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How Local Sites Can Win the War on Fake Reviews
This week Edmunds, the auto and car dealer review site, announced that it had settled a lawsuit it had filed against Humankind, a firm accused of submitting fake reviews for a fee to about a dozen review sites on behalf of businesses. Humankind was accused of creating fake user accounts and attempting to submit glowing reviews of their clients’ car dealerships. Here are some methods for to your site or app that will catch a high percentage of fake reviews…
Openings and New Hires at Topix, Angie’s List, Drawbridge, PlaceIQ and More
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 Topix and Local Corp., plus jobs at BuzzTown, Yahoo, Yext, WorldNow, and more…
With $2.5M in the Bank, Trover Eyes ‘Phase Two’ of Its Photo-Sharing Community
With 130,000 monthly users, Trover’s numbers aren’t enormous, but the community is engaged and growing. And for now that’s just fine for CEO Jason Karas. He spoke with Street Fight recently about the company’s recent fundraise, how to eventually monetize the power of passion, and the strengths of a tiny team…
LBMA Podcast, Google Patents Your Gaze, QR Code’s Plight
On the show: GoDaddy acquires Locu; Coors Light’s Refresh the Night campaign; Placeable emerges from LocationInsight to normalize location data for enterprises; Coca Cola uses location to help charities with Movement for a Movement campaign; Apple acquires Embark; Google chokes on Yahoo!’s dust; Chuck Martin looks at the plight of the QR code…
Street Fight Daily: Microsoft Eyes Foursquare Investment, Nokia Unveils Connected Car
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Microsoft Vying With American Express for Stake in Foursquare (Bloomberg)… Nokia Unveils Its Connected Car Platform: Here Auto (GigaOm)… Apple Sued Over ‘Find my iPhone’ In New Patent Campaign Against Location Apps (PaidContent)…
What Will It Take to Bring All Businesses Online?
Many small businesses are claiming their Google and Bing listings, interacting with reviewers on Yelp, and using social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Inside the local bubble, it might seem as though the importance of these activities has been long established. Surely only a business stuck in the stone age would ignore the statistics we all know and love about searches with local intent, the explosion of mobile, and the critical need to be well represented in Google search results. How, then, are we to take a report showing that 52% of SMBs still don’t have a website?
After Latest Woes, Can Community News Hit the ‘Re-imagine’ Button?
In the two years since Mike Fancher’s “Re-Imagining Journalism” was published, there have been a succession of upheavals in community news, almost all of them about sites closing or retrenching. Can publishers of community news still manage to develop a model that works within the brutal economics of today’s digital space? I went to “re-imagineer” Fancher for answers…
Case Study: Using Predictive Analytics to Improve Campaign Performance
In Greg Bucko’s world, data is king. As the manager of customer insights for Southern States Cooperative, a farm supply and service cooperative with $2.5 billion in revenue, Bucko is responsible for making sure his company is targeting its most profitable customers with direct mail and other marketing calls to action. His company uses predictive analytics tools to analyze variations in marketing campaigns, with the goal of being able to improve customer targeting…
Street Fight Daily: Gannett Cuts Jobs, Fandango Acquires Quantum
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Gannett Cuts Jobs At Some Local Papers (USA Today)… Fandango Acquires Promotional Ticketing Company Quantum (Wall Street Journal)…
Joe Trippi: Local TV’s Biennial Political Cash Bonanza Is Going to Fall Off a Cliff
In an recent interview, the presidential campaign guru told Street Fight that while it would be business as usual for broadcasters next year, 2016 would likely see the beginning of the end of TV’s dominance in political advertising: “There’s a growing number of people who get it,” he said, “that there’s a better way to deliver a more targeted and relevant message without having to buy all that broadcast reach. It’s going to come. … It’s just a matter of time and innovation.”
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The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation