Facebook isn’t obvious as a major competitor for auto advertising. But Google certainly watches Facebook’s every move in autos, as it worries that advertising that might have otherwise gone to its services is being cannibalized by social media.

Is it paranoid? We don’t think so. The car makers are definitely focused on digital spending, but social media represents a real alternative to Google’s assortment of search, video and display. Facebook represents 65 percent of all social media conversations about autos, per JD Power.

Earlier this year, Facebook added the capability for auto marketers to target shoppers based on car makes and models and their online purchase histories. And yesterday, Facebook grabbed Google’s Detroit-based Auto Industry Director Michelle Morris, a seven-year Google vet, to help lead auto sales. Morris is expected to engage current Facebook clients, including Hyundai, Nissan, Volkswagen, Ford, Chrysler,GM , Toyota and Subaru while also developing new relationships.

“With Facebook’s offerings, automotive marketers can build and strengthen brand opinion, consideration and loyalty while maximizing efficiencies at every level of the purchase funnel,” noted a Facebook press release.

Recent ComScore data shows that social media automotive spending is up 130 percent, and that 14 percent of all online auto ad spending is now spent online. Nissan outpaces the rest of the industry by spending 20 percent of its online spending on social media. Most of the social spending is geared around boosting engagement, influence and credibility, and includes a mix of auto forums and “mass” social media.

At Interactive Local Media in San Francisco Dec. 10-12, we have great keynotes from Facebook VP of Product Marketing Brian Boland and Google Director of Global Mobile Solutions Brendon Kraham. You can register here.

Facebook has made huge strides in local the last couple of years, driving significant geotargeted mobile revenue and integrating efforts with hundreds of thousands of SMBs. Speaking at Street Fight Summit West in San Francisco today, Local Product Marketing Manager Ted Zagat said the company is building its local efforts base on six key trends.

The first is personalized marketing, which provides for targeted campaigns that are 91 percent accurate. The second trend is mobile, which accounts for 59 percent of Facebook revenue – up from zero just two years ago.

“Everything at Facebook is mobile first, with mobile engineers integrated in every product team so we can think consistently across every platform,” said Zagat. Twenty two percent of all mobile time spent is spent on Facebook and its sister company, Instagram,” he noted. “That’s bigger than all the others combined. It is mind boggling how fast it is happening and the broader implications for every business.”

The third trend is to follow local best practices, including use of analytics. Major advertisers have done very well with Facebook by posting rich photo posts, which provide an 8x median return on ad spend. Small local advertisers should “try to do exactly the same thing,” said Zagat. They need to move from physical engagement to reach,” he said, noting that the counter intuitive wisdom that clicks don’t matter; actions do.

“There is zero correlation between online clicks and ROI,” said Zagat, citing a Datalogix study showing that 89 percent of people who saw a Facebook ad and then bought aproduct in the store did not click on the ad. The fourth trend is Reputation, which to a small store, represents brand awareness. It is really important but progress still needs to be made in this area. “We haven’t figured this out,” said Zagat.

Trend 5 is to engage in light weight communication, such as mobile messaging. The U.S. is limited in its adoption of light weight services such as What’s App due to legacy pricing practices of the mobile carriers. But countries such as Spain and Brazil are showing the way. “Businesses frequently communicate with their customers via mobile messaging,” he said Trend 6 is location based marketing, which Facebook is leveraging via its “Nearby Friends” feature.

Facebook hasn’t really been a player in ecommerce –Facebook Credits, its games-oriented initiative, was shut down in 2012 after three years of experimentation with virtual currencies. But it continues to test the waters — which is not surprising, given its volume and huge edge in social media and native advertising.

Last year, Facebook began to allow consumers to add credit card information to profiles in order to enable ecommerce transactions. Now, Facebook says it is testing a “Buy Button” with “some” SMBs.

During the test, consumers are providing Facebook with credit/debit card info for PayPal-like purchases on a one-time-only basis. Neither the SMB or Facebook ever get to see the info – all payments are being handled by a third party processor. Consumers could then opt to allow Facebook to make the credit/debit card info part of their permanent profile, using the cards for convenience.

If Facebook expands the effort – which Reuters reports is currently free for merchants — the implications could be significant. For starters, Facebook’s enhancement of its anonymous consumer profile would put Facebook on a collision with Amazon and its one-click purchase system. By focusing on the under-served SMB market for ecommerce – and likely offering a blend of virtual and physical goods — Facebook would also be breaking new ground.

