by Cindy Kelly
President / Founder| Media Fusion

 Technology has forever changed the way business conduct business. Gone are the days of consumers thumbing through a phone book to search for a company. Today’s consumer heads to Google instead. Technology has changed our sales process. Traditionally, salespeople were the first to educate a consumer on their product. Today, most consumers are often more educated than the salespeople because they’ve already done their research online. This technological shift, known as Inbound Marketing, affects everyone and is transforming the advertising and marketing industries as we know it.

Inbound Marketing in  a Nutshell

The word “Inbound” describes a process that brings customers to you. The word “Outbound” describes you reaching out to your customers. Traditionally, marketers have always interrupted their prospects with their message. This has been done in the form of TV ads, radio ads, billboards etc. As technology has evolved, consumers have shown their lack of interest in advertising. They’ve purchased DVR players to watch their favorite shows without interruption, turned to their iPods for music (no ads there) and people can barely stop texting and driving much less pay attention to a billboard. This presents start-ups with many challenges when deciding what methods of marketing and advertising to use to make the most impact.

Make Inbound Marketing the Backbone of Your Startup

You’ve got the business plan, funding and product, now it’s time to market to your audience. You may be considering online ads or pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns to enhance your visibility on Google. While this does get you instant exposure, it can also be very costly if it’s your only method for online visibility. Pay-per-click is just what the name implies, you pay for every click, regardless of the end result. Pay-per-click is a form of advertising and your search engine visibility will disappear if you decide to stop paying. That is unless you’ve earned that position organically. This is where Inbound marketing comes in.

Inbound marketing helps you enhance your visibility naturally. This is accomplished by understanding what your audience is interesting in, creating great content to support that, sharing that content on social media channels and getting others to talk about it. As you can imagine, there is not a quick solution for this. It takes a great strategy and many hours to accomplish however, the long-term benefits will be worth it. I like to think of PPC as “renting real estate” and Inbound Marketing as “buying real estate”. 

Building Your Inbound Marketing Toolbox

To be great at inbound marketing, you have to work with a set of tools. Here are a few basic tools you’ll need to get started 

Website: Regardless of the methods you chose for marketing and advertising, there’s no doubt your website will be the hub of all information. For this reason you’ll want to make sure your website is consistent with your brand, has a clear message and professional image.

Blog: A blog is simply an extension of your website. It’s a platform typically built into your website, meant to house educational content. Your blog will help position you as an expert in your field.

Content: Content the foundation of inbound marketing, without it you won’t get very far. Think like a writer. Think beyond articles. What could you provide people that is different? An ebook, checklist, how-to-guide, video? The list goes on.

Social Media: Love it or hate it, social media isn’t what all the kids are doing, it’s what all the businesses are doing. Not all social media platforms will be a good fit for your business. Think about the audience first, then think of the social media platform that your audience uses. You’ll use social media to promote your content, not sell.

Analytics: What gets measured, gets done. How are your marketing programs performing?  You should never stop measuring your marketing. You’ll want to monitor things like website traffic,  leads, new customers, etc.

Inbound marketing is a new approach that markets to the modern consumer. According to HubSpot, companies that implement Inbound marketing experience a cost per lead 61% less than those using outbound marketing. I’ve only begun to scratch the surface with the tools and techniques discussed in this post.

To learn more about inbound marketing, please join us for an enlightening, educational and engaging digital workshop specifically to help you market your startup at Tampa Bay WaVE on May 15th from 6:00-7:00 (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6433501777)

For more information, please contact Gracie Leigh Stemmer at gracie@tampabaywave.org.

Get Connected! There are a lot of events coming up that you can get involved with! 

Pizza & Pitch Night Friday, April 26th 6pm-8pm - hosted by StartUp Bus and Startup Weekend.

 Suncoast IOS Meetup Tuesday, April 30th 6pm-8pm

Coworking Fiesta Wednesday, May 1st 9am-6pm  - “A Day of Free Coworking for all! Plus, stop by the Mayor’s Food Truck Fiesta to fuel up for lunch (right across the street.)’

