They say Rome wasn’t built in a day. The same is true for Silicon Valley. There is no tried and true blueprint for creating a startup community. It’s a trial and error process that takes both commitment and patience. To have a community as strong as Silicon Valley is the ultimate goal for dreamers and doers all over the world. It is not an unattainable goal. It takes the perfect mix of inspiration, initiative, and tenacity to get the ball. In the famous words of Walt Disney, “the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

Encourage and Inspire

Maybe your city already has a foundation built upon which entrepreneurial growth can prosper.  But what’s the next step?  Now you need to raise awareness in the community and attract the attention of your fellow entrepreneurs. Make a serious effort to encourage and inspire. Lead by example. Put yourself out there and let others know what you’re doing and what your goal is...the support will follow.

Hosting an event is the perfect way to gather these like-minded individuals. Whether it be a conference, a meet-up, or a happy hour, the result will be the same. It will get people talking. Create a buzz about what your city is doing to foster startup growth. Let it be known that you are making moves and achieving progress. These gatherings will undoubtedly aid in inspiring others to follow your example. They will help to create a true community environment amongst those brave enough to take the entrepreneurial road.

Come Together

While hosting events successfully brings together entrepreneurs and gets them talking, it is essential to take the next step and start the collaboration process. One way to do this is to form a startup hub. Bring people together on a more consistent basis. Coworking spaces are the most effective way to embrace the community aspect of startups. They allow for like-minded individuals to come together each and every day. Sharing experiences, successes, and failures with your fellow coworkers is a surefire way to gain invaluable knowledge. These spaces are especially important in newer entrepreneurial communities. It’s a community within a community and will, without a doubt, help to attract more entrepreneurs.  Before you know it, your city will have a stronger startup presence.

Get Digital

In order to put your startup community on the map, it is crucial that you establish an online presence. You need to reach outside of your community to raise awareness of your efforts. Let the entire world know what is unique about your community, promote what you’re building and gain the attention of other startup communities. Make it impossible to ignore the activity and buzz surrounding your city.

Start a blog, make posts often and make them enticing. Attract readers from across the nation and keep them coming back to see what you are up to, what new events you have planned and what progress you are making. Don’t underestimate the value of Facebook and Twitter. Once you’ve established a presence on these sites, you will be connected to many influential individuals and companies. Keep tabs on what these movers-and-shakers are doing, learn from them, let yourself be inspired by what they’ve built. It’s an arena for knowledge and growth.

It is also important to follow what the key players in Silicon Valley and New York are doing. Maybe there is a particularly successful individual you admire.  If so, follow his or her tweets.  They might be willing to meet with you, attend a meet-up you have planned, or speak at an upcoming event. Entrepreneurs love sharing what they have learned on their startup adventure and if you establish your community as one on the rise, you can garner the attention of seasoned entrepreneurs who are willing to lend their knowledge. Go digital and get watch your community grow.

We’ve established that Silicon Valley was not an overnight accomplishment. It took years to build what they have. As you begin fostering startup growth in your own community, remember to be patient. It’s a golden quality, especially when trying to build something much bigger than yourself. Don’t compare your city to the mega hubs (i.e. San Francisco, Boston and Austin), be inspired by them and learn from what they’ve successfully built. Keep in mind your reasons for establishing your startup community, don’t forget the advantages it will bring to your city – the job creation it will provide, the economic growth it will inspire and the support and encouragement of others on the same journey. Start with small steps and before you know it you and your community will be making big strides.

Launch parties.  Meet-and-greets.  Networking events.  Conferences.  Whether a startup is hosting an event, attending an event or promoting an event, one thing is for sure: that startup wants people to know that they’re involved.  After all, events are not just a way for entrepreneurs to get connected, but for them to take part in educational, inspirational platforms.  But when a startup is so new and so “unknown”, how will people find out about the events that they host?  The answer could lie in social media marketing.

But before you start creating new hashtags, establishing new Facebook pages, and Pinning your event to death, it’s important to first determine the goal of your event.  Believe it or not, an event’s goal can drastically shape the way in which it should be marketed online. 

Is the goal of your event to generate...

• Brand awareness?
• Customer acquisition?
• Lead generation?
• Customer retention and loyalty?
• Thought leadership?
• Engagement?
• Sales?
• Lead management and nurturing?

After establishing your overall goal, try implementing some of these top 10 strategies for marketing a startup event:

1. Designate hashtags and use them throughout your tweets.  Hashtags help Tweeps quickly find your event name and can give you insight as to what others are saying about it.  Hashtags create buzz around your event and foster attendee conversation and collaboration. 
    
