TwitZip: Twitter’s Unofficial Hyperlocal News Network
by Matt on Aug 17, 2010 in Content, Industry, Promotion | 3 Comments
This is brilliant. Ever heard of TwitZip? It’s a network of hyperlocal Twitter accounts, each one based on local ZIP codes, that sends out tweets around the clock with the latest news from that zip code. But it doesn’t just send out automated tweets, it also lets Twitter users report news to Twitzip for retweeting.
It’s the brainchild of a couple guys named Nathan Heinrich and Aaron Donsbach, who grabbed all the ZIP code-based Twitter accounts they could get their hands on a couple years ago. (Guys: You missed 99302 for Pasco, Washington.) Here’s a look at one my local ZIP codes, twitter.com/99352:
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TwitZip has partnered with Outside.in to get its hyperlocal news feeds running through each Twitter account. TwitZip’s home page says it has a partnership with Groupon to post local deals, and that local weather and government alerts are coming next.
TwitZip & Hyperlocal Blogging
On one hand, TwitZip competes with hyperlocal bloggers as a source of local news. But local news isn’t a zero-sum game, so I think it’s shortsighted to focus on that aspect of what TwitZip is doing. Instead, think of how TwitZip can help your hyperlocal blog. Here are four ways I can think of off the top of my head:
- As a news source. The first thing I did was add all of the local TwitZip accounts to my Tri-Cities Twitter list. This is the list I monitor to keep track of what’s happening around town — it’s my Twitter news feed, and TwitZip will make it better.
- As a distribution channel. (part 1) If TwitZip is getting content from Outside.in, here’s my millionth recommendation that you add your local blog to Outside.in’s system. That should get your blog content into TwitZip and could increase your Twitter exposure.
- As a distribution channel. (part 2) TwitZip is setup to automatically retweet messages that are sent as @ replies to it from Twitter followers. In other words, follow your local ZIP code and then include an @ message to it and it’ll retweet your message. (Wonder how TwitZip will handle spam/junk that comes through via this method….)
- As content for your blog. Beyond getting news tips (#1 above), you can take the RSS feed(s) from your local TwitZip accounts and add them to your hyperlocal newswire if you added one to your blog.
You can learn more about TwitZip via their web site, and also via this article last week on Silicon Prairie News.
Your turn: Is TwitZip something you’d use in conjunction with your local blog? What are your thoughts on it? Comments are open.
100 Patches Down, Hundreds More On The Way
by Matt on Aug 17, 2010 in Industry | 3 Comments
AOL launched its 100th Patch hyperlocal news site today — this one in Morristown, New Jersey. And if all goes according to plan, there’ll be about 500 Patches across the U.S. by the end of the year. (It’s tempting to insert a joke here about fungus-like growth, but I have no direct experience with Patch so that wouldn’t be fair.)
Some other news and stats from today’s announcement:
- Patch plans to be in 20 U.S. states (500 neighborhoods) by the end of 2010.
- Patch plans to hire more than 500 journalists.
- Patch has hired four regional Editorial Directors, one each to oversee Patch’s Northeast, South, Midwest, and West Coast reporting.
- Patch also has 52 Regional Editors across its current network in 13 states.
Patch currently has hyperlocal sites in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia. Future expansion is planned in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin.
Using Facebook to Promote a Local Blog
by Matt on Aug 16, 2010 in Guest Posts, Promotion | 6 Comments
[Ed. note: While I've written briefly on Facebook as a marketing tool in the past, I don't have any specific experience using Facebook ads. I've asked Geordie Romer to write up some of his thoughts on using Facebook ads and Facebook's other promotional opportunities for local bloggers.]
(This is a guest post from Geordie Romer, a real estate agent in Leavenworth WA. You can find his writing on his Leavenworth Real Estate blog and, if you “like,” you can join his fans on Facebook.)
Matt asked if I would write a guest post about how I use Facebook in my business. I don’t profess to be a Facebook expert and certainly not a guru. I’m just small business owner trying to find my way in the world. (I’m a real estate agent in a vacation destination with a population of about 7,000.)
With that caveat in mind:
1. Create a page.
Lots of other folks have written great guides on the how and the why of creating a separate page for your business or blog. If you are a real pro, you should have a dedicated “landing page” or welcome tab instead of sending everyone to your wall. I’ll admit to not being there quite yet.
There are a lot of great articles about creating a fan page. Smashing Magazine published one of the most comprehensive.
2. PPC fan ads
If I had known I was going to write a blog post about my experiment, I would have taken better notes. Luckily, Facebook does a pretty good job of keeping records for me on my “Insights” page.
On June 7th, we had 30 total “likes” or fans. A month later, we had 40. Apparently we were doing something right since we had organic growth.
On July 11th, I started my experiment with Facebook ads. I had done some advertising earlier with Facebook, but not much for the fan page. I set my budget for $3.00 a day and up to $1 per click.
Though I’d love to have thousands of fans, I’d rather have past clients, future clients, and readers of my blog. I set my Facebook ads to reach a very specific demographic.
- Over 30 years old
- Lives in Washington State
- Who are not already fans…
- But… who have friends who ARE fans
I think this last criterion is critical. Friends of friends are a great target audience. You don’t need to target income, education, ZIP codes or religion. We all tend to like people who like the same things we like.
