News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Instagram Video Engagement on Steep Rise, Smartphones Drive Web Traffic
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Engagement with Instagram Videos Is Surging… Advertisers, Take Note: Smartphones Are Driving All Web Traffic Growth… Google Changes AdWords Guidelines in Response to Apple’s Intelligent Tracking…
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Memo to Hyperlocal Editors: You Too Can Be a Nate Silver
As I watched Nate Silver achieve such success analyzing numbers during the election, I asked myself: Can hyperlocal news sites learn anything from FiveThirtyEight? The question is pertinent because numbers of all kind — far beyond those from polling and elections — are gushing from local governments, but not many of them are showing up in meaningful ways on community sites…
Can Businesses Use Hyperlocal to Leverage Customers’ Politics?
There has been significant coverage about the differences in Democrats and Republicans, but to date there hasn’t been any analysis on real world activities associated with political affiliation. From grocery stores to restaurants, from retailers to gas stations, voting Democrat or Republican plays a part in which establishments we step foot in and which ones we don’t…
Groupon’s Mason: It Would Be ‘Weird’ If Board Wasn’t Discussing My Job
“There’s no question that we’ve had bumps in the road, but Groupon has created not just a business, but an entirely new category,” said the CEO. “If I ever thought I wasn’t the right guy for the job, I would be the first guy to fire myself. I care much more about the success of Groupon than being CEO.”
The Steaks in Square’s Future
Back in June, social/local analyst Rocky Agrawal bet Reuters financial journalist Felix Salmon a steak dinner that Square would be acquired by a company other than PayPal in 2012. At this point, a sale seems pretty unlikely before the end of the year — and I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. So if someone wants to bet me that Square gets acquired before this time in 2013, I’ll take that bet…
A Quick Guide to SMB Success on Mobile
Less than 5 percent of local businesses have a website optimized for mobile devices. In some cases, a company’s site isn’t even “findable” through searches on mobile devices. Worse, consumers, when they do find the local business’s website, can only see a desktop-specific version. Here are a few tips to help demystify mobile for business owners and help them get started right away…
Conference Notebook: Yelp ‘Focused,’ Foursquare Denies Slower Growth
It doesn’t look like Yelp has plans to push across the local marketing stack anytime soon. Responding to a question of whether Yelp planned to position itself as a local operating system for local business like Groupon, CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said it was “hard to say what tangential businesses [Yelp would] get into” but “its safe to say we’re focused.”
Street Fight Daily: Groupon CEO on Hot Seat, Apple Maps Manager Out
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Is Andrew Mason on the Bubble as CEO of Groupon? (AllThingsD)… What Kinds of Local Stories Drive Engagement? The Results of an NPR Facebook Experiment (Nieman Lab)… Apple Fires a Manager Over Its Misfire on Maps (New York Times/Bits)…
How Mobile’s Demographic Shift Impacts Local
It seems that young people in the 18-24 demographic spend, on average, more time on mobile devices today than they do watching television. It also appears that mobile usage is far ahead of “playing games and computer use for leisure.” What does this mean for the future of local search and local media? I would say it’s not unlike the lessons the Republican Party was forced to confront in the aftermath of its recent election defeat…
Wifarer CEO: Indoor Location Is a Multibillion-Dollar Market
Indoor mapping has the potential to become a big business. But it’s early days and big questions are still looming — particularly regarding Apple. Last year the tech giant closed off iOS’ wifi API, the data most companies use to determine a user’s position indoors, dealing a major blow to a number of startups. Street Fight recently caught up with Phillip Stanger, the CEO of indoor mapping startup Wifarer, to discuss why indoor location matters for marketers and how companies can navigate around Apple’s obstruction…
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Streets Ahead: GBP Data Glitch, Google Supercharges Search, Instagram Tests Insights