News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Google Adds Local Event Discovery to Search, Snap’s Earnings Disappoint

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Google Search Will Now Help You Find Nearby Events… Snap’s $2.2 Billion Loss Caps Bumpy First Months as Public Company… Microsoft Releases New Custom AI Services for Businesses…

How to Influence Customers Through Online Reviews

As major brands look to capitalize on the most effective and trustworthy ad formats, they are refining their strategies for managing online reviews. Here are six ideas that brand marketers should keep in mind as they look for new ways to influence the way consumers interact with their online reviews.

Nexstar Is Big in Local TV — And Now It’s Aiming to Grow Its Digital News Sites

The emphasis of the local coverage on the company’s stations is often on crime and crashes — and that practice carries over to most of the digital sites. The net result is that Nexstar’s image can be distorted by commodity-level content that undercuts its strategy.

Latest Posts

Street Fight Daily: 12.01.11

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups... New Foursquare Button Lets You Collect and Use Reviews Later (Mashable)
As Stock Tumbles, Groupon Q4 Off to a Stellar Start (Yipit Blog)
Zaarly, TaskRabbit and the Rise of the Convenience Economy (BetaBeat)

Using Images to Spur Location-Based ‘Discovery’

Trover’s co-founder and CEO, Jason Karas, likens the photo-sharing location-based service to people “leaving breadcrumbs” for one another — places to discover nearby, with notes to give context. Street Fight recently caught up with Karas to talk about how the app works, why Trover is different from other photo-sharing sites, and how the “discovery” space is evolving…

How to Run Hyperlocals that Make Money — An Email Mini-Debate

Recently the good folks at the American Press Institute asked if I’d help lead a discussion about “Strategies for Sustainable Hyperlocal Business Models.” So I did what I do best: ask other folks what they think. Here are some thoughts on the matter from Rick Blair, ex-CEO of Examiner.com, GoLocal24 co-founder Josh Fenton, Scot Brodbeck from ARL Now, Street Fight columnist Tom Grubisich and Street Fight CEO Laura Rich…

Street Fight Daily: 11.30.11

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups...

Yelp’s IPO May End Up Yelping (CNN/Money)

The Big Merchant Survey (Daily Deal Media)

On Zaarly, You Can (Usually) Get What You Want (Entrepreneur)

Facebook’s Privacy Settlement Is a Warning for Hyperlocals

The Federal Trade Commission deal with Mark Zuckerberg’s social network sends a strong warning to hyperlocal news publishers, location-based services, and other sites that they must be completely transparent on how they use personal information of their users…

Foursquare Partners With Scoutmob to Syndicate Offers

This morning, deals site ScoutMob and location-based social network Foursquare have announced a partnership that will see the Atlanta-based company’s local deals distributed across Foursquare’s platform. 500 deals from Scoutmob’s thirteen markets will join offers from a handful of other sites like Groupon, Living Social, and Gilt City that are already on Foursquare…

Building Business Models Based on Local Influence

When local influencers are identified and curated, businesses can concentrate offers on these people to maximize local reach. Courting local influencers will have a larger impact for local business simply because the influencers’ networks and their target customer base are the same.

Case Study: At Choice Hotels, a Check-In Consolidator is Key

For nearly a year, Choice Hotels has been running a special offer that rewards members of its Choice Privileges program with 50 extra points each time they check-in on Foursquare, Facebook, or Gowalla at more than 1,500 participating properties. By partnering with Topguest, Choice has been able to use LBS to build customer engagement without worrying about managing the infrastructure that a large-scale program requires…

Street Fight Daily: 11.29.11

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.

LocalVox Launches Full-Service Marketing Solution To Help Local Merchants Target Their Customers (TechCrunch)
Groupon Stock Now Half Off (AllThingsD)
How Groupon and Livingsocial Impact Businesses and Users (Washingtonian)

Court Drops Facebook Ad Targeting Suit — What It Means for Hyperlocals

Hyperlocal news publishers that depend on a targeted advertising may find some comfort this week after a Federal Court in San Jose, Calif., threw out a series of class action claims against Facebook relating to its advertising practices.