In this age of Groupon, consumers are ostensibly looking for and testing new business relationships with coupons. Price has become a commodity, and now local merchants need to distinguish themselves based on service in order to build and maintain a loyal customer base. I myself have been witnessing a vast sea change on how banks, [...]
AOL’s acquisition of the Huffington Post firmly entrenches AOL as a journalistic media endeavor eye-to-eye with Gannett, Murdoch and, gasp, the other newspapers. What is strikingly different about Huffington Post is that content is sourced from celebrities – politicians, actors, college professors, locals – and not from the ivory news desks that still embody the [...]
Can Quora go mainstream to the masses? Can Quora be used effectively as a local media resource and social network for communities that have local questions? The Problem with Local Topics Topics are the defining feature of Quora that allows users to filter their Q&A stream. To filter local Q&A, users will follow local geographical [...]
Since Twitter is finding it difficult to create a bona fide business model based on its platform alone, they should look into developing broad new applications based on Twitter First, look at what Twitter does best: breaking news. The Twitter platform is natural for disseminating local news right down to the neighborhood level. Ev Williams [...]
“Social commerce” became a buzz word in the summer of 2010: Here are eight new trends in social commerce that will appear in 2011: 1) Demand based shopping applications Groupon demonstrated how supply in the form of retail inventory can be packaged into deep discount opportunities. Demand is the inverse – how many people in [...]
One year ago, I listed ten media predictions for 2010. Here’s an update. Many of my predictions are still work in progress: 1) Community engagement will become the driver of new local media. One definitive result: 2010 brought the expansion of AOL’s Patch across almost 200 cities, each with a salaried managing editor. It’s important [...]
The next phase of Group Buying Systems View more presentations from Pat Kitano. Groupon announced its new Deal Feed that allows consumer to customize and monitor and filter the types of deals and merchants they want to track. The Deal Feed works in coordination with the new Groupon Stores product so that consumers can “follow” [...]
Facebook announced yesterday that businesses can add deals and rewards for their customers who check in through Facebook Places. The impact on local advertising is huge: 1. Deals will be everywhere The “Deal” becomes the currency of local advertising because it is performance based, efficient for reaching the customer and isn’t burdened with the CPM-based [...]
The recent mainstream media articles demonstrating evidence of Groupon’s shortcomings (including last week’s article) are focused on the consequences of its massive distribution capabilities and non-local presence. First there was the dodgy fake deals in Brazil, then there was a business owner saying offering a Groupon deal was the worst business decision she ever made, [...]
Patrick Kitano is founding Principal of Brand into Media, a unique strategy group working with corporations and organizations to develop social and media-based strategies that engage hyperlocal communities.
I'm the author of Media Transparent, and contributor to Street Fight, Social Media Today, Daily Deal Media, The Customer Collective, and Quora.
I speak on the future of social commerce at conferences associated with social media, local advertising and real estate.
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