News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Brands Wise Up About Location Tech, Google’s Exchange Bidding Exits Beta

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Brands Are Getting More Sophisticated at Using Location Data… Google’s Answer to Header Bidding Is Now Generally Available… Instacart Raises Another $150 Million…

Toys ‘R’ Us Foot Traffic Analysis Reveals Challenges in Smaller Markets

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The results of a new foot traffic analysis conducted by the location data firm Factual reveal that Toys “R” Us’ demise, while partly attributable to Amazon’s strength, could just as easily be blamed on stiff competition from within the brick-and-mortar retail market.

Street Fight Daily: Mobile Payments on the Rise, Facebook Use Unaffected By Scandal

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Use of Mobile Payments Up 30%… Facebook Hasn’t Felt ‘Any Meaningful Impact’ As Result of Scandal… How NBC Is Giving Partners the Most Comprehensive Understanding of Their Ad Exposures…

Commentary

Ex-Patch EIC: Journatic Illustrates Cost/Quality Issue in Hyperlocal

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If I were to prescribe Journatic a fix for this recent ailment (beyond, you know, not faking bylines anymore), it would be to show a real investment in journalism, in all senses of that word. We get that you’re “-atic” — cost savvy and operationally slick. How bout showing everyone you can also be “Journo”, and slow down and do some meaningful work? It might be money well spent…

Why Loyalty Programs Are Broken — And How to Fix Them

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The customer loyalty vertical is red-hot. Startups from Silicon Valley to Chicago are working hard to innovate in this area, and, in so doing, are revolutionizing the way brick-and-mortar businesses do business. But startups need to look beyond the simple punch-card model and expand their loyalty products to include features that will effectively influence customer behavior…

The Five Fundamentals of Deals Success for Local Media Companies

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Many local media companies have not structured their daily deals programs appropriately or put the necessary resources behind them. While there is no silver bullet to guaranteed deals success, we have used our experience working with more than 400 local media companies to develop a model that breaks down the five most important factors to creating a successful deals program…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: FoodPanda Raises $20M, Millennials Drive Mobile Bookings

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Foodpanda Gobbles Up $20M In Fresh Funding To Fatten Its Global Pawprint (TechCrunch)… How User Reviews Are Gutting Brands (MediaPost)… Last-Minute Millennials Drive Mobile Bookings, So Make it Easy (Skift)…

Is Guest Blogging Dead? Focus on These Link Building Strategies Instead

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While guest blogging used to be a respected link building practice – and still might be okay in some instances – it is now often considered a violation of Google’s quality guidelines. And in the future, Google could penalize websites that accept guest posts if Google believes the business is attempting to gain links without truly earning them. Instead of placing all of your eggs in the guest blogging basket, it is best to focus on authentic link building. Here’s how…

How Merchants Can Create a Comprehensive Strategy for Mobile

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Building a mobile-optimized website is certainly a starting point, but it’s far from the last step a local merchant needs to take when developing a comprehensive mobile strategy. Although small business owners tend to be more interested in mobile than outsiders give them credit for, it’s the process of combining those solutions to create a comprehensive strategy that trips many merchants up. Here are six tips for local merchants who are interested in putting together mobile strategies for their businesses…

Street Fight Daily: LivingSocial Posts $183M Loss, Airbnb Considers Cleaning Service

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.LivingSocial Posts $183M Loss in 2013 (Washington Business Journal)… Airbnb Is Testing Out An Affordable Cleaning Service For Hosts In San Francisco (TechCrunch)… In Defamation Lawsuit Over Yelp Reviews, Neither Side Wins (Washington Post)…

Local Marketing in a Post-Mobile World

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An explosion in connected devices is forcing marketers to quickly move beyond mobile and address a new set of multi-device marketing challenges. We recently caught up with Sean Muzzy, chief executive North America at Neo@Ogilvy, to take his pulse on brand marketers’ interest in local, and explore how an explosion in connected devices might shape the way businesses communicate with consumers in the real-world…

Openings & New Hires at Moz, YP, Kenshoo, and Telenav

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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 jobs at Trending.info, Internet Marketing Ninjas, VendAsta, AOL, and Daily Press…

LBMA Podcast: Google Glass on the Floor

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On the show: soon your food will text you its expiry date; The Wireless Registry launches; Source Metrics connects online ads with offline buys; Nearbytes lets you pay by sound; Banjo 4.0 hits the street; Ricoh plays catch up with Clickable Paper. And our Mobile Minute with Chuck Martin highlights some store traffic research by Euclid…

Foursquare

Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Teams With Seamless, Lawsuit Questions Square Story

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Foursquare Can Now Satisfy Your Appetite At Home With Integrated Seamless And GrubHub Ordering (Pando)… Lawsuit Questions Square’s Start-Up Story (New York Times)… PayPal Wants Role in Apple’s Mobile Payments Dreams (Recode)…

New England-based GoLocal Expands With New Site in Portland, Oregon

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Portland will be GoLocal’s third entry into a mid-sized market with a struggling legacy newspaper. Josh Fenton co-founded the first GoLocal in Providence, Rhode Island’s capital, four years ago, and expanded to Worcester in Central Massachusetts two years later. The two sites currently generate 7.5 million pageviews per month…

Sheepshead Bites Founder: If You Meet the Market’s Needs, It’ll Meet Yours

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Event sponsorships are becoming a double-digit percentage of revenue among some news sites in local digital. At independent hyperlocal news site Sheepshead Bites in Southern Brooklyn, publisher Ned Berke looks at event sponsorships from a wider perspective as he explains in this Q & A on how his six-year-old site is performing…