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Business & Tech

Monday Business Profile: Florida Mobile Fusion

Marketing gurus gives local businesses a leg up with mobile, social media

This week’s Monday Business Profile is on Florida Mobile Fusion, 20216 Still Wind Drive.

Find out more below:

Executive Director:

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Chuck Ward

Vital Stats:

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Phone: 813-388-9181. 20216 Still Wind Dr. On the Web at floridamobilefusion.com. Doing business since 2008. 

Type of Business:

Florida Mobile Fusion is a marketing firm that helps small to medium local businesses build a customer base and drive sales by getting them to properly use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as marketing through mobile devices.

About the company:

Marketing a local business isn’t what it used to be. In 1990s, having a Web site was considered cutting edge. Before then, it seemed word-of mouth, print and broadcast advertising was enough to get out your message. 

Today, it’s a different story. Consumers are more wired, using a myriad of social networking Internet sites, many accessed on smartphones and iPads, to stay connected. However, many small and medium-sized businesses aren’t taking advantage of, or using correctly, the mobile social media market, according to according to Chuck Ward, executive director of Florida Mobile Fusion. 

If that trend continues, he warned, many owners may find their businesses quickly sinking.

Ward said the potential of social and mobile media is vastly under-realized by many local businesses. 

"There's a need to do it right," Ward said. "There's a need to come into a company to show them what social media is and what mobile marketing is."

According to Fusion Vice President Crystal Stacy, Fusion takes pride in personalizing its services to each business, starting with a full business review, and from there, a customized guide that can direct a business owner in using social and mobile media.

"We help businesses grow," said Stacy. 

Social media can mean many things. For some, it’s a quick Twitter update complaining about the traffic on North Dale Mabry. For others, it’s a YouTube video of their cousin’s wedding. And then, of course, are the blizzard of status updates, games and “likes” on Facebook

But for businesses, the potential of social media to market to a very specific group of people, and get a higher response rate than via traditional means.

Ward uses the term "mocial," combining Mobile, Social and Local marketing, to help explain how Fusion helps businesses. 

"Mocial media is like a Swiss Army knife," Ward said, in that it consists of many tools in a single package that can handle a lot of different scenarios.

The “Mobile” aspect of “Mocial” is important. Ward cited a Morgan Stanley study which showed that the majority of Internet access will be done not through traditional desktop computers but through mobile devices.

"By 2020, 90 to 95 percent of access will be through a tablet or  a smart phone," Ward said. "We need to prepare small businesses for that now."

For example, it is no longer enough for a business to just have a traditional Web site, which may not be as easily accessible on the small touch screen of an iPhone as it is on a desktop. "People will leave the Web site because of that."

Many of the functions available on Facebook and Google are free to use, so why hire Fusion? 

"We teach them how to set up their Google Places, how to use Facebook the right way," Stacy said

Ward added: "Google is techie, but they're not good at explaining. That's where we come in. We offer expertise."

For example, YouTube, which is owned by Google, gets over 3-billion hits a day with 48 hours of video footage uploaded to the site by users ever minute. Fusion can show businesses how to use YouTube to advertise their wares, and to also get people to watch those videos.

Ward, a former loan officer, said he uses language that laypeople understand.

“Our mission,” Ward said in a July statement, “is to be a trusted asset to local businesses and organizations, while providing their customers with generous savings, extraordinary value and unsurpassed VIP care and attention.”

More information, including how to book Fusion for onsite group presentations, is available on their Web site.

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