Cheering on the city, ‘I live in Omaha’ celebrates its one-year anniversary
The "I Live in Omaha" website displays more than 500 perspectives of Omaha residents as to why they live in the city. Photo by Malone & Company Photography.
Among Omaha's array of contemporary art exhibitions, growing outlets for entrepreneurship and emerging nightlife scene, residents might find it difficult to sum up their liking of the city in 120 characters or less.
One website, however, is celebrating its one-year anniversary of spreading the word of Omaha residents as to why this is an exceptional city to live in.
iliveinomaha.com started as a small grass-roots effort by John Henry Müller, owner of the local web design firm What Cheer. It serves as a Twitter-like public forum for local residents to tout why they live in Omaha.
The campaign and site launched the week of Big Omaha 2009 – May 7-8 – and, by word of mouth, received more than 1,000 visitors and hundreds of posts. Now, 13,000 visitors and more than 500 posts later, iliveinomaha.com has been dubbed the unofficial fan page of Omaha.
"I Live in Omaha" messages have been shared in the form stickers, T-shirts and posters throughout the city, from the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce's LCD screen downtown to the walls of the Qwest Center the day of the Young Professionals Summit to small shops in the Old Market district.
What Cheer has also created a campaign for Omaha wannabes, too – iwanttoliveinomaha.com.
A South by Southwest attendee shows off her "I want to live in Omaha" sticker at the Silicon Prairie Party hosted by Big Omaha. Photo by gabekangas via Flickr.
This past March, John Henry shared the story behind the "I Live in Omaha" campaign and how he attracted local residents to take part in the initiative.