News and Analysis
Street Culture: Invoca’s Lessons for Active, Engaged Growth
Based a mile from the beach in Santa Barbara, Invoca aims to maintain a culture in which employees know their ideas are important. The company sponsors softball games and ocean-side volleyball and boasts its own band.
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Launches Local Hotspots, Media Companies Shift to YouTube
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Launches Express WiFi App for Its Local Business-Operated Hotspots… Why Media Companies Are Shifting Their Attention to YouTube… Why Publishers Are Eliminating Programmatic Silos…
Using Location Data to Engage Consumers on St. Patrick’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day is the most popular day of the year at most Irish pubs and restaurants in the U.S., but the biggest crowds might not come together in the cities you would expect.
Commentary
What Motivates Yelp’s Power Users?
In an effort to dig a little deeper into what motivates Elite Squad-ers and other active Yelp users — beyond the free beer and crudités — Street Fight spoke with three power users who approach the service with differing goals in mind, but all of whom view Yelp as an integral part of their decision-making process.
Why Facebook Killed ‘Deals’
Mark Zuckerberg has said that Facebook operates on the premise that “everything is more fun when it’s social.” In his mind, things like music, photos, events and even simple thoughts, were inherently more enjoyable when shared with others. It’s precisely for this reason that I believe the company killed its Deals service…
Placing Facebook’s New Location Plans
Almost exactly a year ago, Facebook Places launched with much fanfare and the requisite “______ Killer” claims. In this case, the proposed victim was Foursquare, having pioneered the check-in feature that was now central to Facebook’s new LBS play…
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Street Fight Daily: Groupon’s Big Redesign, Local Ad Tech Moves Outdoors
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Groupon Builds New Website, Eyeing Marketplace Growth (USAToday)… Vistar And Verve Link DOOH, Mobile Screens, Create Location-Based Programmatic Platform (MediaPost)… Square Market Is Attracting Sellers That Have Never Taken A Reader Payment (GigaOm)…
Hyperlocals and Scale: How a ‘No-No’ Can Be Turned Into a Win-Win
“Local doesn’t scale” is the mantra of many independent community news sites. Based on the recent wrenching experiences of some major corporate hyperlocal networks, that may be the case on some level. But what about the view from other end of the telescope — of advertisers everywhere seeking to target consumers down to the neighborhood level?
How Hyperlocal Publishers Can Strengthen Relationships With Advertisers
One of the key takeaways from the Street Fight Summit in New York was that the future of local lies in partnerships. Forging relationships with local businesses is absolutely necessary for any hyperlocal publisher hoping for long-term success. The question that remains is how, exactly, publishers should go about strengthening the relationships they’ve built with small business advertisers and other organizations in their communities…
Do Small Businesses Really Need a Website?
The website is the richest online repository of compelling information about a business, but it probably isn’t its primary means of attracting customers. Rather, customers who find you via Google Maps or Facebook may need to refer to your website in the event a third party search doesn’t provide enough information to make a buying decision. The website serves as a last stage effort to win business that hasn’t already been secured via local search…
Case Study: Udi’s Pushes Targeted Messages Using Hyperlocal App
Getting customers to participate in Udi’s Food’s paper-based loyalty program was never a challenge for Angie Hoagland, director of brand development for the Colorado-based company. But as the years went by, it was the lack of data that Hoagland was able to collect from the punch card program that led her to start looking for mobile alternatives…
Street Fight Daily: NextDoor Raises $60 Million, First Data Acquires Perka
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Nextdoor Raises $60 million In Funding To Bring Neighbors Together (GigaOm)… First Data Acquires Cardless Customer Loyalty Startup Perka (AllThingsD)… Yelp Loss Widens, With Costs Eclipsing Revenue (Wall Street Journal)…
Here’s What Twitter Needs To Do To Win Over Local Businesses
As Twitter hits the road to sell its stock to the public, the company’s monetization plans will take center stage. For Twitter’s stock to perform, the company will have to focus on growing its active user base, monetize its international users, grow mobile offerings and make money off initiatives like #music and Vine. But it will also have to crack one of the great white whales of consumer tech: the local market…
6 On-Demand Home Service Marketplaces
By going beyond basic business listings and customer reviews, and allowing consumers to actually schedule and pay for their home service providers online, hyperlocal vendors are closing the loop and converting more online prospects into paying customers. Here are six examples of hyperlocal marketplaces that consumers can use to research, reserve, and even pay for home service professionals…
Street Fight Daily: Inside Google Shopping, The Value Of A Yelp Review
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Meet the Exec Crafting Google’s Vision for the Future of Shopping (AllThingsD)… How Much Is Your Yelp Review Worth (Fast Company)… How Do You Build A Thriving Local Marketplace? Slowly (VentureBeat)…
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AI Won’t Fix Advertising – It May Scale Its Chaotic Nature