News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Uber-SoftBank Deal Clears, Swarm Offers Businesses a Path to Social Prominence
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Sells Stake to SoftBank, Valuing Company at $48 Billion… Swarm Emerges as a Serious Social Tool, Capable of Boosting Reps of Brick-and-Mortars… In 2017, Amazon Will Turn to Private Label Goods…
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Street Fight Daily: Zagat’s Workplace ‘Nightmare,’ Square Launches Marketplace
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… How Zagat’s Workplace Turned Into A ‘Nightmare’ (Business Insider)… New Square Service Targets Local Merchants’ Market (USA Today)… Microsoft Partners With Deem To Expand Its Ad Inventory With More Local Offers And Deals(TechCrunch)…
Twitter Looks to Monetize Location, But Is It Cart-Before-Horse?
A few days after Twitter acquired local discovery app, Spindle, last week, news surfaced that the microblogging service was developing a long-awaited geo-targeting product for brands. The developments mark the latest episode in an ongoing saga, in which the two largest social networks — Twitter and Facebook — have briefly flirted with local before pulling back to recalibrate. A hyperlocal ad product is welcome news to advertisers, but Twitter needs to sure it does not neglect the users’ side of the equation…
6 Ad Networks With Targeting Capabilities
Ad networks with advanced targeting capabilities are giving national brands and smaller advertisers a way to drive conversion rates and boost sales. By narrowing their focus and targeting specific audiences based on location, demographics, or interests, advertisers can increase the relevancy of their ads and improve click-through rates (CTRs) by a factor of 2x. Here are six ad networks that offer these targeting capabilities…
VIDEO: Making the Economics of Hyperlocal Publishing Work
The once-bright prospects for hyperlocal publishing have dimmed somewhat in recent months, leaving some of the most promising ventures shuttered, bankrupt, or scrambling to save face. During a conversation on stage at Street Fight Summit West in San Francisco earlier this month, Chris Tolles, chief executive of hyperlocal news aggregator Topix, and Sacramento Press co-founder and AdGlue CEO Ben Ilfeld discussed the future of Patch and the long-term sustainability of hyperlocal media at scale…
Street Fight Daily: ZocDoc Opens $55M In Debt, Centro Expands To Mobile
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology
Doctor Appointment Booking Site ZocDoc Opens Up $55 Million In New Convertible Debt (GigaOm)… Centro Expands Locally Focused ‘Brand Exchange’ To Mobile, Tablet Inventory (AdExchanger)… Report: Hyperlocals Can Bridge Gap Between Larger Organizations And Public (Journalism.co.uk)…
6 Strategies for Reaching Customers at the ‘Zero Moment of Purchase’
Targeting consumers at the “zero moment of purchase” — that is, while they’re shopping inside a store where a brand’s product are sold — is a proven way to increase conversion rates on mobile coupons and other discounted offers. Unfortunately, getting this type of high-impact marketing program off the ground can involve much more than a typical offline campaign. To find out more about what marketers should know, we consulted with experts in the field of purchase-based ad targeting…
VIDEO: Local News as a Loss Leader?
As local businesses shift marketing spending away from advertising, local media companies are scrambling to subsidize their news operations. During a panel at Street Fight Summit West earlier this month, Eric Bright, VP of Ecommerce at Deseret Digital Media; Mike Orren, President at Speakeasy; and Sean McDonnell, SVP of Sales at Propel Marketing discussed an emerging agency model, and debated whether digital marketing services like SEO and website building could help make up for lost revenue…
Street Fight Daily: FTC Reviews Waze Deal, Twitter Developing Hyperlocal Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology… Google Confirms Antitrust Review of Waze Deal(Wall Street Journal)… Twitter is Developing Geo-Targeted Ads for Retailers (AdAge)… Paton: ‘Bad CEOs and Worse Editors’ Are Trying To ‘Kill Our Future’()…
How Facebook’s Rumored News Product Could Hurt Local Sites
News websites dodged a bullet when Facebook didn’t announce a rumored RSS or news-in-your-news-feed product yesterday. If Facebook actually got serious about these plans, news websites could expect an even larger portion of their site’s traffic to be directed through the social network — and their brands could be endangered…
Openings & New Hires at Square, Patch, LocalVox, Facebook 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. Moves this edition include the closing of LivingSocial’s office in Seattle, a and exiting CTO at AOL’s Patch, and job openings at Yelp, Appstack, Google, and more.
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