplan is the president of Mobile Real Estate ID. Contact him directly at Seth@mobilerealestateid.com or, for more information, visit www.mobilerealestateid.com.