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As the media world continues to expand and fragment, services targeted at local businesses are likewise evolving into a more holistic set of marketing channels. A good example of that evolution can be seen at ThriveHive, as we discussed with the company’s newest member and longtime Street Fight contributor, David Mihm, on the latest episode of Heard on the Street.
ThriveHive’s owner Upcurve acquired social media optimization player Closely last year in order to expand marketing capabilities in the social arena. And more recently, the one-two punch was completed with the launch of Grader, a tool that helps ThriveHive audit and optimize local businesses’ presence in search and Google My Business.
That’s where Mihm comes in. ThriveHive wasn’t satisfied with simply adding search marketing to the product set. The human capital, via Mihm, now positions it to really sink its teeth into the more expansive opportunity of search and social marketing for local businesses.
“The visibility for the average small business on Google is way higher than it is for Facebook, and historically there hasn’t been that recognition by the business and the level of interactivity with your customers at Google,” Mihm told us. “I think Google is really moving in that direction… it’s kind of a natural extension of everything Closely was doing: ‘Hey, you probably want to know how your customers are interacting with you at Google in addition to Facebook and Instagram and Yelp.'”
We discuss all of this in the episode, as well as Mihm’s take on the ever-changing local SERP—an extension of his ongoing dialogue with Mike Blumenthal in their popular Street Fight column. We discuss all this and more with Mihm, as you can hear above.
Find out more about Heard on the Street here, and stay tuned for episodes every two weeks.
Mike Boland is Street Fight’s lead analyst, author of the Road Map column, and producer of the Heard on the Street podcast. He covers AR & VR as chief analyst of ARtillry Intelligence and SF President of the VR/AR Association. He has been an analyst in the local space since 2005, covering mobile, social, and emerging tech.