2. Establish a handle for your event.  If you want to take Twitter a step further, create an entire Twitter handle for your event.  Just take a look at South by Southwest.  The event used Twitter so effectively, that people only know it as @SXSW or #SXSW today.  Now that’s inbound marketing!
    
3. Engage your users with pre-event social media contests.  Retweet contests, YouTube video competitions and Facebook giveaways are a great way to raise awareness about your event via social media.
    
4. Create a Facebook event page.  Facebook event pages allow users to see who else is attending, what the event is about, what’s going on at the event and much more.  When a Facebook event page is executed correctly, your ticket sales should match up closely with the amount of Facebook users that are attending your event.
    
5. Market your event through a blog.  If you have a blog, use it!  Keep readers up to date about your event—mention new sponsors, boast about ticket sales or announce new speakers. 
    
6. Get the media involved through a press release.  If you have enough cash to burn, writing a press release is an effective way to get attention from the media.  Press releases can be found by some of the biggest names in media and can be blasted out further across the Internet.  If your event isn’t getting the attention it deserves through your blog or traditional social media like Facebook and Twitter, a press release is a great alternative.
    
7. Try out some EventBrite tools.  EventBrite (and other online event platforms) offer a wide variety of tools for event promotion.
    
8. LinkIn with the right groups.  It’s even possible to use LinkedIn to promote your event.  First, join the right groups who may be interested in attending your event.  Then, continue to keep these groups informed with weekly posts to generate buzz and conversation about the event. 
    
9. Comment on other blogs about your event (but don’t be too spammy!).  If you’re planning a launch party for your green startup, try posting on other green blogs around your community.  Make sure to make a relevant comment and then invite that particular blogger or reader to attend your launch party.  You never know who’s reading those blog comments!
    
10. Post your event to community event calendars.  Although it is a tedious job, adding your event to community calendars can be quite beneficial.  See if you can get your event listed in the online newspaper calendar or on your city’s Chamber of Commerce calendar.  

Blogging brings in a lot of benefit.  Not only do blogs direct potential customers to a startup’s site, but they can also help sell a product, inform readers about a service, or act as a megaphone for thoughts and opinions. 

But did you know that blogging can bring in the bucks too?

It’s true.  If done effectively, blogging can generate extra cash for your startup.  And when you’re first starting out, any money is better than no money at all!

Many startups may already have an established blog (but if you don’t, be sure to read this article before you get started: The Blog Brawl: 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Enter the Blogosphere).  Blogs can be easily set up through sites like Blogger, Wordpress or even Joomla. 

Once your blog has been created, generating interesting and consistent content is key.  When you write about topics that people are interested in reading, more users will visit your blog.  And when more users visit your blog, you have more potential customers in your market.  With patience, a blog can bring in thousands and thousands of viewers a month (or even a week!)—and that’s a lot of potential new customers. 

Once your blog has built a strong readership and is well-received by the public, it may be time to look into generating blog bucks.  But how?

1. Blog Ads
   Blogs can make money through the display of advertisements.  Many bloggers use Google AdSense, a service that pays based on how many readers have clicked on a blog’s advertisements (and it’s free!).  Other bloggers use CPM-driven tools that pay by the total number of impressions the advertisements receive.  For this, a startup can use ContextWeb, AdClickMedia, Adbrite or Adify. 
   
   If you’re interested in taking your blog advertisements a step further, look into BlogAds.  BlogAds hook bloggers up with would-be advertisers and levies a commission in return for ad placements. 
   
   The biggest concern that most startups have about advertising on a blog is that the advertisements will not match up with the blog’s theme or topic.  But tools such as AdSense account—the service pinpoints certain words in the blog so that the content matches the advertisements. 
    
2. Direct Ad Sales
   Selling space directly to advertisers can be a challenge, but it is possible!  With a highly-accredited blog, many advertisers may want to “buy” space on your blog, much like a newspaper or magazine.  Find services and products that tie into your niche market in order to place direct ad sales on your blog.
    
3. Affiliate Programs
   Blogs can serve as a conduit between readers and online sites that offer goods and services.  One of the best affiliate programs out there today comes from Amazon.com (Amazon Associates on Blogger).
   
   When a blog mentions or reviews a book, it can link to the Amazon.com page so that readers can buy the book with a few clicks of the mouse.  When people find the book on your blog and then purchase them from Amazon.com, you get paid!
   
