Street Fight Daily: Zagat’s Workplace ‘Nightmare,’ Square Launches Marketplace
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology
How Zagat’s Workplace Turned Into A ‘Nightmare’ (Business Insider)
Two years after Google acquired Zagat for $125 million, some employees are questioning whether the acquisition has been a waste of Google’s time and money and gone terribly wrong. It’s become a story about the collision between the wealthy dream world of the technology industry and the scratch-and-claw meager existence of freelance writers.
Everybody Is a Media Company, So Now What? (Street Fight)
Terry Heaton: The idea that everybody is a media company may be THE most important trend of all for small businesses, where it impacts most the intersection of media and advertising. Neighbors, after all, can be among the most difficult to convince of new thinking.
New Square Service Targets Local Merchants’ Market (USA Today)
Starting today, the mobile-payment service is adding an online marketplace for sellers of handmade jewelry, beauty products, apparel and anything else that can be shipped. Square Market is a bold bid to curry favor with millions of neighborhood businesses that can’t afford to build a website but need one to ship products worldwide, says Square CEO Jack Dorsey.
Do Hipsters Do Hyperlocal?: Bedford + Bowery Editor on Communities and Culture (Street Fight)
NYU’s hyperlocal East Village blog is growing up and adding a few new ‘hoods. The Local, which had covered New York’s East Village and the Lower East Side, has become Bedford + Bowery, a site that now also covers the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick. So what makes these neighborhoods — hipster havens of the highest order — a fertile proving ground for hyperlocal? In a Q&A with us, Daniel Maurer, the NYU professor who oversees the venture suggested it might be “the creative energy and entrepreneurial spirit that thrives in these neighborhoods.”
Microsoft Partners With Deem To Expand Its Ad Inventory With More Local Offers And Deals (TechCrunch)
Microsoft and e-commerce platform Deem, which is still better known under its previous name of Rearden Commerce, have inked a partnership that will allow Microsoft to distribute Deem’s large inventory of local deals on its properties. Microsoft will feature Deem deals and offers from its network of more than 1.2 million merchants on properties like Bing, Outlook.com and MSN, as well as in Windows Phone and Windows 8 apps.
Consumer Brands Need A Localized Mobile Marketing Strategy (MediaPost)
Forrester Research studies have found that 90% of sales occur inside brick-and-mortar stores, with about half of those in-store sales influenced by online marketing and promotions. The opportunities for brick-and-mortar retailers to leverage online channels to drive more sales locally are clear, but what about brand manufacturers?
Four Reasons Why Apple’s Passbook is Growing On Retailers (GigaOm)
We still have no leader in mobile payments, but when it comes to digital gift cards Apple’s Passbook is doing a decent job of making its case with big-name retailers — many of whom were somewhat skeptical of its utility when Passbook was first went live in fall 2012. With the software catching on, millions of devices in people’s hands, 575 million credit card accounts, and growing momentum with retailers, Apple is positioning itself quite carefully to be that leader one day — should it want to.
Nielsen Study Says 89% of Yelpers Buy within a Week of Site Visit (Screenwerk)
Greg Sterling: A study conducted by Neilsen found that four out of five Yelp users visit the site when preparing to spend money. What’s more interesting to consider — and what’s not clearly addressed by the data shown — is what sites consumers visit before or after Yelp.
Using Pinterest’s Social Cred To Get In-Store Shoppers To Make Purchases (GigaOm)
It’s pretty common now to see a local restaurant post Yelp reviews or Zagat ratings on their storefront windows, showing the number of stars they got or positive reviews gathered as a sort of social proof for consumers making a decision on where to dine. Nordstrom is trying out a new way to highlight the popularity of certain products with Pinterest, tagging some of its most pinned items online in the store with the Pinterest logo.
Now You Can Check Your Friends In On Foursquare (FastCompany)
Foursquare has added a new app feature that it calls its “most requested”: the ability to check in your friends for them. Foursquare already has a mention feature that lets you tag the friends you’re with, but it has never before allowed you to use those mentions to check in for others on their behalf.
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