Health Box Networking Event Thursday, May 2nd 6pm-8pm - “Interested in the Healthcare’s Entrepreneurial World? Come see what Health Box is all about. Meet entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders.”

FirstWaVE Accelerator Info Session - Monday, May 13th 12pm-2pm  - “Lunch&Learn – BYOL: Bring Your Own Lunch & Learn about our Accelerator Program”

Google I/O Extended Event - Wednesday, May 15th 11:30am-2:30pm 

Media Fusion & SiteWit Digital Marketing Workshop Wednesday, May 15th 6pm-8pm  - 

FirstWaVE Official Ping Pong Tournament Wednesday, May 22nd 6pm-8pm  - “No Guts, No Glory! Think you have what it takes to make it to the top of the bracket? Or maybe you just want an excuse to hang out and play for fun? Either way it’s on! Cash & Other Prizes will be awarded!”

TBTF Entrepreneur Event Wednesday, May 22nd 5pm-9pm - 

Lean Startup Workshop Friday, May 31st 6pm-8pm - hosted by StartUp Bus and Startup Weekend.

Madera Labs Homepage Throwdown Friday, June 7th 5pm-7pm  - “That’s right. You’ve been waiting for it and here it is. The long awaited Homepage Throwdown. Where homepages are thrown up and ripped down. You may leave with your ego a bit brused but improvements will be shown on the homepage of your website. Stick around afterwards as we all go down to Malio’s for Happy Hour.”

Tampa Bay WaVE continues its excitement in welcoming the second class to the FirstWaVE Accelerator program.  FirstWaVE clients participated in an application submission process, which included a live pitch event to the FirstWaVE Accelerator vetting committee on April 8th, before being selected into the program. 

The pool of talented individuals continues to grow. Development of unique and innovative technologies is paving the way for greater innovation and job creation in the Tampa Bay area! Please stop by the FirstWaVE Venture Center to congratulate them! 

Fashion Sponge: FashionSponge give billions of fashion lovers an environment to follow, learn, discover, share, buy and sell fashion and beauty related products.

ZingScan: ZingScan is a subscription based business model for small businesses and schools to utilize an iOS visitor management app. We  offer three different plans of pricing: Basic, Pro, EDU. Each plan will also offer different features.

CityLync: CityLync is a free yield management service for high-end restaurants.  CityLync helps restaurants monetize their tables that would otherwise go unfilled and we give our members access to those tables at prices they can’t get otherwise.

Mobadwin: Mobadwin is a free app for iPhones and Androids, and the first and only win-win marketing platform. We connect businesses with their dream audience, using 25 demographic qualifiers, and allow them to engage and communicate with that audience. We provide our users with special offers and promotions from great bars, restaurants, shops, concerts and more, as well as allow them a chance to earn money and perks!

Pledge Your Bets: Pledge Your Bets is a fundraising platform that uses gamification technologies to encourage giving and provide a way for charities to engage younger donors.

Local Plants: LocalPlants.com is a venue that provides gardeners, landscapers, plant nurseries, tree farms, and garden centers the ability to market their products and businesses to their local community.
 
Truckspotting: At Truckspotting we’ve developed a better way to find food trucks other than following unreliable tweets. We came up with the idea of outfitting trucks with state of the art GPS devices that allow anyone with a smartphone the ability to track their favorites or find new food trucks near them in any city in the US…in real time.

Swap Shop Mobile: Swap Shop is the first Mobile application to do the shopping for you! Find books using your GPS location at an negotiable price! When you add the items you need to your profile all you have to do is sit back and wait for a notification to appear on your phone that someone in your area has it.

The FirstWaVE Accelerator Program offers a wide variety of benefits to startups in all phases of development, including bootcamps and workshops by local entrepreneurs and business executives, dedicated mentors, opportunities to meet with investors, access to a team of dedicated student interns and free professional services. Clients also have access to coworking and office space within the FirstWaVE Venture Center, located in Tampa Bay WaVE’s headquarters on the second floor of the Rivergate Tower, downtown Tampa.

