News and Analysis

Google Local Service Ads: Ready for Primetime

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“While I do think this is about a new revenue stream in new categories and cleaning up spammy industries the rebranding might just also be an effort (unusual for Google) brand clarity around their Google Home product,” Mike Blumenthal tells David Mihm in their bi-weekly column..

Deep Dive Into Facebook Finds Dim Revenue Hopes for News Sites

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Grzegorz Piechota, a digital strategist for news media companies worldwide, talked with Street Fight recently about his research into Facebook for WAN-IFRA and what his findings may augur for publishers in their quest for more revenue from the platforms, especially at the local level.

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Sets Sights on Yelp and Foursquare, Uber Approves $10B SoftBank Deal

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Facebook Relaunches Events App as Facebook Local… Uber Approves SoftBank’s Multi-Billion Dollar Investment Offer… Spirited Media Fights Collapse of Local News…

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: Facebook’s Latent Local Threat, Why Reviews Trump Social

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Facebook Local Search’s Sleeping Giant, or Just Sleeping? (SearchEngineWatch)… Why Customer Reviews Trump Social-Media Marketing (Inc.)… Personalized Commerce: Coming to an Internet Near You (AdAge)…

Yipit Co-Founder: Hyperlocal Is Coming to Be Defined By ‘Marketplaces’

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“I think what would surprise most people is that the ‘daily deal’ industry is actually stable and increasing,” Jim Moran told Street Fight. “By this point the vast majority of revenue is driven by repeat customers, both on the consumer and the merchant size. One time users have moved on over a year ago, and the market will now grow as offer quality and user experience continues to improve. … The only thing surprising to me about the daily deal industry is that we still haven’t been able to agree on a better name for it.”

Study: 81% of Consumers Search for Restaurants on Mobile Apps

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A new report released by SinglePlatform and Chadwick Martin Bailey finds that more consumers have searched for a restaurant on their web browser in the past six months than have done so on a mobile app. Meanwhile, 75 percent of consumers said they were more likely to dine at a restaurant based on the results of their searches…

Case Study: KBP Foods Uses Loyalty App to Reach Millennials

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Customers between the ages of 18 and 34 are eating out less than they were five years ago, which is a major problem for executives like Anthony Gianino. The senior director of marketing at KBP Foods is trying everything in the book — including text message marketing, local print ads, and mobile loyalty apps — to reach his target demographic…

Street Fight Daily: Reviving Verticals, The Battle for Indoors

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.CityGrid’s Finger Bets on Vertical Revival (Local Onliner)… The Battle for Indoors (Business Insider)… The Texas Tribune: Building a Model for Sustainable Local Journalism (Knight Foundation)…

Howard Owens on What It Takes to Sustain a Hyperlocal News Site

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“If there’s any clear message, it’s what I’ve been saying for the past four or five years: Starting and running a local news site is hard work,” says the Batavian editor and publisher. “You need a good model, a solid plan, the ability to work long hours and handle multiple disciplines and stick with it for years and years with no promise of ever striking it rich. If you can do that, you’re on the right track.”

TIMELINE: Two Years in Hyperlocal

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On the occasion of our second anniversary, we took a look at the events in hyperlocal since we launched in 2011. Then: All Groupon all the time. Now: Not so much. The evolution of the hyperlocal landscape charts the same path as any new industry, beginning with the pioneers who take risks to prove a model; replications on the idea; consolidation and contraction; entrenchment of the ideas and business models; and legacy companies who buy or build their way in. 2013: Still the wild west, and what a great frontier it is.

On the Web (Especially in Local), Personal Branding Is Everything

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Where media companies see themselves as unique, the Web sees, well, sameness. The pureplay companies have found ways to exploit that, while local companies — especially media — dismiss all that effort as irrelevant. To be a brand in the network is to behave unlike a brand and instead like a person. This is the secret to a strategic move into a world of connected human beings…

Street Fight Daily: SMBs Skeptical of Social, Crowdfunding Hyperlocal

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Survey: 61% of SMBs Say No ROI from Social (Screenwerk)… How Joey Coleman Crowdfunded His Work as a Hyperlocal Reporter (GigaOm)… Facebook Is Said to Hire Apple Maps Executive Amid Mobile Push (Bloomberg)…

Booker Closes $27.5 Million Round, Seeks to Be the ‘Amazon of Services’

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The service management and marketing platform for SMBs has gotten a big financial boost. Booker announced today that it has raised $27.5 million in a Series B round led by Bain Capital, which it will use to continue building out its small business scheduling and marketing offerings.