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Commentary

SMBs Have Some Major Advantages Over Brands in Social Marketing

2 Comments 14 June 2013 by

Social media is merely a digital extension of local conversations. We talk about the weather, the 4th of July parade, the upcoming festival, local news, et cetera. SMBs need to always be thinking about how they can join/start these conversations in order to build fans, follow leads, offer discounts, improve their reputation and, most importantly, compete with national brands...

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The New News

For Hyperlocal Marketers, Data Sweeps Are Part of Doing Business

No Comments 14 June 2013 by

Marketers operate under many constraints dictated by good business and societal mores, not to mention various federal and state laws against criminal and civil misconduct. But the explosion of public data needs to be sorted out. It's up to society, government, business and individuals everywhere to take the discussion to better and new policies and, where necessary, laws...

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Off the Block

The NSA’s PRISM Revelations and Hyperlocal Targeting

No Comments 13 June 2013 by

Hyperlocal companies rely on the data that consumers knowingly share in order to build profiles and serve them with the most relevant information — but would consumers still assent to this sharing if they truly understood everything that is being done with their digital data?

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The New News

‘Indies’ and Sustainability: One Destination, Different Paths

No Comments 13 June 2013 by

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...

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Commentary

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

No Comments 12 June 2013 by

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...

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Off the Block

The Uber-ization of Local Commerce

No Comments 10 June 2013 by

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...

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Commentary

Two (Big) Things Preventing Local TV’s Collapse

No Comments 07 June 2013 by

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.

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The New News

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

3 Comments 06 June 2013 by

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)...

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Streets Ahead

local-search

The Local Search Shadow Economy

1 Comment 04 June 2013 by

We know that there exist a great number of businesses in our local communities that service a variety of needs at their clients’ homes or business locations. Aside from specialized services like Angie’s List and Service Magic, there are few local search outlets that serve potential clients or service providers well in terms of their ability to connect a need with the appropriate provider...

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Commentary

mobile phone user

Mobile Local Advertising: Not Just for Early Adopters Anymore

No Comments 03 June 2013 by

Over the past few years I've done some axe-grinding about the lack of location targeting in mobile advertising — and the fact that desktop ad strategies have largely been ported over to the small screen, particularly among large brands and agencies. But in recent months we've started to see some of those habits break down, beginning with newer companies in mobile that don't have to "unlearn" anything to get there...

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How Local Search Is Getting Mobile and Social

Facebook is now the #2 mobile app for local search, behind Google Maps, notes MomentFeed CEO Rob Reed. Are people really using the social media platform to find small businesses — and what does that say about the future of local search?

What Hyperlocal Acquirers Are Looking For

2013 could see a handful of established companies look to mergers and acquisitions in order to jump-start their existing hyperlocal strategies — or to help them build new initiatives altogether. Here’s a quick look at four major players who may currently be in the hunt for locally focused acquisitions and what each might be looking for.

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Webinar: Mobile Trends Among SMBS

SMBs are getting social, but they still lag on mobile. Listen to Asif Khan from the LBMA and David Williams from YP delve into strategies for SMBs to use the mobile platform to find and be found by customers. Watch now.

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