News and Analysis

Facebook Has a New Mission That Just May Benefit Local Publishers

Facebook doesn’t call itself a technology company anymore. “It’s a “new kind of platform,” says founder Mark Zuckerberg. But I think the world – in particular local news publishers — should forget the semantics and focus instead on what Facebook is actually doing.

Street Fight Daily: Users Stand by Uber Despite Scandals, FTC Clears Amazon-Whole Foods Deal

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Despite the Drama, Uber Reports Strong User Growth and Financial Outlook… Amazon’s Whole Foods Deal Clears Last Two Major Hurdles… Paid-Search Advertising Still Outranks Social in Performance…

Hiya and Samsung Turn the Phone Dialer Into a Local Search Engine

“When you buy a new Samsung device, the phone just does more than the iPhone or any other Android,” says Mayur Kamat, Hiya’s VP of product. “Without downloading or installing anything, the user can call a business in the same way they call their friends and family.”

Latest Posts

Case Study: Yoga Chain Ups Revenue With Perkville Loyalty Program

At Charm City Yoga, a chain of six yoga studios in the Baltimore area, co-owner Chris Blades says he brings in $2,000 extra each month because of his loyalty program, which rewards frequent customers and sends automated reminders to clients who haven’t come back after 30 or 60 days…

Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Monetization, Square Valuation

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.Foursquare Rolls Out Its First Big Money-Making Feature: ‘Promoted Updates’ (TechCrunch)… Square Expects New Financing and a Loftier Value (NYT)… Craigslist Sues Apartment Search Site PadMapper Over Listings (GigaOm)…

Street Fight Announces Second Annual Two-Day Summit in New York

The brightest minds in hyperlocal will gather again in New York for Street Fight Summit 2012, Street Fight’s flagship event, on October 30th and 31st at 82Mercer in SoHo. The topic: The Next Generation in Hyperlocal. Over the course of two days, speakers from startups, media and technology will discuss key ideas and issues driving the ideas and strategies that will create lasting business models in hyperlocal.

6 Location-Based Marketing Strategies for Small Business Owners

Roughly half of all smartphone users are now finding offers and discounts based on their current locations, according to a 2012 report, but only 9% of small businesses are taking advantage of popular location-based networks like Foursquare to promote their brands. Here are six tips from leaders in the location-based marketing field…

New Pontiflex Tool Uses Social Content to Generate Email Follow-Ups for SMBs

Mobile advertising company Pontiflex has launched a new Social FollowUp tool aimed at helping small businesses engage with new leads generated through its AdLeads platform. Social FollowUp pings newly acquired consumers with an auto-generated email that pulls recent content from a business’ existing social media accounts…

Street Fight Daily: NextDoor Raises $18.6M, YP Freshens Site

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.NextDoor, the Social Network for Neighborhoods, Raises $18.6M (GigaOm)… YP.com Freshens Up Homepage, Creates Higher Expectations for the Inside (Screenwerk)… Reinventing the Billboard (Inc.)…

Does the ‘Arms Race’ Over Mapping Tech Benefit the Local Consumer?

As the consumer’s relationship with local information has shifted from search to discovery, so has their relationship with maps. The question for Google and Apple is whether 3D mapping is an innovation built to sustain, or disrupt, the search-based local web that Google envisioned when it launched Maps in 2005…

Alabama Deals Site Puts Focus on Merchants to Compete With Groupon

Deal Co-op CEO Nate Schmidt says that when Birmingham, Ala.,-based TheSuperDeal is pitching deals to local merchants, sales reps are usually not just making cold sales calls. Rather, because of the team’s longstanding local ties to the city, it’s often a pitch to a business that someone that their team knows in some way, he says: “We’ve been in the community. There’s no doubt that’s been really important.”

Street Fight Daily: TaskRabbit Scores $13M, Tribune Keeps Journatic

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.TaskRabbit Takes Another $13M, With Founders Fund Leading the Round (All Things D)… Media Companies have Trouble Finding the Sweet Spot in Hyperlocal Journalism (Chicago Tribune)… The Hard Truths of Hyperlocal Journalism Reveal Themselves in Journatic Trouble (Poynter)…

As Deals Look Forward, a ‘Red Herring’ Threatens Growth

For LivingSocial, a strong editorial voice in selecting and presenting “experiences” – whether online or offline — makes its brand harder to replicate. Voice, whether that’s conveyed through the kind of deals offered or through the content that surrounds it, is hugely important to creating value that’s resistant to the degenerative pull of commoditization…