Dishing social media: 8 Apps to up your retail real estate game

Turns out your mobile devices are good for more things than email and building connections with your kids while playing Words With Friends. There are hundreds of thousands of apps out there from games to tools that influence shoppers, and some that can make you more efficient at your job. After scouring the Apple App Store, reading blogs, twitter posts, social media articles and reviews, I put together a list of apps that I think will help you out in the field. Whether you're trying to find the quickest route to a meeting, working with documents with limited computer access, reading leasing signs or entertaining a client at a game, these will give you a one-up and make you look pretty techy too. CardMunch - A pretty neat app from LinkedIn allowing you to take a photo of a business card and have it automatically converted into a contact. LinkedIn profile information also populates in the contact record after you click the connect button. This is a great way to stay organized, electronically store business cards with headshots on your phone and build your LinkedIn network. TurboScan - This app allows you to scan a document with your phone and turn it into a pdf. It's great for making written notes digital and sending contracts on the fly. It's simple to use and you can email the document to yourself or put it on the cloud. Options include naming the document, choosing the appropriate size and color and adding a date stamp. QRReader - An obvious necessity but I had to make a note of it. I've recently seen more companies including QR codes on their "for lease" signage and fact sheets. In most cases, with the quick scan of the QR code you'll be directed to the property webpage with more information about the site you're actually looking at. TalkTo - An app created right here in Cambridge, Mass. TalkTo allows you to converse with Boston restaurants, hotels and retailers via text message. With this app you can say goodbye to having to listen to phone promos and classical music while you wait. When you download the app you'll be prompted to create a username - which is what the businesses see, not your actual cell phone number. (If you're a business, you can customize the way you receive messages at talkto.com/claim.) Pogoseat - Ever been at a game with a client and figured out your seats aren't quite as good as you thought they were going to be? Check out Pogoseat to upgrade your seats once you're at the game. Write in how many seats you're looking for and where you're currently sitting. Pay for the upgrade right on your phone and your new (more impressive) tickets will be delivered to you right on your mobile. Beatthetraffic - After browsing many traffic apps, this one is my favorite. I use it several times a day to try to avoid the painful Boston traffic and have always found it to be trustworthy. Green, you're in the clear. Red, avoid it at all costs. MileBug - Given our industry, we are all constantly on the road and need to manage our mileage. With MileBug you can track your miles and expenses. It comes preloaded with the latest business rate per mile in presets. When you start a new trip, add the date, vehicle, origin, destination, purpose, starting odometer and end odometer. Once you've tracked all quarter long you can run a report, creating a CSV file with the date range of your choice. LoopNet - No surprise here that LoopNet makes the list as it's one of the only working retail real estate apps that plot a desired map with retail space available for lease. The app works well but you need to upgrade from the free version in order to view all listings. Diana Podaski is marketing and social media manager for Linear Retail Properties, Burlington, Mass.