News and Analysis

Ex-Patcher Uses ‘Local Language’ to Succeed in Crowded Suburban Market

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Mike Dinan founded NewCanaanite.com in suburban Connecticut in 2014 after his job as regional editor at Patch disappeared. In this interview, Dinan tells how, despite a crowded local media market, he’s made New Canaanite succeed as a community force and independent business.

Street Fight Daily: Brands Navigate Snapchat, Amazon Tightens Grip on the Smart-Home Future

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… How Brands Get Around Low Discoverability on Snapchat… This Year’s Prime Day Echo Sales Could Mark a Tipping Point for Amazon’s Product… Uber Offers a Thankless Job, and The Applications Roll In…

Structuring a Team and Creating Transparency in the Midst of Company Chaos

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Neil Sweeney has lots of opinions about how to run a company, especially a newer, smaller one. The founder and CEO of beacon network company Freckle IoT, says that it’s about putting the right people in the right places.

Latest Posts

Why Loyalty Programs Are Broken — And How to Fix Them

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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

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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?

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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…

7 Social Media Strategies for Small Business Owners

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Investing in free social media tools is one of the most cost-effective things a small business owner can do to increase brand recognition and awareness, and yet fewer than 20% of SMBs currently have websites that link to popular social media networks. Here are seven tips from experts in the social media marketing industry about how business owners can take advantage of the social media tools available today…

Street Fight Daily: Facebook Highlights, Google Loosens

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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?

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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.”

How Push Notifications on Mobile Are Changing Hyperlocal

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Push notifications have come a long way in the last 24 months. As businesses and brands we can no longer ignore the potential available to us to reach large audiences via this simple engagement model…

PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — Samsung, JetBlue

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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…

Street Fight Daily: More Recommendations, Square Cloned

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology. Former Microsoft Dealmaker Fritz Lanman Launches Livestar Recommendations App (All Things D)… Rocket Swipes ‘Double Digit Millions’ for Square Clone (GigaOm)… Daily Deal Dashboard Redeem & Get Launches Redepmtion Management Tool for Marketers (The Next Web)… Apps That Present Highlights of the World in Front of You (NYT)

Case Study: Weather Channel Partners With PlaceIQ for Targeting

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Pat McCormack, vice president of mobile sales and strategy at The Weather Channel Companies, talks more about the PlaceIQ partnership and explains how adding locality to the creative of a mobile ad improves user engagement…