Facebook’s Joseph Devoy is discussing a wide range of SMB initiatives at Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing Sept. 22-24. You can register here.

Facebook isn’t often thought of in terms of “commerce,“ a la retailers such as Amazon or financial institutions such as American Express, but it makes a strong case for itself as a company that “unlocks” commerce. Speaking at The CardLinx Association’s Mobile conference in San Mateo on Feb. 24, Facebook Head of Payments and Commerce PJ Linarducci joked that his “day job” is “collecting (payments) from two million advertisers a month to help them connect with their audience.” These involve payments in 55 currencies, with 800+ payment methods. One million transactions take place daily.

Is there is a clear link to commerce from Facebook’s base in advertising? Linarducci thinks it is fairly obvious. “Commerce is about information,” he said.

With placement on 95 of the world’s cellphones, and detailed profile and usage information on its users, commerce also extends the company’s broader social mission. “Payments are just a point in social; helping people get what they want,” Linarducci said. He suggested that many marketers might post offers instead of ads, if given the opportunity.

While Facebook does not appear to have moved forward with several tests involving virtual gift cards, prepaid deals and virtual credits, the company is actively exploring all its commerce options. For instance, it is currently highlighting buy buttons attached to ads, and classifieds for groups.

The big picture is to look at Facebook in terms of its access to audiences, its payments infrastructure and as providing world class tools,” said Linarducci. And commerce is happening on the site whether Facebook is directly involved or not. “People hack around the system to make commerce on Facebook — despite us not doing anything to help them,” he said.

Facebook’s PJ Linarducci

Facebook is felt by some to have the potential to dominate SMB online advertising because of its incredibly high organic usage. But the challenge to drive even more SMB advertisers remains. The company currently reports that it has 40 million SMBs with Facebook pages around the world. Two million SMBs are paid advertisers, or five percent of its SMB page holders.

Today, Facebook unveiled several new small business support programs that it hopes will boost its SMB conversion rates. These include a series of local SMB events, the launch of self serve tools and chat and email support.

We got a hint of what was to come during the March 25 keynote by Facebook Director of Small Business Jon Czaja at BIA/Kelsey National in Dallas. During his keynote, Czaja emphasized that Facebook can lift sales results for SMBs by a high percentage if it is added to traditional media ad campaigns.

He also asserted that Facebook does well on its own. He noted that Facebook’s accuracy for narrowly targeted online campaigns is 89 percent, or more than twice as high as the industry’s 38 percent average. Advertising on Facebook provides $8 back for every dollar invested, and a 12x boost in conversion, Czaja suggested.

While Facebook heavily emphasizes self serve for SMBs because they demand it, it is also eager to partner with agencies and others, adds Czaja. “Facebook can’t build everything itself. If there are other partners out there to build on our platform and encourage better performance, then advertisers will be able to choose to go to Facebook or an agency. It’s an ‘All-of-the-Above’ strategy.”

“End of Big” Author Nicco Mele Keynotes BIA/Kelsey NEXT Dec. 9-10

BIA/Kelsey’s December event has been local’s flagship, and always ahead of the curve in all of local’s iterations. It has been widely imitated, but never totally duplicated! I‘ve been producing it for a long time, but this year, handed it off in midstream. I’ll be moderating some great sessions, though, and the conference team has ended up with 52 hand-picked speakers, a Tech Expo and two full days of programming. Here are some of the things I’m most excited about:

1. The New Cut on Local and Community. Local’s still at the concept stage in a lot of areas. Why think small? Two leaders from USC’s groundbreaking Annenberg School (my alma mater) will point to the new directions in separate keynotes. First up is Nicco Mele, the author of The End of Big (2013), a tour de Force on “radical connectivity.” He’s also fresh from his stint as deputy publisher at The LA Times, where his team’s efforts to seize new initiatives in local had already produced major new revenue streams. He’ll have a lot to say about what’s going to work. Leading off Day 2 is Dr. Karen North, Director of Online Communities, a dynamic presenter who is focused on Millenial applications and behavior – you’ve heard, perhaps, these kids live on the phone?

2. Keynotes from Google and Facebook: The latest in local from the two dominators and trend setters in local. Danny Bernstein at Google is set to highlight its deep linking efforts (Google Now). He is sharing the stage with Button’s Chris Maddern and Local Seo Guide’s Andrew Shotland.

3. Big Thinking about MarTech: Big Data’s impact on local cuts many ways – analytics, leads, targeting, planning, But it’s only a subsegment of the broader “MarTech” movement. Those in the know attend Scott Brinker’s annual MarTech conference in Boston. Scott, who also runs ionactive, is going to focus on local and highlight what’s important and why for us at NEXT. He’ll be joined on stage by Surefire Social’s Chris Marentis.

