News and Analysis
Street Fight Daily: Instagram Steals Snap’s Business, Google Wades Further into Local
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Publishers Are Switching Affections from Snapchat to Instagram… Google Expands Reserve with Google, Adding Salon and Spa Bookings… Moz Founder Rand Fishkin to Step Away from Day-to-Day Operations, Will Remain Chairman…
Latest Posts
Case Study: Coffee Shop Prizes Engagement Over Customer Acquisition
Customer engagement will always trump customer acquisition at Groundwork Coffee, an organic coffee roaster with seven outposts in the Southern California area. The company has been able to increase both the frequency of customer visits and the average ticket per visit by partnering with a digital loyalty program called FiveStars…
Street Fight Daily: NYT Ends ‘Local’ Experiment, Patch Pressure
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.… ‘Times’ Will End Partnerships with N.Y.U., CUNY on Hyperlocal Blogs (Capital New York)… Patch Puts Pressure on Local Editors (Romenesko) … Groupon China Venture To Merge With Tencent-Backed FTuan (Bloomberg)…
Why Loyalty Programs Are Broken — And How to Fix Them
The customer loyalty vertical is red-hot. Startups from Silicon Valley to Chicago are working hard to innovate in this area, and, in so doing, are revolutionizing the way brick-and-mortar businesses do business. But startups need to look beyond the simple punch-card model and expand their loyalty products to include features that will effectively influence customer behavior…
Street Fight Daily: Yelp Featured, Facebook Pulls Location-Aware App
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.…
Apple To Feature Yelp Check-Ins Within IPhone Maps App (Bloomberg)…
You Won’t Find Friends Nearby Anymore: Facebook Pulls Its Location-Aware Mobile App To Add New Friends (TechCrunch)…
An NJ Hyperlocal Net to Rival Patch, Literally (NetNewsCheck)…
As Passive Loyalty Platforms Arise, Will Merchants Miss the Check-In?
What effect does asking less of the consumer have on the value proposition for the merchant? For companies like Foursquare whose product is built on user-generated data, a passive platform means less relevant and lower quality content. The check-in, for all its issues, created over two billion pieces of content in less than three years…
Street Fight Daily: Facebook Highlights, Google Loosens
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.…‘Find Friends Nearby’: Facebook’s New Mobile Feature For Finding People Around You… (TechCrunch)…Google loosens its limits and pricing on Maps API (Nieman Journalism Lab)… The High Value of Discount Prices (WSJ)… Google’s Maps And Commerce Group Is In A CRAZY Level Of Disarray (SAI)
Can Local Publishers Successfully Charge for Online?
The key for small-to-medium-sized legacy publishers online is keeping it local. The New York Times has unmatched quality, The Wall Street Journal has unmatched business insight and analysis, and the Concord Monitors and The Tulsa Worlds of the industry must have unmatched local content. If so, newspaper paywalls, at least in the short term, might be more than just a “Band-Aid on a bullet wound.”
PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Samsung, JetBlue
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan look at whether Montreal-based DigiCity can do what others have tried before to marginal success; Xtify’s news about location-triggered push notifications; the resource of the week and Jonathan Stephen – head of mobile with JetBlue Airways, swings by to tell us about location is moving the airline industry forward…
The Road Ahead: What Autonomous Cars Teach Us About Marketing Automation