News and Analysis
Street Culture: Pointy’s Collaborative Culture Grows Without Written Values
In one year, digital search company Pointy has grown from 13 to about 30 employees, moved into a new office, and seen significant growth in its product, which allows retailers to publishes their inventories online, attracting potential customers nearby. What hasn’t changed much is the company’s culture, says co-founder Mark Cummins.
Street Fight Daily: Buyers Lag on Mobile Programmatic, The Turn to Video Goes Multichannel
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… When It Comes to Mobile Programmatic, Buyers Are Behind… B2B Marketers Turn to Shorter Videos Across Many Channels to Engage Millennial Buyers… A Year After Amazon Devoured Whole Foods, Rivals Pursue Countermoves…
Commentary
6 Strategies for Patching Up Patch
To meet the promise he made to shareholders, AOL’s chief executive Tim Armstrong is in the process of cutting staff and other costs at Patch in the hopes that his network of hyperlocal sites will be profitable by the end of 2013. But just making short-term cuts to hit profitability might not be the optimum choice. Patch also has to plant seedlings for mid- and long-term benefits that the company can reap 6-12 months from now…
Local Search Needs a Standard Business Listing
Search engines are the preferred medium for local search — Moz’s David Mihm estimated that about 7.5 billion searches a month have local intent — and business listing information is the foundation on which these local queries are served. Whether you’re a listing publisher, data aggregator, consumer or local business, a verifiable business listing that complies with a standard will help everyone win in local search…
Are We Giving Google Too Much Information?
While certain groups complain about certain content on the Web, the real danger is always found in that which is not seen, hidden in plain sight within the language that builds that which we can see. Google is the absolute master of doing business where it’s not seen, and I’ve reached the point where I think it’s time we all said “enough.”
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Moves Against Click Bait, Location Tracking Widespread
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Takes Steps Against ‘Click Bait’ Articles (New York Times)… For Sale: Systems That Can Secretly Track Where Cellphone Users Go Around The Globe (WashingtonPost)… Uber CEO Pounces on DUI Arrest of California Lawmaker (Wall Street Journal)…
How Marketers Can Use Mobile to Shape a Back-to-School Strategy
It’s that time of year again — time to get ready for school. This presents marketers with a huge opportunity to implement a back-to-school strategy, especially when it comes to mobile. According to a new report from Thinknear, 40% of customers spend at least an hour planning for back-to-school shopping on mobile…
The Art of Local Marketing: Becoming Selfie-Aware
The jury is still out on the new Foursquare’s scalability and I’ve grown to like it. But it’s no Yelp killer. For one thing, Yelp has 1000+ local ad sales reps — one of its biggest and most underrated assets. I’ve long been bullish on Yelp for that and other reasons. And in the past month, a few things have shed more light on Yelp’s potential direction…
Street Fight Daily: Amazon’s Local Ambition, The On-Demand Obsession
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Predicting Amazon’s Secret Plans in Physical Retail (Recode)… On-Demand Beauty Apps Are on the Rise (Wall Street Journal)… Airbnb To Reveal Names Of 124 Hosts To New York’s Attorney General (Fortune)
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Case Study: QSR Chain Drives Revenue With Hyperlocal Tools
When it comes to selecting which hyperlocal platforms he’ll adopt at Mixt Greens, co-founder David Silverglide is clear on what he’s looking for: “It needs to be driving incremental revenue. It can’t just be trying to siphon off our existing customer base in a different way, or shifting them to a new platform…”
Streets Ahead: Google Chat, and Instagram Reels