4. The Mobile App-Driven Marketplace. The mantra is that it isn’t really about search right now, because Mobile apps are driving the marketplace. What’s that really mean for local? One of the best analysts I know is Mark Plakias, who has been running Orange’s think tank in Silicon Valley for several years. He’ll be joined by Quick.ly’s Paul Ryan and DialogTech’s Steve Griffith. This will be quite a session.

5. Local and The Internet of Things. We’ve been pondering iOT’s impact on local — when everything is linked, from transit cards to vending machines. So has the new venture, Instersection, which is a partnership from Google Ventures and former Bloomberg head and NYC Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff. CSO Dave Etherington will provide insights on what they are up to. He’ll be joined on stage by Cisco’s Andy Noronha.

6. Close Up on The New Local Marketplaces. We’ve been saying for a long time that local marketing has gone beyond advertising. Now it’s “closing the loop” with transaction data, offer targeting and complete behavioral profiles reshaping the game. Groupon’s Dan Roarty, Microsoft’s Neal Bernstein and MOGL’s Jon Carder share their insights. Cardlinx CEO Silvio Tavares will add data and help me run this session.

Haven’t got your ticket yet? I have a *little* influence and can get you $400 off. Please use this discount code: LOCALONLINER. You may register here.

Can the daily deals model recover? Will beacons be big in retail? Why is the home services space set to soar? How will custom deals be more sophisticated in the new year? And how can marketers decide which “unicorns” to bet on and which to ignore?

Speakeasy CEO and social and hyperlocal media pioneer Mike Orren interviews me — The Local Onliner — about what’s happening in local and media in 2016 for his new show, The Digital CMO. It runs about 34 minutes….Here’s the podcast link.

The evolution of the card linked space is happening in unexpected ways, as we saw this week at Cardlinx’s San Francisco conference. It was the association’s largest event in its two year history. Basically — the table has been set; a number of early arriving guests have arrived; and we are now waiting for real momentum and numbers to come in.

The first to come on board have been the larger companies, which thrive on the analytics – they want to know who their customers are, and how to market to them. The smaller merchants are more impacted by the direct impact of offers that drive store traffic and are still using their traditional options (ads, dm, coupons, etc.)

The event’s large attendance –130+ — reflected the rollout of several key card-linked based projects, such as Plenti from Amex, Macy’s, AT&T, Enterprise Rent a Car, Exxon Mobile and others; and a major card linked rollout from Whole Foods. Living Social has added a card linked element in dining rewards; and Groupon is tentatively preparing one as well, with 15 percent off as a constant feature.

Card linking is also seen as being deeply integrated with payment and messengering programs that are more directly driving commerce. Facebook, for instance — a Cardlinx member –appears to be studying a role for card linking on its growing Messenger platform, which is already set to provide shipping updates, book rides and send money.

Widely used, well-subscribed platforms are expected to add scale to card linked concepts as well. Speaking at the event, Empyr CEO Jon Carder said he could see 20 million active consumers building a $10 billion annual business –with $750 million in revenues going to the participating card linked offer companies. “It is a network effect,” he said. “The more participants, the more consumers you have, the more revenue you get. “

Whole Foods has whole-heartedly embraced its card linked program – which is a bit of a surprise for a company that has historically been “discount reluctant.” Payments Marketing Director Marushka Bland said card linking will give it an edge as the company faces serious competition in the organic grocery space from Kroger, Costco, Walmart and others. The company is now “much more open to worrying about its customers and eager to focus on things like loyalty.”

Whole Foods started rolling out its affinity program on a small scale in 2014. It is currently rolling out digital coupons. “It is about our customers and how they shop with us,” said Bland. “Execution, targeting and attribution” are the keys to the program, with a target goal of 10 percent incremental spend.

Incremental spend is also the chief goal for Excentus President and CEO Brandon Logsdon, who stressed that the key is not to focus on Card Linked Offers, but on getting participation in card linked programs. (He’s right: I’m going to phase out my own references to CLOs.)

Excentus rolled out its Fuel Rewards program in 2012. More than 6.5 million cards have been registered, and there is an active group of 1.4 million linked cards. Customers have spent $450 million on a growing list of affiliating merchants, and gotten $3.6 million back on fuel costs (roughly 5 cents a gallon). Logsdon adds that the merchants are seeing brand new spending from the programs. Fifty percent of those coming in are new customers; and 65 percent of promoted sales are incremental.