Facebook doesn’t give you much room to work with when creating an ad, but here’s what worked for us.
My partner Allyson and I have stronger “personal brands” than our website. We took advantage of our personal name recognition in these ads.
So, is it working?
I have been pleased with the steady growth that advertising has helped with. As of August 9, we’re up to 103 fans. (And only 35 of those fans are Facebook friends of mine.)
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We have had 168 clicks, but we’re only paying $0.51 per average click for a total of $86. Let’s assume that 10 of these new fans are organic and not PPC generated. The average fan only cost $1.62.
I was curious what $100 would buy me. I’ve been happy to see very measurable results.
Other Tools
1.) It’s now possible to have Facebook “Like” buttons for blog posts. If a reader likes a particular article and decides to “like” it, the link can appear on their Facebook wall and is shared with their friends. For Wordpress users, here is a free plug-in from the folks at Homequest.
2.) Since email is so ubiquitous, it seems silly not to have a link to your fanpage from your email signature. I use an image provided by Facebook – it seems so much cooler to click on a button than a url.
3.) It makes sense that you might tell your blog readers about your Facebook page too. Certainly a post inviting them to join you on Facebook isn’t a bad idea. Facebook has created “badges” for you to place on your blog which link back to your fan page. They show how many fans you have and also a snippet of your most recent activity.
I use one that fits nicely in my sidebar without being too distracting.
How are you using Facebook with your hyperlocal blog? Are you driving traffic to your blog from Facebook or are you turning loyal readers into Facebook fans?
Hyperlocal News Roundup
by Matt on Aug 15, 2010 in Industry | Leave a Comment
This week’s links include more talk about TBD, the new site in Washington DC. Also some Patch-related news. If all goes well, the week will begin tomorrow with a guest blog post about using Facebook advertising to help increase fans/followers of your hyperlocal blog and all your online efforts, for that matter.
- Newsday doubles down on coverage as Patch arrives, Lost Remote
- This is not a transaction., Philip John
- Starting A Hyper Local Real Estate Blog, www.massrealestatelawblog.com
- The Cream of the Crop: 10 Top Tips & Quips from Bloggers We Love., Outside.in Blog
- Why TBD is Important, recoveringjournalist.typepad.com
- 5 Open Data Apps That Are Improving Our Cities, Mashable
- Lessons from launch: How TBD.com is trying to engage the community to build its business, www.ojr.org
- The tabloid goodness of TBD.com, the new Web site from the folks who brought you Politico., www.slate.com
- Trinity Mirror forges hyperlocal partnerships with new community news sites, www.journalism.co.uk
- Hyperlocal sites are the new black, emediavitals.com
Hyperlocal News Roundup
by Matt on Aug 8, 2010 in Industry | Leave a Comment
I really like the first link below — the one about a photographer who used an iPhone to cover recent protests. But there are several articles on the list about the upcoming launch of TBD.com, the new hyperlocal news site in the Washington, DC, area. The Washington Post somewhat arrogantly asks if TBD is trying to “answer a question that no one is asking.” That link is below. The two Patch articles are also pretty interesting.
- Newspaper photog uses iPhone 4 to cover immigration protest, louievillalobos.com
- 10 Reasons to Watch Next Week’s TBD Launch, newsonomics.com
- Bloggers We Love: FoodGPS’ Joshua Lurie Talks Food, Drink & LA’s Infinite Possibilities, Outside.in Blog
- Patch Dispatch, Lost Remote
- Patch Editors Respond To Claims Of Sweatshop-Like Workload, www.businessinsider.com
- Six reasons to watch local news project TBD’s launch next week, Nieman Journalism Lab
- TBD.com making its move into the crowded market of local news, Washington Post
- Ten Questions: Annette Albert of W14 & SW6 London, Talk About Local
EveryBlock Launches Hyperlocal Content Widgets
by Matt on Aug 5, 2010 in Content | 1 Comment
This could be a pretty neat addition to your hyperlocal blog … if you live in one of the 16 cities that EveryBlock covers: EveryBlock Widgets. It’s an embeddable piece of code that will auto-display hyperlocal data/content on your blog/site. Here’s how EveryBlock explains the process:
You choose one of 16 EveryBlock cities, type in a location, choose the types of content you’d like to see, and we give you HTML code you can copy and paste into your blog or site template.
You can show news at an exact address, a block-radius around an address, a specific neighborhood, or an entire ZIP code. You can tweak it to show just crime, or just crime and building permits, and so on. You can also choose exactly which media sources you’d like to display.
The widgets are available at www.everyblock.com/widget/, and once you get started, the “builder” tool is pretty simple:
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The ability to customize the exact size (height and width) means you can put a widget pretty much anywhere you want on your blog.
ChicagoScanner.com is a site that uses the widget right on its home page. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see a widget showing news from a single zip code. My Ballard, one of the popular Seattle hyperlocal sites, has created a page called the Ballard Wire, which looks like this:
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Seems to me that the only drawback is that EveryBlock only covers 16 cities. My little town isn’t one of them, and wouldn’t even be on the radar. If you’re in the same boat as me, feel free to check out my post from last year, How to Create a Local Newswire for your Blog.
If you’re in one of EveryBlock’s cities, this seems like something worth checking out. Let me know what you think of it and how you’re using it. Comments are open.
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