News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Amazon Tests New Delivery Service, Foursquare Revamps Developer Site
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Amazon Tests Its Own Delivery Service to Rival UPS and FedEx… Foursquare Revamps Its Developer Site as API Usage Soars… Will Messenger Lose Out to Snapchat and Instagram Through 2021?…
Street Fight Daily: Snap Seeks Startups as Advertisers, How AI Could Improve Attribution
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Snapchat Incentivizes Startups, Especially Mobile-First Companies, to Advertise On It… How AI Could Change Attribution Tools… How Ikea Deploys AR to Improve Its Customer Experience…
PlaceIQ Unveils Tool to Measure Holistic Impact of Ads on In-Store Visits
Quick-service restaurants that rely primarily on cash transactions have traditionally had a tough time understanding the real world impact of advertising on channels like television and desktop. A new product from PlaceIQ and comScore promises to change that.
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Memo to Google: Solve the Local Data Problem With Local Data
I think we can now state definitively that the big upsurge in claimed listings that might have occurred as a result of Google’s choice to embed local listings within its social network, a little over five months ago, will not happen on its own. Rather than achieving Facebook levels of adoption, Google+ Local is still an arena where participation depends heavily on early adopters as well as the assistance of local SEO consultants and companies like mine…
Local Corp. Survey: SMBs ‘Cautiously Optimistic’
A new survey released by Local Corporation has found that 92% of small business owners are influenced by the national economy. In recent months, 46% have considered raising prices, while 40% have considered cutting back on marketing. Local Corporation CEO Heath Clarke says the uncertain economic climate has focused SMBs on getting the most ROI for their marketing dollars.
Managing Through Crisis: Yext, Patch & GramercyOne in Superstorm Sandy
We asked three hyperlocal companies based in New York City, Patch, GramercyOne and Yext, to share the details on how they dealt with Superstorm Sandy. Their experiences shared the same urgency around helping their employees find shelter and safety. But they way they kept the day-to-day work going differed, largely reflecting the differences in their businesses: while Yext set up temporary headquarters in Times Square; Patch told everyone to stay home and kept operations humming with a remote workforce; meanwhile, GramercyOne leaned on tools that didn’t require location or physical presence.
Inside Patch During Superstorm Sandy
In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, a big news event for hyperlocal publishers, we asked Patch’s chief content officer Rachel Feddersen to give us the scoop on how the AOL unit managed its own business during the storm: “When my colleagues and I weren’t able to commute to the city during the storm and in the days following, we just joined our field work force.”
From (Temporary) Yext HQ During Superstorm Sandy
When the power went out on Yext’s offices in Chelsea Market in New York City, the team scrambled to find new work space and take care of its employees. Event halls where conferences had been canceled delivered even more space than the company had in its permanent offices, and employees were put up in hotels so that they were free to focus on work instead of water and power. “People were happy to get back together, and the atmosphere is very focused.”
In Superstorm Sandy, GramercyOne Carries on Through the Cloud
As a provider of cloud based software, GramercyOne, based in lower Manhattan, embraced these systems for internal infrastructure and despite the office and surrounding area being completely offline and inaccessible, all of its mission critical systems, including its SaaS application used by thousands of businesses, was fully operational. Here, CEO Josh McCarter shares his company’s and his personal experiences through the storm and its aftermath.
Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Eyes Funding, SEC Presses Groupon
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… Foursquare Looks Into A Fourth Round At An Over $700M Valuation, Investors Skeptical (TechCrunch)… SEC Asked Groupon for Financial Disclosures (The Wall Street Journal)… Yelp’s Flaws Become Apple Maps Flaws in iOS 6 (GigaOm)…
As Paywalls Evolve, So Does the Perception of Paywalls
It’s time to acknowledge that, overall, people are starting to get used to paying for content online — especially on smartphones and tablets. It will be interesting to see how the various paywall models play out over time, but I have become more confident that paywalls (in some form or fashion) are a piece of the puzzle to running a profitable hyperlocal or regional news website…
Openings & New Hires at Patch, Yelp, Supermedia, HopStop, Square & More
Executives moving on up and over lately in sales, product, marketing, business development and more. Plus, who’s hiring? Yext, Yelp, Yodle, Restaurant.com, LivingSocial, DealHeaven, Apple and HopStop. Hyperlocal is expanding fast, and these openings are just one indication. Listings include links on where to apply. Get started now!
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Meta Is Automating Ads, But Brands Still Face a Bigger Problem