News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Direct Brands Own the Future, Facebook’s New Branded-Content Rules
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… IAB Study Shows Consumer Economy Growth Shifting to ‘Direct Brands’… Facebook’s New Branded-Content Guidelines Spark Turmoil for Some Pubs… Amazon Laying Off Corporate Employees in Rare Cutback…
Commentary
Choosing a Data Partner for Local: What to Ask
Jeff Wood is a guest author. To submit a guest post, go here.
With all of the talk about data in our industry, I’m surprised that so few of the people I talk to in the Local space have a true data strategy — one that gives them real control over their own data and, most importantly, access to this data for decision-making.
It’s the nature of Local that a publisher loses the scale of large network buys. However, you gain the value of a centralized audience. With granular data, a site focused on the hyperlocal market can quickly understand the value of small pockets of inventory, and make educated decisions around how to package and allocate that inventory for sale across appropriate channels.
It’s amazing how many people simply don’t know who owns the data collected on their sites.
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2011: The Year the Check-in Reached Puberty
Michael Boland is a guest author. To submit a guest post, go here.
In the location wars of the past two years, one of the battle cries has been the need to continually innovate “beyond the check-in” — building things on top of the core check-in function, driven by evolving device capability and user demand (or boredom).
Companies have taken this in various directions — “checking in” to TV shows, for example. Sector leader Foursquare has dabbled in things like Superbowl check-ins.
At least week’s Where 2.0 conference in Santa Clara, California, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley talked about how the check-in grows up even as it stays focused on “the relationship between people and places.”..
Where ‘Hyperlocal’ Is a Movement, Not a Business Model
I’ll bet you £10 that “royal wedding” is the first thought that jumps to the mind of an American journalist asked about Britain today. Yet with the ever-present fixation on their profession’s future, perhaps journalists in the U.S. should look past the palaces to the real action happening at the hyperlocal level…
Latest Posts
In Search of the Checkout Pixel for Local
Until recently, the “last mile” offline had been considered the most challenging step to solve for. But today, it’s increasingly where most of the action is happening. Consideration starts online, but picking up the sushi or the TV, or getting the bridal party fitted, occurs offline — and that involves not just more steps, but also more room for attribution. What was opaque previously is now fertile ground. The race is underway to plant flags at every step and, to make things interesting, with each flag planted consumer behavior is changing…
Street Fight Daily: PayPal’s (New) Way To Pay, AmEx Links To TripAdvisor
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… PayPal, Aiming For Retail Ubiquity, Adds One More Way To Pay (ReadWrite)… Encouraging the Reviewers, Honestly (New York Times)… Google Moving Staff From Search To Its Payments Business In A New Push For Google Wallet (Business Insider)…
Constant Contact Rolls Out New Features For Contact Management Platform
Constant Contact has upgraded its contact management platform, integrating the platform with its suite of online marketing tools. Additions to this platform include the ability to monitor growth tactics as well as enabling small businesses to expand their engagement with a “did not open” email report…
6 Tools Merchants Can Use to Clean Up Location Data
For 42% of adults, search engines have become the primary tool for finding local merchants and service providers. But what those consumers don’t always realize is that much of the information they’re finding can be incorrect or out of date. Here are six platforms helping merchants fight back by cleaning up their location data…
Hyperlocal Site Xtraxtra.com Re-launches With Focus on Non-profits
Four years after launching, Massachussetts-based xtraxtra.com has re-launched with a focus on benefiting local non-profits and charities. The partnership between the hyperlocal website and non-profit organizations allows it to reward them for bringing in more traffic to the site, while simultaneously generating sponsorship and advertising revenue…
In Push to Measure Mobile ROI, Marchex Beefs Up Call Analytics
Marchex, the publically-traded call analytics firm, has released two new products this morning aimed at improving its ability to attribute calls to mobile actions and to determine the actual quality of a call. The move comes as a number of advertising technology firms have launched new attribution services in recent months, scrambling to measure return on investment for an increasingly interested, but skeptical, brand advertiser…
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