Have you taken CUNY’s Hyperlocal News survey?
by Matt on Jun 29, 2009 in Industry | Leave a Comment
If you run a hyperlocal news blog, the folks at CUNY’s New Business Models for News Project have a few questions they’d like to ask you. Jeff Jarvis explains the survey like this:
We are trying to find out how hyperlocal blogs and sites are doing their business today – how big they are, how big an area they cover, what’s working in advertising and what’s not. The data they give will be kept anonymous; that is, we’ll release it only in aggregate. We’ll also interview some of you to find out more.
I began the survey and got about four pages in before stopping. Not because it was too difficult or lengthy — but because it started asking about staff, budgets, advertising, start-up costs, and stuff like that. None of those things apply to our real estate blogs. But they probably DO apply to your local news blog, so take the survey here and have your voice be heard.
(thx to @adamoakley for the tip)
Does Your Blog Reflect Your Community?
by Matt on Jun 28, 2009 in Blogging | 5 Comments
I find it tough sometimes to decide what to blog about and what to ignore on our hyperlocal blogs. Sure, some things are obvious — popular local events, importatnt local news, etc. But what about when a new business opens, or an existing business closes? Do you report on bad stuff that happens in your neighborhood, or do you just focus on the good?
Your answers to those questions probably depends on what type of local blogger you are. Our blogs are indirectly designed to promote Cari’s real estate business, so we don’t blog about the rare murder or missing persons report and stuff like that. We have, however, blogged about the local mall shutting down after a robbery. If you’re not running a pure local news blog, these decisions can be difficult.
Whether we like it or not, whether we know it or not, outsiders will be judging our hometowns based on what they read on our local blogs. It’s no different than how newspapers are a reflection of the town they cover. Watch this funny skit by British comedian Jack Dee (esp. the first 3 minutes):
If you agree that your local blog should be an accurate reflection of the town you live in, try this:
- Step back and read through your blog archives with the eye of an outsider.
- Look at the tone of voice in your posts: Positive? Negative? Supportive? Critical?
- Look at the words you use most often: (same as above)
- Adjust accordingly, but … and this is important … be yourself.
What are your thoughts? Do you think your local blog should be an accurate reflection of the community you write about? Comments are open.
Outside.in Launches Outside.in for Publishers
by Matt on Jun 26, 2009 in Industry | Leave a Comment
It’s late … I’m super busy with client work … and yes, I’ve been busy doing some hyperlocal blogging … but Outside.in pushed out some news today (Thursday) that can’t be ignored.
It’s called Outside.in for Publishers, and it opens up a new window to getting your local blog content onto other sites … and perhaps even an opportunity to pull in more local content onto your own blogs if you choose.
Up until now, Outside.in has collected local content from blogs and other sources and displayed them on city/town pages on their own domain. Outside.in for Publishers takes your content and basically puts it into a widget of sorts that other sites can embed. In their announcement, Outside.in mentions four local news sites that are already showing additional content via this platform. Here’s a screenshot of the Neighborhood News page on SCNow.com:
In that “More from around the web” section, you might be able to see a bunch of hyperlocal content being pulled in from other sites – including at least one blog – via the Outside.in for Publishers platform. Pretty cool.
I hope to do a deeper look at this soon, esp. in relation to our own hyperlocal blogs. I wonder if Tri-Cities, WA, is big enough to make this work for us. I don’t know if any of the local TV, radio, or newspaper sites are using this (I doubt it), but if there’s enough local content in the system, we might consider adding a news page to our blogs to supplement what we write about. We’ll see. But whether we use it or not, this is a big step where hyperlocal publishing/blogging is concerned.
Yes, Joe Citizen Does Care About Hyperlocal Stuff
by Matt on Jun 22, 2009 in Industry | 2 Comments
I’ve linked before to this recent Forrester report called “Is Hyperlocal Hype or Happening?” — a report that casts doubts on the value and interest in hyperlocal content:
“…Forrester’s data suggests that some basic assumptions about hyperlocal need to be reexamined. To start with, Forrester data shows that more consumers care about what’s happening in their country than what’s happening in their neighborhood.”
Let me ask you this: Is there anything more hyperlocal than community swim lessons at the city pool? Not much, right? Well, have a look at this update from the Richland (WA) web site today about what happened when the city finally offered online swim lesson registrations:
“For the first time, Richland Parks & Recreation offered complete on-line registration for its swim lesson program. Within three hours, patrons registered online for 268 individual lessons, generating $5,465 in revenue and reducing in-person registrations by more than half.”
