News and Analysis

#SFSW18: The Local Ecosystem in Flux

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“Small businesses are people who are gutting it out,” said Andrew Morbitzer, VP of corporate development at GoDaddy. “They’re here to do a service or provide a product. They’re not here to use software. [Our job is] removing the decision to take on another capability.”

Out of Its Rocky Recent Past, Philly.com Seeks to Be ‘Indispensable’

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Philadelphia Media Network is building its future around a reorganized and united news operation that aims to produce more engaging editorial content with fewer editors and reporters and sell the package to readers of Philly.com for $2.99 a week after 10 free views. We recently caught up with PMN Editor and VP Gabriel Escobar to discuss this strategy.

Street Fight Daily: Mobile/Social/Video Dominate Ad Spending, Facebook’s Missing Video Metrics

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Trifecta of Mobile, Social, and Video Thrives While Print Declines… How Do We Measure Facebook’s Video Biz? It Still Hasn’t Told Us… For Third Oldest American Retailer, More Data and Business Hasn’t Meant More Advertising…

Commentary

Newspapers + GeoMesh of Providers = Interesting

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In the olden days (1991) I earned a stipend-like salary working for a Gannett newspaper outside Philadelphia. I did a number of things there, some of them poorly (i.e. quickly copyediting stories on tax rate hike debates) and some well (writing headlines; teaching desktop publishing).

But one of the most fascinating jobs I got to do was man the Associated Press wire. On the old glowing-green terminals they had us looking into in the smokey and nearly windowless newsroom, the AP feed would pour in like a precursor to The Matrix’s cascading code imagery…

Grocery Guide: The Hyper-GeoMobileSavvy List!

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OK ShopKick, ShopSavvy, CardStar and all the rest of you: Time for a new challenge. We the lazy, the lost, the hurried, the ignorant need someone to not only lead us to water; we need to be led from pond to pond.

I’m talking of course about those of us (particularly of a certain gender) who when entering a grocery store with list in hand (or more likely on our phone) proceed to criss-cross the place looking for sugar among the paper towels and ice cream near the butter. Who lays out these places? And forget about the wayfinding provided by signage. There needs to be a better way…

‘Hyperlocal’ – Everyone’s Sold Except Advertisers?

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This guest post, originally here, is from BRANDWEEK writer Elena Malykhina

Hyperlocal is not all it’s hyped up to be as an ad medium – but such venues are making efforts to juice up their offerings and turn the focus on targeted consumer-centric content and experiences into increasingly compelling opportunities for advertisers…

Latest Posts

Calculating the ROI of Local Search Campaigns

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How can we calculate just how much return a given business can expect on the investment of time, money, or both into a local search campaign? For many business owners, it’s that type of dollars and cents calculation that will drive them to decide whether or not to move forward with a campaign. Other metrics are important but ultimately secondary to the bottom line…

Marketing to the ‘Happy’ Majority of SMBs

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The local search industry needs to offer more responsive solutions for the average small business owner. The industry can’t simply drive more leads — it has to drive more, better-qualified, and better-paying leads at profit margins that incentivize buy-in from a business consumer that demands all or nothing. Only by catering to the “disconnected and contented majority” can the industry push itself to the highest standard of usability and convenience…

Street Fight Daily: Google Wallet Expands, Square IPO ‘Eventual’

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyGoogle Expands Digital Wallet Offering (Wall Street Journal)… Jack Dorsey: Square IPO Will Happen ‘Eventually’ (Mashable)… With Webvan’s Implosion as Cautionary Tale, Instacart Slowly Begins to Expand, Starting With Chicago (AllThingsD))…

8 Strategies for Selling Cloud-Based POS Systems to SMBs

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Cloud-based point-of-sale systems are an easy sell for vendors working with small businesses without existing mechanisms in place for handling transactions, but getting an established merchant who has already invested thousands of dollars in a legacy POS system to consider making the switch to mobile is a trickier proposition. So what is the secret to onboarding more merchants, including those who already have hardware POS systems in place? To find out, we spoke with several experts from the mPOS industry…

Upfront Digital Media CEO: Brands Looking for Hyperlocal, Niche Audiences

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Programmatic buying, which helps advertisers automate the ability to reach very specific audiences in particular locations with predictable costs, has become more and more popular among agencies and brands in the past few years. We spoke recently with Jonathon Shaevitz, the CEO of Upfront Digital Media, a programmatic ad platform, who explained how large brands and small businesses alike can use these new tools to target hyperlocal audiences…

Street Fight Daily: Revel Expands Into Stadiums, Yellow Pages Still Generating Cash

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyRevel Extends Tablet POS Into Stadiums (ZDNet)… Dex Media: Too Soon to Close the Book on Yellow Pages Publisher (Wall Street Journal)… LivingSocial Executives Talk Hiring, Cybersecurity Attack and Profitability (Washington Post)…

ShopKeep CEO: I’ll Bet We Have More Brick-and-Mortar Installs Than Square

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Square might have the brand name and billionaire founder, but ShopKeep is making moves of its own. And the company’s chief executive, Jason Richelson, says that while Square dominates the dongle-touting mobile food truck crowd, there are as many, or more, small, brick-and-mortar businesses using the Shopkeep’s tablet point-of-sale system than its widely known competitor’s…

7 Local Logistics and Delivery Platforms for Restaurants

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Retailers can get away with one-day or two-day delivery timelines, but restaurants are held to a different standard. Meals need to be easy to order, easy to pay for, and they need to be delivered while they’re still hot. A number of local logistics vendors are stepping in with platforms meant to simplify the delivery process for restaurant owners, providing tools to manage and process orders digitally…

Street Fight Daily: LivingSocial Expands Beyond Deals, Tech’s Stars Move Offline

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyLivingSocial Expands Deals Beyond Daily E-mails In Effort To Increase Revenue (Washington Post)… Tech’s Rising Stars Push Into the Online-to-Offline Era (AlllThingsD)… Where Hyperlocal Media Should Focus Its Attention (Journalism.Uk)…

New Jobs and Openings at Yahoo!, Surefire Social, Market Authority and ReachLocal

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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 hires at Orange Soda and Yahoo, plus jobs at Yext, AOL, Weather Channel, and more…