Commentary
Big Data and Local Search: The Netflix Precedent
We’ve entered an era when product decisions can be made not by analysis of demographics or user testing but by extremely fine-tuned measurements of current user activities. For local search, the question becomes just how many of our passive online activities can be converted into data points to be examined for purposes of marketing and product development?
Why Mom-and-Pops Will No Longer Pay for ‘Social Media Management’
The social media hype bubble has burst, and most very small businesses have not realized their ROI in social media. They’re not willing to pay my company — or anyone else — hundreds of dollars a month to market their company on Facebook or Twitter. Instead they are diverting those dollars to pay per click options, SEO, optimizing their websites for conversion and mobile, or targeted local media advertising…
Survey ‘Paywalls’ May Not Be as Good as They Sound for Local Media
While surveys may be a good source of revenue, it’s not a long-term solution for local news sites:There is an inherent supply-and-demand issue — not very different from the one that arises with online display ads. As more and more publishers adopt Google Consumer Surveys, Google can begin dropping its publisher payout because it has enough supply…
Latest Posts
6 Tools Publishers Can Use to Monetize Their Business Directories
directoryHyperlocal publishers are frequently on the lookout for new ways to generate revenue from their sites, and one of the most straightforward revenue diversification strategies involves launching a business directory. Here are six tools that publishers can use to monetize business directories on their hyperlocal sites…
Street Fight Daily: Airbnb Eyes Travel, Square Goes After Grubhub
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…. Airbnb Looks Beyond Flat-Sharing to Tickets and Travel (Financial Times)… Square Branches Out Into Food Ordering With New Square Order Service (TheNextWeb)… Foursquare goes Oprah: You’re a mayor and you’re a mayor (Engadget)…
Why One Investor Thinks Foursquare Has a Future in Ad Tech
Add this to the interesting-but-never-going-to-happen suggestion box for Foursquare: ditch the consumer business altogether. Nihal Mehta, a New York-based entrepreneur-turned-investor, thinks that Foursquare might find a bigger business by bailing on its local search ambition to put its algorithm to work as an attribution product for mobile advertising…
Openings and New Hires at Mono Solutions, Google, Connectivity & Cxense
Every two weeks, Search Influence’s Kelly Benish — who knows practically everyone in hyperlocal — covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s edition, new hires and jobs at Haystak Digital Marketing, Angie’s List, Local Yokel Media, Mediative and hibu…
Street Fight Daily: Intuit Makes Another Acquisition, Square Rival Raises $50M
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technologyIntuit Buys Lettuce Apps For $30M To Add Inventory And Order Management To Quickbooks (TechCrunch)… Square Rival iZettle Receives Capital Injection From Group of Investors (Wall Street Journal)… Months Before CEO Shakeup, Leaf Investor Took Control of Startup (Xconomy)…
Case Study: Golf Club Brings Back Deal Buyers With Rewards Program
In her role as manager at Southern Pines Golf Club, Elaine Millar is responsible for the digital marketing strategy for the 18-hole course. Millar uses her rewards program as a promotional tool to keep the customers she gains through local deal sites coming back for future visits after their promotions have been redeemed…
Street Fight Daily: Square’s Alleged Saboteur, Google Buys Website Builder
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Sequoia’s $12B Man Says Someone With ‘Axe to Grind’ is After Square (Upstart)… Google Gobbles Up Restaurant Startup (Wall Street Journal)… Uber Launches uberFAMILY, a Pilot Service in NYC That Uses Cars With Child Seats (TheNextWeb)…
What’s in a Swarm? Making Sense of Foursquare’s Split
It’s hard to envision now, but it could be that a decoupled discovery and recommendation service will be just what Foursquare needs to scale its dataset beyond entertainment and to encourage users to improve the quality and accuracy of venue information. These developments would turn Foursquare into a viable competitor to data aggregators like Infogroup and possibly to Google Maps itself…
Street Fight Daily: Google Maps Adds Uber, Square Expands Partnerships
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Maps On Mobile Gets Uber Integration And More (TechCrunch)… Square Partners With Inventory Tracking Service Stitch Labs (Fortune)… New Google Now Feature Aims at Amazon (Wall Street Journal)…
Street Fight’s Big 3
Street Fight Columns
Street Fight Categories
Why TV Remains the Heartbeat of Local Connection