Applications open for the next round of FirstWaVE Accelerator clients on May 1,2013. The deadline for this round is May 31st, and the new class will be selected June 5th, 2013. Apply at: bit.ly/FirstWaveAccelerator 

Tampa Bay WaVE is very excited to welcome the inaugural class to the FirstWaVE Accelerator program.  FirstWaVE clients participated in an application submission process, which included a live pitch event to the FirstWaVE Accelerator vetting committee, before being selected into the program. 

These talented individuals are developing unique and innovative technologies and paving the way for greater innovation and job creation in the Tampa Bay area! Please stop by the FirstWaVE Venture Center to congratulate them!

SHOOTRAC: Provides organizations of all sizes a simple way to capture big data on its customers, assets and workforce and use the information to leverage these resources for maximum efficiency and customer service using a cloud-based, scalable Software as a Service solution. 
 

Cartooga: Through its proprietary e-commerce platform and expert staff, Cartooga, Coracent offers shopping cart hosting and a variety of conversion optimization features designed to help businesses open an online store, drive traffic and increase conversion rates.
 

Secondhand Living: An e-commerce site where consignment, antique and thrift shops, as well as architectural salvage material suppliers promote their businesses and offer their products for sale. There are thousands of these independently owned shops in North America (even more abroad) and the majority of them have no online presence.
 

Drawer: A technology product expressed initially through a mobile application that provides a framework for capturing and cataloging real-life recommendations between friends and acquaintances. Drawer helps to catalog across various verticals – places, movies, music, products, books, etc. – in order to provide a comprehensive and centralized place for storing this information.
 

Commendable Kids: It is a community of children striving to be the best they can, as they work toward earning badges that can then be proudly displayed and shared with their supporters. Commendable Kids helps encourage and challenge children to learn new skills and reach new milestones.
 

Confy.co: Confy.co helps track and organize an event from start to finish by providing targeted solutions and management tools to conference organizers, sponsors, hosts and other event-related personnel to successfully manage the myriad of data, requirements and essential organizational needs.
 

Kite Desk: A personal cloud information manager that lets users connect their cloud service accounts and automatically links and organizes their messages, contacts, files, events and more into useful streams of information. Kite Desk provides the unique value of personalized, contextual computing to both web and mobile clients.
 

SavvyCard: A mobile web platform for actively referring business transactions. It combines features of an online business card with an intelligent referral system that generates measurable leads and sales. SavvyCard offers a convenient way to pass “warm” referrals from any web enabled device, track and respond to referrals in real time, reward referral behavior and build mobile-friendly referral networks.

FirstWaVE Accelerator offers a wide variety of benefits to startups in all phases of development, including bootcamps and workshops by local entrepreneurs and business executives, dedicated mentors, opportunities to meet with investors, access to a team of dedicated student interns and free professional services. Clients also have access to coworking and office space within the FirstWaVE Venture Center, located in Tampa Bay WaVE’s headquarters on the second floor of the Rivergate Tower, downtown Tampa.

Applications are now being accepted for the next round of FirstWaVE Accelerator clients. The deadline to apply is April 1, and the new class will be selected April 9. Apply at: bit.ly/FirstWaveAccelerator 

Our new member Nizar Bhojani, and his venture TextByChoice have brought us a new means of communication. 

Tire of sifting through emails from meetup.com? or trying to find out whats going on via Facebook & Twitter?

Text “WAVE” to 88588

We will be texting updates and announcements on the new space, when were are moving, events to be held and any other important news. WE WILL NOT, I repeat, WE WILL NOT be spamming the heck out of you, or giving your phone number to anyone. By they way, when you opt in we can’t see your phone number anyway.

