Local Memo: Google Acknowledges ChatGPT Threat, New Visibility Boost for Restaurants

Streets Ahead: Google Acknowledges ChatGPT Threat, New Visibility Boost for Restaurants

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses Google admitting the competitive threat of ChatGPT and also doubling down on Local with a new “What’s Happening” feature benefiting restaurants Google on the ChatGPT Threat The News  An internal Google document, surfaced during the ongoing Department of Justice trial (with a decision expected soon), reveals a major […]

Streets Ahead: ChatGPT Shopping and Yelp's AI Call Handling Streetfight

Streets Ahead: ChatGPT Shopping and Yelp’s AI Call Feature

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses ChatGPT introducing direct shopping and Yelp testing AI-powered call handling. ChatGPT’s New Shopping Experience The News  OpenAI has introduced a new augmented shopping experience inside ChatGPT, enabling users to browse and buy products directly within the platform. The feature showcases detailed product information, customer reviews, and direct purchase […]

Streets Ahead: Google Traffic Surges and AI Mode Launches

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the 2024 surge in Google search traffic and the Google launch of AI Mode as a search alternative. Google Search Traffic Surges 22% in 2024 The News  A new study from Rand Fishkin at Sparktoro reveals an eye-opening trend: Google search traffic surged by 21.64% in 2024 […]

What an Ugly Burrito Can Teach Us About Local Marketing Near Me Street Fight

What an Ugly Burrito Can Teach Us About Local Marketing

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Many companies focus the majority of their marketing energy and budgets on developing a national brand. This can often be true even for those who do business locally. Although Starbucks and Chipotle mostly behave in our lives like local businesses, we still think of them as brands like Nike or Apple, whose reputations rest on […]

Streets Ahead: TikTok Returns, Google AI-Powered Q&A Street Fight

Streets Ahead: TikTok Returns, Google AI-Powered Q&A

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the return of TikTok and a new AI-powered Google feature for local answers. TikTok Returns to App Stores Amid Uncertainty The News After weeks of being unavailable for new downloads, TikTok is back in Apple and Google app stores. From January 19 until last week, new users […]

Streets Ahead: TikTok Past the Ban, Global AI Adoption Street Fight

Streets Ahead: TikTok Past the Ban, Global AI Adoption

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the current status of TikTok  and global AI adoption trends TikTok Past the Ban The News TikTok went offline for U.S. users on the evening of Saturday, January 18, shortly before a 2024 law’s deadline took effect on Sunday. Sixteen hours later, on the morning of January […]

Streets Ahead: Tiktok Ban Looming, Trial Reels street fight

Streets Ahead: Tiktok Ban Looming, Trial Reels

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the looming TikTok  ban and the Instagram roll out of Trial Reels.  TikTok Ban Looming The News The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Friday in favor of the government, affirming that TikTok must divest from its parent company, ByteDance, by January […]

Streets Ahead: Evolution of Search, Social Platforms and Links Street Fight

Streets Ahead: Evolution of Search, Social Platforms and Links

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi discusses the AI driven evolution of search and explores the potential that social platforms are restricting the reach of posts with links.  AI and the Evolution of Search The News Semrush, in partnership with Statista, has released a comprehensive report on the role of generative AI in th […]

Streets Ahead Metas AI Search Engine Foursquare Shutters App Street Fight

Streets Ahead: Meta’s AI Search Engine, Foursquare Shutters App

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, we discuss Meta building an AI search engine and Foursquare shuttering it’s original app. Meta Building an AI Search Engine? The News Meta has reportedly been developing its own AI search engine, aiming to crawl and index the web for up-to-date information on current events and diverse topics to expand […]

Streets Ahead: Facebook Local Tab, DOJ Weighs Google Breakup

Streets Ahead: Facebook Local Tab, DOJ Weighs Google Breakup

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update, SOCi looks at Facebook’s new local tab as well as the DOJ recent recommendations that may lead to the breakup of Google. Facebook Unveils Local Tab in Youth-Focused App Redesign The News Facebook has introduced a major app redesign, described by Social Media Today as a “youth-focused refresh.” This update […]

Local Consumers Are Shifting Toward Social; Are Marketers Keeping Up? Street Fight

Local Consumers Are Shifting Toward Social; Are Marketers Keeping Up?

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Most local marketers are savvy about the importance of platforms like Google Maps and Apple Maps. As consumers ourselves, we know that these channels drive a huge amount of consumer traffic to storefronts, and we understand that informative, engaging search profiles help both small businesses and multi-location brands to differentiate themselves from the local competition. […]

Streets Ahead: 64% of Google Searches End with Google Street Fight

Streets Ahead: 64% of Google Searches End with Google

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In this week’s Streets Ahead update we learn about new Google research from Rand Fishkin  and a reduction in brand spending on TikTok  64% of Google Searches End with Google The News Rand Fishkin at SparkToro has released an updated version of his “zero click” search studies, with the last one published in 2021. This […]

How Brands Can Use Apple Business Connect to Reach Local Customers

How Brands Can Use Apple Business Connect to Reach Local Customers

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With access to Apple Maps Insights, multi-location brands should have a much better sense of which locations are performing well, which ones need attention, and how performance is trending over time.

The Influence of Reviews on Conversion

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Can the influence of reviews be quantified? This is one of the questions addressed by SOCi’s new State of Google Reviews report. The report examines the Google profiles of approximately 31,000 chain and franchise businesses, who together earned 4.9 million reviews from January 2015 to July 2022. 

Google’s Latest Privacy Play Has Big Implications for the Open Web

Google Overhauls Business Profile Manager with Transition to Search Interface

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Lots of the functionality is exactly the same between the old GMB and the new NMX, the only difference being where the features reside. For most businesses, updating your phone number, your hours of operation, or your business attributes will seem very familiar. Here are some of the significant differences.

The Telltale Signs of Fake Reviews

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Curtis Boyd is the founder of a Southern California-based company, The Transparency Co, which has gained significant attention in recent months for the technology Boyd has developed to detect fake reviews at scale. Boyd’s company has recently secured government contracts to help ferret out fake reviews online.

Branded Apps Are Connecting with Local Consumers

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We’ve solidly entered the era of the branded app as the central platform for successful local loyalty programs. Branded apps, because they encourage and reward repeat business, can be seen as the central hub of a successful localized marketing strategy for many multi-location brands, especially in certain verticals where repeat business is relatively easy to win.

Social Apps Are Creating a New UX for Local

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Young consumers are increasingly discovering local shops and restaurants on TikTok and Instagram, not Google or Yelp. An appetite for immersive visual experiences is behind the trend.

TripleLift Partners with White Ops to Fight Ad Fraud

Review Extortion Reveals Strengths and Weaknesses of Local Ecosystem

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The impact of review fraud and extortion has been devastating for restaurant owners and managers, who are fully aware that they live and die by reviews.

Using Local Search to Fight Inflation

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Just as the pandemic increased our reliance on digital information and services, so too is inflation reflected in the volume of activities on digital platforms, such as searches for certain types of local business. The searches we conduct online are a barometer of our larger concerns, and these days, belt tightening is clearly on the minds of many consumers.