Great Hyperlocal Advice…From 3 Years Ago
by Matt McGee on Jul 9, 2010 in Blogging, Industry
I just read an article and was so thrilled with how great it was that I never even noticed when it was published: three years ago. Don’t let that stop you from reading. It’s still just as relevant today, perhaps even more so given the growth and interest in the hyperlocal blog/site, community news space.
It was written by Mark Potts, founder of Backfence — a hyperlocal news community site that was probably ahead of its time and shut down before this article was written. He shares some real down-to-earth wisdom for anyone running and thinking about starting a hyperlocal site:
- Engage the community.
- It’s not journalism—it’s a conversation. (Actually, it’s whatever the community wants it to be.)
- Hyperlocal content is really mundane.
- Trust the audience.
- Focus on strong, well-defined communities.
- Leverage social networking.
- There is most certainly a robust hyperlocal advertising business.
- Keep costs down.
- Partner with a media company or some other distribution source.
- Hyperlocal works. You need patience and hard work to embed yourself in a community and become a vital cog in the life of that community. But when a community comes together, it’s striking.
- Hyperlocal is really hard. Don’t kid yourself. You don’t just open the doors and hit critical mass.
The article goes deeper into each of those points above, so go read it; you’ll be glad you did.
Mark Potts, by the way, is currently the CEO of GrowthSpur, a company that offers a variety of tools/services to help hyperlocal sites make money.
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