The SWOM Lobby: Say hello

If you're new, introduce yourself and mingle. You're among friends.

Permalink Reply by Jackie Huba on April 15, 2008 at 10:17am: Hi Malcolm,
Welcome! Please tell Dave B. I said hi.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ilana Rabinowitz on April 15, 2008 at 8:38am: Hi, I'm Ilana. I started a web site for my company, Lion Brand Yarn Company, in 1996 (they brought me on to start a catalog and that was my cover). We now have a top 10 craft and hobby site. For the first 6 years that I was developing the site, others in the company thought I was fiddling around and didn't really notice until our e-newsletter list reached over 500,000. Today it's almost a million. Our consumers are passionate about knitting and crochet and about our brand. We recently launched a podcast and within the next couple of weeks, we'll have a corporate blog and a relaunch of the site.

I am an avid reader, digesting business books by the shelf-ful. I'm pretty much an information junkie, resulting in being a bit overwhelmed by all of it at times so I meditate and do yoga to stay sane. I live in New York City where the pace and energy agree with me. When my husband and I moved from the Philadelphia suburbs, he said it felt like we had woken up from a coma. No offense to Philadelphia, a beautiful, livable city where my son remembers a joyful childhood, growing up where you could run outside and play with the kids in the neighborhood from dawn to dusk without playdates or worry.

Ironically, I don't knit and although I went to B-school, avoided the marketing courses. I'm just fascinated by the psychological and cultural aspects of my work.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jackie Huba on April 15, 2008 at 10:15am: Hi Ilana,
Welcome to SWOM! Wow, a million newsletter subscribers. That is very impressive. Hope you can share some of your learnings here.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Robbi on April 15, 2008 at 9:06am: Hi all,
I've been lurking for a while, building my page, etc. Wanted to pop in and say hello and will spend a bit more time "getting to know" people through their posts.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jackie Huba on April 15, 2008 at 10:15am: Hi Robbi,
Thanks for popping in to say hi!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Shubi Broom on April 15, 2008 at 11:43am: Hi all,
My name is Jeff, and my wife Kat and I own TamedLyon Designs in Eastern Oregon. Kat has illustrated and authored her first children's book, "The Amazing Shubi Bird", and we are looking forward to the impending success of this book and Kat is anxious to start another. We would like you to look at Shubi's network here on Ning and possible join or give us some feedback on the book. Our site is http://amazingshubi.ning.com/
Thanks; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sandra Poppers on April 16, 2008 at 12:49pm: Hi, I posted in the wrong place. I have moved post. Can you tell I am a newbie; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ben McConnell on April 21, 2008 at 6:11pm: Welcome to SWOM, Sandra.

Quite alright on the misposting. Everyone's a newbie at some point. Besides, we're a forgiving bunch here.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sandra Poppers on April 16, 2008 at 12:53pm: Hi -
Found this site while setting up a Google Reader page. Looks like there are some great resource people here.
I own a small promotional products company in a small town. I am determined to start blogging this year- about the great possibilities of promo products. In my small town, the merchants and businesses all believe that word-of-mouth advertising is the best advertising you can have. I don't disagree with them. I just don't know how they generate it- I know my products can help a lot.
I joined because I noticed that there were several small business owners who are members and love to find out what they are doing to grow their businesess.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Parker Thomas on April 17, 2008 at 12:33pm: hi Ben and Jackie -

I just finished both of your books and thought they were terrific. I'm running marketing at a teeny startup in oakland that is introducing a new line of consumer products made from a plant-based plastic. Our plastic performs just like polycarbonate, but doesn't contain BPA (did you see the papers yesterday?), uses no petroleum in its manufacture, and is completely recyclable back into exactly the same material at the end of its life.

Needless to say, as a teeny startup, our ad spend is going to be zero when we launch this summer, so we will be relying entirely on WOM. I think we have a pretty authentic story and that the public will be receptive, but I'm still working out how to get the word out. If any of you guys have any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, please let me know.

happy to be here.

thanks,

parker; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ben McConnell on April 21, 2008 at 6:10pm: Welcome to SWOM, Parker! Great to have you here.

Thanks for reading the books. Your business sounds interesting. I'm guessing it's a B2B company, right? If so, you might consider starting a WOM for B2B group. It's a bit of a different ballgame for B2B companies, so you might find kindred spirits in starting a group like that.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Eli Madden on April 21, 2008 at 10:37am: Hello SWOM world! My name is Eli and I've finally decided to join the SWOM network after being an avid reader of the Church of the Customer blog and the SWOM forum. I'm looking forward to contributing to this site and reading what fellow SWOM members have to say/suggest/recommend/etc.

Till next time ... Cheers!; ▶ Reply to This