hyperlocal 101

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.

If you consider locality as anything you have access to then you will begin to see that having functional maps which are regularly updated are a key to navigating these locales.

These are not however regular maps but rather maps which are created out of specialized aggregation and organization. Such maps are more complicated than traditional maps because they depend on a much more complex navigational system which is able to cross reference billions upon billions of variables at one time.

The Idea of HyperMaps is just emerging. What really is hyperlocal and how deep is the rabbit hole? Where, and how do you draw the city limit and or the edge.

How can hyperlocal ever truly be captured, if recognize that current confines will simply come to be known as navigational markers from the past.

Hyperlocalist are the key to the navigation and traverse of these new frontiers primarily because they will contain the most active and up-to-date maps.

To define HyperLocal one must first define or should we say re-define Local.

So what is local?
If we begin to see local as more than an issue of physical proximity and rather as an issue of accessibility. This opens up an entirely new perspective and view point of what local really entails.

Local is ones ability to access ANYTHING. How immediate and easily this can occur is all part of the equation and tools of aggregation.

Note: Because you do not have access does not mean that something is not local. It may not be local to you but it still exists within a locality which is quickly becoming more accessible with tools of aggregation.