News and Analysis

SMB Index Declines Slightly Over the Course of a Volatile June

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June was a volatile month in the public markets, which saw the SurePath SMB Index give back 1.1%, after climbing 7.9% in May. Web.com led last month’s winners, leading the index with 31.5% growth in market cap following news of an acquisition offer.

In Case You Missed It: Facebook Axed a Post on This Founding U.S. Document Last Week

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The anniversary of its home country’s birth was not without incident for Facebook, which attracted attention for automatically striking down a post, flagged as hate speech, containing the words of the Declaration of Independence.

Google Faces Heat After Automated Threat to Shut Down a Cloud Client’s Project

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This week’s tech giant in hot water? Google, whose abuse-prevention system apparently shut down and threatened to delete a Cloud client’s project in three days due to perceived misdoing on the client’s part.

Commentary

Should Hyperlocal Publishers Accept Barter Deals?

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Most of the better known hyperlocal sites we contacted told us they didn’t do trade or barter, and they didn’t want to talk about it on the record. In Dallas, hyperlocal pioneer Mike Orren said people don’t talk about it because they don’t want to attract the attention of auditors, or they don’t want competitors to know that they’ll do barter. He agreed, however, that trade is “absolutely viable” for independents…

Gauging Hummingbird’s Impact on Local SEO

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Standardization of data structure on simple things like name-address-phone number (NAP) information, mapping, local business category, organization (micro-formats) are now starting to pick up steam and become increasingly important for local search and discovery. Now with Hummingbird, things are about to get even more interesting…

In Search of the Checkout Pixel for Local

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Until recently, the “last mile” offline had been considered the most challenging step to solve for. But today, it’s increasingly where most of the action is happening. Consideration starts online, but picking up the sushi or the TV, or getting the bridal party fitted, occurs offline — and that involves not just more steps, but also more room for attribution. What was opaque previously is now fertile ground. The race is underway to plant flags at every step and, to make things interesting, with each flag planted consumer behavior is changing…

Latest Posts

Why Entrepreneurial Publishing is Catching Fire in Local Digital

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Traditional journalistic publishing models are collapsing right before our eyes as entrepreneurs — often with no standard journalistic background — are starting highly innovative and financially promising community news websites in many metro markets. In this Q & A, the University of Florida’s Randy Bennett explains how and why this new model of publishing is starting to replace the old models exemplified by the corporate businesses of “legacy” newspapers and broadcasters…

Should Local Advertising be Bracing Itself for On-Demand?

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For the local advertising industry, which is still withstanding ripples with its shift from print to digital, why not look ahead to on-demand? Just because expectations among SMB owners have been conditioned towards moderate turnaround doesn’t mean an SMB wouldn’t be absolutely thrilled to have their newly purchased website and SEM package running tomorrow instead of next month…

LBMA Podcast: Live From SM2 With Nestle, Mobiquity and Factual

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On the show: We are LIVE from SM2 in New York City so this is a unique episode for us. We cover the top two stories of the week which are Shopkick selling to SK Telecom and PayPal’s partnership with Samsung for wearable payments. We also have four live guests…

Street Fight Daily: Groupon Goes After Groceries, Google’s ‘Physical Web’

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…With New App, Groupon Goes After Grocery Deals (New York Times)… Google Reveals ‘The Physical Web,’ A Project To Make Internet Of Things Interaction App-Less (TechCrunch)… Here’s The Evidence That Google’s Search Results Are Horribly Biased (Business Insider)…

How to Maintain a Rational Social Marketing Strategy in a Confusing Landscape

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Small business owners may find themselves perplexed by the variety of opportunities to engage socially with consumers. Of course, it would be premature to suggest that any SMB needs an Ello marketing strategy. But there’s an advantage to be gained in keeping your marketing strategy attuned to the groups actively pursuing interests relevant to your business…

Conference Notebook: Location Is an Obvious Asset for Trulia

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At the Mobile Marketing Association’s 2014 SM2 Conference Wednesday, marketers from some of the nation’s largest brands talked about the evolving role of location in their marketing mix and the challenges in balancing an appetite for new technologies with the needs of an existing brand…

Street Fight Daily: Gannett Buys Rest of Cars.com, Angie’s List Struggles

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Gannett Buys the Rest of Cars.com for $1.8 Billion (Businessweek)… Why Angie’s List Is In Trouble (Time)… PayPal Taps an Outsider to Push It Into a New Era (New York Times)…

After Spinoff, ReachLocal Founders Relaunch ClubLocal as Serviz

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Late last year, ReachLocal founders Michael Kline and Zorik Gordon parted ways with the company and spun off a still-nascent local commerce project, ClubLocal, that both helped develop. Today, the long-time executives have relaunched the project as Serviz, an application that builds on many of the services core functionality….

Conference Notebook: Toyota Motors Turns to Location Targeting on Mobile

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It’s Advertising Week in New York, and that means the marketers from around the world come together to talk shop, make deals, and blow off some steam. At the Mobile Marketing Association’s 2014 SM2 Conference Tuesday, marketers from some of the nation’s largest brands talked about the evolving role of location in their marketing mix…

Street Fight Daily: News Corp Buys Move.com, Angie’s List Mulls Sale

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyRupert Murdoch Wants to Sell You Your Next Home (Time)… A Report Says Angie’s List Might Sell Itself And Now Its Stock Is Surging (Business Insider)… The Real Reason PayPal Isn’t an Apple Pay Preferred Partner (BankInnovation)…