‘Indies’ and Sustainability: One Destination, Different Paths

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In this final column on the subject of sustainability in independent news sites, two editor entrepreneurs, David Askins, of the Ann Arbor (Mich.) Chronicle, and Denise Civiletti, of the RiverheadLocal on Long Island, talk about what they’re doing to keep their sites healthy long-term. A third entrepreneur, Ben Ilfeld, the CEO of AdGlue, talks about why innovation is so important to success…

5 Tools for Point of Interest Geo-Targeting

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As the technology behind the most popular geo-targeting platforms continues to improve, marketers have begun to refine their tactics to improve the ROI of their campaigns. One of the latest trends in the world of geo-targeting is known as point-of-interest (POI) targeting, or geo-conquesting…

Street Fight Daily: Gannett Buys Belo, Patch Traffic Flat

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Patch has Proved To Be a $200 Million Money-Suck for AOL and Its Traffic Hasn’t Grown In a Year.(Business Insider)… Why Google Bought Waze (Prioleau Advisor)… ComScore: 4 Billion Local Searches in May (Screenwerk)…

With New Products and Integrations, Belly Looks Beyond Loyalty

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A year and a half after launch, and Logan LaHive, chief executive of Belly, has a clear message for the competition: we’re winning. The Chicago-based company has rolled out new integrations with Yelp and Facebook this morning, marking the beginning of the company’s push to move beyond loyalty toward an open, social CRM…

Why Mobile Ads Are ‘A Little Scary’ (And Potentially So Valuable)

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Mobile isn’t a mass marketing vehicle; it’s my one-to-one, highly intimate connection with the Web. It’s a personal device, and its connection to me is private (or not), powerful, and controllable entirely by me. It is, in fact, a portable, electronic version of me, and I will not permit interruptions in the name of commerce for long…

Street Fight Daily: Google Buys Waze, UBL Snaps Up Local Incite

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Why Google Wanted Waze: The Local Ad Market Is Going Mobile (AdAge)… UBL Acquires Local Incite – Adds Chicago Presence (UBL)… HP and Google Team Up to Offer Small Businesses “IT in a Box” (AllThingsD)…

A Year After Big Scores by SinglePlatform and Yext, Locu Makes a Quiet Push

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It’s been nearly a year since Yext announced a massive round of funding and SinglePlatform sold to Constant Contact within a week each other, and the value proposition for a real-time data and content network continues gain steam. As both firms put that capital to use, a third company, Locu, is trying to carve out its own share of the market with a similar model and sizable — albeit smaller — stack of cash…

It’s 2004 All Over Again: Mobile Spending to Double in 2013

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According to a Borrell Associates client memo made available to Street Fight, local mobile advertising will increase 100% this year. That’s right; double. In some markets that number may translate into tens of thousands of dollars; in the largest, it’s $100 million or more. Gordon Borrell told us that what’s happening with advertising at the local level is “nothing short of phenomenal.”

Case Study: Meineke Partners With Full Slate for Online Scheduling

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As consumers get more comfortable going online to book appointments and services, companies nationwide are rushing to keep up with demand. For larger businesses with multiple locations, however, instituting an online scheduling system isn’t always a cut and dry process. Rather than jumping in head first, Meineke Car Care Centers has taken a measured approach to online appointment scheduling. The company partnered with Full Slate and launched a pilot program at 30 Meineke locations…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Moves iOS Into Car, Yelp Revamps Nearby

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Apple Announces ‘iOS in the Car,’ Offers Access to Maps, Messages, and More (Verge)… Just like Foursquare, Yelp Now Recommending Nearby Places (CNet)… Mobile Companies Crave Maps That Live and Breath With Data (New York Times)…

The Uber-ization of Local Commerce

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Last week, ReachLocal took its new commerce platform for home services, ClubLocal, off of its training wheels, expanding the program into the Bay Area. Pitched as an Uber for home services, the company aims to create a self-service platform to facilitate the booking of home repairs and plumbers — but its execution overlooks some of the dynamics that make some industries, like taxicabs, more fitting to the model than others…

5 Strategies for Tracking Hyperlocal Marketing Success

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What merchants really need is a clear-cut way to compare the effectiveness of their hyperlocal marketing initiatives, so they focus their energies on the platforms that work. To answer that question, we consulted with experts from inside the industry. Here are five strategies that merchants can use to track the success of their digital marketing initiatives…

3 Ways Local Search is Helping Preserve Your Brand’s Image

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In the increasingly mobile and locally-driven digital world in which we find ourselves, it is an absolute necessity to ensure the visibility and accuracy of your brand’s online identity while constantly working to build and preserve a socially-integrated and supported reputation. At the core of it all is the consumer’s mobile and local search behavior…

Street Fight Daily: Google Close to Acquiring Waze, Why Yahoo Should Buy Foursquare

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Google Is Close to Acquiring Waze, a Rival in Maps (New York Times)… Checklist: All the reasons Yahoo is going to acquire Foursquare (Quartz)… Call It Groupon 3.0: Deals giant on a Mobile Mission (Crain’s Chicago Business)…

Two (Big) Things Preventing Local TV’s Collapse

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The concept of network content distribution through local affiliates is being challenged by the Web. Local broadcasters are middlemen in the delivery of network content to the masses, and that was fine in a world absent horizontal connectivity. So it would be easy to assume downstream trouble for local broadcasters. But while there’s quite likely much of that ahead, it won’t totally kill the industry. There are two enormous roadblocks standing in the way.

Openings & New Hires at Yext, Appstack, Local Market Launch, and More…

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Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. Read about more hyperlocal execs on the move in this week’s Movers & Shakers column…

LBMA Podcast: InMobi’s Piyush Shah on the Mobile Opportunity in China

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In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan discuss TuneIn’s $25 million raise to get in your car; Royal Mail opens late so you can pick up your own mail; The Location Forum makes you pay for privacy guidelines; Bud + Blippar + Folds of Honor = amazing; iPourIt brings RFID to bars; ESRI starts licensing their data. Plus, eMarketer Canada offers insight into Canada’s location and mobile advertising landscape and special guest Piyush Shah of InMobi…

Street Fight Daily: Google Wallet Leaking Money, Brand Networks Snags $68M

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Google Wallet Is Leaking Money (Businessweek)… ‘Uber For Local Home Services’ Provider ClubLocal Launches In The Bay Area (TechCrunch)… Running Local: Why Facebook Marketer Brand Networks Just Snagged A $68 Million Round(Forbes)…

5 Reasons to Add Gift Cards to a Digital Loyalty Program

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Promoting customer loyalty is a broad goal that local merchants are tackling in many different ways. While plenty of platforms utilize mobile redemptions and out-of-the-box rewards or coupons to curry favor with consumers, an increasing number of loyalty providers are moving outside the virtual environment with pre-loaded physical gift cards…

Hyperlocal Sustainability (Round 2): Upbeat ‘Indies’ Say They’re Winning

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Following up on my column from last week, here are more unvarnished thoughts from “indie” hyperlocal editors and publishers I’ve been talking to about sustainability (a word, by the way, that sets the teeth of some of these entrepreneurial journalists on edge)…