Street Fight Daily: Patch To Close 400 Sites, eBay Launches Retail CRM
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… AOL Won’t Deny The Rumor That Patch’s CEO Is Out After Just Two Months On The Job (Business Insider)… eBay Launches Salesforce-like Platform For Merchants (TheNextWeb)… Google Directs ‘Relevant Ads’ to Maps (CNet)…
‘Understanding the Reader’ and the Bottom Line: Do They Connect?
Google’s beta testing of aggregated community news for its recently launched smartphone app Now (“the right information at just the right time”) got some big “hmmm” headlines last week. But is this Google experiment bringing any fear and trembling to community news and information sites?
Case Study: Restaurant Chain Uses Mobile Promotions to Reach Millennials
Homestyle Dining Chief Marketing Officer Jon Rice knew that implementing a sweepstakes program across all of his company’s 142 Bonanza and Ponderosa steakhouse franchises would be a logistical challenge. So he opted to partner with Front Flip, a mobile engagement and loyalty platform, to generate excitement, boost engagement, and gain more insight about his guests…
Street Fight Daily: Amazon May Expand Deliveries, In-Store Tech Heats Up
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Amazon Is Going To Start Delivering Groceries To New York City In 2014, Says Analyst (Business Insider)… In-Store Tech Is So Hot Right Now: Sephora Acquires Fragrance Software Startup Scentsa (AllThingsD)… Smartphone Owners Turn to Local TV News Apps (eMarketer)…
Groupon Names Lefkofsky CEO as Business Rebounds
Groupon’s search for a new chief executive ended Wednesday evening with a familiar name: Eric Lefkofsky. During an earnings call Wednesday, the company announced that the firm’s long-time executive chairman, who has shared the leadership duties with Ted Leonisis since the company fired founder Andrew Mason in February, will take on the full responsibilities as CEO. “Everything we do is with local in mind,” Lefkofsky stressed during the earnings call…
AOL’s Armstrong: 1/3 of Patch Sites Currently Have ‘Viable Business Model’
On an earnings call Wednesday, AOL’s CEO Tim Armstrong said that the remaining 600 or so sites are split between properties that are on their way to viability, and sites that will likely not reach profitability by the end of the year. The news comes as AOL works to bring the closely-watched hyperlocal media network to run-rate profitability by the end of 2013, a commitment that Armstrong says the company still plans to meet…
As Local Media Shed Staff, Personal Franchise Sites Could Fill the Void
The independent voice of the individual can make “the news” more personal, more compelling, and more exciting. The nuances of the trade can be taught, but people planted within the community with knowledge and perspective offer something that traditional media companies can’t or won’t. And linking local bloggers together is a viable concept…
Street Fight Daily: Behind Foursquare’s Founder, Thrillist Expands Local Coverage
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Will Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley Finally Get It Right? (Fast Company)… Thrillist Expands, Becomes a Blend of Frommer’s and Foursquare (AdAge)… Seamless and the Online-Takeout Trend Makes Restaurants Queasy (BusinessWeek)…
With New Yelp Partnership, ReachLocal Puts (Some) Eggs in SaaS Basket
Less than a month after Yelp rolled out a partnership with Delivery.com and Eat24 to bring online ordering to the reviews site, the company announced on Tuesday the addition of ReachCommerce, ReachLocal’s newly launched booking software, to the Yelp Platform. The partnership will allow users to process book appointments with service providers, which use the ReachCommerce software, without leaving the Yelp app or site…
As Bezos Takes Over Wash Post, Will D.C.’s Merchants Advertise With the Enemy?
The Post built its now-shrunken publishing might by providing a marketing medium for the bricks-and-mortar stores in the D.C area that the paper’s new owner Jeff Bezos — and other online retailers — have spent the past couple of decades steadily grinding into dust. One has to wonder whether those businesses that remain will really want to give their precious marketing dollars to the same man who is eating away at their market share at his “day job.”
Why Brands Need a Local Voice on Facebook
Street Fight recently caught up with Brand Networks’ chief executive, Jamie Tedford, to discuss the evolving local opportunity for brands on Facebook, the value in maintaining both a “brand” and “local” voice on Facebook, and the need to create a more responsive (and decentralized) approach to social media…
5 Tools That Bring Web-Like Analytics to Offline Locations
It isn’t chance that e-commerce retailers like Amazon are generating billions of dollars in online sales. Digital commerce businesses are utilizing big data analytics to measure shopper behavior, click-through rates, and page views when designing their online sales outposts. Here are five hyperlocal vendors bringing web-style analytics into the real world…
Street Fight Daily: Food Delivery Merger Stirs Concerns, Apple Beefs Up Maps
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Food Delivery Merger Stirs Concerns (Wall Street Journal)… Apple Beefing Up Maps With Crowdsourcing, “Ground Truth” Hires (Apple Insider)… UrbanSpoon To Focus On Quality Restaurant Reviews After Selling Rezbook To OpenTable (TechCrunch)…
Dongle Domination: 40% of SMBs Use Mobile Card Readers
A new report from BIA/Kelsey finds that 40% of small and medium-sized businesses already accept payments with a mobile credit card reader, and another 16% of the businesses plan to add capability within the next year. The numbers come amid an across-the-board increase in small business engagement with the digital tools, with social media and mobile advertising also taking a larger chunk of business owners time and money…
Street Fight Daily: Google Invests In Reviews, Foursquare’s Co-Founder Opens Up
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Google Launches City Experts Program To Encourage Higher Quality Google+ Local Reviews (TechCrunch)… Foursquare Cofounder Naveen Selvaduri Opens Up About His Exit: “I Wanted To Stay” (Fast Company)… Investors May Yet Cry For Yelp (Wall Street Journal)…
How to Sell Hyperlocal Into Chambers of Commerce
After lots of research with local chambers, I’ve noticed that the chambers provide minimal resources to local businesses on how to navigate hyperlocal and which tools are the most valuable. In my opinion, that really should be a key responsibility of the Chambers. They should be vetting and approving the technology that will help their members to grow their businesses…
Openings & New Hires at Groupon, Locu, Bit.ly and Radiate Media
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. Moves this edition include new execs at SIM Partners and Accordant Media, plus job openings at AOL, JiWire, Weather Channel and more.
LBMA Podcast: Timehop, AudioVox and Factual’s Tyler Bell
In this week’s episode, YFind is acquired by Ruckus Wireless; Weston Expressions launches Linkett to connect smartphones with dumb screens; Cineplex expands their out-of-home reach by acquiring EK3 Technologies; Timehop raises $3 million; Imersia brings Epic to life in New Zealand; Garmin brings HUD to the dashboard; and AudioVox partners with AT&T for on-board auto diagnostics…
How Will Jeff Bezos Redefine the Newspaper?
Amazon has always been a virtual marketplace, where the location of the buyer has very little to do with a transaction. Bringing the Bezos vision to bear on a community-oriented portal could mean any number of things, but it certainly means the potential for services that bear some resemblance to traditional journalism but are remediated into a form that takes advantage of digital commerce and social media, while maintaining a sense of local community…