5 Types of Hyperlocal Bloggers
by Matt on Dec 9, 2008 in Blogging | 7 Comments
As I’ve been exploring the world of hyperlocal blogging — which, I have to confess, is a lot bigger and wider than I expected — I’ve come upon several different types of local blogs and bloggers. I think many local blogs can be classified into five categories. Each category is essentially an answer to the question, Why are you running a local blog?
Here are my five categories, and I’ll invite you to add ones I’ve missed in the comments.
Five Types of Hyperlocal Bloggers
The Business Blogger
I’ll list this one first because it’s the type of local blogger I am, and the one I’m most familiar with. The hyperlocal business blogger is using his/her blog to attract leads and/or customers. This is why my wife and I started four local blogs earlier this year. I suspect many local bloggers in this category are in the real estate industry, like my wife is. (She’s an agent.) But other types of business owners could be local bloggers, too — plumbers, store owners, you name it.
The hyperlocal business blogger may have to be careful in how s/he blogs. Since the underlying goal is to attract customers, this type of blogger may want to avoid the types of posts that might offend or turn away some segment of the blog’s readership. Hyperlocal business blogging can be a delicate balancing act.
The News Blogger
The local news blogger is someone who keeps current on what’s happening in his/her area, and uses the blog to keep readers informed, too. This type of local blogger probably attends a lot of governmental and other organizational meetings in the evenings to report on important decisions being made. S/He may also own a police scanner and listen to it throughout the day, ready to grab a camera and head out to shoot photos or video of any noteworthy incidents in the neighborhood.
A successful hyperlocal news blog may be a group effort. It makes sense to have several people contributing to the blog, either as formal writers or at least as “stringers” who share news tips with the blog owner.
The Social/Activist Blogger
This is an off-shoot of the News Blogger. The social/activist blogger is also interested in current news and events in his/her coverage area, but really focuses mostly on a single cause, single group of people, or single issue. Examples would be a local education blogger who writes exclusively about what the local school district(s) are doing, or maybe an animal rights blogger who writes about what’s happening with local veterinarians, pet stores, animal-related groups, and even local parks (and the rights that pets have in them).
Passion is a must for this type of blogger. If done well, this type of hyperlocal blog can attract a loyal following thanks to strong word-of-mouth.
The Community/Connector Blogger
This type of blogger is all about using his/her blog to create connections locally. This often happens by promoting neighborhood events and attending/blogging about them. But it also involves some of the same types of content that other types of local blogs employ, such as reporting important community news (road closures, business closings, etc.) that you might also see a News Blogger doing.
Think of this type of blogger as someone who takes everything on the bulletin board at your local grocery store and turns it into great, local blog content. If you need to know when the next swap meet is happening at the local school gym, this blogger will be the kind to tell you.
The Casual/Personal Blogger
This is my catch-all category for hyperlocal blogs that don’t seem to fit any of the other categories. This blogger uses his/her local blog in the way that blogs were originally used — as a place to share personal thoughts and experiences in an informal setting. Blog posts here might be about favorite classes or teachers at the local community college, or random recaps of local shopping experiences. Some of the content doesn’t even count as “local” on these blogs. Off-topic? This type of local blogger doesn’t really care.
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Those are the types of local bloggers I’ve come across so far. Now it’s your turn to make this post better by telling me what I’ve left out. Comments are open.
Hyperlocal News Roundup
by Matt on Dec 2, 2008 in Industry | 2 Comments
While I’m trying to piece together a post on hyperlocal blogging in big cities vs. smaller towns (have a couple different directions in mind), here are a couple pieces of hyperlocal news to pass along:
At the outside.in blog, Nina recently wrote a very detailed Getting Started with StoryMaps guide, offering all kinds of screenshots to show how to add StoryMaps to your blog. These are widgets that will display your blog archives on a map. Jog your memory by reading my old post: outside.in Launches Blogger Map Widget.
On the EveryBlock blog, Adrian Holovaty recently announced changes to EveryBlock’s interior pages that expand on their “anything that can be a link should be a link” philosophy. That means there are a lot of new pages offering incredibly granular neighborhood information. An example from the blog post is this page showing abandoned cars reported in Washington, DC. This increased filtering means bloggers can find a wide variety of local information in the cities that EveryBlock covers. If you need a refresher on what EveryBlock is and how to get your blog included, here’s my old post: Submit Your Blog to EveryBlock.com.
Your turn: What else is going on in the hyperlocal space that bloggers should know about? Tell us in the comments.
Chris Brogan Pimps Hyperlocal
by Matt on Nov 30, 2008 in Industry | 2 Comments
Last night I posted about Seth Godin pimping hyperlocal, and today it’s Chris Brogan’s turn. Only Chris uses the term “small news” to describe what sounds to me like hyperlocal reporting:
“…YOU, without much training, can report small news. Maybe it’s not meant for your very specific blog, but a side blog, a side project, with a few other reporters. I think realtors are actually figuring this out from a slightly different perspective.
