hyperlocal 101

What you think hyperlocal is and why you think the future of it will be so important.
Hyperlocal is essentially the up close study of how society and culture intermingle and connect. It determines how cultures both local, regional, national and global emerge, and it also tracks how culture and society moves.

First off I think there are two main reasons why everything MUST go local.

Number One:
People need intimacy and connection to make sense of their lives. People are by nature social.

If you think about it… when the internet started.. it was called CYPERSPACE.
This was great to go surfing in the vastness… but as it expanded people needed a way to figure it out.

Thus you began to have search engines (kinda like telescopes).
This has worked great for a the time being but 230,983 results in .098 sec doesn’t really hold any relevancy to an audience if they can’t find what they are looking for.

Then social networks then began to appear and people created networks of specialized information. If they were big enough and specialized they were found by the search engines This has solved the first issue of intimacy and connection. (you find the big and bright stars)

The second issue is about specialization and movement.
You can now begin to see this occurring with in social networks as they begin to cluster and build groups within groups.

The bottom line is “HOW DO YOU FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR?”
This will eventually result in what I call Hyper Search.

A very specialized search method which social networks will use to drill down into the core.
If you look at our own society, it also has organized down into hyperlocal aspects so it would be only natural that this would occur online was well.

Example:
Food < Grocery Store < Safeway < Ketsup < Aisle 4 top row 2 mid way down < Heinz < Tomatoes, Sugar, Sucrose, blah blah blah.

What’s at the end of HyperLocal?
Hyperlocal is a big equation, because it is going to establish new boundaries and norms for how we see, move and work with the world and culture around us.

The big issue is about control.

The audience online is continuously changing because it moves. This makes it very difficult for mass media and marketers to capture the revenue that would other wise be trapped within a confined space, such as a town or physical geography.

Example: If you live in a small valley like I do and there is one big newspaper and that’s the way to get your ad out to the public you have one choice.
Now with Craigslist and freecycle this is being challenged.

But who has access to the audience and how? Or as they would say.. WHO OWNS IT?
That is the Trillion Dollar question!!!

Why will most companies fail in achieving a functional hyperlocal model?
This is actually quite simple and straight forward.
HYPERLOCAL is a moving model.

Almost 99% of the existing models out there are based on models which are based on a static geography. Think about it. Your mom lives in Boise, your sister in Dallas, your grandparents in Salt Lake. You travel to these place and each time you travel so does your map of locality. Locality meaning people you know, place you go, things that make sense to your life. That’s all I am going to say for now.

Why mainstream newspapers are losing money?
Ah… I love this question.
Well other than just being totally negative and boring they actually suck.

To begin with they are written with one point of view and in an style which is talking to the boomers and their parents.

But even boomers get on IM and chat nowdays. Here is my suggestion.
NEWS is dynamic as it implies. Put that online for free for all to know - AS IT SHOULD BE

Culture is evolving and has a life all to it’s own.
A new band in town, an interesting interview, a great place to eat. Things that create relevancy to each of our lives…
Put this is print!!! This is what people want to read about anyways.

Good bye hollywood hello local.. I could go on and on about this.
Your sitting on a gold mind and it’s right in front of you.

Tomorrow Hillary Clinton will come to our town, to a hotel my friend manages, more than likely one of our members will get a photograph of her posted online within the hour of it being taken. It’s not just about availability it’s about reality.

Mainstream media represents one point of view, often times capture by people who don’t know jack about the topics they are covering. So give the power to the people and let them tell it how it really is. Represent a point of view which offers diversity. It doesn’t have to be correct it just has to be real.

So to answer your question why are they losing money.
1. The audience is changing
2. The engagement is played out and negative
3. There is better stuff online… and it’s real

Netflix is sitting on a potential hyperlocal gold mine of an opportunity.

To begin my wife and I sat down for an evening together, popped in the Netflix DVD and low and behold an ad for Gaiam appeared. Maybe Gaiam actually produced the movie, but what suddenly occurred to me was that this might as well have been an ad… and it could have easily been a Hyperlocal one at that.

The ad was short and sweet and embedded in a way which forced us to watch it then forwarding us to the movie menu.

What if the ad had been locally targeted, like the pre movie ads you might see in your home town movie theater.

Impossible!
Think Again!!!

Currently Netflix delivers DVD’s by mail for one reason and one reason only. The answer is to compete with your local video store.

In the near future Netflix Movies will transition from DVD’s to digital downloads.

AGREE… ok

Now imagine that they transition from a paid model to a free model. Afterall they are not making that much money on the actual rental side of things.

Downloads become free.

YES FREE
Paid for by your LOCAL ADVERTISER

With a small embedded ad in the pre movie startup.

This idea has a ton of pros and cons but one thing is for sure… it wouldn’t be that difficult to do.

