LSQHA Blog Reviews

For a long time, technology has been touted as a force that can help us connect globally. But the urge to stay connected locally remains. And the same technological innovations that have facilitated global commerce and communication now seem to be turned towards helping us (re)connect to our neighborhoods, communities and local businesses. As buzz around location-based networks and services grows, "the local" is poised to be a place that's increasingly the emphasis for innovation and entrepreneurship. Sponsor People want to know what's going on locally. People want to shop locally. People want to network locally. And hyperlocal services make it easier to engage in and market to a local community. Technology need no longer be feared by local businesses as something that would drive their customers elsewhere - namely online. Although location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla have received significant attention as part of this trend, they are far from the only services. Hyperlocal search and news sites are two other services that have seen recent growth. Last week, Milo.com , a website that enables shoppers to research products online but then make their purchases locally, added products and real-time inventories for over 100 independent, mom-and-pop stores across the country. While Milo.com has served the "big box" stores for some time, this move to incorporate smaller retail outlets marks another way in which the local is starting to take advantage of online opportunities. "Smaller stores that once viewed technology as a threat, now see the benefit it has for reaching potential shoppers and attracting new customers into their actual brick and mortar locations," says Jack Abraham, Milo.com founder and CEO. Abraham says that Milo.com helps local businesses address the classic problem of how to get new customers in the door, but offers the best of both worlds - that is both an online component for reading reviews and the assurance that if they drive to their local store, they'll find the item in-stock, ready to "touch, feel, and buy." The hyperlocal can offer both geographic and content granularity - the ability to focus on a very specific location and subject matter that might otherwise be too small to be served. By merging the local and the online, businesses can respond quickly to meet the needs of their customers. Startups have long used local communities as a testing ground for both marketing and business models before opting to expand. The increasing interest in the hyperlocal might make it more than just a launching point. What do you think of the potential for expansion of more hyperlocal startups? Discuss

Read more:
Startups and the Lure of the (Hyper)Local

The Los Angeles Times reports that Hulu , the online television site, is going to start requiring payment for some of its programming beginning May 24. The five most recent episodes of current shows would still be available for free. But to see anything more would require membership in its Hulu Plus program, which costs $9.99 per month. Sponsor Hulu has reported profit in its last two quarters, bringing in $100 million. If it were an independent company, that might be thought quite impressive. But Hulu is owned by Disney, NewsCorp and NBC Universal. Those companies have rather larger expectations. ReadWriteWeb reported last week that Hulu's numbers indicate a slowing and plateauing of the company's growth. Hulu Plus would add an additional revenue stream that would augment its advertising. What remains to be seen is whether the charges stimulate revenue or inspire users to seek free content elsewhere. Discuss

Read more from the original source:
Hulu to Begin Charging for Programming

It is widely accepted that social media has transformed the landscape of marketing radically, and no longer can businesses - no matter their size or stage of development - afford to avoid social media. While the importance of developing one's brand online remains paramount - most obviously through the registration of a domain name - the proliferation of social media platforms can be overwhelming, and startups might feel compelled to register and interact with every service in order to quicken the spread of their name. Sponsor The multitude of social media platforms allow new businesses to establish their online presence, develop a brand and a message, and grow fans and followers - and of course customers - all without extensive investment in elaborate or costly marketing campaigns. The danger, however, lays in the proverbial "spreading oneself too thin" by attempting to make sure one's startup has a presence in every social media network. While new businesses should certainly take advantage of social networking, here are a few tips to help avoid social media overload: Avoid social-media-for-social-media's sake : Social media endeavors should always be in service of clear business goals, not merely an abstract notion of "user engagement." Develop a social media plan that supports your business plan. Use the services which which you're most comfortable : Take advantage of social media networks to which you already belong and in which you are already active. It is preferable to develop a robust presence on one or two platforms than to create profiles on every possible site, particularly if these are in danger of becoming unused and out-of-date. Engage : Despite the far-reaching power of social media networks, these services are not bullhorns. Use them to engage in dialogue with potential investors and customers, not merely to push information out to them. While social media can be a great place to share information, promote a service, and so on, it is important to be responsive - listen, engage. Track, evaluate, and adapt : Many services offer analytics tools in order to ascertain traffic levels and engagement. Be sure to check these regularly to evaluate the ROI of a platform. And as the field of social media is ever changing, be prepared to adapt. For example, just because a service like Foursquare is popular now does not mean that you should be forever wedded to location-based marketing. Although it is tempting to register for every social media site and to try to adopt every new tool, the drawback may be that in an attempt to network everywhere, your startup fails to network anywhere. Discuss

