Local Publishers Need to Answer the ‘Why’ Question

Google, Facebook, Twitter. To varying degrees they’re all focused on the local market. We obviously know what’s going on at Google. Facebook has a bunch of people working on local but their strategy is “evolving.” Twitter is just starting to get into it.

MySpace Local crashed and burned so the simple fact of a “big site” being interested in the local space doesn’t mean they’ll execute well and succeed. By the same token local incumbent Citysearch was all but written off and has very successfully reinvented itself with acquisitions (Insiderpages, Urbanspoon) and CityGrid, which continues to look better and better to publishers and developers as a source of traffic and revenue.

The point is that good decisions and skilled execution can take a faltering business and help it regain momentum. And the fact that a highly visible player enters a segment doesn’t guarantee success.

With that I’ll say that Google, Facebook and to a lesser degree Twitter are highly visible brands that are both friends and foes for third party publishers accordingly, whether startups such as Thumbtack or established players such as Superpages, Hearst or CBS. Local media companies need to both leverage third party relationships with larger online brands for visibility and distribution and have strategies that are very independent of them as well.

If you’re a publisher, “brand” has never been more important. Brand means direct navigation, it means you’re more likely to own your own audience.

Today lots of people are trying to unravel the new Google Place Search algorithm and figure it out, even before it’s generally launched to the public. Regardless, local SEO is not the traffic source it once was . . . or let’s say it’s more challenging for IYPs and local publishers to get the kind of exposure on page one of Google that they used to get.

Local publishers now, more than ever, need to answer the “why question” — “Why should consumers use our site?” You need to have a one line answer to that question and build a strong or stronger brand around that answer, which can attract direct traffic to your online or mobile site/app. Brand is a mix of several factors, including usability but also “personality” in my mind.

If you can’t answer that “why question” quickly and clearly,  you won’t be able to communicate it to consumers. And if they don’t understand why they should use your site in this increasingly competitive local marketplace — with more visible brands moving in quickly — they won’t.