This is a part of a service provided by one of our newest members, Nizar Bhojani. He has created a unique texting platform called TextByChoice. TextByChoice was conceptualized in 2010 with the intent of creating a better approach for sellers to connect with buyers. Traditional media (TV, radio etc.) provide marketing opportunities that are expensive yet not highly targeted. Emails are perceived as either spam or cluttered with unrelated information or could get too long. We looked for a an advertising solution that provided a more direct marketing opportunity for sellers while keeping costs under control. Texts are sent to the focused groups, are concise and to the point, and only sent to those who opt in. TextByChoice benefits the consumer and the vendor by making a link between them that is a mutual interest.

TEXT TO BE THE FIRST TO HEAR ABOUT i6 Grant Updates & Announcements!

Some of you may know what CoFoundersLab is. For those of you who don’t, get ready to be excited. 

CoFoundersLab is a social network for Entrepreneurs. Now if you are thinking Facebook, think again. CoFoundersLab is more like a match.com for Founders. It helps entrepreneurs find the co-founders they are looking for. When signing up for the site you are asked a series of questions that help you seek out the perfect match for your startup. The site then allows you to browse other’s profiles to search for what you are looking for. When you think you’ve found someone compatible you send them a message and wait for a reply.
This video explains more.

So CoFoundersLab is an online platform to connect entrepreneurs to the team members they are seeking. But that’s not all! CoFoundersLab also have their own events to connect entrepreneurs in person and not just online. This is what is coming to Tampa Bay!
The event will be Thursday, November 8th, at CoWork Tampa. 

To attend the event you must create a profile on CoFoundersLab.com; then you must RSVP here. When RSVPing you must provide the URL of your CoFoundersLab profile, so be sure to sign up first!

If you are planning on attending StartUp Weekend Tampa (which you should be) this event is encouraged. The event will be a fun way to find team members prior to your participation, and thus, more likely for you to succeed in the Global Startup Battle!

I look forward to seeing you all at CoWork Tampa, Thursday, November 8th @ 6:30pm!
 Sign Up for StartUp Weekend Tampa! This years event is shaping up to be Epic, as Tampa Bay’s Startups will fight to the death in the Global Startup Battle this year! Be Sure to Register!
 

***The Next CoFoundersLab Event in Tampa will be February 27th at 6:30pm***
 Be sure to join the meetup.com group for updates on the next event!

On Friday, October 12, 2012 WaVE welcomed it’s 100th member with open arms! We’ve come a long way in four years. We used to just be a meetup for web venture entrepreneurs at the Bungalow. Now we’ve reached 100 members and our guess is that it’s not stopping there. This year has been a big year for us with two awards, 100 members, and a $1 Million grant; and the year isn’t even over yet! 

 We have so much to be Thankful for and couldn’t do it with out all the support. Thank you to all of our members, sponsors and community partners who allow Tampa Bay WaVE to keep growing.

We've been encouraging our members to sign up for StartUp America Partnership for months now and the pay-out could not have come at a better time. 

"50,000 visitors and 15,000 members of the media are expected to descend on Tampa Bay during the RNC" says the 2012 Tampa Bay Host Committee, and some of our guys will be shining in that spot light. 

Well known internet newspaper Huffington Post recently approached StartUp America/StartUp Florida for a list of local startups they could cover during their time here in Tampa for the 2012 Republican National Convention. Twenty-seven startups were picked and of them eight are WaVE members! For those of you keeping count, that's one third of the startups that will be representing Tampa Bay WaVE! 

All of these ventures will shine in the Huffington Post Spotlight, as they will be invited to an exclusive Expo & special Huffington Post Oasis afterward that is sure to be packed with bloggers, journalists, and other members of the media. So keep your eyes and ears peeled. Follow @HuffPostLive & keep checking their website for updates. 

+ We are sure StartUp America Partnership will will continue to provide members with benefit like this. If you have not signed up your business yet, got www.s.co to sign up.

At 9am this morning about 15 of us gathered at famous local coffee shop Buddy Brew Coffee to embark on a journey with Hillsborough County Commissioner Mark Sharpe to get the HART of Tampa Public transit problem.

