Mention the word “hyperlocal” to somebody on the street and you can get a multitude of reactions, from a shrug to a shiver. For some people, it’s a dirty word, and for others it is the holy grail of business opportunity. One thing is clear – hyperlocal is confusing!
There are many different ways that the hyperlocal term gets used. Wikipedia defines hyperlocal as:
HYPERLOCAL CONNOTES INFORMATION ORIENTED AROUND A WELL-DEFINED COMMUNITY WITH ITS PRIMARY FOCUS DIRECTED TOWARD THE CONCERNS OF THE POPULATION IN THAT COMMUNITY.
Hyperlocal is generally used to describe the publishing segment (e.g. hyperlocal news sites) as well as Marketing (remember Groupon and LivingSocial?). But if you do a search on hyperlocal, you’ll find a dozen definitions just on the first page of the search results. Most people will agree that hyperlocal has well-defined geographic boundaries, but beyond that there’s little that is consistent. Are big-box retailers hyperlocal? Is the town I live in the only place where I am hyperlocal?