Another potential for Netflix and less invasive to the end user would be to run HYPERLOCAL ads on its packaging. Currently you get national ads, but what about Local Ads.

They could be done on demand and sold in quantities ranging from 100 to 100,000+
Again the idea is simple and essentially ready to go.

Let’s see how long it takes Netflix to jump into the hyperlocal marketing game.

Yelp sits in the drivers seat to unleash one of the world’s most interesting and best citizen journalism prototypes.

With thousand of citizen journalist style real reviews posted daily, and an arsenal of hundreds of thousands of testimonials, Yelp is essentially nothing more than a citizen journalism mecca.

Review site sure, but beyond this it is a actually a functional model of how citizen journalism can make it’s way into the mainstream and actually serve a purpose.

Tie this into a media syndication model and you suddenly create both a way for Yelp to be profitable and compensate it’s contributors. Will they recognize this opportunity at hand? I hope so and I’d love to speak with them if they do.

Otherwise they might as well start deleting those review once they more than a year old.

What a concept!!!
There are enough restaurant reviews in here to topple any high and mighty bay area restaurant critic: Power to citizen journalism and reality reviews!

Imagine if Yelp decided to create a weekly PRINT restaurant / business review guide.

They would start in the Bay Area; the mecca of diversity and personality for the US of A.
It would simply be the best read in town!

Why?
1. It’s Real
2. It’s Funny
3. It’s Engaging

Oh, and did I mention the $Money$ to be made in Ad Sales?
Also how do you compensate those hungry restaurant critics?

1. Free Meals
2. VIP Treatment
3. Reality Review (Film Them)

Here Is How It Goes:

One day, designer-looking newspaper stands begin popping up all around the highest traffic areas of the Bay Area. Suddenly, restaurants and businesses want to get into the weekly review. If your restaurant makes the Top 100 list, your solid gold. If you don’t you try.

You never know how or when it might happen!

Everyday locals become self proclaimed connoisseurs & critics.

The most popular rise to local celebrity status. Establishing them self with alias such as:

TeamPuffy, GSquad (Short for Granny Squad), Chew_MAN_Chew, MeSoHungry88….

In their day to day routine they hit business all around town leaving their fatefully, business calling cards.

Yelp starts accepting gift certificates from restaurants wanting reviews, and then send daring review squads in anonymously for reality review. Some restaurants up the ante and go for a higher level of promotion with reality reviews being filmed and podcast.

Don’t get hit by the GSquad of Oaktown. If you serve a bad cup of coffee there will be hell to pay!!!

Citizen Journalism can be empowering. It can work to build a culture which is more articulate and capable of creating real change in the world.

If you do great work you get attention.

If you suck…well then never mind!

Oh…and don’t just do restaurants, but business reviews in general.

Don’t you wish!

That is the question that all major media companies should be trying to figuring out.

Can myspace go hyperlocal?

In other words could you login to myspace and see people you know, places you go and things that made sense to your live locally.

Restaurants you ate at, businesses you shopped at, events you wanted to attend. Things you really needed to know.

In my opinion myspace has the most potential to drill into the hyperlocal core by enabling hyperlocal search within it’s directory. Sure there is TRIBE.net but we all don’t go to Burning Man. No offense or anything but there needs to be a bigger diversity of audience and MySpace has it.

If myspace goes hyperlocal it would change the way we look at current portals and crack the code for a scalable model of monetizing hyperlocal.

Why?
Because the key to solving hyperlocal is not in the creation of an isolated portals, but rather in the interconnectedness . HyperLocal is a global equation so it needs to be approached this way.

How can you move to any one point isolate your field of view and still remain connected. This is where it all comes back to two things.

1. Access
2. Ability to Move

As I have discussed in my previous blogs… locality is no longer an issue of proximity but rather an issue of access. Don’t believe me.. take a highlighter and highlight exactly where you go for one month. THIS IS YOUR LOCALITY.

This means we need to be looking at how people move and where they move to.

What defines movement….?
Well that opens a much bigger question for another blog, because the way humans are moving is changing as well.

It’s time for myspace local.

Of course there are alot more pieces to the puzzle but having an x factor diversity of population to work is a big start.

Tomorrow: A Solution for YELP (ouch.. help us make money please)

Don’t Mix Business with Pleasure!

If you take this advice when going hyperlocal you are bound to fail and here is why.

Take for example Google Local.
Why isn’t it better?

Google Local total lacks the social network engine that could make it totally awesome so essentially all it is DATA with feedback. It needs a little bit of party!!

Then on the other hand take Yelp.com. It’s all pleasure… and no business… if it is Business it’s not very targeted.

So what I am saying is: Mix Business with Pleasure.
Or more specifically:

The best hyperlocal portals create a successful mix of Business Directory and Social Network.

Business owners are a big part of community.. and they have social networks which have helped establish the status and positioning they hold. Bring this into an equation and you have the ingredients for a successful hyperlocal portal.

