The Very Essence of Hyperlocal

There’s been a lot of banter now about this thing we refer to as ‘hyperlocal.’ I figured the time has come to break it down.

According to Wikipedia, “The term hyperlocal… connotes having the character of being oriented around a well defined, community scale area with primary focus being directed towards the concerns of its residents. When used in isolation it refers to the emergent ecology of data (including textual content), aggregators, publication mechanism and user interactions and behaviours which centre on a resident of a location and the business of being a resident.”

The term ‘hyper’ in itself means excessive or jumpy. As it goes with many of the terms we’ve manufactured, the meaning of ‘hyper’ has become something more akin to acceleration– as in hypertext which we typically refer to as a hyperlink, a non-sequential shortcut to another document, or hyperspace, a non-sequential way to traverse the universe, bypassing the conventional space-time relationship. Today when people talk about hyperlocal it’s typically in reference to the delivery of local news and community-based information. In reality, hyperlocal has a lot less to do about news and a lot more to do about people (residents, visitors, merchants, etc.).

In my hyperlocal universe I am the center. Everything happens around me the individual. It’s not simply a neighborhood site. I define the boundaries of my hyperlocal universe by setting the distance from my geo-centerpoint. And when my microcosm overlaps with another, opportunity is created. My microcosm is rich in discovery allowing me to stay on top of things like events, merchants, deals, and people. And when I go mobile, my hyperlocal site keeps me informed of what and who are around me (deals, merchants, events, etc.) at any moment in time, wherever I happen to be.

In my geo-microcosm, I have the ability to get involved– to participate– to be part of my own self-defined hyperlocal ecosystem. The very essence of hyperlocal is not a one-way push, but rather a symbiotic partnership between people (including merchants) all because our geographic hyperlocal boundaries happen to overlap. You see, first and foremost, hyperlocal is about people. This seems to have gotten lost somewhere in the big board rooms of the media giants frothing at the chance of capitalizing on the next big advertising opportunity.

A lot of today’s hyperlocal sites merely push (or in many cases simply regurgitate) news, business directories, and local information to its subscribers. Good hyperlocal sites create awareness of people, places, and things in their hyperlocal universe. Great hyperlocal sites inform and create awareness, and at their very core engage people and merchants in symbiotic partnerships that drive continuous value to each and every individual.

For a glimpse of one of these hyperlocal social sites, take a look at http://www.paasgo.com.