ReachLocal has acquired SMBLive, which created “Cloud Profile,” to help it build a reputation management offering. According to the release:
With the technology acquired through the SMB:LIVE acquisition, ReachLocal is developing a digital presence and reputation management solution designed to enable an SMB to publish multimedia content from a single interface to a business profile page hosted by ReachLocal, as well as to local directory sites, search engines and social media sites, including Twitter and Facebook. In addition, ReachLocal will provide automated monitoring of local review sites, social media sites, and local blogs for references to the SMB or comments related to the SMB’s business that will provide an SMB with feedback, alerts and analytics to assist it in managing its online reputation.
Reputation management is now becoming an important part of the overall SMB marketing offering. Long ago MerchantCircle was the first to aggregate and track reviews for SMBs. Marchex was the first with a formal product offering for SMBs, AmIVisible and Clickfuel also offer variations on the reputation management concept. All the major players will need to offer something in this arena in the near term to be competitive.
ReachLocal is aiming to go public this year.
June 18th, 2010 at 12:31 am
[...] had assumed that Bizzy was built on the SMBLive/Cloud Profile acquisition. Gordon said I was incorrect but to stay tuned for something interesting to come out of that [...]
December 16th, 2010 at 9:28 pm
[...] acquired SMBLive in March of this year. The company offered a product called “Cloud Profile,” [...]