Here’e a quick summary of best practices for those looking to succeed in the Hyper Local news & marketing space.
- Cut costs to the bone. Boot strap everything.
- Be cautious of vendors who re-package open source solutions. You will overpay.
- Enabling local commerce is job #1
- Sharing local news and info is important, but a close second in terms of priority. Without proper funding, your Pulitzer Prize winning journalism will be seen by no one.
- WordPress as a CMS is mandatory. Modify where needed. Proprietary CMS’s are expensive and risky.
- Online publisher must be a business manager, first. Letting editorial control business model is recipe for failure.
- Aggregation still important. Automation reduces cost. Increases valuable content. Ads as editorial.
- Leverage RSS
- Grow & use clean email list.
- Optimize content for SEO.
- Leverage social media, but DO NOT rely on it. DO NOT use your sales force to re-sell Google and Facebook. Your ‘feet on the street’ should not be shared with those who want to steal your business.
- Selling CPM commoditizes your valuable inventory.
- Limit inventory. Place pressure on premium inventory to determine pricing sweet spot.
- Invest & learn how to use best-of-breed smart phones for excellent pics, audio & video. ex: Galaxy Note 10.
- Know when to use text, photo, video or audio to tell a story. Some stories need words. Others need visual or audio. Talking head reporters describing story is dumb. ( like old school tv ) Choose wisely.
- The stuff you learned in Journo school can be leveraged to help local business too.
See Hyper Local News examples:
DownbeachBUZZ.com News from Margate and Ventnor NJ
ACprimetime.com News from Atlantic City, NJ
BrigantineNOW.com News from Brigantine, NJ.
