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of respondents say that social media is the future
of marketing communications, but only 23 percent
are measuring the return of investment on [their
postings]," said Alan McKeon, president and CEO
of Alexander Babbage. "In the shopping center in-
dustry, we measure everything — the rent, the sales
per square foot, the occupancy costs per square
foot … so it was surprising that shopping centers
are behind the curve on understanding the role of
analytics in social media."
One of the other problems with social-media strat-
egizing for shopping centers, the survey found, is
that the rules — and the popularity of any given me-
dium — are constantly changing. While Pinterest was
once seen as a great investment for shopping centers,
for instance, it is now viewed largely as irrelevant,
says McKeon. And though Plaza Las Américas, in
Puerto Rico, now has the second-highest number of
Facebook fans among the shopping centers surveyed
(492,100 fans at last viewing), a few years ago the
mall did not even own its Facebook page, not con-
sidering it important as a marketing tool. "Initially,
the page was created by a Plaza fan, who wanted to
have a place to share things he loved about the cen-
ter," said Iris Cuevos, Plaza Las Américas' market-
ing director. "He'd only posted a few times, but he'd