Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a leading analyst and blogger covering the local search, social and mobile markets. He is a senior analyst with Opus Research's Internet2Go program and the founder of Sterling Market Intelligence. He is also a contributing editor with Search Engine Land, the leading online publication covering search. Before this Sterling ran BIA/Kelsey's Interactive Local Media program. He was also a producer at TechTV and an original editor AllBusiness.com. Prior to AllBusiness Sterling was a practicing attorney in San Francisco.

Having attended the first F8, Simon knew what to expect, but once again the team was impressed and excited by the scale of change that Timeline, Open Graph and therefore the enablement of the third wave of apps will bring to Local.

Facebook Timeline

The Third Wave of Apps

Panel: Facebook and Local. Will Facebook do for Local what it did for Games?
Leader: Greg Sterling, Screenwerk, Search Engine Land & Internet2Go
Join industry thought leaders discuss and debate the future impact of Facebook on local. What will this mean for incumbents, start-ups and local businesses? How will SMBs navigate the landscape and who will control the revenue models?

Panel: The Local Content Challenge: Making Wine from Water

Leader: Robin Allenson, InnerBalloons

Local business want their content to be up-to-date, rich and correct. Publishers want rich, accurate content to generate traffic and leads. Users want to be able to find, find out about and rate and review businesses. Surely, there has to be a better way? What does perfect local content look like today, tomorrow and in 2014?

We have also update the agenda – you can find v1.2 HERE and also on Scribd (for easy download).

As part of my ongoing research into Facebook, I recently connected to Huffington Post – as part of the signup I was told that it’s possible for me to earn badges for my engagement levels with the Huffington Post (see image below).

This is the first example I have seen of Media taking lessons from Foursquare, et al and using Gaming Mechanics in the form of Badges to drive use.  Please let me know if you have seen other examples.

Posted via email from Simon Baptist’s Posterous

To my knowledge only a small number of us have been closely tracking the Local Social Media intersection for a few years.  But since Dylan and I organised  the first Local Social Summit, it feels like the world has taken notice and Local Social is going mainstream.

The Week that was in Local Social

Below, are some of the main stories from last week that caught my attention.

Yelp gets funding of $100 million.  My opinion is that this funding was the plan all along and Yelp played Google to get a solid valuation: a dangerous game to be playing.  Greg Sterling interviewed Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman to get some more details on where that money will be going.  As the PR on the investment came out during the Apple iPad launch, Henry Blodget’s harsh headline was:  Yelp Wins Award For Dumbest Funding-Announcement Timing Ever.

AT&T to launch buzz.com.  From what I’ve read, sounds like it’s geared towards mobile and is a standard Local business ratings services with a question function, tied into a friends and family social graph.  What I like about this is that it’s innovation from an old school telco.

Twitter has rolled out Local Trends to everyone (& the API).  The obvious point is that 3rd party innovation will make something interesting out of this.  One possible use is utilising the Local Trends as a solid data source for BI over Local information to determine requirements for things like:  Emergency Services and Content.

Citysearch launches openweb distribution to Local content and ads.  This is a smart play and one the traditional IYPs or those with heavy destination site content and advertisers should be looking to lock down as a move globally.

Facebook are looking at building a Foursquare killer.  Whatever, but what is interesting (both Greg Sterling and Seb Provencher agree on this one) is the comment from Foursquare co-founder, Dennis Crowley, who:

fully expects Facebook and others to launch "check-in" functionality, making it [a] "commodity by the end of the year."

As I’ve said for a few months now, I’m not that interested in the checkin but I believe the checkout is where this trend needs to be heading.  Once that happens, then you’re going to see widespread SMB engagement and things will get interesting in the Local Social games niche.

In Seb Provencher’s required reading deck regarding the Perfect local media company of 2014, which was presented for the first time at Local Social Summit ‘09, checkin is listed as one of the standard features.  You can see the video of that lab session below.

Some more links from last week

• Foursquare’s New Frontier: Newspapers
• Beatbloggers recruited for Guardian Local project
• Localeze To Power Local Business Listings For Bing

Video of the Perfect Local Media Company from Local Social Summit ‘09

Regardless if it’s 50, 500 or 5000 friends that you have on Facebook, I believe that Kate Miller-Heidke gives us real insight into why we only probably communicate regularly with a few of them in her:   Are You F*cking Kidding Me? (Facebook Song)

If you are sensitive soul, please note there is swearing.

Please feel to comment here, on the LinkedIn group or via Twitter.

Social Media Marketing  – The Rules are Changing
With the rise of social media and powerful self-publishing tools (Blogger, WordPress, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc etc) the conversation between brands and consumers has changed forever. In this session we will explore the new rules and what this means for advertising, marketing and PR. All of which have been changed in a flash and forever. We will also dig into what engagement, the conversation and the attention economy really means for marketers.
Moderator: Mike Weston, VP International wunderloop/Blogger – Sandlines.net
Panel:

• Sokratis Papafloratos, CEO TrustedPlaces
• Paul McCrudden, of the #6weeks project
• Carolyn Watt, Profero
• Nathan McDonald, Managing Partner – wearesocial