   Other companies with great blogging affiliate programs include FlexOffers, LinkConnector, Commission Junction, Shareasale, E-Junkie, LinkShare, ING Direct, Ebates, Perkstreet Financial, Mint.com and Sharebuilder. 
    
4. Inbound Marketing
   Many blogs exist just so that users can shout their opinions and thoughts to the world.  But what about using your blog to generate business?  That’s what inbound marketing is all about.
   
   A startup can expand blog thoughts and opinions by talking about how a particular service or product can create solution or solve a problem.  By providing a call-to-action at the bottom of the blog, readers may feel a sense of urgency to look at your website or call your new startup.  Use effective search engine optimization, link building and keywording to bring more people to your blog—you never know; this could produce more customers! 

It seems as if everyone is using social media these days—from your grandmother to multi-national corporations.  But the businesses that may be benefitting from social media the most are those who do not have the budget for traditional, outbound marketing: startups.

The startup community has embraced social media with open arms.  Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube and blogs have helped startups increase web traffic, connect with clients, learn about competitors and market their business on a small budget.  So what’s not to love about this new marketing tactic?

Most startups use social media marketing very effectively—but others use techniques that make us cringe.  Learn about the top 5 social media don’ts below and make sure you’re not using them when blasting out information on the Twittersphere, blogosphere, or whatever sphere you’re into:

As entrepreneurs, we don't need much to get us through the workday—perhaps a desk, a couple cups of coffee and a full to-do list usually keeps us productive throughout the day. But when you're done checking off the to-do's for the day and need to come up with your next big idea, where do you go for inspiration?

1. Other Entrepreneurs
   In a 2011 Think Big Partners poll, 64% of entrepreneurs found inspiration from simply surrounding themselves with other entrepreneurs. This can be achieved in a variety of different ways. Many entrepreneurs choose to work from coworking spaces where they can collaborate and interact with other like-minded individuals who are experiencing the same startup issues that they are. Simply grabbing coffee with another entrepreneur can also provide inspiration and brainstorming. If you're feeling unmotivated or uninspired, sometimes sitting next to another entrepreneur during a day of work and cure your problem!
    
2. Entrepreneurial Books
   Although entrepreneurs rarely have time to sit down and have a good read, they may have time to skim and inspirational book by a famous entrepreneur. Books can provide great startup advice, smart business practices, noteworthy tips, and motivational tid-bits. Try reading books from entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Tony Hsieh, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, etc. These entrepreneurs have been there, done that and have written about the recipe for startup success.
    
3. Startup Blogs
   In a Think Big Partners survey, it was found that 38% of entrepreneurs enjoy skimming entrepreneurial blogs and articles in order to get inspired during a hectic workday. There are thousands of startup blogs on the web (both local, national and global) that can provide tips, tricks and inside scoops about the world of entrepreneurship. Some of the best startup blogs include TechCrunch and Mashable.
    
4. Free Time
   Sometimes, entrepreneurs come up with their best ideas when they're away from work. Taking walks outside, cleaning the house or eating dinner at a restaurant can trigger inspirational thoughts on a whole new level. In fact, many entrepreneurs note that exercise is one of the number one ways to get the ideas pumping. Exercise energizes your body and your brain so use your free time wisely! Go for a brisk run, jump on the elliptical or start lifting weights to keep your body and brain healthy.
    
5. Business Events
   According to the Think Big Partners poll, 29% of entrepreneurs go to business events in order to get inspired. Many business events feature motivational keynote speakers that can provide an up-close-and-personal view on entrepreneurship, tell jaw-dropping startup stories and speak one-on-one with audience members. In addition, many business events provide question and answers sessions which can trigger important thoughts in an entrepreneur's mind. Check out events like Think Big or TEDx; these inspirational business events can be hosted anywhere throughout the nation.
    
6. Music
   Every entrepreneur has that song—the song that inspires them, that gets their feet tapping, that pumps them up for another day of hard work. Listening to your favorite motivational song in the morning before you go to work could inspire you to think big during the workday. Try setting your favorite song as your ringtone or plug it into your iPod playlist. A few inspirational lyrics can go a long way!
    
7. Entrepreneur-based Movies
   When entrepreneurs do find a little free time in their schedules, some enjoy renting a movie or going to the movie theater. Why not have a little fun and get inspired at the same time by watching entrepreneur-based movies? You can check off "date night" and "work research" at the same time! Not sure what to watch first? Check out our list of the Top 10 Motivational Films for Entrepreneurs and take your pick!