Empyr CEO Jon Carder

Facebook’s Joe Devoy

Facebook has just announced that it has three million SMB advertisers and 50 million SMB pages. Many SMBs have attracted thousands of likes. But “one of the challenges for Facebook in the future is to move away from social metrics,” noted Joe Devoy, Facebook’s Product Marketing Manager for Local Ads, who was speaking this week at LSA16 in San Francisco.

“Local metrics that highlight true business value” is key, says Devoy. While likes are good for the ego (and newsfeeds), they aren’t as powerful as metrics that show new business.

With this in mind, Facebook is re-orienting its pages to boost dedicated traffic and analytics. One of its efforts is “Sections,” which feature call-to-actions and tips centered around shopping and services. Another effort is to boost messaging between customers and SMBs via Facebook’s integrated messaging products. With mobile ascendant, messaging is increasingly he preferred way to communicate with customers,” notes Devoy.

The end result is that Facebook is a very affordable advertising channel for SMBs, says Devoy “You can spend $30 a month on Facebook.” If they get you one call a day, most businesses will be more than covered.

Do SMBs think they “like” Facebook more than Google? That’s one theory…that Facebook has leapt ahead of Google by offering the free business page, universal penetration, and simple to use, affordable ad options. Such goodwill would theoretically help Facebook as it increasingly competes with Google for SMB marketing dollars.

But hold on: that’s not exactly the case, circa 1Q 2016. Google is enormously useful, and a lot of SMBs have been grousing about Facebook since last year, when it started throttling organic reach in an effort that has helped it get to three million paid advertisers.

The grousing is reflected in Alignable’s SMB Trust Index, which has been getting an NPS score on top vendors from its base of 6,000 SMBs in 7,000+ communities. The NPS score is a simple 1-10 rating. High ratings (9-10) signify “champions,” while low ratings (0-6) represent “detractors.”

Alignable found that Google is the 4th highest rated vendor for SMBs, with a rating of “46.” Facebook, meanwhile, is 12th, with a rating of “24.” This reflects a drop of four points for Facebook from a year ago, when it had a “28” rating.

Keeping it in perspective, however, both Google and Facebook are still showing overall goodwill from their SMB customers. There is quite a difference in their ratings compared to a low performer such as Web.com, which suffered a rating of “-61.”

These SMB Trust Index rankings strike us as unique and useful. In our view, it is likely to have a real impact on an industry that could never quite tell before where key vendors really stood with their SMB customers. In the past couple of years, it would have helped a lot as the media and general public started leaping to negative conclusions about Yelp, Groupon, ReachLocal and the Yellow Pages in general.

The new focus for SMB advertising is very precise targeting , and that means building campaigns with Facebook, according to SMB marketing entrepreneur and Constant Contact co-founder Randy Parker. “The top three ad platforms are Facebook, Facebook, and Facebook,” says Parker. “There is no second place.”

Parker, who is developing Brevi Ads, an integrated, automated ad platform for SMBs that uses Facebook solutions, says that Facebook’s targeting abilities generally cost less than $150 per campaign, and are better than what Proctor & Gamble would spend millions of dollars on ten years ago.

“If you own a stroller store, you can target women 25-45 who live nearby, and filter in people with a child under the age of three and who bought baby gear within six months,” says Parker. While you could split your budget with Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat, “you are probably better spending all of it on Facebook,” he adds. You might plug in Instagram as part of that – Facebook owns it.

Parker and his Boston-based team are building Brevi to take the power of Facebook and apply it to SMBs. He notes that the solution integrates such features as SMB scheduling and shopping carts to better understand the SMBs’ actual needs in each vertical.

“You want to automate by going deep” with the business, says Parker. “Your problem is not that you want to run a Facebook ad. You want people to come for your 5pm Yoga class.“

We are now in the third generation of SMB marketing, Parker adds. “The first generation was getting online and figuring out how to market digitally. The second generation was coached DIY: what we did with Constant Contact. In the third generation, marketing will be truly automated.”

All of us in local marketing have had awkward conversations with the local plumber or vacuum repair shop that could care less about Yelp, Google, Facebook or Groupon. But they are in the minority. Just 22% of SMBs aren’t using digital marketing this year, per InfusionSoft.

Some national franchises also haven’t figured out how to target locally. Most, however, are getting on board.

Which local channels and features are making the biggest impact – either solo or as part of the “platform” of local enhancers and enablers now available? Here’s Local Onliner’s 2016-17 list of what’s going to make a difference. Do you agree?

