Payment processors and related companies work with most SMBs and are increasingly seen as a potential sales channel for reaching them with additional services. This week, we talked with one processor, Boston-based Merchant Warehouse, about its efforts to leverage its…
Former Localeze business develoment guy Gib Olander is back in the game, this time switching his focus from local business listings innovation to maximizing effective local business reviews. Think of a variation of "Net Promoter Scores" for local business. Olander's…
Increased investment, a bullseye on customer acquisition, yet unconvincing results. These are the core themes emerging from Manta's recently-released Q1 SMB Wellness Index, a survey of small business owners focused on social media. They are the very themes called out…
There are rumors swirling this morning that Facebook will acquire Waze. For those unfamiliar, Israeli based Waze is a red hot social navigation app that focuses on traffic conditions among a growing set of features. If the rumor is true, it makes…
Though it's been covered since its release yesterday, we wanted to give a nod to xAd's latest Mobile-Location Insights Report for Q1, and dive into some of it's top findings. The report follows closely behind the Nielsen administered Path to Purchase report…
Dex Media, the newly minted company that was once SuperMedia and Dex One, is counting on a strategy of serving as the "outsourced marketing partner for small-businesses" as they wade into the complex and confusing world of digital media. That…
> I recently had the opportunity to speak with Bruce Burke, CMO of M-ize. That’s m-ize like monetize, and mobilize which is exactly what m-ize does with its social media platform. The focus of m-ize is on specific product categories…
Last week, we made the prediction that Yelp will buy build or partner to bring Vine-like functionality to its mobile products. This comes in the wake of Yelp's positive Q1 earnings, and moves by Facebook and Foursquare to compete more…
Twitter's Vine is blowing up for its ability to shoot quick and easy videos. Smartphone saturation and wireless broadband also make it an opportune time. And people are getting creative with the 6 second format. The ease of use makes…
Earlier this week, Placed CEO David Shim notified me that the company's "Insights" product would be launching today. As we wrote back in October, this is a key piece of the "big data meets local" trend to provide analytics around…
Companies that are successfully transforming their sales teams to serve a fast changing local and SMB marketplace tend to follow a common set of best practices. These include a focus on customer-driven key performance indicators, a heavy reliance on data…
xAd and Telmetrics today continue their rapid fire series of Path-to-Purchase studies by kicking off the research's second year. After doing a study last year and following up with subsequent category drill downs, they launched a UK version. Those past…
SuperMedia and Dex One completed their merger today, creating Dex Media, a company with annual revenues of approximately $2.6 billion (based on combined 2012 revenues), with about $500 million in digital revenue. The combined company also has 2,700 sales reps…
BIA/Kelsey recently rolled out the first in a series of reports offering very specific cuts of data from our Local Commerce Monitor research. LCM is BIA/Kelsey's long-running study of how U.S. small business advertisers are evolving their use of media…
Is appointment scheduling poised to be a new anchor for service promotions? That vision --"look for an appointment, get a deal or upsell " -- has been articulated by a number of scheduling vendors, such as Agendize, FullSlate and Schedulicity.…
Will tech companies like Google, Apple, eBay/PayPal, Amazon, Microsoft, Square and Intuit move in on the role traditionally played by banks? It is a distinct possibility in the not-too-distant future, as digitized transactions, mobile payments and offers, and digital wallets…
As promised in our LSA conference coverage last week, here is a deeper dive on Facebook's positioning and possible directions in local. I covered the topic in a bit more depth in my monthly Search Engine Watch column, including more…
Disruption happens. In the local space, we’re seeing it happen with Yellow Pages and newspapers. Banks are seeing it happen as well, which will cause a major change in the way that customers keep track of their money, buy goods…
Facebook is the undisputed king of social media. The average Facebook user has 124 friends, and 70 percent of its users have "liked" at least one local business. But at this point, how local is Facebook really? And as an…
I think Yelp is a fantastic service and a top resource, especially when I am travelling. But it was disturbing to read a column in The Los Angeles Times on Saturday by Sandy Banks, which suggests that Yelp is suppressing…
