In Tomorrow’s Retail Universe, the Destination Is ‘You’
Based on clues we can see all around us, it is my belief that retail, as we’ve known it for at least the last two millennia, is coming to an end. It won’t end tomorrow or next week. In fact, it will likely take at least a decade or two. But it’s very clear to me that we are coming to a tipping point and data, processing power and connectedness lie at the center of it all…
The Web Isn’t a Local Broadcast Channel, It’s a Listening Post
Let legacy media be legacy media — but get used to the idea that, in a connected world, the ability to carve out new local news niches and profit centers is based, in large part, on our ability to listen. This is not a skill widely held among those who only “distribute,” but it’s one of the keys to a successful tomorrow in the network…
What Hyperlocal Marketers Can Learn From Disney’s Wearable Devices
We talk a lot in the hyperlocal industry about what the future of offline marketing and commerce will look like. Mostly it would seem to involve taking the advantages of online marketing and shopping (customization, personalization, analytics, actionable CRM data, etc.) and bringing them into the real world of retail stores. Different players have been experimenting with different elements of this online-to-offline migration of technology, but the Walt Disney Company has really taken the ball and run with it…
How Consumer Messaging Is Going From ‘Push’ to ‘Pull’
The biggest battle coming in the world of marketing is a 180-degree shift in the routing of commerce-related messages. Today, we call them “advertisements,” one-directional messages FROM somebody with something to sell TO somebody who may potentially be a buyer. Tomorrow, the messages will come FROM those wishing to buy TO those with something to sell…
The Local Marketer’s Guide to Facebook
What steps should local marketers take to maximize the value of their Facebook presence? First, marketers should claim location pages and optimize their presence for Graph Search. Second devise a complementary content strategy for corporate brand pages. Local marketers should also consider using Facebook ads to supplement organic pages content…
Can the New Model for News Be Found in Networks?
“The old economic model is disintegrating faster than new alternatives are emerging,” former Seattle Times executive editor Mike Fancher told Street Fight. “While things seem to be falling apart, I am optimistic that new models will develop. Some will be for-profit; others will be non-profit or public. There may be new hybrid models as well. “
Why Broadcasters Need to Embrace Digital Hyperlocal
There are lots of hyperlocal marketing opportunities are being missed daily by traditional broadcast media. This isn’t because stations don’t want the revenue — it’s because they are so understaffed and under-funded, it’s simply difficult to devote resources to learning new technologies. But this may be exactly the right time to start investing their (very small) resources to upgrade mobile apps and improve online capabilities to tap hyperlocal dollars…
What Reviews Sites Need to Do to Prepare for Facebook’s Graph Search
It’s well known that reviews, ratings, and recommendations are a major factor in driving consumer decisions. Sourcing friends or people you know to provide advice holds even more weight when it comes to personalization and has an added benefit of trust. This is what makes the concept of Facebook’s new Graph Search so powerful…
Wanderful Media Revamps Find&Save With Personalization in Mind
“We’re building toward a completely personalized experience, like Netflix,” said Dave Thomsen, the company’s EVP of product design. “When you’re logged in, you get a unique circular that’s customized for you based on what we know about you.” So the product will understand what you have looked for in the past and show deals you might be interested in now…
The ‘New News Ecology’ Needs to Be Nourished With Sustainable Revenue
The grand, this-is-where-we’re-going commitment at the Journalism That Matters meeting held last week in Denver was encouraging. Local journalism needs this re-invention of what it does and how it relates to a newly empowered public that is outgrowing its old role as a passive consumer of news. I hope, though, that JTM members will also make “investigating new economic models” an important part of the new news ecology they’re creating.
Can Local Media Find New Opportunities by Catering to Brands?
“Journalism is Dead, Long Live Journalism” is the theme of a conference I’ll be attending this week in Denver. And the name isn’t a surprising one — there’s been a lot of angst lately about the emerging business models for digital journalism. Futility can be difficult, but it also can bring sea change. With that in mind, here are a few of the ideas I’ll likely be discussing with folks at the conference.
PODCAST: This Week in Location-Based Marketing — PubNub
In this week’s episode, hosts Rob Woodbridge and Asif Khan discuss whether Foursquare can make the switch from check-ins to discovery; Apple is awarded a patent for augmented reality on top of live video; Volkswagon makes driving more social; and Microsoft is testing yet another option for mobile payments. Plus special guest, Todd Greene, co-founder and CEO of PubNub on the emergence of real-time apps.
A Year After Its SXSW Moment, Highlight Keeps Working to Connect People Nearby
Paul Davison’s location-based startup Highlight has had a strange trajectory. It was the darling of South by Southwest in 2012, then soon lost its sheen for a variety of reasons, prompting a series of “What Happened to Highlight?” posts around the time of this year’s Austin event. Street Fight recently caught up with Davison to talk about retrenching, the definition of fun, and his very real belief that using Highlight can change the world around us.
PublicStuff Gets Answers for Local Citizens, Even in Chinese
Local publishers have long served their communities by shining a light on municipal issues until the folks at City Hall take notice and fill in those dangerous potholes. But in the past few years we’ve also seen several startups pop up that want to make an even more direct connection between citizens’ complaints and government action…
6 Things I Learned About Local By Failing in Local
I remember the bright-eyed conversation I had with my eventual partner Ed Lucero that sparked Tackable. It was 2009, and Instagram was being born somewhere else. The iPhone was brand new, and developers were racing to build apps that captured the power of local information. There are two worlds out there, I told Ed, the physical world and the digital world. Overlay the two, and things get interesting. Imagine!
DNAinfo’s NYC Schools Guide Shows Off ‘Network Effect’
The neighborhood-centric news site has created a guide that lets users zoom in and out so they can get the nitty-gritty about specific schools and compare it to other schools throughout New York City. The way the design uses dots and arrows to retrieve many pages of articles is a singular achievement in user-friendliness…
Local Retail Won’t Disappear — Mobile Will Transform the In-Store Experience
“The changes in the next five years in retail will be more profound and transformational than the last 100 years in retail have been because largely because of mobile,” said Cyriac Roeding, CEO of Shopkick. “I don’t think people will go [to stores] because they need something. I don’t even think they’ll go because they want something. I think they’ll go because they want to feel better.”
In Counting Actual People, Hyperlocals’ Smaller Traffic Numbers Can Be Big
With local merchants looking at more and more digital marketing options in their search for customers, community news sites have to be aggressive in selling themselves to potential advertisers (and raising revenue that will pay for editorial and other improvements). How can they make the most of their traffic numbers, which are much lower than those at most commerce-based sites?