1. Social: Freemium-based social is local’s biggest driver. BIA/Kelsey estimates that over 57.4 % of SMBs are maintaining Facebook Pages; 28.7% maintain LinkedIn profiles; and 20.9 percent are up on Twitter. Many SMBs are now using a Facebook page as a primary element of their digital presence, akin to a Website. We’ll see a lot more on the social front in 2016-17, especially from Facebook’s less than $30 mix of mobile and Web-based products – including Instagram and Facebook Messenger.

2. Search Engine Optimization: SEO remains a key driver for local, but new tricks are being deployed to stand out. Everyone’s competing for the same space and working with more SEO-friendly resources (i.e. reviews, content, video). The best way to cut through the local clutter is simply to double down, stay focused and invest in a wide range of local channels – not just Google.

3. Omnichannel: Some local marketers have gone off the deep end with an “all digital, all the time” approach. Their idea of multichannel is to offer digital, and increasingly, mobile solutions for such features as shopping, scheduling, search, advertising and promotions. The truth? Many of these channels would also be enhanced by integrating with old media such as TV, radio and print. In many cases, They still carry more weight and bigger audiences.

4. Mobile Display and TXT: Mobile advertising tends to mean email, txt, messaging and display – and a lot of it is geo-sensitive. Roughly 80% of Boomer and GenX business owners text with customers about business-related topics. But there’s plenty of room for growth, as mobile marketing via display and txt ads remain a low priority. A Flok survey found that just 6% of SMBs are using mobile display and txt is a “primary” marketing channel.

5. Geo-location: Mobile’s big driver right now is geo-location, which targets users and places for advertising, place marketing and services. According to Unacast, 54 % have gone geo via GPS and Geofencing; 28% via WiFi; 16% via NFC. Accuracy, however, just isn’t good enough yet. The LBMA says that 65% of businesses complain about it. That should improve dramatically in 2016-17.

6. Messaging: Messaging is “in” and emails and social media are out. Right? We don’t agree that email and social media are ready to be kicked aside in favor of messaging platforms. But opportunities abound for SMBs to leverage messaging for so-called “conversational commerce,” including promotions, live support and transactions. Mssaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Kik and Slack are poised to move beyond their peer-to-peer roots and dig into conversational commerce. Most are assisted by “chatbots” that automate responses, post pictures and enable promotions and sales.

7. Mapping: With the rise in mobile usage, maps have been considered so important that a number of agencies have emphasized “mapvertising” – ads and offers contextually placed in maps – as a key element of SMB marketing. One of the greatest strengths of maps (and directions) is they let marketers know exactly where consumers are going. In some cases, they also reveal when consumers will be going. Here’s a fairly safe prediction: mapvertising will become much more important in coming years (although it will probably be called something else.) Indeed, several marketing concepts are in development that integrates maps with local offerings. These include local delivery services and “Connected Car” concepts. SMBs are also beneficiaries of being included in specialized maps that can be filtered, perhaps as color-coded “heat maps.”

8.Online video: Video for SMBs is entering a new generation, as it becomes more oriented towards online and mobile and leverages cheap and easy video tools. Now, it is up to SMBs to rethink and get more engaged with their video strategies. Just 17.5 percent of SMBs have video on their Website, according to BIA/Kelsey. Another 12.3 percent have video posted on YouTube. Facebook, Vimeo and Twitter also appear to have gained some traction. Video provides an extra added value for SMBs – it drives up their search ranking. Video can also be easily attached to emails and promotions, and greatly drive open rates, click-through rates and the length of Web site visits.

9. Marketplaces: One of the bigger concepts in the new retail is the development of marketplaces, which represent a shift from “shopping” at a single store – or buying a dedicated Groupon — to a broader notion of “always on” marketplaces. In the new marketplaces, everything is constantly compared, analyzed and reviewed. The marketplaces mentality apply to a broad range of tech features, including search and discovery; promotions; inventory; payments; loyalty; pickup and delivery; and maps. In this environment, it is up to the SMB stores to determine the extent of their participation. They can provide their goods and offers in the marketplace, or simply take advantage of the platform technology to better understand their customers and new ways to market to them and engage them.

10. On Demand: With the emergence of services like Uber, we’ve been looking at entirely new “on demand” models for acquiring local customers. These are more about “get it now” and less about the “search and find” directory-like models that have driven traditional SMB marketing channels. As it turns out, many local verticals are not ideally suited to go through an “Uberification” – Home Advisor, for one, concluded that less than 16% of its home services customers would opt for an on demand solution. But other local verticals such as lodging, food order and emergency car repair will continue to see some impact.

