Will ‘Indie’ Hyperlocals Go for National Marketers’ Goodies?
Most publishers of independent hyperlocal news sites steer clear of national ads. They think messages from national brands can be a jarring presence on a page with neighborhood news or ads for the local yoga center and pizza parlor. They also don’t like the low rates that have often come with national ads. But fast-developing changes in national digital ad marketing have buyers dangling premium rates for high-value placements…
#SFSNYC VIDEO: The Next Billion-Dollar Exit in Hyperlocal
With Google’s acquisition of Waze earlier this year, local tech is back in the limelight. During a panel at Street Fight Summit in New York last month, Matt Turck of First Mark Capital, Ben Siscovick of IA Ventures, and Jason Klein from OnGrid Ventures discussed where the best investing opportunities are these days in the local…
5 Signs That It’s Time for Your Hyperlocal Company to Pivot
The majority of hyperlocal startups will pivot at least once in their lifetimes. Many will pivot two or even three times. But as a founder who’s looking to steer his or her company in the right direction, it can be difficult to determine whether to keep plowing forward with an original concept or go a new direction. Here are five signs that it’s time for your hyperlocal startup to pivot, from industry leaders who’ve been there before…
#SFSNYC VIDEO: How Big Data Is Revolutionizing Retail
In a panel at Street Fight Summit in New York last month, experts from the retail analytics space explored the ways big data is transforming the retail industry. Wesley Barrow, CRO at Nomi and Alexei Agratchev, CEO at RetailNext talked about how retailers can maximize profit from the moment a shopper walks into their store. Meanwhile, Larry Promisel, SVP Digital Commerce at Camuto Group, offered the retailer’s perspective, saying that while privacy is concerning for retailers, the overall benefit of creating the better experience a customer wants outweighs those concerns…
Street Fight Daily: Google Adds Review Dashboard, Ads Enter The Car
“A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing commerce, and technology… Google Gives Business Owners A Single Place Online To See All Their Customers’ Reviews (TechCrunch)… Harman, Placecast Test In-car Radio Ads That Know Where You Are (GigaOm)… Uber Customer Claims Abuse And Assault By Driver. Uber Confirms: Yes, He Works For Us (PandoDaily)…
Shopkick, iBeacon and the Future of In-Store Tech
Thanks to a number of new technologies — namely, Bluetooth LE and Apple’s iBeacon protocol — in-store location is entering a new phase in its maturity. There are still a number of wrinkles in the technology to iron out — first and foremost, making it work across devices — but the new generation of beacons solve many of the issues that have traditionally limited in-store tech. Here’s where we are and what to expect…
ARLnow Expands to Third Community in Metro D.C. – Reston, Va.
Independent hyperlocal publisher Scott Brodbeck has launched a third digital news publication in the suburbs of metro Washington, D.C. His new RestonNow serves a thriving, nationally recognized planned community that was built from scratch on farmland in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County…
Street Fight Daily: The War For Delivery, Facebook and Small Businesses
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… In War for Same-Day Delivery, Racing Madly to Go Last Mile (New York Times)… The Future of Facebook Ad Revenue: Small Businesses (Mashable)… Nordstrom Will Use Pinterest To Decide What Merchandise To Display In Stores (Business Insider)…
Study Finds That Facebook Ads May Bolster Paid Search Performance
A new study from Kenshoo finds that advertising on Facebook may bolster the performance of existing paid search marketing campaigns. The research, funded partly by Facebook, found that users who saw an ad on Facebook and then made a purchase via a paid search link spent nearly a quarter more than those who were not exposed to the same ad…
iInside CEO: Those Who Don’t Adapt to In-Store Tech Will Be Left Behind
The company has created a set of hardware solutions to help businesses track and analyze consumers as they move within a store or a high traffic environment. By providing insights to retailers about what shoppers are doing and where they are spending time in a store, the company believes it’s helping brick-and-mortar businesses address issues such as showrooming, as well as the ability to test different approaches to marketing…
New Hires and Openings at Neuhoff Media, Google, Stephens Media, Foursquare and Clinkle
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. In this week’s edition, new hires and jobs at Red Wing Publishing, Ballantine Communications, VendaAsta, Leaf, and Yelp.
LBMA Podcast: Sportsbee, Google, Coca-Cola and Patrick Reynolds From Triton Digital
On the show: Google Outside in London; Google Ingress coming to LAX & JFK; Free subway tickets in Moscow; Coca-Cola inspires you to take the stairs in Brazil; Proximiti uses location based notifications to help OCBC bank branches in Singapore; Free electricity at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Plus, a new feature called “Our Take” on Snapchat’s decision to walk away from $3B from Facebook..
Street Fight Daily: Intuit’s Next Steps, Bing Integrates TripAdvisor Tools
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Intuit CEO Talks Plan To Grow Company (ZDNet)… Bing Integrates TripAdvisor Tools, Content Into Search Results (SearchEngineLand)… How Life360 Overcame Creepiness To Replace The Most Common Text Message You Send (PandoDaily)…
The Changing Economics of Dialing for Local Data
Matrix partners, the Sand Hill Road firm that invested in startups like Hubspot and Care.com, has made a $4.2 million bet on Locality (formerly Centzy), a local search startup that uses a combination of technology and manpower to amass pricing and product information for local service businesses. The startup relies on an army of contractors to call up businesses across the U.S. and find out everything from hours of operation to product lineups and price structures…
Wonder Women Show Might at ‘Indie’ Hyperlocal Sites
Like old media, new media has its glass ceilings. But women are consistently shattering barriers to their advancement in the digital community news space. Of the 12 top revenue-producing community news sites, eight have a female editor-publisher-owner. So what do women bring to the community news space to produce so many winners?
Case Study: Lenovo Uses Local Search Tactics to Drive In-Store Sales
How does a brand without its own brick-and-mortar stores drive offline sales? That’s the question that Donna Bedford and Rick Medeiros have struggled with as they continue to develop Lenovo’s local search strategy. “We’re starting to think, how do we start becoming more hyperlocal? We’re a global company, so how do we develop that hyperlocal presence and really try to make sure that people clearly know who we are,” Medeiros says…
How Reviews and Ratings are Driving Local Search
Despite the tremendous amount of press we have seen on fake reviews, ongoing interest in reviews by consumers and local search providers make it clear that these services aren’t going away. As platforms give reviews more importance and improve their ability to filter out fake ones — and government officials crack down on dishonest practices — consumer trust and use of reviews can only be expected to grow. This trend will continue to increase the impact they have on local businesses…