Street Fight’s 5 Most Popular Stories From the First Half of 2012
The first six months of 2012 have brought a lot of interesting developments in the world of Street Fight — from the publication of our first research report, “The Local Merchant: Inside the Minds and Motivations of the Business Owners Driving a $43 Billion Advertising Market,” to our second major industry conference, Street Fight Summit West, to the launch of our monthly Hyperlocal Investment Report newsletter and our new job listings board. With the first half of the year in the bag, here’s a look back at the top Street Fight stories (at least in terms of traffic) so far this year.
1. Patch Triples Traffic Year-Over-Year, Claims Growth Across Network ‘Consistent’
January 10: The company’s president Warren Webster was eager to discuss the ComScore numbers. According to Webster, the data reflects “relatively steady” growth from town to town, validating a replicable launch approach and the towns in which they’ve chosen to start Patches.
2. 7 Social Media Strategies for Small Business Owners
Stephanie Miles, June 25th: A 2011 survey by Hiscox, a small business insurance agency, found that 24% of SMB owners say they don’t have time to participate in social media marketing, while 14% say they don’t even know where to begin. Here are seven tips from experts in the social media marketing industry about how business owners can take advantage of the social media tools available today.
3. Brady: If Print Is 85% of Your Revenue, You’re Terrible at Selling Digital
Noah Davis, March 13th: Online news guru Jim Brady (formerly of TBD and washingtonpost.com) took over as editor-in-chief at Digital First Media with the mandate of focusing the newsrooms of the company’s papers on a, well, “digital first” model. Street Fight caught up with Brady, to talk about what it takes to win hearts and minds of veteran journalists, and why the business side comes first.
4. Why Do We Check In?
David Hirschman, April 4: “I did not want to be mayor of my dentist’s office. Why did I even check in?” read a tweet posted by Digital First Media’s Steve Buttry. Buttry was echoing a thought that I’ve had a lot lately about my own habit of checking in to Foursquare: I don’t know exactly why I’m checking in, or what I get out of it — yet I do it anyway, usually several times per day.
5. Gray Lady Takes the Local: Inside the NYT’s Hyperlocal Efforts
Noah Davis, January 11th: Mary Ann Giordano, an editor who oversaw the Times’ recent forays into hyperlocal, talks with Street Fight about her new project SchoolBook, her hopes for Patch, and why the Times is in the hyperlocal game “from a distance.”