News and Analysis

Which Emerging Social Platforms Will Win Big This Holiday Season?

Share this:

Retailers looking for an edge this holiday season are testing the waters with newer, emerging social platforms in a bid to generate awareness and market their products to huge audiences of tech-savvy teens and twenty-somethings.

On TikTok, a mobile app for creating and sharing short videos, retailers are poised to connect with a base of more than 500 million users.

With GatherUp Acquisition, ASG Expands Into Reviews Space

Share this:

Mike Blumenthal says the acquisition by ASG gives GatherUp greater access to organizational value, helping the company build better products and processes faster and more robustly. He expects there to be virtually no change in GatherUp’s day-to-day activities. All of the company’s teams—including sales, customer success, engineering, and management—will remain intact following the acquisition. Aaron Weiche will stay on as CEO. Although GatherUp was founded in San Jose, the company employs a distributed team that is now focused in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

US Businesses Lead on Reputation Management

Share this:

Loyalty to local businesses may never cease to be an important factor in brick-and-mortar commerce, but the boom of “near me” searches and the emphasis on convenience in the age of mobile search make a prime online presence for the quick-querying passerby more important than it has ever been. This latest Uberall data indicate that responding to reviews can provide the slight 5-star rating bump that guides an unfamiliar customer into a store she may otherwise pass up for a higher-ranked competitor.

Commentary

Facebook’s Self-Serve Ad Creative Can’t Be SMBs’ Only Choice

Share this:

By removing some of the barriers to ad spend for small businesses, Facebook is trying to become a one-stop shop for their ad dollars. SMBs are likely aware of the problem, but they shouldn’t be willing to rely on Facebook exclusively for their marketing and advertising needs.

Podcasting Won’t Replace Local Radio Soon

Share this:

As a local advertising medium, podcasting shows promise, but it has a very long way to go. The medium is fresh and growing, and ad inventory is far less cluttered than radio, although a little pricey at $18 to $25 CPM.

Google’s Product Bid for DIY Wallet Share

Share this:

“Google has been on a tear this past month in the DIY realm,” notes Mike Blumenthal in his bi-monthly conversation with David Mihm. “Three major product rollouts in a 30-day span; Websites, Posts and now SMS messaging. And Google only needs uptake on one of them to get a chance to sell Adwords Express.”

Latest Posts

Life After Patch: Finding Success in Community Publishing as a One-Person Operation

Share this:

Two years ago, Aol’s sale of Patch to Hale Global prompted a number of the company’s former editors to found their own independent sites. Michael Dinan, who had held major Patch posts in suburban Connecticut, was one of them. In this Q & A, we see how he and NewCanaanite.com are faring.

5 Steps to Identifying the Channel Partners That Will Grow Your Business

Share this:

It’s no surprise they call the golden rule of channel sales the 90/10 rule where 90% of the sales are going to come from 10% of your partners. The best approach to this problem is to come up with frameworks you can use to focus on those most likely to end up in the winner bucket.

Street Fight Daily: Gannett Acquires Jersey Papers, Walmart Responds to Apple Pay

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Gannett Buys the Bergen Record and Other New Jersey Papers… Walmart’s Answer to Apple Pay is Now Available in All Walmart Stores… Used-Car Mobile Marketplace, Shift, Launches…

Super Retailers Face Super Location Data Problems

Share this:

Managing location data across hundreds and thousands of locations requires dedicated resources to scale the data and change it. Just as importantly, a business must treat location data as a competitive asset, organized and managed like inventory.

7 Ways Booking Platforms Can Utilize Location Technology

Share this:

Booking vendors use location technology to personalize and streamline the online scheduling experience for consumers. This, in turn, benefits the businesses that use these platforms because it makes their clients more likely to schedule more frequent appointments.

Street Fight Daily: Angie’s List Strikes Paywall, Google Maps Enables SMB Discovery

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Angie’s List is Now Free, and What That Means for SMBs and Local Search… Google Maps Makes It Easier to Find Local Businesses On Your Route… Square and Facebook Serve Up Offline Attribution for an Ohio Eatery…

Why Enterprise Marketers Are Such an Elusive Market

Share this:

A new report based on insights collected from 200 executives at some of the biggest brands and retailers, reveals a lingering preference for traditional media over digital. But it offers a glimmer of hope where it shines a light on the pain points that are keeping digital from realizing its full potential with enterprise marketers…

Is Google Shrinking the Local Pack?

Share this:

The reduction of local search real estate represents a huge challenge to marketers, who must work even harder to ensure their clients’ listings can compete in a shrinking field. It also suggests that a strategy combining organic and paid efforts is becoming ever more important.

10 Reasons That On-Demand Services Fail

Share this:

Hundreds of startups have flooded the market with “Uber for X” models in the past few years, but the landscape in 2016 is filled with just as many failures as successes. We asked some of those that have found success to map out the potential pitfalls that they and other have encountered along the way.

Street Fight Daily: Amazon Boosts Alexa Ordering, What Businesses Need to Know About Chatbots

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Shipping Could Be the Next Billion-Dollar Opportunity for E-Commerce Retailers… Survey Says Most Businesses Already Use the Internet of Things… Startups Should Be Watching as the Supreme Court Decides Samsung versus Apple…