News and Analysis
SMB Index: Big Gains for Local Stocks in October
After gaining 2.1% in September, the SCP SMB Index experienced a scorching start to Q3 gaining 6.8% in October, outpacing all other major indices we track. For the first time, Square cracked the Top 5 Constituents list after climbing 29% in October.
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Undercuts Rivals Ahead of Holidays, Facebook Expands Messenger Ads
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Discounts Other Sellers’ Products As Holidays Approach… More Brands Will Be Able to Send Sponsored Messages on Facebook Messenger… Uber’s Business Has Recovered After #DeleteUber, But Lyft Made Lasting Gains…
Openings and New Hires at Infogroup, Vistar Media, Unacast
Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest openings and new hires in this dynamic industry. This week’s edition includes moves and new openings at Functionize, Emissary, X-Mode and dataPlor.
Latest Posts
Can Foursquare Get Its Mojo Back by Embracing ‘Passive’ Check-Ins?
Does Foursquare need to be “fun” anymore? I’d say no. “Fun” means fighting an ever-diminishing battle over consumer mindshare on mobile — a fight Foursquare is losing. It’s also contrary to what Foursquare is trying to build with its Explore functionality…
PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Lumi Mobile
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at Google’s moves with Zavers and Fieldtrip. They also touch on payments companies PayPal and GoBank and examine RedStripe’s latest local initiative. Plus special guest Dan Foreman of Lumi Mobile talks the death of surveys…
Street Fight Daily: Square COO Departs, Hyperlocal Investment in 2013
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Square COO Keith Rabois Departs Company (AllThingsD)… Mobile, Local & Search: 5 Sources of Innovation & Investment in 2013 (Search Engine Watch)… Why the Department Store Experience Needs a Serious Upgrade, Too (Venture Beat)…
The Big Implications for Local in Facebook’s New Graph Search
Given that Facebook is using multiple individualized cues to return search results that are customized for you, traditional SEO — already threatened by Google’s moves toward personalization — will be close to meaningless in the new context of Graph Search…
Under a Bushel in Bay Area, a Model for Hyperlocal
Redoubtable hyperlocal editor Tracy Record, who told me about Claycord.com, described it in her inimitable way: “When I stumbled onto it recently, it made me cry. It is so much like what we do, down to the community’s comments and involvement.” To find out more about the site, I posed a variety of questions to its founder, editor, and publisher…
Street Fight Daily: Radius Scores $12.4M, Retailer Spend on Mobile Doubles
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Local Business Sales Intelligence Platform Radius Raises $12.4M From American Express And Others (TechCrunch)… Retailers to Ring Up Sales Via Mobile (The Wall Street Journal)… Indoor Venues Are The Next Frontier For Location-Based Services (Forbes)…
Apple May Have the Hardware, But Google’s Winning Hyperlocal
The hyperlocal interface will overwhelmingly revolve around a mobile experience with advertising and commerce tied to location and in-the-moment activities or sentiments. By ceding that real estate to Google with a sub-par user interface and experience, Apple is handicapping its future efforts to earn a significant chunk of that market…
Case Study: Texas Roadhouse Goes Local on Facebook
Rather than creating a single Facebook page to serve as a hub for all 300 plus Texas Roadhouse locations, Dave Dodson and his team have created local Facebook pages for each restaurant in the national chain. Dodson says people are more likely to be engaged with local pages, leading to an increase in comments, likes, and photo submissions on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Foursquare…
Voice Media Group Enters Content Partnership With Foursquare
Alt-weekly publisher Voice Media Group has announced a partnership with Foursquare that will make event content from VMG’s Voice Places initiative available to users of the location-based app. “This was a natural next step in terms of combining our curated local content with the experience that they provide around location and events,” Scott Tobias, CEO of Voice Media Group, told Street Fight…






































Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem