News and Analysis
Influenster Launches Solution to Help Brands Leverage Organic Reviews
In a bid to help retailers take advantage of the growth in user-generated reviews, the product discovery and reviews platform Influenster recently launched its own service to continuously supply organic, non-incentivized reviews to brand and retail websites like Walgreens, Target, and Bloomingdales.
Blaze Pizza Leverages Mobile App, Instagram, Events to Entice and Keep Customers
Blaze Pizza has branded itself as the on-the-go pizza option for millennials. In-app mobile ordering, location technology, and a focus on partnering with local franchise owners who know their neighborhoods have allowed Blaze to maintain a robust loyalty program and keep its customers coming back.
Commentary
Is Facebook Local’s Waking Giant?
“Google is the best advertising product in the history of the world… because it’s like advertising at a store,” Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget said recently. “Facebook, meanwhile, is like advertising at a party.” But despite Google’s user-side advantages here, Facebook could have an edge in SMB engagement…
How Press Association Ad Networks Can Help Newspapers Compete Online
One would think that the Internet would help ad networks from state press and newspaper associations operate with even greater efficiency, but these groups are only in the early stages online. Still they are well-positioned to help increase CPMs and provide a way for newspapers to ensure that their ad inventory is always sold at a set value…
Information Wants to Be Free, but Local Data Is Currency
The sizable overlap between consumer-generated information and enterprise control is experienced every day in the world of local search.Though few local search companies could exist without licensed data, once that data gets inside their walls, it becomes a foundation upon which consumer-generated data adds value to a service…
Latest Posts
Street Fight Daily: LevelUp Eyes ‘Zero Interchange,’ Zuckerberg on Graph Search
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… LevelUp Thinks It Has Found A Way To Charge Merchants A 0% Credit Card Processing Fee (Business Insider)… Zuckerberg: Facebook Graph Search Is ‘A Five-Year Thing’ (SearchEngineLand)… Seamless Delivers Tips Agreement (WSJ)…
In Run-Up to IPO, Yodle Makes Its Bet on Local Marketing Automation
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that local marketing firm Yodle was shopping for banks to underwrite a potential public offering. In an interview with Street Fight, Court Cunningham, chief executive at Yodle, declined to comment on the reports, but talked about the the evolution of the small business marketing space, the rise of local marketing automation, and the subsequent push by these companies to bundle services into an integrated product…
Microsoft Research Project Tells You What a Neighborhood Is Thinking
HereHere, which launched earlier this year, profiles the 42 neighborhoods in New York City by collecting publicly available 311 data to reveal the most talked-about issues in the boroughs. By entering their zip code, a user can interact with an animated map displaying the neighborhood’s statuses, seeing updates like “delighted” or “uncomfortable.”
Street Fight Daily: Twitter Buys Gnip, Google Developing Microcamera Contact Lens
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 
Twitter Embraces Its Data and Buys Gnip (GigaOm)… Google’s Microcamera Contact Lens Is Coming to an Eyeball Near You (Time)… Seeking Growth, The Payments Industry Embraces New Technologies (TechCrunch)…
Facebook’s Levy: ‘No Singular Event’ Triggered Decline in Businesses’ Organic Reach
According to multiple reports, the social networking company has “slashed organic page reach,” reducing the number of users which can see a business’s photos, posts, and updates. In a wide ranging interview with Street Fight, Dan Levy, director of small business at Facebook, talks about the decline organic reach for businesses, the evolving relationship between marketer and consumer, and the company’s unique challenge of managing 25 million business clients…
7 Tools for Re-activating Dormant Customers
The cost of acquiring a new customer is five times higher than the cost to keep an existing one, which is one of the reasons why businesses of all sizes are beefing up their loyalty programs and using social media to keep fans engaged. But what about customers who’ve fallen off the bandwagon — those whose accounts have gone dormant after not coming in for a period of weeks or months?
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Eyes Mobile Payments, Microsoft Supports Passbook
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Moves Deeper Into Mobile Payments (Financial Times)… Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.1 Update Supports Apple Passbook Passes (TechCrunch)… A Silicon Valley Disater: A 21-Year-Old Stanford Kid Got $30 Million, Then Everything Blew Up (Business Insider) …
The New Patch: One Site’s ‘Entrepreneurial’ Editor on the First 60 Days
Patch, under its new owner Hale Global, is experimenting with new approaches for structuring and operating hyperlocal news sites, which, in general, have a reputation for losing money. One experiment is creating entrepreneurial editor-publishers for sites in the strongest markets. Sixty days into the experiment, longtime reporter Susan Petroni, explains her new dual role at the Framingham, Mass., Patch…
6 Strategies for Maximizing the Effects of Pay-Per-Call Campaigns
Pay-per-call campaigns may not be sexy, but they have proven to be extremely effective for both small businesses and large multi-location organizations. Particularly in “high-value categories” like professional services, home services, travel, insurance, and automotive, phone leads can be more valuable than online clicks or impressions. Here are six strategies that merchants should utilize to maximize the effects of their pay-per-call campaigns…
Street Fight Daily: Google Tracks Offline Purchases, Alibaba Buys Mapping Firm
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Tests a Way to Follow You to the Mall (Wall Street Journal)…. Alibaba to Acquire Chinese Mapping Firm as Buying Spree Continues (New York Times)… Digital First Names David J. Butler Its Editor-in-Chief (Poynter)…
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