Local News + Google Maps + Social Media = TapIn

Share this:

Location-based photojournalism platform Tackable has partnered with The California Newspapers Partnership to create an iPad app called TapIn, which allows users to view layered information (including news stories, coupons, business listings, services, and events — as well as user-generated images and video) on top of a location-aware map…

What Kinds of Businesses Do Daily Deals Benefit Most?

Share this:

Business owners are always looking for a silver bullet — a killer feature that will bring in new customers. The recent daily deals craze has held out the promise of this kind of customer acquisition, but when is a deal feature a silver bullet, and when is it is shot in the foot?

Street Fight Daily: 07.13.11

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Zaarly, which just launched an app for Android, connects buyers and sellers in a localized market place, reverse Craigslist-style, by allowing users to post what they’re looking for (beer, a massage, or an iPad), how much they’re willing to pay for said good or service, and how soon they need it. (TechCrunch)…

AT&T Interactive has announced the formal launch of in-app local ads on its mobile ad network. The rollout will allow developers to target ads based on a user’s location and potentially earn more revenue from higher ad rates. (MediaPost)…

Case Study: Using Mobile Tools to Track Coupon Redemptions

Share this:

Oklahoma Premier Carriage Company owner Clint Parker has run daily deal offers with all the major players – from Groupon and LivingSocial, to smaller companies like Wimgo Deals. He says that new mobile scanning apps are making it possible for his employees to track voucher redemptions while working in the field, which has led to fewer instances of fraud and bigger tips from satisfied customers…

Street Fight Daily: 07.12.11

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Foursquare hopes to ease its revenue problem with a series of pacts to remarket daily coupon deals from LivingSocial, Gilt Groupe and AT&T Inc. to its 10 million users. A similar deal with Groupon is also said to be in the works. (WSJ)…

Groupon made updates to its terms of service and privacy statement last weekend to reflect new ways the company collects and shares user data. Now if users opt to share their location data through Groupon Now, the company will track user location and be able to share it with several sources. (ReadWriteWeb)…

Announcing Street Fight’s First Annual Hyperlocal Industry Summit

Share this:

Street Fight is proud to announce our first annual industry summit, which will bring together leading minds from across the hyperlocal industry on October 25th-26th in New York City. Participants will include top executives from Patch, Topix, Fwix, Yipit, Gilt City and many more. Buy your ticket before July 31 and save $200!

Why Niches Are Becoming More Important for Deals

Share this:

In the month since Groupon’s S-1 filing, there has been a lot of criticism directed at the nascent daily deals industry. Some say that the deals model is unsustainable, while others claim that running a deal can cripple a small business. But before jumping on that bandwagon, it’s important to remember that online deals are still in their infancy…

Street Fight Daily: 07.11.11

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

LivingSocial, the number two player after Groupon in the booming daily deals market, has selected three Wall Street banks to underwrite its initial public offering. Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch division, Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan Chase will lead the IPO, which is expected to raise $1 billion. (PaidContent)…

More than 10,000 developers behind some of the hottest apps on the iPhone, iPod Touch and AndroidOS-based smartphones are using Foursquare’s application programming interface to tap into its location and places database, the company says. (Mashable)…

Hyperlocal Is Only as Good as Its Talent

Share this:

Ted Mann made a lot of smart points in his recent post on the lessons he learned from two years running InJersey, a network of 17 hyper-local blogs across the Garden State. There was one big, simple and very important takeaway: In a small town, having a single, passionate voice who is prolific and visible in the community can make the difference between flourishing and folding…

Gilt City Takes Facebook Further

Share this:

Last spring, an intriguing New York Magazine profile discussed some of the challenges Gilt Groupe faced as it grew bigger and more popular. Among them was the loss of its aura of exclusivity and community. At the very end of the article was revealed a long-term strategy…

Street Fight Daily: 07.08.11

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Is Groupon’s idiosyncratic CEO, Andrew Mason — an accordion-playing, ever paranoid prankster — ready to move his company forward and fight off a horde of copycats? (Vanity Fair)…

Newspaper sites like Boston.com have begun to integrate SeeClickFix, a hyperlocal civic action plug-in that allows users to click on a map, report issues in their neighborhoods, and comment on reports made by others. (Poynter)…

Case Study: Struggling to Turn Deal Chasers Into Repeat Clients

Share this:

When it comes to running daily deal promotions, Maria Camacho is far from a newbie. In the past few years, the owner of The Little Yoga Studio in San Diego, California, has run deals with a handful of different group coupon companies. She says the low-paying group coupons are worth it to her as long as two or three of every 100 daily deal customers become repeat clients.

‘Social Journalism’: News You Can Take to the Bottom Line

Share this:

The LJ World in Lawrence, Kan., has been a fount of innovation in digital journalism — especially in how to build and foster more and deeper community connections. Jane Stevens, the site’s director of media strategies, is herself a nonstop innovator. In 2010, she and her team launched LJ World’s WellCommons, a highly interactive site where “community and journalism work together to create a healthier Lawrence and Douglas County”…

Street Fight Daily: 07.07.11

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

Groupon’s S-1 filing for an IPO last month certainly got a lot of negative ink. Rattled by the intense media and analyst reaction to the filing, sources said the Chicago-based company commissioned a poll of its consumers and merchants to gauge the impact. (AllThingsD)…

Two weeks ago, Foursquare announced that there were over 10,000,000 people using the service. Now the company has announced that it has over half a million merchants signed up as well. (Foursquare Blog)…

Boston.com Experiments in the Deals Space

Share this:

In late May, Boston.com launched Boston Deals, becoming the latest in a long line of online publishers venturing into the white-hot daily deals space. Street Fight caught up with Boston.com’s executive director of digital advertising, Mike Wallace, to talk about how publishers can build their brands through ecommerce, and the implications of these kinds of projects for the future of digital advertising…

Stretching the Definition of ‘Local’ With Patch-HuffPo

Share this:

Some of the AOL hyperlocal network’s programming has turned toward the model followed by The Huffington Post and various (successful) content “farms” that draw readers in with off-topic sex appeal then deliver them off-site (thanks for the clicks and ad views)…

Street Fight Daily: 07.06.11

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups…

Gilt City, the local daily deals counterpart of high-end flash sales site Gilt, has established a private loyalty rewards program using Facebook Groups. (Mashable)…

Foursquare released a new feature yesterday: Notifications. Unlike the push notifications for check-ins you’re used to seeing on the Foursquare mobile apps, these new Notifications focus on other activities on Foursquare “beyond the check-in.” (TechCrunch)…

Case Study: Realtor Finds Value in Patch Ads

Share this:

David Nelson is a real estate agent who knows value when he sees it. Since Nelson started placing ads and blogging on the Lakeville Patch, he’s seen an uptick in interest from people looking to buy and sell their homes in his area. Given the targeted audience that reads Patch — and the exposure that the neighborhood site provides — he views the associated marketing costs as a wise investment…

Scoop St.’s Ambrose: From Daily Deals to ‘Branded Experiences’

Share this:

Dave Ambrose, a co-founder of Scoop St., recently spoke with Street Fight about how branded experiences set his company apart, the coming convergence between loyalty programs and customer acquisition models, and the biggest challenge that companies in the deals space face.

Street Fight Daily: 07.05.11

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

“Instead of telling small businesses to avoid daily deals, how about trying to understand why some small businesses are having success?” writes Vinicius Vacanti. “With that understanding, we could then educate other small businesses on how they might be able to replicate that success themselves.” (TechCrunch)…

“While location advertising may not be new, marketers can now digitally localize their ads,” writes David Staas. “The question is, how do brands win in this new world of location media?” (Mashable)…