News and Analysis
Moz Local Incorporates Google My Business Insights Into Platform
The company announced this morning that it is integrating Google My Business insights data into the Moz Local platform. The platform, which allows businesses to post listings across the major aggregators of location data, will offer information about how and where customers optimize their Google listings.
Latest Posts
Study: FB ‘Likes’ Driving Buzz for Local Biz
The Facebook “like” button, which has been around for just over a year, has already become an important cultural phenomenon. A couple of months ago, a study by Yahoo Labs’ Yury Lifshits looked at how “likes” affect traffic to news stories by reinforcing memes, making the most popular content even more popular as it is passed around.
Text Me an Open Table
Another true story. I was meeting an old family friend for dinner in downtown San Francisco. I had told him to meet me at ZeroZero, a very popular newish Italian joint with killer pizzas and a reasonable menu. We get there and I ask the hostess how long the wait for a table. She smiles sweetly: “One hour.” Well that won’t do. Oh, by the way. The family friend? Works at Uber, a private car-on-demand company, as a business development guy. He’s newish to San Francisco and doesn’t know where else to go to eat. I’m likewise not that savvy on the Moscone Center locale and also was “budgetarily constrained.”…
Street Fight Daily: 04.29.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.…
For AOL to have real success with Patch, the company will need to employ the model of companies that probably want Patch to fail. (Forbes)…
“The problem with local is that everything is local,” writes CityVoter’s Josh Walker. “An agency should be able to talk intelligently about the combination of these approaches and be comfortable working with multiple vendors to reach the audience in the geography a client needs to activate.” (Business Insider)…
In the midst of a busy month of expansion, LivingSocial has announced its expansion into nine new U.S. markets. (Daily Deal Media)…
Facebook’s Deal
The single-best deal, assertion, investment or other strategy of the week.
Who: Facebook
What for: Giving the deals business a shot.
“While many Deals on Facebook offer discounts, it’s more important to us that you find interesting experiences around you to do with friends. We’ve worked with partners and local businesses to help deliver the best social activities in your area. And once you’ve found a deal you like, having the deal on Facebook makes it easy to share, buy and plan with your friends.
” —Emily White, Facebook
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Choosing a Data Partner for Local: What to Ask
Jeff Wood is a guest author. To submit a guest post, go here.
With all of the talk about data in our industry, I’m surprised that so few of the people I talk to in the Local space have a true data strategy — one that gives them real control over their own data and, most importantly, access to this data for decision-making.
It’s the nature of Local that a publisher loses the scale of large network buys. However, you gain the value of a centralized audience. With granular data, a site focused on the hyperlocal market can quickly understand the value of small pockets of inventory, and make educated decisions around how to package and allocate that inventory for sale across appropriate channels.
It’s amazing how many people simply don’t know who owns the data collected on their sites.
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Street Fight Daily: 04.28.11
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal media, technology, advertising and startups.…
Guardian News & Media is ending Guardian Local, a project it launched in 2010 to try and figure out the future of local journalism. “Unfortunately, while the blogs have found engaged local readerships and had good editorial impact, the project is not sustainable in its present form,” writes the publisher’s digital engagement head Meg Pickard. (PaidContent)…
Though two years old, the Daily Deal market is now worth billions and specialty layers are forming to slice apart that value. Jim Moran offers “The Daily Deal Stack” a visual representation of the different segments forming within the market. (Yipit Blog)…
Sparkfly, a provider of promotion redemption and tracking technology has raised $2.5 million in funding for SparkQuest, its patented mobile engagement platform that connects consumers deal redemption with merchants at the point of sale. (Daily Deal Media)…
The Batavian’s Owens: Start Selling Ads the Day You Launch
The veteran newsman says hyperlocal networks like Patch are at “a disadvantage” when it comes to selling local ads, because there is “a certain barrier of trust that must be overcome” in order to get local businesses on board as advertisers. He also weighs in on the long-term viability of advertising as a business model for local online content.
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Beyond Likes: Win Hearts with Emotional Marketing