Heard on the Street, Episode 8: ‘Engineered Casual’ with Broadly CEO Josh Melick
Word of mouth has been a leading form of local marketing for more than a century. But in a digital age, the name of the game is harnessing it by combining “IRL” chatter with the power of software and network effect. This is the bread and butter of Broadly, whose CEO and founder Josh Melick is our latest guest on our podcast Heard on the Street.
Street Fight Daily: A Major Ruling on Online Reviews; Local Publishers Bet on Marketing Services
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Yelp Can’t Be Forced to Take Down Allegedly Libelous Reviews… Amazon’s Will Supersize Its Second Grab-and-Go Grocery Store in Seattle… Programmatic Guaranteed: A Chance to Rethink Publisher Growth…
Influenster Launches Solution to Help Brands Leverage Organic Reviews
In a bid to help retailers take advantage of the growth in user-generated reviews, the product discovery and reviews platform Influenster recently launched its own service to continuously supply organic, non-incentivized reviews to brand and retail websites like Walgreens, Target, and Bloomingdales.
Q&A, Reviews, and Fake News on Google: False Content Is Not Just a Facebook Problem
“Given the primacy of Google’s market position, and the primacy of Knowledge Panels in SERPs—also a conscious product decision on Google’s part—the percentage of customers who are likely to come across fake information is great,” David Mihm tells Mike Blumenthal in their biweekly column.
Should Local Businesses Ask for Reviews?
Reputation management services should focus on helping businesses understand what consumers are saying and engage with reviewers by responding. Unbiased review content is a true goldmine for the brand who works with a reputation company to glean deep insights about consumer sentiment offered by consumers themselves for free.
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.
The Increasing Impact of Reviews and Google+ (?!) on Local SEO
Some new data has given us some “big time insight” into how Google is using authoritative local sites to inform local search rankings, says David Mihm. Mike Blumenthal agrees, saying that the prominence of local review pages and appears to be “transferring prominence directly to the local entity in a way that is totally independent of links.”
Street Fight Daily: Bing’s New Ordering Service, Google Revives Wallet
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology…Bing Now Lets You Order Food And Book Hotels Directly From Search Results (The Next Web)… To Revive Wallet, Google Tries to Wrangle Unruly Partners (Wall Street Journal)… Uber Valued At $41 Billion As Revenue Growth Powers Expanded Funding Round (MarketWatch)…
Street Fight Daily: Digital First’s Thunderdome Implodes, Mobile Payments Heats Up (Again)
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… The Newsonomics of Digital First Media’s Thunderdome Implosion (And Coming Sale) (Nieman Journalism Lab)… Tech Titans Are Vying to Be Your Pocketbook (New York Times)… TaskRabbit For Business Service Portal Quietly Disappears (TechCrunch)…
Street Fight Daily: Square Makes Loans, Why Microsoft Invested in Foursquare
A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… With Square Capital, Square Begins Offering Controversial Merchant Cash Advances (Recode)… It’s Now Obvious Why Microsoft Invested Millions In Foursquare (Business Insider)… Uber Says it Doesn’t Discriminate by Neighborhood in Chicago (GigaOm)…
How Online Review Sites Can Regain Consumers’ Trust
As long as there are economic incentives to create bogus reviews, unscrupulous people and businesses will continue to exploit the platforms that make it easy to deceive. For the local players seeking to help users in selecting a great business, use the offline world as a guide. Require an identity, build communities of real people sharing advice, and give legitimate customers a megaphone to honestly rate the service received…
How Business Reviews Contribute to Local SEO
Local businesses need to pay attention to the reviews that they are getting to make sure that they have an optimized online presence. Reviews definitely play a part in a business’ local SEO, and they also help improve customer interaction and CTR.