Disgruntled workers are writing the history of Silicon Valley, based on Dan Lyons’ funny and articulate Disrupted (actually, a book about HubSpot in Boston) and now, Antonio Garcia Martinez’s Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley.

The latter, a hefty 496 page tome, goes through Garcia Martinez’ early experience as a quant-grunt at Goldman Sachs, his efforts to launch AdGrok, its sale to Twitter, and then his experience as a quasi-acqui-Hire at Facebook, lasting two years before flaming out in the corporate politics there.

Garcia Martinez’ names names, and the tone of the book is generally ironic and snide – at times, unpleasant to read. Yet it is also compelling, presenting an admiring view of Facebook as a company that has a ton of traffic; a strong commitment to its users and platform; a strong Pied Piper in Mark Zuckberger; and a highly supportive team that loves the company – quirks and all.

The real value of the book is in Garcia Martinez’s discussion of the rousing, successful battle by Facebook to fight back against Google +, and its development of ad sales from a backwater that could only deliver value based on volume to a core strength based on Big Data (and no, it turns out that Facebook does not sell ads based on user content).

Garcia Martinez’s insights into Silicon Valley arcanae are also revealing. Announced sales prices are tremendously inflated by including the cost of staff salaries in acqui-hires; VCs have intense inter-rival politics; employment contract lawyers are a world onto themselves; and of course, there is plenty of evidence presented of S. Valley’s homogenous, non-meritocratic culture.

Did you know Sheryl Sandberg’s conference room is called “Only Good News”?

Facebook has formally relaunched its peer to peer local marketplace for used goods, setting up a strong challenge to Craigslist, cutting into new marketplaces from NextDoor and others, and potentially cutting in on eBay’s turf as well.

The app carries a tagline of “Discover it. Buy It. Sell It.” In a news release, Facebook described the feature as “a convenient destination to discover, buy and sell items with people in your community.” Items may be searched by location, category or price.

The Marketplace – which we covered in March 2016 when it began extensive testing — is now available on iOS and Android in the U.S., UK, Australia, and New Zealand. More countries – and a desktop version – are expected to launch soon.

How serious is Facebook in pushing it? As a menu item on Facebook’s app, The Marketplace is getting tens of millions of dollars of valuable real estate. It also leverages Facebook’s integrated photo and messaging technology. It grabs pictures from a user’s camera roll – a neat, newer feature — and uses Facebook messenger to contact (and haggle) with sellers. As we noted in our prior coverage, the listings are free and mostly oriented around used goods.

In the near-term, listings won’t go into the paid areas that provide the bulk of Craigslist’s revenue: apartments, cars, jobs and “personal services.” But if Facebook decides to provide a greater emphasis on classifieds, it could conceivably move into transactions (and commissions). It could also open the service up beyond its groups to have more of a geo-orientation.

The classifieds project is the latest transaction-oriented effort from Facebook, which may want to diversify its revenue beyond advertising. Facebook has been experimenting with various transaction models for several years, including tests with virtual gift cards, deals and virtual currencies. Facebook has also developed an Amazon-like capability to enable transactions on other sites by collecting credit card information on its profiles.

With the incredible riches of the next wave of commerce awaiting, it’s a race of the incumbents versus the innovators. “The race is for the incumbents to fix things before innovators get distribution,” ” suggests Global Payments SVP of Global Product Frank Young. That was one of the basic themes this week at the fourth edition of Money2020, a four-day event in Las Vegas with 500 speakers and 10,000 attendees.

Initially conceived by former Google Wallet leaders as the place for disruptors of banks, credit card and point of sales companies to fight for the next generation of transactions, payments, savings, loans and data, Money2020 has become a catchall of all things commerce. And clearly, the incumbents are intent on defending their turf.

It is the very intensity of commerce disruption that gives the incumbents a legup in the new generation – if they can get their act together and also, think out of the box. “There are so many categories of disruption,” notes Carey O’Connor Kolaja, Global Chief Product Officer for Citi FinTech. “The banks are tremendously disrupted. (But) this is where scale absolutely matters. (Consumer and business) needs haven’t changed.”

Industry-wide partnerships among the digital and mobile players will prove essential. At the conference, for instance, we saw PayPal team up with Facebook to create commerce and social synergies.