Seriously, 268 in three hours? I’ll be keeping this in mind next time someone suggests that people aren’t interested in hyperlocal information, tools, and services.
5 Web Sites You Must Bookmark for Hyperlocal Content
by Matt on Jun 12, 2009 in Content | 4 Comments
Finding content for your hyperlocal blog can tough sometimes, can’t it? If you’re a pure news blog, it’s probably a little easier — and that’s more true if you’re a big city blogger, too.
But the rest of us struggle at times. On our four hyperlocal blogs, Cari and I sometimes go 2-3 weeks between posts simply because there’s not always a lot of material that fits what we’re doing. If this sounds familiar to you, here’s a suggestion for five types of web sites you must bookmark and visit on a regular basis to get potential blog content.
1. Schools & School District web sites
There’s a good chance that many of your readers have kids. And even the folks who don’t — you hope they’re smart enough to realize that school-related news still affects them because it affects the overall community, it affects home values in the neighborhood, etc. You really can’t go wrong writing about school-related stuff on a local blog.
Check out your local district web site and the local school sites. Look for News pages that can be bookmarked. Look for newsletters to subscribe to. Look for a Calendar or Events page for information about upcoming school board meetings or student theater productions. All of this makes terrific local blog content.
2. Government web sites
This is something that does impact all your readers. No matter how old, how long they’ve lived in town, etc. … government decisions impact us all.
Look for the same kinds of News and Events pages I mentioned above in the Schools section, and newsletters to sign up for. But also look for financial documents and other official publications that can be read or downloaded, then written about. Look for information about public works projects — street closures and parks are things that affect a lot of people. Bookmark the county health department web site and the emergency services department, too. Look for election information when it’s that time of year. Perhaps most of all, look for a Links page to learn about other city and civic-related web sites you should be reading to keep up on local news.
3. Event Facility & Ticketing web sites
Everyone likes to know about events that are happening in your city. Many of the most successful posts we’ve written on our local blogs are posts that promote local events. (This is especially true because the “official” pages for these events are often very poorly built and have no SEO to help them rank well on Google, Yahoo, etc.)
Bookmark web sites for your local convention center or trade show facility and look for their events calendar. Bookmark the web sites for your local sports facilities and theatrical venues. Bookmark the Ticketmaster web site for your closest arenas and/or stadiums, and pay attention to the upcoming events. All of this is excellent blog material.
4. Local Media & Local Blog web sites
I should hope this is a no-brainer. I’ve said before that, once you start a local blog, you’re now a local journalist. And it’s perfectly normal to follow what other journalists are reporting in your town.
Look for RSS feeds and/or newsletters you can subscribe to so that the local news comes to you more often than you need to go find it. If possible, try to develop relationships with your fellow writers and reporters. You may not have much luck with the traditional media, but working together with other bloggers is a great way to network and get new ideas for local blog content.
5. Social Media web sites
My previous post, How to Use Twitter to Find Local Blog Content, shows how we’ve used Twitter for finding local blog content. I’m sure you can do the same on Facebook, and maybe other sites, too. These are great sites to meet other locals, hear what they’re writing and talking about, and potentially get content ideas to write about.
But I’m not only talking about written content here. You should also visit the Groups page on Flickr and do a search for your hometown. I’m betting you’ll find at least one, if not several groups where local residents are sharing photos and having discussions. This can be a great way to source photos that can add a strong visual element to your blog posts — as long as the local photographers are licensing their photos through Creative Commons. YouTube doesn’t have local groups, but you can do keyword searches to find local videos … never know, you might something funny, cool, unique, or newsworthy. And most YouTube users allow their videos to embedded on other sites.
What Did I Miss?
Over to you: What other types of local web sites are great for getting content and content ideas? What would you add to this list? Comments are open.
Blog Marketing: The Shirt On Your Back
by Matt on Jun 8, 2009 in Promotion | 2 Comments
Blogging has been slow around here because I’ve been under the weather for the past couple weeks, but doing better now, thankfully … and finally catching up on saved items in Google Reader.
One of those saved items is Steve Sherron’s post, Marketing Tips For Your Hyperlocal Blog, in which he shares several ideas that are all good … but one that’s so brain-dead simple I’m slapping myself for not having done this with our local blogs. Steve runs Monroe Scoop and made this:
Seriously, why wouldn’t you put your URL on a t-shirt and wear it around town? Heck, why not make a bunch of them and give them out at local events or via your blog? It’s so simple, but seems to me that it could be so effective. Great exposure for your blog, you’re making people happy by giving them something for free, and they’re spreading the word further than you could’ve by yourself — win, win, win all around.
Great idea, Steve.
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