Street Fight Daily: Facebook Likes Events, Square Becomes a Platform
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…
Facebook Is Making It Easier To Find Events You Want To Go To (Mashable)
The social network is rolling out a new feature Monday that allows you to subscribe to events created by a specific business, band or other Facebook page. The “Events subscribe” button allows you to receive notifications whenever the business or group behind the page is hosting a new event in your area.
Square Wants to Become a Platform — Here’s Why That Matters For Small Businesses (Street Fight)
Steven Jacobs: With millions of small businesses already using its application to process payments, Square now needs to navigate through a complex and crowded small business software market. Part of that will be determined by software Square builds, but the company also believes that the software others build may play a critical role as well.
How Groupon Not-So-Innocently Planned Its Most Popular Facebook Post Ever (AdWeek)
When you know your company’s next social media post is going to get trolled, it pays to plan accordingly. That’s the lesson from Groupon’s massive success on Facebook last week, when a stellar social response by an in-house team turned the rather dildo-esque Banana Bunker into a gold mine of fan engagement and sales.
TribLocal Loses Branding, Is Replaced by Pioneer Press in Many ChiTrib Communities (Street Fight)
Tom Grubisich: From its launch in 2007, TribLocal was the Chicago Tribune’s highly branded network of suburban news print inserts and e-sites covering sprawling Chicagoland. Now TribLocal has lost most of its branding and been replaced by the Tribune’s recently acquired Pioneer Press in many communities.
The Racists Next Door: Why Nextdoor’s Racial Profiling ‘Problem’ Isn’t The Company’s Fault — It’s Society’s (Pando)
Racial profiling certainly happens on Nextdoor, at least in isolated incidents. But to say that the online platform is “home” to such behavior, or any other type of systematic abuse, suggests that it’s commonplace and tolerated. And judging by the data, that simply is not the case.
We May Have Just Uncovered Amazon’s Vision for a New Kind of Retail Store (Recode)
Amazon perfected online shopping. It may now want to do the same with brick-and-mortar stores. A recently filed patent application by Amazon reveals details about a new kind of retail establishment that would allow shoppers to pick items and leave without stopping at a cashier station or kiosk.
Is The Time Finally Right For Hyperlocal? (CIO)
The concept of AOL’s Patch sounded great, but the trail of belly-up Patch sites shows the business model was flawed. But maybe its hyperlocal approach was ahead of its time, because it’s exactly what marketers are starting to do today.
Amazon’s New Home Services Is Great For Gig Economy Workers (FastCompany)
Instead of contracting out to specialists on its own, Amazon will simply act as the platform for the transactions. In so doing, Amazon will let specialists set their own prices, likely allowing Home Services to survive the legal onslaught that’s currently besieging the gig economy.
Stolen Uber User Logins Are For Sale On The Dark Web: Only $1 Each (Fortune)
Uber login credentials are apparently being sold on the dark web. The information is being advertised for sale on the black market AlphaBay, a website that can only be accessed through the Tor browser, an anonymity-preserving network used by political dissidents, privacy-minded Internet users and criminals.
The Missing Link Building Tip For Local SEO (Search Engine Land)
Content marketing is so prevalent nowadays, but it seems that many business owners are still confused when they actually try it. Remember: Creating content is not content marketing. The content is only the first step — you have to go market that content for it to be effective.
Why GoDaddy’s IPO Shares Look Cheap (Money)
GoDaddy, the website hosting service with the provocative ads and a NASCAR sponsorship, is going public this week. In general, however, investors ought to be appropriately skeptical of initial public offerings, particularly for well-hyped technology companies.
10 Practical Tips For Using Geo-Location to Reach Your Target Audience (Marketing Land)
Wesley Young: The effectiveness of geo-targeting is only going to further improve as mobile use grows and location data becomes more accurate and available. Location often provides much deeper, more meaningful and identifiable traits that tell you what a person wants, needs or is interested in.
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