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…
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…
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…
Solocal Group CEO Jean-Pierre Remy offered directory publishers a vision for print to digital transformation built on a strong focus on building content, vertical segmentation and a relentless focus on execution. Remy was the keynote speaker at the Local Search…
Significant news in the online presence/reputation management space came across the wire at BIA/Kelsey's Leading in Local conference last week in Boston, as VendAsta announced $8.25 million in Series B funding to accelerate the company's holistic identity/reputation/social management solution. In…
Tuesday at BIA/Kelsey's Leading in Local Conference, HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan emphasized that the local marketing game has changed - dramatically, secularly. Traditional "push" marketing techniques (usually requiring large budgets) no longer resonate with many consumers. Rather, small/medium businesses must…
Today at BIA/Kelsey's Leading in Local Conference, we kicked things off with an analyst roundtable. The theme: mobile is siphoning off usage from the desktop and other media. That comes in the form of search query volume, minutes spent, etc.…
I had the fun of buying Amex's $25 gift card for $15 the other day on Amex Sync, the new Amex Twitter Store. All I had to do was sync my Amex account to Amex's Twitter Store page, joing the…
Various companies have built SMB websites and landing pages by scraping the Web. PaperG comes to mind. How about using Facebook. BIA/Kelsey data from our Local Commerce Monitor shows that more than 40 percent of U.S. SMBs have Facebook pages.…
In keeping with tradition, BIA/Kelsey released its annual "Picks and Predictions" report this week, offering a collective view on the events that will drive the 2013 agenda in our local media coverage areas -- directional, interactive, mobile, social, vertical and video.…
At this time of year, a lot of us in the analysis and strategic research world are thinking about our predictions for 2013. Some of our predictions will be based on data trends; other predictions will be based on gut…
During the third and final day of our ILM West Conference, Facebook director of global SMB markets Dan Levy introduced a full slate of new data. In addition to hard numbers, the standard Facebook messaging came through: Its Pages (and…
To kick off Day 2 of our ILM West Conference, CityGrid's Jason Finger espoused the need to verticalize in local. This comes down to the fact that local is not only such a large and fragmented market that begs for…
As many in our interactive local media community can attest, the pace of change and disruption in social media is dizzying. New networks, native ads, SoLoMo, social commerce...we could go on for days. At BIA/Kelsey's ILM West 2012 conference in…
That headline will get some pushback as AT&T has received less than desirable consumer feedback for wireless, telecom and U-Verse service. But the company is taking steps to improve that image -- at least if my recent experience is any indication. After…
Among the many headlines that emerged from SMB Digital Marketing 2012 (CRM, digital loyalty, performance marketing), one that caught the attention of most in the room was the research return that social ROI is shifting dramatically toward customer acquisition. In…
Before too many days pass in travel recovery mode, I wanted to get some of my thoughts down from BIA/Kelsey's sessions at the EASDP Congress in Toledo Spain on Friday. As background, we programmed and ran the second day of…
Constant Contact CEO and "Engagement Marketing" author Gail Goodman made a pretty direct pitch to those attending SMB Digital Marketing to partner with her company to build out a social contact management system, which she describes as the "rich social…
To kick off the afternoon of Day 2 of SMB Digital Marketing, a duo of social media experts explicated the fluid dynamics of delivering social media to SMBs. Mike Nabasny, Director of Midwest Sales, Wildfire Pamela Springer, CEO, Manta Moderator…