Hey, you wanna hear a cool idea… take a social network and put it into print.

What you end up with is real product with some real immediate value. Yup.. sell ads in your new publication and tag team it online… and that’s just a start!

This is what we have done with our monthly newspaper LocalsGuide. Now on our 14th issue we broke even from day one.. and now have over 375 contributors one email away! Take that mainstream media!!

Take your two staff photographers, and 5 writers and face off against our citizen journalist army
Hiya!! Its Party Time!

And its only going to get better and better.

And here is why… The web is only going to grow bigger and bigger and bigger..

Why spend hours upon hours searching the web for stuff… when you can read the best of in a print edition and skip all the fluff!!

Hey, put Myspace in print and call it Myspace Magazine or create a best of Youtube in a print guide.

CA CHING.. CA CHING.. call me guys!

People, want web connectivity in their day to days lives, but don’t want to waste their time looking for the stuff.. (I could rant more about this)

Even if they did.. they would only find a small percentage.

So deliver it to them.. Social Networks into Print!

A New Business Model for the Future of Travel & Local Commerce
Paris today, Rome tomorrow, Berlin on Wednesday, London on Friday. Your dream vacation packed into seven rushed days or less… and then you’re back at work, with all the memories of crazy airport security, cramped economy class and photographs of questionable quality. (Did you use your flash?)
It doesn’t make much sense, yet it’s the way a large majority of our society travels, grazing the surface and never really getting the insider’s view. As Southern Oregonians, we have the opportunity to experience the depth, richness and beauty of living in such a nice place.
Sure, it’s a dream come true to see Michelangelo’s David in person, but what about the idea of making real connections and real contacts? The revolutionary idea of staying in a hotel for three days or more at a time has simply become a mandatory and relevant element to any substantial tour.
New ideas of HyperLocal tourism provide business models which can develop into profitability and sustainability for local economies. It’s an opportunity to provide really cool jobs and experiences for all involved. It also is a model that avoids the dichotomy of tourists vs. locals. Seriously, it’s those tourists who keep Southern Oregon’s economy vibrant, but the question remains the same. How do both coexist in a win-win fashion? (If you disagree, please send your letters to Kyle; he loves heated debate.)
HyperLocal Tourism is simply the idea that you, “The Local,” become the host and tour guide to what you know best. Where would you take your guests to give them a good feel for what makes your community special? HyperLocal tour guides take their guests to their favorite places – their favorite restaurants, galleries, music venues, offbeat attractions (Can you say “House of Mystery”?). What makes your life interesting? Sure, you could show your guests Crater Lake, but wouldn’t they like to see what you like to do when they’re not around?
You live here, so make up a list of all the things you find unique and interesting, then turn it into your tour itinerary. When you’re all done, put a price tag on your tour and market it. (We know a few of you are going to turn this into your new job ;))
People don’t want to graze the surface anymore; they want the real deal, to connect to life as it really is, to glimpse our reality if only for a couple days. You can attract people who you hold similar qualities and values as yourself. You can not only help create these connections, but also can enhance our commerce as well. HyperLocal Tourism does not need to be a one-sided or singular experience. One size does not fit all. We all have different perspectives to offer.
TAKE US ON A TOUR of what you love, or what you pay attention to; I bet it’s worth it. Share your ideas for HyperLocal Tourism with us at LocalsGuide, and how you’re implementing those models.

There is a big question right now around how hyperlocal communities can become profitable and remain sustainable. Usually hyperfocused websites lack the necessary funding let alone visitor traffic to warrant a high front end investment.

This is unless you incorporate the function of interconnecting a network of hyperlocal sites thus aggregating information and creating hypermaps to a users choosing. Essentially refining large amounts of data into very specific patterns and organizations.

HyperSearch can in turn become highly specialized within these closed system social networks. Major search engines can and more than likely will thus be blocked from indexing private user information which will only in turn exponentially increase the value of these niche networks.

Marketing experts across the world are broadly discussing the power engagement and the reason why is simple, it works! But how does it work at a hyperlocal level and why?

Engagement can range from free newspapers thrown out on your lawn to a neighborhood cafe sending you a hand written invitation to a complimentary sweets & treats night.

If you want proximity which is functional and sustainable then you need positive engagement. Functional and sustainable are the key words because current main stream advertising techniques are not.

Positive engagement is the premis of how hyperlocal markets can be developed and sustained.

Think of it this way, true proximity which is both authentic and transparent is never granted in a manner of aggression. You don’t walk into a system and coopt it. You engage it with a postive manner and move accordingly.

You only gain this proximity by behaving in a manner which is deemed safe and appropriate to the locale. Sure individuals will move to gain proximity which is based on the engagement of shock and awe but hyperlocal is all about transparency and disclosure.

How well do you know the situation, how close in can you move, what type of access can you get? This can only be the result of positive engagement.