News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Ad Tech Facing Day of Judgment in GDPR, Who’s Using Local AR?

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Publishers Say They’ll Use GDPR to Shed Ad Tech Vendors… Smart Speakers Top Phones for Voice Assistance… Cisco Is Acquiring Business Intelligence Startup Accompany for $270M…

Regions Bank Foregrounds the Lives of its Customers on Social With a Local Focus

“We think about our customers’ lives and the big events taking place in their lives. We focus more on the consumer and their needs than the brand and the messages we may want to push out ourselves,” said Regions Bank’s head of social media, Melissa Musgrove.

Street Fight Daily: Regions Localizes Its Social Strategy, Developers Harried by Facebook Changes

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Regions Bank Foregrounds the Lives of its Customers on Social With a Local Focus… Facebook’s Privacy Changes Leave Developers Steaming… Why Marketers Struggle With Data Management…

Commentary

Should Local Publishers Really Try to Morph Into Marketers?

Publishers can make the transition from a publishing company to a marketing solutions company. But to do so is not just about developing a new product offering — it’s a change in the industry they are in. That doesn’t mean they can’t still have a newsroom or produce content. But it does mean content won’t be the focus…

Reputation Management: Making the Connection with Small Businesses

Now that everyone has a timeline of online activities going back several years — one that family members, prospective employers, and potential life partners are looking at and judging us by — we have all become public figures to an extent, and at the same time we’ve had to transform ourselves into hall monitors of our own online activities. So why hasn’t reputation management become a de facto part of every small business marketing plan?

Where Do Business Listings Come From?

At some point in the future, local data must become purely digital, because the phone book will not be around forever. But until a critical mass of U.S. businesses understands the rationale for managing online data, this fundamental problem will continue. We need the concerted effort of all local search players to educate the local business community and advocate for the transition to digital data…

Latest Posts

LBMA Podcast: PlaceIQ, Dwango, Nokia and Blue Bite

On the show: The topt stories during the past week in location and contextual based marketing including stories from Microsoft, Foursquare, Shopcloud, Ryerson, NTT and Dwango, ShopRite and PayNearMe. Our mobile minute with Chuck Martin examines what 77% of consumers want in return for their location data. Our app of the week is Spo.tt Messenger.

Street Fight Daily: Fashion Retailer Tests iBeacon, Local’s Most Innovative Companies

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Fashion Retailer Tries on Apple’s iBeacon for Size (Street Fight)… The World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Local (Fast Coppany)… Uber Car-Hailing App Expands in China’s Congested Market
 (Wall Street Journal)…

5 Tools Merchants Can Use to Serve Targeted Promotional Offers on Twitter

Small business owners know that Twitter can be a useful tool for marketing, but many are unsure of where to begin when it comes to serving up paid promotional offers on the popular social channel. With its own unique language and tools, Twitter is a foreign land to many SMBs. For marketers who take the risk, however, the rewards can be great. A number of hyperlocal vendors are stepping in with platforms that bridge the gap for SMBs looking for more strategic ways to target consumers on Twitter…

As Google Updates Places, Could Some Merchants Find Their Listings Deleted?

Local SEO consultants and service providers offer businesses the peace of mind that comes with knowing someone is watching the forums and industry news in order to act on policy changes and new developments quickly. Given the complexity of local SEO and the fast pace of change, it’s unreasonable to place the onus for listing management solely on the small business owner…

Case Study: Restaurant Chain Uses Loyalty Data to Improve Customer Experience

If sales of a particular menu item seem slow this month, then Lucas Clarke is curious to know why that is. The director of marketing at MAD Greens, a Colorado-based chain of restaurants that specializes in seasonal salads and sandwiches, Clarke uses the data from his company’s card-linked mobile loyalty program to learn about sales trends in real-time…

Street Fight Daily: Square Partners With Whole Foods, Bitcoin Enters the Store

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Square Lands Payments Deal With Whole Foods (Wall Street Journal)… Revel Systems Adds Native Bitcoin Transactions To Its POS Offering (TechCrunch)… Groupon Shares Drop as Executive Plans Departure (Chicago Tribune)…

How Online Reviews and Product Information Are Fundamentally Changing Local Marketing

In a new book, “Absolute Value: What Really Influences Customers in the Age of (Nearly) Perfect Information.” Stanford professor Itamar Simonson and co-author Emanuel Rosen take a look at the impact that access to perfect information has on the way consumers make purchase decisions. The big finding is that more and more, the value of brand, and the type of awareness marketing aimed at keeping the brand top of mind, is quickly eroding…

6 Strategies for SMBs Using Data Visualization Tools

Data digital flowHyperlocal marketing platforms are producing mountains of data for small business owners, but many local merchants aren’t quite sure of what to do with all the information they collect. Here are six strategies for local merchants who are thinking about using data visualization tools for the first time…

Street Fight Daily: Groupon Embraces Self-Serve, PlaceIQ Raises $15M More

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology.Now You Can Finally Launch a Groupon Deal Without Ever Talking to a Human (Recode)…Datalogix Buys Shopper-Marketing Firm Spire to Extend Data and Market Reach (AdAge)…What Does the Yahoo-Yelp Partnership Mean for Foursquare? (Fortune)…

With New API, Delivery.com Connects Content and Commerce

Delivery.com, a New York-based online ordering site, has released a new framework, or API, through which developers can allow users to order from the firm’s network of restaurants — all without leaving the confines of a website, mobile app, gaming system or Google Glass. The API helps to automate the work of a business development team, allowing the company to bring the type of integrations already available on Yelp to the cornucopia of smaller, locally-focused properties…