News and Analysis

AT&T Says It Will Stop Selling Location Data as Practice Comes Under Greater Scrutiny

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AT&T announced late last week that it will stop selling location data, following an investigation from multimedia publication Motherboard indicating that a bounty hunter (yes, bounty hunter) equipped with a few hundred bucks and a phone number can track down the phone’s owner within a couple blocks’ radius. Verizon and T-Mobile joined AT&T in saying they would soon wind down any remaining location-data sharing deals.

This Solution Showcases the Future of Collecting Customer Feedback at POS

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Online reviews are one of the hot trends in local, reshaping how brick-and-mortar businesses stand out when trying to attract nearby customers. Tapping into the local Zeitgeist in a different use case, TruRating and GK Software are integrating their tech to allow businesses to garner feedback from their customers at the point of sale.

New Hires at TripleLift, Nintex, and S4

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Every two weeks, our jobs columnist Geoff Michener provides a roundup of the latest hires in the digital marketing and media ecosystems. This week’s edition also includes new hires in the roles of SVP of product, board members, and chief product officer.

Commentary

Is Uber Paving the Way Toward Verified Consumer Reviews?

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In an atmosphere where fake reviews are all too easy to create, we need tools that help distinguish real opinions from garbage. Moving beyond the limitations of data algorithms, fact-based approaches hold out the promise of grounding review services in observable truth.

For Brick and Mortar to Beat Ecommerce, It Takes Mind, Body, and Spirit

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While many onlookers think that increased comparison shopping, faster and cheaper delivery options like drones, and the convenience of shopping at home equal doom for physical stores, the reality is that the economy (like the people behind it) is largely driven by the irrational.

As Local Search Behavior Evolves, Marketing Spending Will Follow

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Merchants and marketers have to be findable and present useful information regardless of the searcher’s context. And that’s where the mechanics of local search marketing get messy. It feels like a great opportunity for tools and managed services that help break down those silos, and measure effectiveness across or between them.

Latest Posts

Is Local a Specialist or a Full-Service Game?

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Local startups have reached a tipping point — go big, or go home. The fifth annual Street Fight Summit on Oct. 20th in NYC will explore the shifting local landscape. Conversations will look at the future of beacons, retail marketing, the changing programmatic landscape, and the nascent battle in mobile.

The Same, Only More So: Apple Introduces Comprehensive Refresh of Mobile, Wearables and TV

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If there is a specifically local business implication to the new products and services, it lies in this deeper level of integration with a more mobile world, where the nimbleness of apps (think computing lite) gives everyone the ability to customize and communicate on the fly.

Street Fight Daily: Analyzing Yesterday’s Apple Event, Square Plans Q4 IPO

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Same, Only More So: Apple Introduces Comprehensive Refresh of Mobile, Wearables, and TV (Street Fight)… Square Said to Seek Fourth-Quarter IPO as Twitter Decision Looms (Bloomberg)… It’s Not ‘Winner-Take-All’ for Uber or Lyft, Says the Only Investor in Both (Business Insider)…

Swipely CEO: We Want to Provide the Operating Platform That Restaurants Run On

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“If you’re not going to fundamentally improve the guest experience, then there’s really no motivation for either the consumer to change the way that they’re buying in the restaurant or for the merchant to replace the operating practices they have,” said Swipely CEO Angus Davis about mobile payments.

Street Culture: YP Hits ‘Refresh’ Button on Employee Connections

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Changing a deep-seated corporate culture takes time. Just ask YP, where renewed internal communications, education and community-building efforts have paid off in a big way.

Street Fight Daily: Google Will Test Grocery Delivery, How Facebook’s Pages Update Affects SMBs

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Becomes a Rival to Amazon to Deliver Your Fresh Fruits and Veggies (Mashable)… Facebook Update Means More Shopping Pages Are on the Way (Recode)… Amazon Launches a Food Delivery Service Via Prime Now, Starting in Seattle (TechCrunch)…

The Not-So-Low-Hanging Fruit: Why the Local Market Remains Elusive

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“The great challenge of winning the local market boils down to balancing sufficient reach and scale with specificity,” writes Noah Elkin, who is joining Street Fight today as managing editor. “It turns out thinking globally and acting locally isn’t always easy — as a consumer or a marketer.”

M&A Report: A Long, Hard Look at Loyalty Programs

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Loyalty encompasses more than just promotions and punchcards. Tech companies that connect the data dots and create meaningful, accurate consumer personas that explain why we as consumers are loyal to a brand (not a promotion) should be able to parlay that information into new revenue per customer.

Case Study: Bay Area Café Opts for Full-Service Social Management

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Keeping on top of the endless stream of reviews posted on Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, and TripAdvisor each day can be time-consuming for a busy small business owner. Responding to negative reviews can be emotionally draining, as well, so Brian Wilson decided to take another route.

Street Fight Daily: Uber’s Big E-commerce Push, Amazon’s Restaurants Division Hires Staff

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Report: Uber to Begin E-commerce Deliveries Soon (The Next Web)… Amazon Hiring Staff for New Restaurant Division in Seattle, New York (Recode)… Once-Troubled Hyperlocal News Brand Patch Expands to Austin; Here’s the How and Why (Austin Business Journal)…