o Yvonne DiVita, Owner/Publisher
o Donna DeClemente
o Robbi Hess
o Mary Schmidt
o Lena West
o Amanda Ponzar
o Chloe Spencer
o AmyK Hutchins
Yvonne DiVita is the author of Dick*less Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online, a book about getting those baby boomer icons Dick and Jane to buy at your website. She is also the president and founder of Windsor Media Enterprises, LLC which specializes in business blog building, social media strategy and print-on-demand publishing.
Yvonne's background stretches to those bygone days of the early Internet, where she was a web content writer and worked in several technology start-ups. After publishing her first book, she chose to become a publisher, which led her to marketing via the blogosphere.
Yvonne started her first blog, Lip-sticking, back in March of 2004 shortly after publishing her first book, which supported her work on understanding the women's market online. Yvonne has been preparing an extension of the Lip-sticking brand with the launch of The Lip-Sticking Society, which will be a new website that will house the Lip-sticking blog in hopes to better serve her readers.
Some of Yvonne's other blogs include: Books, Blogs, and Beyond, a blog about publishing in a changing world, Scratchings and Sniffings, a petblog sponsored by Nestlé Purina, and a pet health insurance blog for Purina: PurinaCare. She also contributes to the Purina Petblog on Yahoo!'s Shine network. Her Twitter accounts include @y2vonne, @lipsticking and @mypetblog.
Yvonne is the past president of the Rochester Chapter of Women in Communications, past president of the Rochester Professional Consultants Network, and is the VP of Web Communications at RAMA (the Rochester Chapter of the American Marketing Association). She is quoted throughout the net on marketing to women, social media for business, and publishing as well as being a frequent speaker on these topics. Recently she was listed here as one of 2009's Smartest People in Social Media.
Top of page Donna DeClemente has a diverse background in which she has assisted many brands, agencies and not-for profits over the years to develop and implement a wide variety of their marketing and communications needs. In 2005 she founded DDC Marketing Group which specializes in bringing online marketing solutions to life for her clients. These focus on driving website traffic through online promotions, email and search marketing as well as those that integrate blogs and social media into their marketing mix which she now defines as Social Sweeps promotions
Donna joined the social media world in early 2007 when she launched her own blog, Donna’s Promo Talk, which is written for marketers and agencies to help keep them up to date on the most recent interactive promotions and as well as social media and emerging media trends. She started writing on the Lip-sticking blog in 2008 and now is assisting Yvonne launch The Lip-sticking Society as VP of Sales and Marketing.
Donna serves on the board of the Rochester Chapter of the American Marketing Association as their VP of Communications, so you can find her blogging on the RAMA site and managing their Facebook page. She is also a Social Media Marketing Examiner columnist and has presented on social media and internet marketing to various groups and organizations.
Top of page
Robbi Hess has been involved with words for more than 20 years. She is a professional blogger/editor who co-authored "A Complete Idiot's Guide to 30,000 Baby Names." She has written and edited for newspapers, a business trade magazine, medical trade journals in the US and UK and was the editor/co-publisher for a nationally distributed writers' magazine.
Many years ago, armed with only a desire to become a journalist, a deep love for the written word, and an eagle-eye for accuracy, she talked the editor of the local newspaper, The Medina Journal Register, into taking a chance on hiring her; thus launched her first paying gig with words.
She has shared her love for writing with others by teaching classes at Writers & Books. Her writing career encompasses both writing and editing for: Suburban News, Business Strategies Magazine, For The Record Magazine and Physicians EHR and HIRE (a UK based medical journal).
In addition to her duties as the Lipsticking Blog Manager Robbi provides social media, professional blogging and writing consultation services to her clients. You can learn more about Robbi at her own website.
Top of page 
Mary Schmidt grew up learning small business from the inside since both her parents were entrepreneurs. One of her first jobs, while in high school, was in a “Mom and Pop” Mexican food café. Then, after working her way through college, she learned her own hard lessons, in big companies and as an entrepreneur herself. That’s why Mary loves working with start-ups and small business owners – she knows from real-world experience just how hard, fun, maddening, and exhilarating it is to have your own business.
Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Mary held staff and management positions in business strategy, product management and marketing for several global corporations, including Verizon, NEC, Nortel, and Unisys. Her last “real job” was Director of Strategic Alliances for a technology services start-up. As a marketing troubleshooter, her clients have ranged from a two-man software start-up and Habitat for Humanity to major corporations such as Mitel/Gandalf and Hewlett Packard. Big or little - no-tech, low-tech, high-tech - they share many of the challenges. She also works with nonprofit clients to leave the world a little better than she found it.
Mary does her best to live according to a favorite Oscar Wilde quote, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
She also blogs at www.maryschmidt.com.
Lena L. West is an award-winning social media consultant, blogger, speaker, journalist and technologist. Affectionately known as the “geek with speak,” Lena understands complex technology concepts and distills them into easy-to-understand strategies.
She is also the CEO & Chief Strategist at xynoMedia Technology, a consulting firm that helps business-to-business companies harness the power of social media to consistently increase thought leadership, online revenues and visibility. West says, “Our mission is simple: make social media easy to use, manageable and worthwhile.”
West’s expertise has been widely acknowledged. She is the winner of several business awards, among them: The Network Journal’s “40 Under Forty,” AlleyCat News’ “25 Women of Silicon Alley” and The Women’s Congress’ Entrepreneurial Champion for Women in Business. West has also been featured as the cover story for publications such as The Westchester County Business Journal and Black Enterprise.
A sought-after writer and speaker, West writes and speaks regularly about the merits and potential pitfalls of technology. She communicates her expertise about social media, web 2.0 and online technologies through Social Media 360, her blog on InfoWorld.com; her TechForward column and blog for Entrepreneur Magazine; as well as feature articles for both InfoWorld and Jupitermedia. She has spoken for the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) and Syracuse University.
She is a member of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), Technology Executives Networking Group (TENG) and the Downtown Women’s Club (DWC).
West strongly believes that social media is a catalyst to uniting the world’s people.
Amanda Ponzar is an award-winning writer with 15 years experience plus a Masters degree in media communications and a Bachelors in English.
She is the Director of Communications for Global Corporate Leadership at United Way Worldwide, the world’s largest privately-funded nonprofit. Amanda is responsible for communications and recognition for United Way’s top corporate partners worth more than $1 billion in annual revenue.
Her previous experience includes product licensing with American Red Cross, Publicity Chair for St. Louis Gateway Area American Diabetes Association’s annual Chasing the Cure Fundraising Gala, plus working as a marketing manager, advertising copywriter, newspaper editor and communications consultant.
Amanda has been a regular volunteer for numerous nonprofits including International Justice Mission, Carpenter’s Shelter, United Way and her local church. She is married and spends her time chasing a two-year-old and occasionally jogging to counterbalance a chocolate and Starbucks frappachino addiction.
You can also connect with Amanda on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/amandaponzar and Twitter @LivingUnited.
Chloe Spencer describes herself as a "Teenage Internet Entrepreneur" &mdash and the label is well-deserved!
After hearing her father, noted SEO expert Stephan Spencer, talk about Google Adsense, she launched her own website to tap into the popularity of Neopets, calling it The Ultimate Neopet Cheats Site: the best on the net. Soon she was earning upwards of $1,000 per month and the site has grown, evolved, and moved since then toNeopetsFanatic.com.
Her wide ranging interests, already extensive exposure to the Web 2.0 world, and array of industry conference appearances as a speaker, provide a unique perspective for Lip-Sticking readers.
AmyK Hutchins Founder and Intelligence Activist, AmyK Inc., is a speaker, trainer and business strategist. She is best known for helping business leaders capitalize on how the brain and human perception filters work to help them be more effective in business and their personal lives.
Follow AmyK on Twitter: @AmyKinc, or visit her at www.AmyK.com.
Recent Comments