Street Fight’s December Theme: Leaving 2020
What will the “next normal” look like in the post-Covid era of local commerce? Will things go back to the old normal or be a hybrid reality that cherry-picks components and new perspectives from the past nine months? Will e-commerce dip back down to pre-Covid levels or keep surging?
We’ll be answering these questions and others throughout the month, along with 2021 predictions (’tis the season) for our theme, Leaving 2020.
Street Fight’s November Theme: Google’s World
Google’s World is shorthand for the fully fleshed-out concept: “It’s Google’s world… we’re all just living in it.” The main thrust is that Google’s search dominance gives it enormous control in impacting the fate of businesses everywhere who rely on search for traffic and customer acquisition.
Google’s ongoing updates to the search algorithm, ranking factors, and SERPs continue to have ripple effects on marketers everywhere. It’s becoming more challenging to follow the moving target of SEO effectiveness. This game has its own set of rules when it comes to local search.
Street Fight’s March Theme: Word of Mouth
One of the oldest and still most influential drivers of local commerce is word of mouth. Though that’s sustained at a high level, the delivery vessel for local chatter has evolved. Social channels like Facebook and Yelp now shape the reputations of brick-and-mortar businesses, not to mention the kingmaker authority of Google.
This month, we will delve into the latest trends and insights driving reputation management, taking Word of Mouth as our theme.
Anne Marie Stephen Joins Street Fight as President
Anne Marie Stephen, a veteran of tech and retail, is taking the helm at Street Fight, the premier media, research, and events company covering local marketing and technology. As president, Stephen will oversee Street Fight’s overall strategy, events, and budget as it pursues aggressive growth in 2019.
#SFSW18: Street Fight Announces Winners of the 2018 Local Visionary Awards
Street Fight has announced the winners of the 2018 Local Visionary Awards. The awards were presented in a ceremony at Street Fight Summit West. The 9-category competition honored the very best campaigns, companies, ideas, and individuals working in the local marketing and commerce ecosystem.
Street Fight Rolls Out Analyst Hours with Local Merchant Report
The report—a key franchise for us—has regularly served as a guidepost for vendors seeking to expand their reach into this market. What’s been missing? A way to tie the data directly to a vendor’s business. So for the first time, we’re offering time with the report’s author, Street Fight director of research, David Card, to discuss the report’s findings directly.
A New Era for Street Fight
After nearly six years as a bootstrapped independent business, Street Fight has been acquired by Brandify — and we couldn’t be more excited. The pairing will provide resources to significantly expand Street Fight’s content, events, and research, and will allow us to launch new offerings to create greater value for the industry.
Street Fight’s 10 Most Popular Stories From 2016
In the local space, 2016 brought both consolidation and renewal. Major players were acquired, while other companies experimented with innovations in bots and AI, VR/AR and a new generation of voice search. Here’s a look back at the top Street Fight stories (at least in terms of traffic) this year.
Street Fight Staff and Friends Predict 2017’s Top Stories (Part One)
As 2016 draws to a close, we’ve once again asked Street Fight staffers and columnists to look into their crystal ball and offer prognostications for what they think will be the biggest story (or stories) in local in 2017. We’ll be running their outlooks in two installments, the first today and the second tomorrow.
Local Visionary Awards Finalists Announced
Over 175 entries were received in the Local Visionary Awards, and 35 companies have emerged as finalists, on their way to the awards ceremony, to take place at Street Fight Summit 2016 on Oct. 25th in New York City. The caliber of the entrants across the board was remarked upon by the judges, who delivered close results for the top half of the entrants…
Predictions Roundup: Organic Search and Cookie Deprecation
Experts assess changes to local search and location marketing in the wake of Google search updates, privacy changes, and cookie depreciation.