But the ultimate responsibility is on the incumbents to execute, notes O’ Connor Kolaja. If there is too much friction, customers come back and say “they don’t even get moving money right,” she warns. At the same time, everything must be in the background, and it can’t be too complex. “People are said to have 30,000 thoughts a day, but not many of them are about banking.”

Bank of America President of Retail Banking Thong Nguyen notes that BoA is acting on the same principles. While it is aggressively closing local branches to save on personnel costs and recognize a shift to electronic banking and services, it is also rolling out “Erica,” an artificial intelligence driven avatar to help consumers compete simple tasks.

BoA’s goal? To use AI to integrate and enhance the technology that people use as part of their banking activities. In 2016-17, BoA is defining the AI-driven platforms as including text (including email and chat) , social (Facebook and Twitter) and Voice (Alexa, Siri, Eirca, Google Home). “AI is the underpinning of all of it,” says Nguyen. “The motto in technology is to ‘follow the customer.”

Whether the banks and other incumbents get a chance to do that for customers really depends on how they execute. Many players in the space clearly got distracted this year by electronic security problems and the rollout of EMV credit cards. They’ll need to stay focused, however, to stay ahead.

As EY Head of Payments for the Americas Margaret Weichert notes, “players redefining customer experiences” — via such features as loyalty integration, omni-channel flexibility, mass customization and integrated payments — “are those closest to the customer.”

Are SMBs going to turn to middlemen to handle their Facebook advertising? As four million SMB advertisers know, Facebook advertising is accessible, low commitment and inexpensive. It is fairly ideal for promoting local awareness and events.

Facebook also delivers an audience that’s much less fragmented than search engines. From a vendor’s point of view, it tends to be much more profitable.

It’s also an increasingly well-rounded platform. Many SMBs are already working with Facebook’s SMB lead ads, local awareness ads and Website click ads. New features coming up include coupons/offers; brand awareness with embedded video; carousels with multiple ad options; and boosted posts.

What are the pros of working with Facebook? Its targeting is especially strong. So-called “lookalike audiences” can greatly boost an SMBs reach. SMBs can also use Facebook to close the loop on people who visit their site, or if they can provide snippets of lead information to Facebook (names, phone numbers or emails). Facebook’s strong reach leads to a match rate of 50-70 percent.

And the potential cons? All these offerings require a learning curve and practice. And given that the success of campaigns often depends on 2x or more frequency…the logistics of building on successful campaigns aren’t always easy to accomplish.

Facebook also isn’t the perfect solution for every need. It isn’t yet a real marketplace or directory where people go just before they buy something .“People don’t go to Facebook to make decisions,” noted AdEspresso’s Armando Bondi. “They go to Facebook to avoid making decisions.”

At Borrell’s LOAC West last week in San Francisco, a group of tech vendors – including AdEspresso, as well as GotU, Acquisio, Tiger Pistol and CitizenNet — discussed the challenges of maximizing an SMB’s presence on Facebook, and the programs that they have developed as middlemen for local media and directory players.

Many of the companies that provide marketing for SMBs are already utilizing some of these platforms. GotU, for instance, is already providing its Facebook platform to 18 Yellow Pages companies and related SMB resellers – mostly in Europe. With the support of these kinds of vendors and the local ecosystem, Facebook is likely to take an even stronger role with local/smb marketing.

Selling marketing services to SMBs is never going to be easy, and Google and Facebook get more than their fair share of business. But the SMB market remains a potential gold mine for platform providers and resellers. To gauge the current environment, we caught up recently with a longtime expert in SMB sales: LocalSphere founder and CEO Olivier Vincent, who previously took on Yellow Pages giant YPG all over Canada with Canpages, before selling to YPG in 2010.

Founded in 2013, LocalSphere updated the SMB marketing model, providing SMBs with content and search services and ecommerce aids such as gift cards. The company gained 500+ SMBs in its hometown of Vancouver, each typically paying $400 or $500 a month.

Last week, the company announced it would merge with Vancouver’s RTown, with Vincent kicking himself upstairs to the merged company’s board. RTown CEO and “Mayor” Luke Aulin will keep the CEO spot. The company has raised an additional $500,000 to jump-start its activities.

Post-deal, we talked with Vincent about what he’s seeing for SMBs. Vancouver fosters a reputation of being “Silicon Valley North,” but Vincent makes clear that even in Vancouver, SMB digital marketing still has some way to go.

