Last week in local 1/22/18
Join Local U for the latest public episode of Last Week in Local, a weekly conversation about the articles that attracted our attention during the past week ending January 8th. This week features Carrie Hill & Mike Blumenthal.
If you have a special topic you would like us to discuss for our other weekly feature, the Deep Dive in Local, or if you would like to be on one or the other of our segments, reach out and send us the topic and your availability. If you are interested in sponsoring this weekly show also please let us know.
Carrie’s Links
How do I share access to the Yelp page for my business? | Support Center | Yelp
Andy Simpson Tweeted an image of a Yelp for business dashboard that allows the business owners to add users to the account. This is a new feature that looks a bit like propping up a sinking ship.
The Facebook Local They’re Not Talking About – Local University
I wrote an article over at LocalU about how many local and hyper-local businesses are seeing return on being involved in their local Facebook groups. This is a step outside how Facebook would like local users to behave, but it’s working for many different trades and niches.
Reach Score: A Measure for Understanding Local Sponsorships | ZipSprout
Zipsprout released a tool that lets you enter your social media profile urls, newsletter reach and zip code to determine a “score” for your brand/location. Interesting concept that could be used to measure improvement in reach. Of course it’s subjective as most of these tools are, and doesn’t really indicate improvement in revenue or ranking, but it’s a way to show a business owner that outreach has grown.
Bill Slawski tweeted about how Local search is “proof of concept” for semantic search at Google. AN interesting way to look at labeling content and improving “clarity” of information that the search engines use to determine a legitimate business in a specific area. Sparked an interesting conversation.
Google My Business video uploads now available to business owners
You have to click in through the images in the knowledge panel to see it, but they are allowing video uploads. A well produced video has some barriers to entry for a small business, but it can be done. How will Google use these in the future? Interesting to speculate for sure. There were some glitches for a few days in that the videos weren’t showing up, but that seems to have been resolved.
Bing Adds Appointment Booking to Local Panel in Search Results
US based only at this time, and there are no indications of if a 3rd party app controls these. I think it’s all set up within the Bing Local dashboard, but don’t have access to a client there to confirm. I’m sure it will continue to evolve.
Mike’s Links
“Amazon Go, the company’s first brick-and-mortar convenience store, will open to the public on Monday on the ground floor of Amazon’s new Seattle headquarters
But the store’s real reason for being is to test what could be a breakthrough Amazon hypothesis: that by adding even more convenience to the convenience store model — with the help of a healthy dose of technology — Amazon might be able to carve out a loyal customer base outside of its website and inside a physical store where the vast majority of food and grocery shopping still occurs
Of course, you shouldn’t think about a new Amazon technology platform without considering the possibility that Amazon may eventually make it available to other businesses for a healthy fee. Amazon created Amazon Web Services, but turned out to simply be its first customer. The Amazon Echo pushed Alexa into the mainstream, but in some ways is just Alexa’s first customer, too, as the internet analyst Ben Thompson has noted.”
How MoviePass Is Using Subscriber Data for Retail Partner Integrations
“Having now reached 1.5 million paying subscribers, with 500,000 of those coming in just the last 30 days, MoviePass is keeping a sharp focus on the data it’s able to collect from moviegoers. The company expects that data to become an important asset to retail partners and the movie industry at large in the coming months and years.”
$9.95 a month to subscribe, they pay theaters full retail for tickets and make their money with the data. They partner with retails and others to hyper target movie goers with very specific offers.
Intel underfoot: Floor sensors rise as retail data source
Online clicks give retailers valuable insight into consumer behavior, but what can they learn from footsteps? It’s a question Milwaukee-based startup Scanalytics is helping businesses explore with floor sensors that track people’s movements.
Google Updates GMB Websites to Include Posts as They Pass 1.25 Million Sites Created
Google’s Websites have moved off the minimum viable product to a position of more functionality with the addition of Posts. It is not yet clear the SEO impact, if any, of the move. But it does indicate that Google is going to build out features for their low end website tool.
Google Q & A – Get To Know Google’s Latest Local Feature – GetFiveStars
Just when you thought you had learned how to interact with your new landlord, they add a new and unpredictable reputation clause to your contract about what can show on “your” page: Google Questions and Answers (Q & A). Part 1 of a series on Google Q & A…. what to watch out for, how it works and how you craft a plan to deal with it.
The Big Guide To Google Questions And Answers (Q & A)
Part 2 of my Google Q & A series at GetFiveStars. This is a detailed look at the ins and outs of the technical details of Google’s Q & A product.
I have spent the last 3 months developing an agency and brand feature that allows Google Q & A to be dealt with at scale. We will be unveiling the product in tomorrow’s webinar at 2:00 PM Eastern.
