From (Temporary) Yext HQ During Superstorm Sandy
When the power went out on Yext’s offices in Chelsea Market in New York City, the team scrambled to find new work space and take care of its employees. Event halls where conferences had been canceled delivered even more space than the company had in its permanent offices, and employees were put up in hotels so that they were free to focus on work instead of water and power. “People were happy to get back together, and the atmosphere is very focused.”
In Superstorm Sandy, GramercyOne Carries on Through the Cloud
As a provider of cloud based software, GramercyOne, based in lower Manhattan, embraced these systems for internal infrastructure and despite the office and surrounding area being completely offline and inaccessible, all of its mission critical systems, including its SaaS application used by thousands of businesses, was fully operational. Here, CEO Josh McCarter shares his company’s and his personal experiences through the storm and its aftermath.
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Eyes Funding, SEC Presses Groupon
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Foursquare Looks Into A Fourth Round At An Over $700M Valuation, Investors Skeptical (TechCrunch)… SEC Asked Groupon for Financial Disclosures (The Wall Street Journal)… Yelp’s Flaws Become Apple Maps Flaws in iOS 6 (GigaOm)…
Openings & New Hires at Patch, Yelp, Supermedia, HopStop, Square & More
Executives moving on up and over lately in sales, product, marketing, business development and more. Plus, who’s hiring? Yext, Yelp, Yodle, Restaurant.com, LivingSocial, DealHeaven, Apple and HopStop. Hyperlocal is expanding fast, and these openings are just one indication. Listings include links on where to apply. Get started now!
PODCAST: This Week in Location Based Marketing — McDonalds, Mondelez
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan talk about how McDonalds is taking aim with Rovio’s Angry birds in China; Square makes its way north to Canada; Plus news from Gigwalk, Yelp and Yahoo + special guest Ed Kaczmarek, Director of Innovation and Emerging Technology at Mondelez International…
Street FIght Daily: Yelp Dismisses Google’s Local Content, Google Expands Wallet
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Yelp Not Worried About Google’s “Struggling” Local Content Play (PandoDaily)… Google Wallet Expands To Mobile Web (TechCrunch)… Coupons Boost Starbucks (The Wall Street Journal)…
Pirq Closes $1.2 Million Funding Round, Launches New Version of App
Instant-deals and loyalty provider Pirq released version 2.0 of its mobile real-time deals app this morning, offering consumers digital punch cards to accumulate rewards in four new verticals. The Washington-based company also announced it’s closed a $1.2 million round in venture financing…
Lucky Ant Waives Fees, Opens Crowdfunding to SMBs in Wake of Sandy
Many small businesses affected by the wrath of the hurricane will require working capital to make repairs, and the Brooklyn-based Lucky Ant wants to help them raise that money from their communities. The company has waived its fee, allowing any business (in New York or elsewhere) to raise funds for recovery free of charge…
Survey: 91% of Brands to Maintain or Increase Local Spend in 2013
The study also found that while SEO and social media marketing dominated in 2012, more and more brands are looking to invest in new tactics in 2013. While mobile leads the way in terms of new types of marketing, over a third of brands surveyed said they wanted to use online customer reviews (31%) and local blogs (31.5%) in the coming year…
SeeClickFix Partners With HuffPo, Takes On Sandy
In the lead up to the storm, the New Haven-based company hooked up with the Huffington Post and NBC Washington to embed its interactive widget, which is already used by the Journal Register Company as well as smaller hyperlocal sites, into the sites’ storm-tracking coverage. Street Fight caught up with Ben Berkowitz, the co-founder and CEO of SeeClickFix, to talk about why “the crowd” is critical during major events…
Guess Who Has a Hyperlocal Foothold in 156 Locations?
So what exactly is the CBS Local product for consumers, merchants and advertisers? “We are local media business that is focused on four areas: News, Sports, Music and Lifestyle content,” said CBS Local Digital Media president Ezra Kucharz in an email interview. “We reach consumers online, mobile and over-the-air. Merchants and advertisers work with us to reach consumers whether on a national or local level.”
Report Identifies ‘Avid Local Search Users,’ 50% of All Searches
Twenty-four percent of consumers who conduct “local” searches are highly tech-savvy early adopters who own multiple mobile devices, use mobile shopping apps, purchase daily deals and post reviews of businesses more than the average population, according to a new white paper. The report also notes that this group accounts for 50% of all local searches.
Marketers Adopting New Metrics Like ‘Footfall’ and ‘Deals Redeemed’
Not only has the world of mobile deals exploded, from Foursquare to Groupon, Dealfind and more. There has also been a shift in metrics for determining success. In the old days we would look at mobile ads and measure their effectiveness in terms of CPMs, click-throughs and such. But with the advent of location-based services, that’s simply not enough. Many businesses are turning to new metrics such as increases in footfall; deals redeemed; and the number of friends you share deals with. I refer to this as social magnification.
Street Fight Daily: Apple Exec Exits Over Maps, Village Voice Sues Yelp
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… An Apple Exit Over Maps (Wall Street Journal)… Village Voice Sues Yelp for Using “Best of” (PaidContent)… Could Sandy be Instagram’s Big Citizen Journalism Moment? (Pando Daily)…
Does Hyperlocal ‘Engagement’ Work — And Can it Be Monetized?
In 2002, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jan Schaffer founded J-Lab to help the news media use technology to engage citizens on big public issues. There’s a lot of talk about hyperlocal news sites using technology and social media to take civic journalism to a new level where the community is an equal player, but how much is wishful thinking and how much reality? I went to Schaffer for answers…