2015 ‘Michele’s List’ Shows Strengths — And Weaknesses — of ‘Indie’ News Sites

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There are encouraging and even bullish numbers in the performance of independent community news sites as reported in the 2015 “Michele’s List” survey. But other numbers indicate that “indies” are having a difficult time generating enough revenue to ensure stability.

Local Tech Businesses Diversify to Serve a Wider Range of SMB Needs — But Do They Really Know Their Customers?

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In the rush to diversify their offerings, single-product local tech companies either move horizontally (reaching out to all the markets that could remotely utilize their product) or, more often, vertically (seeking to cater to all the nuanced needs of a niche market).

Street Fight Daily: Facebook and Google Embrace ‘Buy’ Buttons

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Will Soon Add a ‘Buy’ Button So You Can Shop From Facebook (Business Insider)… Google Starts Testing Buy Button (Mashable)… 20 Years of Amazon: 20 Years of Major Disruptions (USA Today)…

Small Businesses Aren’t Afraid of Amazon — And You Shouldn’t Be Either

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Yes, Amazon is a giant. But as long as you continue to innovate and keep your hand on the pulse of independent business needs, it’s not going to kill your business. Here’s why.

10 Local Digital Agencies You Should Know About

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Although nearly half (49%) of franchise SMBs have been partnered with a digital agency for two or more years, independent merchants are just getting in on the action. Here are 10 digital agencies that businesses are using right now.

Street Fight Daily: Google’s iBeacon Competitor, Wi-Fi Proximity Program Launches

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Launches Eddystone, Its Platform-Agnostic iBeacon Competitor (The Next Web)… This New Wi-Fi Tech Uses Proximity To End Waiting In Long Lines (ReadWrite)… Like Google, Yahoo Wants to Reinvent Search Without the Search Bar (Ad Age)…

Courting SMBs, Facebook Integrates Its Ad Platform With Wix Email Marketing

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Facebook and Wix announced a new integration this morning that will allow businesses using Wix’s email marketing app to creating a Facebook ad within the platform, automatically taking the email’s content and images and translating them into Facebook’s format.

6 Strategies for Increasing Conversions in Mobile Food Searches

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Sixty-three percent of consumers use smartphones and tablets to find local businesses, and 23% of those local business searches involve restaurants. Here are six strategies that restaurants can use to help convert mobile search traffic.

Panel: Different Kinds of SMBs Require Different Kinds of Marketing

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At a panel discussion hosted by CoInvent last week in New York, SMB experts talked about a range of topics, including social media marketing, SEO strategy, and the importance of paying attention to online reviews.

Street Fight Daily: Google Tests Direct Hotel Booking, Yelp Sued By Delivery Drivers

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Tests Direct Hotel Booking (Search Engine Land)… Drivers Sue Yelp Over Unpaid Tips for Food Delivery Service Eat24 (Fortune)… Deep-Fried Crystal Ball: Seamless’s Recent Missteps Pave the Way for Competitors (Digiday)…

Why All SMBs Need an Ecommerce Strategy

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While online research to offline purchase is the more common path-to-purchase, future-looking SMB retailers will holistically consider an ecommerce strategy as more and more consumers embrace online shopping.

Case Study: SMB Marketing Firm Uses Chat App to Convert Clicks to Leads

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With the goal of retaining and converting more leads for his agency, Outlook Bench Group’s Nii Akwei went in search of a product he could use to connect with website visitors in real-time.

Street Fight Daily: Food Delivery Wars, Nokia’s Mapping Tech

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Billion Dollar Food Delivery Wars (TechCrunch)… Everybody Wants to Own Nokia’s Mapping Technology (Skift)… Mid-year Report: The Newspaper Industry’s Billion Dollar Challenge (Poynter)

Boston-Based Dispatch Retains a Startup Mentality as It Sets Its Sights on Big Growth

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Dispatch grew from three employees to 25 in the past 10 months, and the company is on an upward trajectory. As it scales, the executive team is hoping to maintain the small-time ambiance of a startup while segmenting responsibilities.

Raise Report: New Funding for Yieldify, Zosi, Adored, and Airbnb

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Every two weeks we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. In this edition, new investments include big votes of confidence for Onefinestay and UrbanClap.

LBMA Podcast: Beacons on Buses, Apple’s New Patents

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On the show: Selfridges Tiffany & Co brings flagship store to augmented reality; Starbucks taps Lyft for free frappucino deliveries; Uber acquires mapping team from Microsoft; TCS acquires Loctronix. Special guest is Jeff White of Gravy.

Street Fight Daily: Google’s Plan for Mobile Search, Uber’s “Lead Generation” Defense

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Reinventing Google for a Mobile World (New York Times)… Uber: We’re Not a Taxi Service,“We’re a Lead Generation” App (Business Insider)… Location Is Everything: Talking Mobile Programmatic With Avazu’s Yi Shi (AdMonsters)…

McClatchy Says It’s a ‘Digital’ Company, but More Work Still Remains

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There is no doubt that McClatchy is putting an enormous amount of energy and talent into digital — but will it be enough when print is shrinking so rapidly? Street fight spoke to the company’s VP of products, marketing and promotion, Christian Hendricks, about where McClatchy is in its digital evolution

Why All Brands Need to Prepare for the Localization of Marketing

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In order to fully appreciate the significance of localized marketing, we first need to understand the dominant forms of marketing that preceded it. There have been three major technological disruptions over the past century that fundamentally changed the marketing landscape.

On the Road: The Future of On-Demand Delivery Is in Motion

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Figuring out how to consistently and quickly deliver services to a driver when the destination is unsure means a provider needs to develop a mesh network of always-in-motion providers of services and also serve customers in a place they are unaccustomed to doing business.