The premise remains simple, he says. “Everybody loves local (businesses), but online, you can’t find them. You mostly see big (national names). So as a business person, you know there has to be a huge opportunity to get it right.” But even though there are many marketing players making noise, the solutions aren’t perfect and they are expensive. For the tech provider, it remains difficult to get through “the last mile” to get to the paying SMB,” says Vincent. Moreover, SMBs are besieged by calls, and many aren’t eager to pick up the phone or open their door, either. “Many of them have been burned.

Vincent says he feels one key to success is to provide a variety of products that can be tailored for different results or verticals– RTown + LocalSphere provide 30. But most of those are for upsell. If his salespeople can get in the door, they want to keep things simple and initially push 2-3 products.

“The first 30 seconds are the most difficult” because they have to grab an SMB’s attention,” says Vincent. “They’ll get vertigo if you talk about 30 products.”

Another key to success: temper expectations. Many SMBs expect their investment in marketing to turn around their business. But it takes time. SEO campaigns in themselves take at least a few months to have an impact.

Vincent also notes that only “half” of customers closely track their digital efforts via analytic dashboards etc. But providing analytics aren’t necessarily a wasted effort if customers don’t use them. Many find it reassuring that they are available.

A third and final key to SMB marketing success: make it bigger than just reselling Google, and/or Facebook. Google’s great, says Vincent, but SMBs might get a stronger ROI with a better website, and publishing regular content that keeps them top of mind for their customers.”

It is also important to push “the interaction layer” with customers, such as loyalty programs, eCommerce and gift cards. “Even a carpet cleaner may benefit by offering digital cards on their website,” says Vincent.

We’ve probably looked at local from every side: social, brands/location, data/analytics, mobile, search, marketplaces and community. Through it all, some truisms have developed about local:

1. Facebook should be part of every solution. And Google generally is.

2. Vertical beats horizontal for better search and content

3. Location-specific search drives the most transactions, especially for brands

4. Video has been reborn and is key to SMB search. BIA/Kelsey says that more than 1/4 of SMBs will have video this year

5. Small businesses like one-stop sales solutions

6. Local advertisers are branching out, but many remain loyal to traditional media

I’m looking to catch up with industry trends and the various local communities at two upcoming conferences: Local Search Association’s Local:2020 event in San Diego Feb. 27-March 1, where a strong program of industry leaders will gather at the Loews Resort on Coronado and take a search/directory point of view; and Borrell’s Local Online Advertising Conference at The Grand Hyatt in New York March 4-6, which covers the bases, but from a vantage point coming out of local media sales (you will see hundreds of local media leaders there – it is the industry’s biggest gathering).

Either way, a lot of digital dollars are being pumped into the industry now. Borrell estimates that we’ll see $80.7 Billion from local digital in 2017. Per Borrell’s research, targeted banners make up 60% of the digital revenue; untargeted banners represent 9%; paid search represents 14%; and video represents 4%.

I exchanged some email with Gordon Borrell about what his vision for this year’s summit (full disclosure: Gordon and I put together Borrell in 2002-2005). He’s especially psyched about the major collaboration with Facebook. There’ll be four sessions on working with Facebook — there is bound to be very useful info.

Gordon is also excited about the boom in video. Video is “heading skyward,” he notes. Tremor Video VP Lauren Wiener — IAB’s current chair — is keynoting The top leadership of several mega-verticals will be speaking at the event, too. The gold star list includes Realtor.com CEO Ryan O’Hara, TrueCar CEO (and former AutoTrader head) Chip Perry and Home Advisor President Craig Smith. I always learn a lot about what is really happening from Perry and Smith, and am eager for a look at O’Hara’s report card and vision for Realtor.com, which has really taken off this year under NewsCorp.

I’m looking forward to both events, and frankly, travelling to two great cities and former hometowns: San Diego and New York. (Gordon also has agreed to give a $200 discount for Local Onliner readers: Use code “LO 200”).

Quiet progress was made in local commerce in 2017. This year: 1. Amazon brought the focus back to Brick & Mortar. Its purchase of Whole Foods and rollout of experimental Amazon Stores drove a broader “omni-channel” trend, as larger retailers delivered on fully integrated web. mobile and in-store services. WalMart and Target, for instance, are … Continue reading LocalOnliner’s 2017 Recap and 2018 Predictions →

It felt like local digital marketing's evolution speeded up a lot in 2017, especially for enterprise companies targeting locally. The evolution of SMB marketing is not happening quite as fast. I think you'll get a good sense of "what happened" in 2017 from my Top 10 "Most Read" and "Favorite" posts. Click on a link … Continue reading LocalOnliner’s Top 10 Most Popular Postings of 2017 (+ Our Favorites) →