Has Social Media Killed the Mall? Part 1
Social Media is Your Friend, Not Your Foe
Take a page from the big retailers like Nordstrom and use your social media following to identify well-liked products. In 2013, Nordstrom saw that Pinterest represented its largest social community, with 4.5 million followers (vs. only 270,000 Twitter followers at the time). Capitalizing on that reach, Nordstrom began showcasing items in-store with a "Top Pinned Item" sign in order to catch the eye of the frequent online browser.
Greg Petro is founder and CEO of First Insight, a technology company transforming how leading retailers make product investment and pricing decisions.
Greg has a 25-year history in the retail industry with a career spanning merchandising, sales and management. But while at one of the world’s leading supply chain technology firms, he saw a need for retailers and brands to re-engage with consumers to determine which products would be top sellers well before costly investments are made to bring them to market. In 2007, Greg Petro founded First Insight Inc., a technology company that delivers what is now the world’s leading predictive analytics platform for consumer-testing new products. Through engaging consumers online and mining social data, the First Insight platform empowers retailers and brands to introduce the right products at the right price, and target them to the right customers. Today, he serves as its Chief Executive Officer and President. Greg is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as a frequent speaker at the graduate business schools of Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh. Greg also speaks and at a number of industry conferences, where he educates his listeners on how retailers can use technology to identify and deliver what their customers really want. Mr. Petro holds both MBA and Bachelor’s Degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.
