News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Uber Loses London License, Facebook Upgrades Mobile Ads

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Uber Loses Its License to Operate in London… Facebook Will Introduce Canvas Templates for Its Collection Ads, Aiming to Boost Brands… Google and Its Partners Will Issue Refunds to Advertisers over Fake Traffic…

Facebook on Local News Partnerships: ‘We’re Just Getting Started’

The “Facebook Journalism Project” was launched recently to meet the “needs” of a news industry concerned about all the free editorial content being made available to the giant distribution platform. In this Q & A, Josh Mabry, manager of Facebook’s local news partnerships, details what FB is doing and plans to do for community news.

At Mobile Innovation Summit a Focus on Customer Experience and Paths to Purchase

Total digital commerce has more than doubled in the last five years, it shows no signs of stopping, and brands must address customer experience on mobile if they intend to grow in coming years. That was one takeaway from the Mobile Innovation Summit event in Denver this week.

Latest Posts

TurnHere Becomes Local Photo/Video Marketplace SmartShoot

Turnhere, founded in 2005, leveraged the video marketing wave by working with resale partners like Yelp and Citysearch to help SMBs create one-minute video sales pieces. According to the company’s CEO, Turnhere could boast a compelling capture rate, over 80% of inquiries for this short SMB video would result in a transaction. So with high close rates embedded in the business model, why pivot?

Street Fight Daily: Ebay Tests Deals, CitySearch Announces Layoffs

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.EBay tests deals on services, takes on Groupon (Reuters)… Shrink To Grow: Citysearch And Urbanspoon Parent Company CityGrid Lays Off 15% Of Its Employees (TechCrunch)… DNAinfo, In Bid to Raise Profile Among Local Advertisers, Starts ‘Small Business Insider’ (Capital New York)…

Waze Highlights Inconsistencies in Local Data

There are too many different ways to categorize businesses, and none of them represents a unified standard for online search. Such a standard if widely implemented would make all businesses categorized as grocery stores line up neatly with each other and would provide a significant boost in overall relevancy…

Prognosis Positive for Small-Town Newspapers?

We all know that small papers have suffered far less than major metros in the advertising bloodbath. And talk to anyone in a small town and these papers continue to have tremendous relevance. Small papers have mostly slashed extras costs, if they ever grew bloated in the first place. And today, more than ever before, the tools for easily putting a small-town paper on the Internet have become incredibly simple…

Small Biz Owners Voice Marketing Concerns at NYC Conference

At a conference yesterday in New York intended to educate local business owners about online marketing, a variety of merchants voiced their concerns about the number of marketing options available, and some talked about their different experiences with Yelp.

Street Fight Daily: Groupon Launches POS, Wal-Mart Tests Same-Day Delivery

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Groupon Eyes Restaurants With Nationwide POS Offering (Reuters)… Same-Day Delivery Test at Wal-Mart (New York Times)… Borrell Predicts Digital Revenue Will Rise 30% Next Year at Some Newspapers (Poynter)…

5 Ways Small Businesses Can Grow Their Email Marketing Lists

Many businesses struggle with finding ways to grow their email marketing lists, especially businesses that haven’t developed methods for acquiring their customers’ contact information during transactions that occur at the point of sale. Here are five tips from email marketing experts about how merchants can grow their marketing lists and deliver more effective email messages…

Case Study: Restaurant Chain Uses MomentFeed to Track Instagram Contest

Before he decided to run a contest that combined Instagram photos with Foursquare and Facebook check-ins, Barney’s Beanery regional manager AJ Sacher knew he needed to come up with a way to measure the results. By tying his campaign into the MomentFeed platform, Sacher was able to track how engagement in his promotion translated to increased foot traffic…

Street Fight Daily: Square To Partner With NYC Cabs, Freespee Raises $3.3 M

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Square Likely To Announce Cabs Partnership With New York City (Forbes)… Freespee Raises Further €3.3 Million For Its Mobile Click-To-Call Advertising And Analytics Service (TechCrunch)… Relocation, Relocation, Relocation – A “New” Local Ranking Tactic? (USA Today)…

Street Fight Daily: Local Search Share Increases, The Bubble That Wasn’t

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology... Study: 43 Percent Of Total Google Search Queries Are Local (Search Engine Land)… The Bubble That Wasn’t: What Happened to ‘People Discovery’ App (The Verge)… St. Louis Public Radio, St. Louis Beacon to Explore ‘Combining Talents and Resources’ (Poynter)…