All of us were what HART would call Choice Riders, because we did not necessarily have to ride the bus, and we had other means of transportation. We were asked to imagine we have arrived in Tampa from the airport and were dropped off at the hot coffee spot, Buddy Brew, before having to jump back on the bus and head downtown for a meeting. 

As we got our coffee we began chatting each other up while waiting for the 30-Bus. Then someone mentioned the word "cash."  I don't think any of us had realized that today HART only accepts cash; not only that, they only accepted exact change, or you must over pay. Panic ensued, and here lies our first problem which would inevitably spark conversations for possible solutions. 

Just as the requisite cash was doled out, someone yelled, "Here comes the bus! Everyone get in Line!," and we were on the move. Commissioner Sharpe decided to time how long it took everyone to get on the bus. It ended up being 1 minute and 45 seconds. A HART employee made us aware that 1:45 minutes now put the whole bus behind schedule. Already behind schedule? This seemed absurd to us Choice Riders. There had to be a better solution, a faster method, and our brains began to tick again. 

"I've got it all figured out," says Tampa's go to UI/UX guy Justin Davis, as he explains the concept of an experience map - a very useful tool many companies complete in order to find the flaws in user experience (UX) for products or services before they can create a plan to fix them. Commissioner Sharp was thrilled, "I want to do this with HART." 

Soon we arrived at the Marion Street Bus Station Downtown. We got off the bus and explored the facility. The consensus: it was not very welcoming to say the least.  Linda found the lady's room.. well… not in good shape. I scurried to find an ATM, which charged me a $3.50 transaction fee, and I am sure my not so favorite Bank Of America will also charge me a fee. I didn't even have time to go to the change machine before the bus had arrived and was ready to leave. What was I going to do with a $20 dollar bill and a bus that didn't give change? Not give a $17 tip, that's for sure. 

On the trip back to Buddy Brew, more conversations swirled about the lack of WIFI on HART buses (including one solution under consideration that would cost over $40,000 per bus to install…. really??).

Other questions were raised about HART's "no food" policy on the buses.  (Have you seen the subways in other cities that are loaded with food, coffee and newspaper vendors?) Could a change in policy actually inspire people to create more small businesses around our local bus stops and stations? No surprise, I figured it wouldn't take long before these ambitious tech entrepreneurs would be identifying new business opportunities!

Once back at Buddy Brew, many of the "bus crew" stuck around to continue the conversations.  What an eye-opening experience for the Choice Riders.

All things considered, I observed many overwhelming reasons that would make local bus travel undesirable to me. I felt very stressed during the whole event, and I didn't even have anywhere to go. I can only imagine the stress I would have if I was trying to get somewhere on time.

Truthfully, the overall experience was great. This was an awesome way to get the tech community and HART together to find solutions to a community problem with our government representative. 

I loved it, the ideas were flying, and I think one or more solutions are sure to come of it all. 

To check out what we were tweeting search the hashtag #tech4transit. Tweet your opinion & Join the conversation!

Or tweet your comments to @goHART !

StartUp Weekend Tampa has been a success since the first one was held in Tampa Bay in 2011.

The organizers Susie Steiner, Ryan Sullivan, and Kim Randall have announced a second Startup Weekend in 2012 to be held in accordance with Global Entrepreneurship Week.

On November 16-18 Idea-makers, Developers, Facilitators, and startup enthusiasts alike will come together and create startups in just 54 hours. At the end of those 54 fast-paced hours of designing, developing and testing the teams will pitch their final products to a panel of successful entrepreneurs. At the end of the competition winners are announced, but best of all, the startups live on and our community grows.

Organizer Ryan Sullivan says, “Startup Weekend is a spark plug for the community, every event keeps people motivated, energized and prompts them to challenge the status quo. As organizers we continue to plan events because it's what the Tampa startup community wants!”

Stay tuned for more information about registering! && If you're not ready to participate I can promise you it is a fun-filled volunteer

opportunity!

@SQQZY @Sullyvanskikins @_KimRandall @StartupWeekend @StartupTampa