It’s not too tricky. We have the cameraphones. We have the Flips. We have the distribution. This is as simple as putting up a blog, adding media to it, and reporting on small news that matters to you.”
You tell me … is Chris talking about hyperlocal? I think so. Perhaps it’s just one subset of hyperlocal — the hyperlocal news angle. Hyperlocal blogs can be more than just news reporting; they can be random thoughts/opinions on your neighborhood, pretty photos that you take while walking through the park, and much more. It doesn’t have to be news reporting, but that’s certainly part of it.
Seth Pimps Hyperlocal
by Matt on Nov 29, 2008 in Industry | 1 Comment
I missed this a week or so ago (because I’m no longer subscribed to his blog, but might have to re-subscribe), so apologies if it’s old news to you … but Seth Godin pimped hyperlocal (blogs, web sites, content, you name it) in a recent post that outlines 10 ways to make money online.
One of his 10: Connect people who are proximate geographically.
That’s pretty much the hyperlocal manifesto in one sentence, isn’t it? Here’s his entire description of a hyperlocal business model:
We all know that newspapers are tanking. Yet news, it appears, is on the rise. This paradox is an opportunity. Who is connecting the 10,000 people in your little community/suburb/town/zip code to each other? One person who spends all day at school board meetings, breaking stories about a dumping scandal, profiling a local business person or teacher? If you did that, and built an audience of thousands by RSS and email… do you think you’d have any trouble selling out the monthly cocktail party/mixer? Any trouble finding sponsors among local businesses for a media property that actually and truly reaches everyone?
That’s not exactly the model Cari and I are going for on our four hyperlocal blogs — I couldn’t imagine selling ads on the Kennewick Real Estate Blog, or any of the others, for that matter. But it is the right attitude to take into the start of any hyperlocal blog — it’s about connecting people and connecting with people. And I like the idea of starting a hyperlocal mailing list. That’s good stuff.
Promoting Local Blogs Offline: MOO Cards
by Matt on Nov 20, 2008 in Promotion | 5 Comments
One thing that separates us local bloggers from many other bloggers is that we absolutely must promote our local blogs offline, in our local communities. If you expect to grow a local blog with nothing but online promotions, I think you’ll be disappointed with your growth rate.
In part five of my Starting A Hyperlocal Blog series, I mentioned that one of our failures was the local of offline promotion of our four hyperlocal blogs. Now, a couple months later, we’ve finally taken the first step toward changing that:
These are MOO Business Cards, made from a selection of my own Tri-Cities photos already posted on Flickr. Awesome.
(They’re printed by Moo.com over in England. We ordered them nine days ago and they arrived today. I’m such a fan that the link in the previous paragraph is an affiliate link. The printing is top-notch and the card paper stock is higher quality than any business card I’ve ever touched. I ordered 50 cards for $22; you can get 200 for $70.)
When Cari and I attend local events going forward, we’ll have these cards with us to give out to people we meet. I’d like to think the local photography will catch someone’s eye and hold their interest; these cards should be conversation pieces. And the local blog promotion happens on the back side of each card:
We made the decision to promote all four local blogs on each card. I don’t know yet if that’s the right way to do it. Part of me wonders if we should promote each blog on the back of separate cards; i.e., show the West Richland Real Estate Blog URL only on the back of cards with photos of West Richland. Maybe we’ll do that with the next batch of MOO business cards. I think having all four on each card will be okay because the Tri-Cities is small enough that what happens in Pasco is also interesting to people in Kennewick, and so forth.
Those details aside, I’m excited to start sharing these cards with others in our area and seeing if it helps promote our local blogs. I’ll report any good stories in future blog posts.
Your Turn: How do you promote your local blog offline? Do you have business cards, or do you use other methods?
Going Hyperlocal on Facebook
by Matt on Nov 18, 2008 in Promotion | Leave a Comment
Last month on my Small Business Search Marketing blog, I included Facebook in a post about social sites for local networking … but William Perrin, a hyperlocal publisher over in England, takes the idea a lot further with concrete examples of how to use Facebook to build hyperlocal communities:
These Facebook groups can work powerfully with hyper or ultra local sites to cross over content and messages. I set up I Love Kings Cross as an experimental sideline to my Kings Cross community site. The 160 odd people in the Facebook group are about 75% different to the 140-odd people who sign up to my Feedburner emails from the community site.
That’s an interesting idea to me. I’ve joined the requisite local network groups on Facebook, and have installed the “Neighborhoods” app to try to find other locals (hasn’t worked), but I’ve never given any thought to setting up Facebook groups to cross-promote my hyperlocal blogs. That may be a better way to connect with local people than to wait for them to install the right Facebook apps.
William’s article is a good read. Here’s the link: Facebook and hyperlocal voice.
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