Last week in local 9/5/2017
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 August 28th, 2017. This week features Mary Bowling and 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.
Let us know what you think. Welcome to Last Week in Local!
Mike’s Links
Whole Foods Is Now Part of Amazon, Should Retailers Freak Out?
If you were a retail consultant, how would you advise your clients? Greg Sterling put together 12 suggestions/ideas retailers should be working to be able to think about competing in this brave new world of local retail.
It’s Amazon vs. Google as we enter a new era of online-to-offline commerce
Where retailers may once have been ambivalent about giving their data to Google, they now have little choice. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
With Amazon crossing over from online into the real world, they need to execute without hesitation. An existential moment has arrived.
The Fallacy of Google’s “Micro-Moment” Positioning
Walmart + Google are great at findability but are severely behind in the logistic battle to be able to deliver these goods.
Google is testing ads in local business knowledge panels
Google won’t be charging for every cool new tool… but you can expect to find ads in all sorts of new places. Including your own Knowledge Panel. Be ready.
How to Feed the Google My Business Messaging Feature into Your Landline
A great article on how one health care business integrated Messaging into their practice. “After evaluating a couple of platforms, we chose to go with Text Request. Text Request makes it easy for any business to manage live, two-way text conversations by text-enabling a business’s existing, local landline number to send and receive texts, all from an online account. Text Request is cloud-based so you can send texts through a web browser or from your smartphone”.
GMB Messenger: What Businesses Need to Know Before Using It
The new Google Messenger has plenty of quirks and drawbacks in its early incarnation. Be aware of them before you leap.
Mary’s Links:
To Buy Or Not To Buy – The Touchy Subject Of Mobile ECommerce
•While almost half of all consumers browse via their phones, only 1 in 5 completes transactions on mobile
•Optimal load times for peak conversions ranged from 1.8 to 2.7 seconds across device types
•Just a 100-millisecond delay in load time hurt conversion rates by up to 7%
Expanded BrightLocal Citation Building Team Delivering Faster Results
I was impressed with this blog post because Myles talks about how he and his UK staff visit their team in the Phillippines and how those folks are involved in helping their communities. I think most companies using offshore help don’t have this level of commitment to their relationship with foreign contractors.
You’re Using Foursquare All the Time. You Just Don’t Know It
“Apple, Uber, and more than 100,000 other app developers use the company’s location data and other tools.”…. so be sure that your business’s Foursquare data is solid.
Researchers taught AI to write totally believable fake reviews, and the implications are terrifying
Not only does this threaten the integrity of reviews, “it hints at a worrying future where AI is capable of writing sophisticated texts, undermining public trust and spreading fake news”.
