News and Analysis

ThriveHive Upgrades Grader Product with Conversational UI, Brings David Mihm Aboard

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Just one month after ThriveHive released a product to help small business owners navigate the creation and maintenance of their Google My Business profiles, the company is making some substantial changes to its diagnostic solution.

Relevnt Aims to Integrate Local and Social Media on Community-Based Website

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Local and social media, produced by individuals and news sites alike, have a new place to hang out, and it’s called Relevnt. Launched late last year, the app “is like Yelp meets Reddit for social media,” said Winder Hughes, the company’s CEO and founder.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Releases Attribution Tool, The Cutting Edge of E-Commerce: People-Based ID

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TODAY IN LOCAL & DIGITAL MARKETING AND MEDIA… Facebook Attribution Now Available to All Advertisers… Biggest Tech Trend for eCommerce in 2019: People-Based Identity… Privacy, Accuracy Hinder Voice Commands…

Commentary

Local Publishers: Take Back Control of Your Brand

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The announcement of the Digital News Initiative partnership with Google is yet another step backwards for publishers. If they would just consider how they operated their own platforms before the 1990’s they will realize that Google, Facebook and other current tech platforms owe them nothing.

Local Tech Businesses Diversify to Serve a Wider Range of SMB Needs — But Do They Really Know Their Customers?

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In the rush to diversify their offerings, single-product local tech companies either move horizontally (reaching out to all the markets that could remotely utilize their product) or, more often, vertically (seeking to cater to all the nuanced needs of a niche market).

Small Businesses Aren’t Afraid of Amazon — And You Shouldn’t Be Either

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Yes, Amazon is a giant. But as long as you continue to innovate and keep your hand on the pulse of independent business needs, it’s not going to kill your business. Here’s why.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: New Google Search Ads, Pinterest Adds Buy Button

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Search Ads Get A Lot Sexier With Sharp, Gorgeous Photos (Mashable)… Pinterest Launches the Buy Button (Recode)… Instagram to Open Its Photo Feed to Ads (New York Times)…

#SFSW15: How Partnerships are Driving the Next Generation of Delivery

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During a session at Street Fight Summit West in San Francisco Tuesday, executives from grocery ordering firm Instacart, food delivery startup DoorDash, and local logistics play Postmates came together to discuss the future of delivery.

#SFSW15: Inside the Local Services Land Grab

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The local service industry has exploded in recent years as investors pour billion into companies creating new ways for consumer to transact with plumbers, painters and other service professionals. But even today, service professionals still rely mostly on word of mouth to find leads and get new jobs.

#SFSW15: How Pinterest, Twitter and Nextdoor Think About SMBs

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A new generation of social media giants are betting big on Main Street. During the morning session of Street Fight Summit West in San Francisco, representatives from Twitter, Pinterest, and Nextdoor discussed programs designed to engage small businesses within local communities for future generations of the web.

Why Cross-Device Matching Will Transform the Mobile Advertising Industry

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Soon, the mobile ad industry will face one of the realities of maturity: integrating with the rest of the digital advertising world. One of the drivers leading that convergence is cross-device matching where a company can identify multiple devices own by a single person.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Replaces Local TV, Small Retailers Ignore Search

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Pew Study: When It Comes to Political News, Facebook has Become Local TV for Millennials (Nieman Lab)… SMB Retailers Love Digital Media, But Have Disconnects With Paid Search (MediaPost)… Urbanspoon Folds Into Zomato Following Acquisition (TechCrunch)…

With New ‘Deep Linking’ Integration, You Can Now Order an Uber via Foursquare

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Local recommendations platform Foursquare is debuting a fresh set of these so-called “deep links,” with an integration through smart-connection platform Button that will allow users that develop intent to visit a nearby venue to seamlessly order an Uber cab to take them there…

How to Assess Demand for a Hyperlocal Platform

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Here are five examples of ways that hyperlocal vendors have assessed demand for their products or services and used that information to better refine the platforms they developed…

Street Fight Daily: Apple’s Mystery Mapping Vans, Google’s Other Payment Play

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Mystery Solved: Apple Vans gathering Next-Gen Maps Data, Grabbing Street View Storefronts and 3D images (9to5 Mac)… Google’s Other Mobile Payments Service: Hands Free at McDonald’s (Wall Street Journal)… Dave Morin Sells Path’s Social Networking And Messaging Services To Prevent The Rest Of The Path Ship From Sinking (Pando)…

Studies Find More SMBs Want to Manage Their Own Social Media

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There is compelling evidence that SMBs’ understanding and aptitude for social media is growing. More importantly, it seems that a significant number of SMBs want and may be ready to take the reins of their social media marketing.