View post:
Social Media Marketing Overload? Some Tips for Startups

In a memo released yesterday , the White House made it significantly easier for federal agencies to use everything from social networks to online forums. But with the newfound freedom comes a surprising caveat: User ratings and rankings on those services, the new guidelines warn, "should not be used as the basis for policy or planning." In other words, a million Americans can Digg or retweet an important blog post, but government officials shouldn't use that popularity as an indicator of the post's value. Sponsor That's not always a bad thing considering that a dedicated group of like-minded people can game a casual voting system. But the voice of a social network corresponds to real people in the real world. A recent study , for instance, found that Twitter chatter accurately forecasts box-office revenues. As a whole, the new guidelines [ PDF ] were sorely needed. Social media and other online activities fell under a law that arduously dictates how agencies handle written materials. Under the new guidelines, online activities are now considered a "public meeting," which gives agencies much more freedom to blog, hold virtual meetings or even run contests. That freedom comes with a stipulation. The memo was written by the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs administrator, Cass Sunstein. In it he explains that agencies should "exercise good judgment and caution when using rankings, ratings, or tagging" because they aren't "statistically generalizable." That's true, but it doesn't mean they're worthless. John Zogby, founder of polling firm Zogby International, told us last year that if you keep in mind that social networks don't necessarily represent the entire scope of the American people, then the data from them has "tremendous, tremendous value." At least 66% of all federal, state and local governments now use social media. It's still early in the current midterm election cycle, but candidates are already investing heavily in social media; Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are the rule, not the exception. Those candidates will take their online communities with them to Washington when elected. Where else would they expect to get input on public policy than from that same community of voices? Discuss

Continue reading here:
White House to Federal Agencies: Beware Social Media Ratings and Polls

Swiss startup Kooaba is trying to bring the worlds of printed news and virtual content closer together with its Paperboy iPhone app . This app, which is currently only available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, allows users to take pictures of articles from a range of popular magazines and papers and then see additional content about these articles on their iPhones. Paperboy will also make a digital version of the article available in your Kooaba archive and users can then share this article with their friends by email and on Facebook and Twitter. Sponsor Note : Paperboy isn't available in the U.S. version of Apple's App Store. In the U.S., only Kooaba's app for recognizing books, DVD covers and other physical objects is currently available. Kooaba also worked with Wired last year to make some of the magazine's advertisements more interactive. Kooaba, which specializes in image recognition and already offers similar recognition tools for book and CDs, is working directly with a number of magazine publishers in the German-speaking world. The company plans to bring its services to other countries as well. Sadly, the service doesn't work for papers and magazines that don't work directly with Kooaba to get their content featured on the app. Kooaba needs a PDF version of the magazine to train the service's image recognition software. Besides making the article available for online reading and sharing, Paperboy's partners can also include links to their Facebook and Twitter profiles, as well as links to related articles and videos. Magazines and papers can also choose to charge their users for accessing extra content through Paperboy. In addition, advertisers can embed related links to their web sites whenever somebody scans a relevant article or print ad. Overall, this looks like an interesting concept. Even though the newspaper and magazine business is in the middle of a deep crisis, print won't go away for a while and applications like Paperboy can help print publishers to bridge the gap between their traditional publications and their online presence. The question, however, is if other technologies like QR codes aren't easier to use for publishers who just want to embed a link into an article for example. Via: Netzwertig Discuss

More:
Paperboy: Bridging the Gap Between Print and Online News