News and Analysis
Google Testing Restaurant Booking, Foreshadowing Ever Tighter Grip on Local Commerce
The news is an important signal that local-commerce options like Reserve with Google will get sleeker and more dominant in the years to come. And it calls to mind a crucial local-search debate: Will Google SERPs and the many options for engagement with local brick-and-mortars on them effectively supplant the local business website as the crucial interface for interacting with customers?
Cannabis Retailer Uses Tech to Boost Employee Morale
Old-school companies hosted picnics and holiday parties to keep their employees happy, but tech-focused startups in the cannabis industry are taking a decidedly more sophisticated approach.
6 Lead-Generation Platforms for Local Businesses
More than a quarter of consumers say they use the internet to find local businesses every day, and yet a whopping 29% of small businesses still don’t have websites. Here are six examples of lead-generation platforms that small businesses are using right now.
Commentary
Can Facebook Win Local?
Facebook is known universally for its social networking features, but the company has quietly but consistently been rolling out a set of tools to make it the go-to platform for SMBs. From social buy buttons, call functionality, and Pages to messaging and free beacons, Facebook is staking its claim to online, offline, and online-to-offline marketing and commerce for SMBs.
INFOGRAPHIC: The Complex SMB Marketing Ecosystem 2.0
As the head of digital strategy for a broadcaster operating local TV stations, Lorren Elkins has been challenged to clearly understand the digital marketing space from an SMB perspective. In response, he developed an interactive chart, now in its second iteration, to both enhance his own understanding and assist SMBs in identifying potential suppliers.
Online Reviews Providing Insights That Help Brands Compete
The evidence is in. Reviews on social media have a material impact on the capital investments made by nationwide brands. The key is strength in numbers: A national brand will be more likely to have the critical mass of reviews required in order to move beyond anecdotal evidence and glean statistically significant results.
Latest Posts
Why Selling to Partners and Resellers Is Never a Straight Path
Media companies are constantly bombarded by digital product and ad tech platform companies vying for consideration. Getting the attention of reseller and partner decision makers requires a clear understanding of their business challenges.
Beacons Reaching Millennial Moms — But Are They Motivating Them to Buy?
A new report from beacon proximity platform inMarket indicates that millennial moms in the U.S are getting the beacon message — literally — with more than 38 percent (or 3.4 million out of 9 million) actively using beacon-enabled apps every month.
Street Fight Daily: Yelp’s Struggles Continue, New App Bizibid Wants to Boost Local Economies
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Traffic Could Decline for the First Time Ever After Google Changed its Search Algorithm (Business Insider)… What Would Happen If Uber, Priceline, and Craigslist Had a Baby? (New York Observer)… Microsoft’s Tossup App Makes it Easier to Meet Your Friends for Lunch (The Verge)…
What Merchants Need to Know About Apple Pay and Loyalty Apps
Having provided a window into the future of Apple Pay and Wallet, Apple recently left small businesses wondering about how to adapt their mobile strategies to stay competitive. Here’s how the changes could affect merchants.
Local News Sites Need More Than Funding — They Need Vision
Community news vet Steven Waldman has produced “Report for America,” a brisk blueprint to save what he calls “civically important” news. But if publishers are really going to save local news, they should work on deepening their focus on the demographic shifts in their communities…
Street Fight Daily: Buy Buttons’ Impact, 7-Eleven Launches One-Hour Delivery
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… New, Simple ‘Buy’ Buttons Aim to Entice Mobile Shoppers (New York Times)… Twitter Introduces New Audience Insights for Brands (Twitter)… 7-Eleven Launches One-Hour Delivery in US (RetailWeek)…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Sale Stalls, Twitter’s New Ads Button
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Sale Process to Stall as Founder Decides to Wait (Bloomberg)… Twitter Pushes Ads With A New Button Atop Mobile Users’ Profiles (TechCrunch)… An Argument that Newspapers are Missing Out on Reaching Loyal, Local Digital Audiences (NiemanLab)…
Square Launches Payroll, Expanding Suite of Services for Small Businesses
As part of its push to become a comprehensive platform for small businesses, Square has launched a new payroll management service. The product is targeted particularly at SMBs that pay employees on an hourly basis, but it can also be used for those that have salaried staff.
Openings & New Hires at Lyft, Yext, Twitter, Uber, Invoca & more
In this week’s column, Twitter sees more high-level departures; Yext brings on a CMO from Salesforce; Lyft acquihires; Uber gets Bing employees; Invoca names a new CEO; and more. Find out what’s behind the moves…
LBMA Podcast: PayPal and Uber, Foursquare’s Mayor Mea Culpa
On the show: tools, services and technologies that will make your summer vacation better – no babysitting included. Stories about: Google Photos; the KeepTrax app; Google’s Sidewalk Labs; Trending places on Instagram; Samsung’s safety truck; and the Space Case 1
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem