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Eenie, meenie, minie, mall... virtual visitors make the call!

By
Real Estate Agent with Century 21 Camco Realty

A few days ago I posted a blog about the unusual fact that my most visited virtual tour was of the mall (see http://activerain.com/blogsview/1136956/my-most-popular-virtual-tour-the-mall-)

When I looked at the stats for all my virtual tours, I noticed something even odder: one of our Albuquerque Malls was far more popular than another with virtual visitors!

Coronado Mall, my "most visited" virtual tour, had been viewed by 1263 visitors. That was more than 50% more visits than the competing Cottonwood Mall, located on Albuquerque's West Side, which had only 712 visits.

Cottonwood Mall wasn't even the "second most popular" virtual tour; that honor belonged to the tour of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (which I would have pegged to be the top attraction, tour-wise myself.)

So what made one virtual tour more popular than the other? Until viewing the tour, non-Albuquerqueans wouldn't even have known the location of one vs. the other.

Is it something in the immediate look of the tour? Compare the two, and let me know if you notice one having better shopping "curb appeal" than the other:

 

Coronado Mall Tour:

Cottonwood Mall Tour:

And by the way, there's a definite pattern-- more web visitors looked at my "Albuquerque attractions and events" than looked at my property virtual tours, so maybe it's a good idea to get good community virtual tours up on the web!

Comments (5)

Elizabeth Bolton
RE/MAX Destiny Real Estate Cambridge, MA - Cambridge, MA
Cambridge MA Realtor

Hi Laura ~ That's very mysterious.  I wondered if it was placement on your site but I saw the list of shows and that doesn't seem to be the case.  And the less popular shopping center is actually probably the more interesting of the two in terms of what you see in the mall - but nobody would know that before watching.

I am really impressed with your shows - they're great!  And that's some excellent traffic.  I've bookmarked realestateshows.com and may sign up.  Nice job!

Liz

Jul 03, 2009 11:43 AM
Laura Warden Nordin
Century 21 Camco Realty - Albuquerque, NM
30-year Top Producer in Greater ABQ Real Estate

Thanks, Liz. I definitely haven't been able to figure it out. The one with less virtual traffic also gets more real-life traffic-- go figure!

Jul 06, 2009 03:26 AM
Jen Bowman
Keller Williams on the Water - Holmes Beach, FL
Realtor - Anna Maria Island & Bradenton FL

Hi Laura, Do you have different tags with each? I think it's a cool idea to do a virtual tour like this. It helps to show off your community. Nice job!

Jul 10, 2009 01:59 AM
Laura Warden Nordin
Century 21 Camco Realty - Albuquerque, NM
30-year Top Producer in Greater ABQ Real Estate

Thanks, Jen. Not sure what you mean by different tags-- these all show up on my website, on a page labeled "Virtual Tours of Albuquerque." Various attractions, events, etc. are all listed and also shown on a map. When a visitor clicks on one, they get a page that has a slide show, and a link to get the full virtual tour. I don't think there are any tags involved, other than those for the virtual tour page.

Jul 10, 2009 08:33 AM
Troy Erickson AZ Realtor (602) 295-6807
HomeSmart - Chandler, AZ
Your Chandler, Ahwatukee, and East Valley Realtor

Laura - How were you able to take these pictures inside the mall?  I had this same idea recently, was taking pictures of the exterior of our local mall, and I almost got arrested!  I was told that the mall was private property, and I could not take any pictures of the exterior or interior.  So, there went my local mall post.  Instead, I wrote a post about how I almost got arrested.

Anyway, not sure I see much of a difference in your two mall tours.  Is one mall more popular than the other, located in a more populated area, newer?  Did you post the Coranado mall first, or is it more easily accessible than the other virtual tour?

I'm just jealous that you were able to create something like this without getting arrested.

Sep 14, 2009 07:16 AM