News and Analysis

Foursquare Analysis Highlights Looming Bubble for Boutique Fitness Studios

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Forget those New Year’s resolutions. The biggest surge in attendance at gyms and boutique fitness studios actually happens in the spring and early summer, according to a new analysis of foot traffic patterns by the data science team at Foursquare.

Alignable Rankings Show Lead Generation, Hiring Categories Primed for Disruption

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Small businesses are largely at the mercy of the online reviews published on sites like Yelp and Facebook, but now those business owners have turned the tables with some tough critiques for technology vendors in a new report published by the SMB social networking platform Alignable.

Street Fight Daily: Social Shapes Young People’s Shopping Decisions, LinkedIn Adds Brand Insights

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… 80% of Gen-Zers, 74% of Millenials Say Social Influences Their Shopping Choices… LinkedIn Allows Brands to Track Who Is Visiting Their Sites… How Uber Is Trying to Fix Itself…

Latest Posts

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…

How Hyperlocals Should Handle User-Generated Content

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There was a recent media kerfuffle when the Nashville Tennessean ran two un-bylined articles produced by publicists at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Was that a no-no? We asked Jane Stevens to explain what works and what doesn’t when sites, as they should, turn to their audience for articles and other content…

Street Fight Daily: Living Social Flush, AOL at Juncture

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A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.LivingSocial Steers Clear of IPO (WSJ)…SOURCE: AOL Faces Brutal Choice On Patch — Close It Or Double Down (SAI)…TripAdvisor Relaunches Local Picks Facebook App, for Restaurant Tips from Friends and Locals (The Next Web)