News and Analysis

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

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…

What Alignable’s New Trust Ratings Mean for Loyalty Vendors

Based on the results in Alignable’s 2018 Q1 Small Business Trust Index, the three least trusted categories of vendors include legal, hiring and people management, and loyalty and rewards. Alignable’s findings were based on Net Promoter Score ranges and averages for each products and services category.

With Visibility Manager, MomentFeed Optimizes the Local Data Foundation

In a bid to provide multi-location brands with better insights into the health of their digital storefronts, the marketing and customer experience management platform MomentFeed is launching a new product dubbed Visibility Manager, the company announced this morning.

Latest Posts

Openings & New Hires at Yellowbot, LiveIntent, Village Voice, and Groupon

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 new execs at Punchey and Tribune, and job openings at Yelp, The Weather Channel, Google, and more…

LBMA Podcast: Apple Making Social Maps, YuMe’s Targeted Video Ads

In this week’s episode, Apple is creating a Waze of their own; France rocks biometric payments and IBM’s Smarter Cities billboards; and tracking moods through facial expressions to sell cosmetics. SolveMedia and Unilever brand the captcha. Plus special guest Krina Patel of Ingenious Med…

Street Fight Daily: Apple Acquires Locationary, Yelp Snaps Up Reservations Service

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyApple Acquires Local Data Outfit Locationary (AllThingsD)… Yelp To Acquire Restaurant Reservation Service SeatMe To Take On OpenTable (Verge)… Yelp To Acquire Restaurant Reservation Service SeatMe To Take On OpenTable (Verge)…

Privacy Hawks in Tow, Euclid Pushes Ahead With Offline Retail Analytics

Amid congressional queries and rumbles in the press over privacy concerns, Euclid is pushing ahead with its effort to bring Google Analytics to the physical world. The service, which uses wi-fi signals to provide brick-and-mortar retailers with store analytics, has released a major update, adding new metrics, industry benchmarks, and a substantial redesign to its dashboard…

How ARLNow Succeeds in a Market Packed With Competitors

“Print media types may hear ‘quality’ and think ‘in-depth, investigative reporting’ — but that’s not necessarily what I mean,” says ARLNow founder Scott Brodbeck. “At the moment, I believe that breadth is more important than depth in local. But too much or too little of each can hurt. Striking a good balance in terms of shorter and longer articles, and publishing those articles at semi-regular intervals throughout the day, encourages repeat readership.”

Case Study: Bakery Uses Mobile POS for Real-Time Business Analytics

When Tara Koenig first began researching mobile point-of-sale systems for her Virginia cupcake bakery back in 2011, her interest wasn’t driven by the lack of upfront costs or tablet integrations. It was driven by necessity. The location Koenig had chosen for her new bakery was a 500-square-foot garage with no telephone lines (a feature that’s typically necessary when installing a hardware-based POS system)…

Street Fight Daily: Yahoo Acquires Hyperlocal Ad-Tech, LivingSocial Cuts Worse Than Expected

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technologyYahoo Buys Mobile Ad Tech, Now What About Reach? (MarketingLand)… Why the LivingSocial ‘Adventures’ Cuts Are more Than Expected  (Washington Business Journal)… Companies To Develop Privacy Standards For Tracking Brick-And-Mortar Shoppers (MediaPost)…

Study: Facebook Sees Growth as Local Search Source

A new study by Yext finds that consumers have started to come to Facebook to find local information. The study found that a little over 12% of respondents used Facebook to find local information, nearly twice the number for specialized-sites and a few points shy of the Yellow Pages/Local directories…

How Local Search Looks to the Rest of Us

It seems like many recent conversations, webinars, articles, and studies have pointed to the same conclusion: local search as an industry is insufficiently aware of how its products are actually used by consumers and small businesses. Many of the solutions put forward by consumer-facing local publishers and by business-facing services overestimate our appetite for new products and the amount of time and energy we want to spend using online tools…

Local Media’s Data-Driven Future

New value creation is the purpose of media companies today, whether small or big. I genuinely feel sorry for those who believe there is a future in practicing content creation alone. Last week, I called for a strategic makeover. We need a new strategic plan that positions us as more than “just” a media company and behind which our employees can throw their energy. So here are ten things that I view as tactically supporting such a strategy…