News and Analysis

Street Fight Daily: Retailers Test Personalization, Facebook Drives Biz Engagement with Messenger

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Tipping Point: Teens Spend More Time on Mobile than Desktop… mParticle Launches Peer-to-Peer Audience Sharing to Make Marketing with Partners Easier… eBay Incorporates Machine Learning to Overhaul Email Marketing Platform…

Facebook Looking for More Consumers to Chat With Businesses on Messenger

At the Collision conference in New Orleans on Tuesday, Facebook’s head of product for Messenger, Stan Chudnovsky, spoke with Recode’s Kurt Wagner about how the company is trying to unite the messaging app’s 1.2 billion users with the 60 million businesses in the Facebook ecosystem.

How Harman Takes Electronics Marketing to the Local Level

Having the customer’s ear is literally what Harman International wants, but getting their attention at the local level takes more than a few steps for a consumer electronics maker. Shobhit Kapoor, Harman’s vice president of global brand marketing, caught up with Street Fight recently to talk about how the company thinks about connecting with local consumers.

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Case Study: RadioShack Finds Foursquare Customers Spend More

After a tepid start to location-based services, RadioShack fully embraced Foursquare, finding that customers who checked in spent more and were more likely to buy wireless products. The company saw an uptick in buzz as an innovator, too. Now, RadioShack is a close partner of Foursquare, serving as a launch partner for some of its badge offerings, and running a major Foursquare campaign around the holidays last year, Holiday Hero. This year, RadioShack will run a “So Right” badge campaign on Foursquare and look to increase use of location-based tools by associates as the company de-centralizes its operations.

Street Fight Daily: 11.03.11

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

AOL’s Armstrong Talks Patch Strategy in Q3 Earnings Call (PaidContent)
“When you talk to major auto makers, half goes into local and regional,” Armstrong said, saying that AOL will also be aiming more heavily at local retailers as the company works to make Patch profitable. Armstrong didn’t provide any clearer sense, however, when Patch would be evenly profitable, as opposed to the expectation that some parts of the network will do more than break even by the end of the year…

Groupon’s IPO Is Coming — But How Much Is It Really Worth? (GigaOm)
Colleen Taylor: It’s been a long and winding road, but Groupon is set to hold its initial public offering on the stock market any day now, with several reports saying the IPO will take place by week’s end. It will be interesting to see just how high Groupon goes once it actually hits the public market…

A Conversation With Ted Leonsis on Social, Local and Mobile

Ted Leonsis understands social media better than you. Let’s just start there. And he doesn’t just understand it academically, or as a learned practitioner, or even as a social media services innovator (which he was). I’d like to think social media is visceral to Leonsis, but that would miss the mark, too. The truth is […]

Main Street Connect Announces New CEO, $7 Million in Funding

Main Street Connect, the network of hyperlocal news sites, announced yesterday that Thompson Reuters’ Global Head of Product Management Zohar Yardeni would come on as CEO, replacing founder Carll Tucker who will become chairman of the company’s board of directors. The company also announced $7 million in new funding, matching an inaugural round raised a year ago…

#SFS11 VIDEO: Survive and Thrive as a Standalone Hyperlocal

On the first day of the Street Fight Summit in New York last week, our columnist Tom Grubisich moderated a panel about profitability and strategy featuring three successful hyperlocal entrepreneurs — Baristanet’s Debra Galant, ARL Now’s Scott Brodbeck, and The Alternative Press’ Michael Shapiro…

Street Fight Daily: 11.02.11

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

Aol’s Patch Taps Ad Tech Startup PaperG To Boost Local Ad Sales (TechCrunch)
PaperG has announced that its technology will be released in over 100 of Patch’s markets, enabling Patch sales teams access instant ad creation, management, and optimization for their litany of local advertisers…

Groupon Founders Will Control Majority Stake Even After IPO (AllThingsD)
Groupon has conducted a two-for-one stock split and recapitalized all of its outstanding shares into newly issued shares of Class A and B stock. CEO Andrew Mason, Executive Chairman Eric Lefkofsky and Director Bradley Keywell will now control 58.1 percent of the voting shares…

#SFS11 VIDEO: What’s the Next Move for Daily Deals?

In a panel at the Street Fight Summit, three top executives from the daily deals industry debated how the phenomenon would evolve, how companies might bring more value to merchants, and what types of companies were most likely to survive. The panel featured Closely CEO Perry Evans, Dealbird CEO Chad Billmyer, and Group Commerce CEO Jonty Kelt…

How to Market to Local Moms

As publishers of websites for suburban moms and advocates for the main street merchants trying to woo them, we spend a lot of time thinking about what matters to the maternally minded. Since women are responsible for 85% of household purchases, reaching the “Chief Household Operator” is a key objective for most local merchants. While these tips are squarely directed at local business owners, many apply to hyperlocal news and blogs as well…

Street Fight Daily: 11.01.11

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

Urban Airship’s Partnership With SimpleGeo Turns Into An Acquisition (TechCrunch)
SimpleGeo has been acquired by Urban Airship for approximately $3.5 million. In July, the two companies formed a strategic partnership which was intended to provide better ways for developers to offer location-aware push notifications in their applications…

Groupon’s Product Expansion Masks Decline in Core Local Deals Business (Yipit Blog)
Groupon grew 8% in North American from Q2 to Q3 because of the new products it launched, but its core local deals business actually dropped 3%…

Public Radio Gears Up for Hyperlocal News Innovation

Federal, private and individual donors are all supporting myriad local and hyperlocal reporting experiments based at radio stations. The results of these initiatives have been mixed. Better and more replicable models are needed for cross-platform storytelling, participatory reporting that brings in a broader range of perspectives, and narrative forms that more closely reflect the shifting media consumption and sharing habits of younger users…