Disqus - Latest Comments for afhill

Re: American Discovery Trail Marathon Race Report

afhill — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:38:50 -0000

how was New Mexico? One of the guys I ran with did that one the day before :)

Re: American Discovery Trail Marathon Race Report

afhill — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:58:30 -0000

Yes, but sometimes I wish I'd be less carefree and more diligent about training and putting in a good effort!

Re: A Belated Boston Marathon Race Report

afhill — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:56:24 -0000

Boston is such an amazing experience, though! To really "get it", you should read my first Boston report. I thought the same thing: what a hassle and expense. But then you get there, and you're an absolute superstar! The whole city embraces the event and you will get stopped and congratulated if you show as much as a limp the next day.

Seriously, Marathon Monday is a holiday that everyone celebrates! I love going by the biker bar and seeing all these gruff folks chugging beer and cheering on the runners. It's definitely a fantastic experience!

Re: President Obama Calls Kanye West a “Jackass”

adamostrow — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:59:33 -0000

we added it to our original post on the subject :-)

Re: President Obama Calls Kanye West a “Jackass”

afhill — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:58:01 -0000

Can't believe this hasn't been posted here yet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxKIcrDsJAs

Re: A Belated Boston Marathon Race Report

afhill — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 20:53:03 -0000

Ooooh I bet New Orleans would be great!

Andrea F. Hill

Re: RSS: interesting or boring? (Hint @marshallk and @louisgray, we’re not normal)

BillPalm — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:27:34 -0000

Well, so nice post, haah! Your mind helps me so much! I'm not sure if you mind the thing I'll do here. Im an online seller for the Timberland shoes, Gucci shoes, Prada shoes and Gucci bags, Coach bags, Prada bags, they are the most hot items on my sites, are u interest in them?

Re: WordPress Attack Underway: WordPress Users Must Upgrade

twitter-14147199 — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:21:19 -0000

I'm going to laugh and take this comment for the joke it clearly had to be. It's so funny it has to be.

Re: WordPress Attack Underway: WordPress Users Must Upgrade

afhill — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 13:01:43 -0000

(and yes, I know that's not ideal, but I've certainly seen it time and again with different developers I've had doing custom work for me)

Re: WordPress Attack Underway: WordPress Users Must Upgrade

afhill — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:58:56 -0000

Hi Matt - that's true of course, but many folks modify different core files to achieve the functionality they want (where theme just modifies the front-end display, not the actual functions)

Re: WordPress Attack Underway: WordPress Users Must Upgrade

Matt — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:53:42 -0000

Actually with every theme in the world the customizations are contained within the themes folder -- that's the whole point of themes and why they were created 4 years ago.

Re: WordPress Attack Underway: WordPress Users Must Upgrade

afhill — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:35:30 -0000

that's what I love about using the thesis theme - all customizations are contained within the themes folder.

Sorry, I know that doesn't help you right now -- just a consideration for future projects.

Also - I think this may only be an exploit if you were using 2.82 or 2.83? So if you haven't updated in awhile, you may be ok?

Re: Simple Often Is Best

afhill — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:03:04 -0000

oh, definitely. When I first drafted a response I started to write about marketing vs product:

you can drum up some initial interest/buzz about something, but if the product isn't solid, it won't continue to be popular. On the flip side, if you have a great product, it can continue to do well on that reputation alone. That's where you are: the great, well-known product. :)

Re: Simple Often Is Best

chrisbrogan — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:52:39 -0000

But I *wasn't* Chris Brogan. You come at this like I was just sitting around and got famous. I earned every eyeball. And that's what I'm saying about things like the gimmick. They're a temporary thing. They're not THE thing.

Re: Simple Often Is Best

afhill — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:00:56 -0000

>The tools aren’t cool because they’re the new shiny object. They’re cool because they let you work more closely with people.

Exactly right... except, you're Chris Brogan. You don't need the fancy buzzworthy tools because you already have tremendous reach. In other instances, gimmick or novelty is required to make people stand up and pay attention. I don't watch the Discovery Channel - I don't even have cable. but FrenziedWaters raised my awareness of upcoming programming.

Re: My New Facebook Like Toolbar - What It Is and How You Can Get One

kellerbrooke — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 17:55:47 -0000

Andrea,
The random button will take your visitors to a random post, but the recent button shows all of your recent posts. I just joined your community!

Re: My New Facebook Like Toolbar - What It Is and How You Can Get One

afhill — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:43:39 -0000

I just installed the toolbar on my blog, and am considering it for a website I work on. I'm not sure about the recent/random posts features though; if those will just go to different pages on the site or not...

Re: RSS: interesting or boring? (Hint @marshallk and @louisgray, we’re not normal)

afhill — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:11:06 -0000

'Interesting or boring' is an interesting question.

'Useful or not' would be easier to answer.

Subscribing to RSS feeds is useful for those who don't want to go check 50 different sources.

It's really useful for publishers who can push out their content in different locations: again, lowering the barriers to get the info out there.

For people who want to be on the bleeding edge of news, not so much.

It occurs to me that that even goes back to the name "Really Simple Syndication". RSS is about the widespread distribution, not the immediacy.

Oh, right, your actual question. Is it interesting or boring. I guess as a strategist, I don't expound the virtues of an RSS feed to a client. Yeah, it's kinda a given if you have a blog, twitter feed, etc. But I don't expect great returns just for having a feed: I'm more likely to want to DO something with the feed to really make it useful for users. Because nope, I don't even try to tackle Google reader anymore.

Re: Pikes Peak Marathon Race Report

afhill — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:43:24 -0000

the grapes were good, except at one aid station, they had seeds! I used to like oranges, until one day the acidity got to me.

I guess they also had pb&j rollups, which would have been great, but I missed them :(

Re: Tumblr Launches Hashtags and Facebook Integration

Andrea Hill — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:28:07 -0000

Whenever I hear about the different features Tumblr is rolling out, I think I need to use it more. I definitely appreciate the ease of publishing, but don't use it for much beyond that. It does serve more as a scrapbook than a blog for me.

http://afhill.tumblr.com

Re: What are we getting into?

afhill — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:35:23 -0000

I think the fact that this has the downhill is part of what makes it
so heinous! That's what tears your legs up :)

Re: 12 Things That Suck About Social Media Consulting

BrettBorders — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:56:45 -0000

Andrea,

I talked to my PHP/ Drupal developer friend last night. He said that he can accurately estimate how long a job will take (in a number of hours or days) and deliver the goods every time - with rare exceptions. Sure, he has to get some feedback from the client... but his work is much more tangible than PR /social media promotion work - which are harder to predict and exceptions and unexpected things are the rule!

Same with design - yeah it's a headache and everyone has feedback - but a design the client will accept is more tangible / deliverable that "an awesomely effective social media strategy for a company"

Re: 12 Things That Suck About Social Media Consulting

afhill — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:46:04 -0000

Hey Brett,

I don't think it's the greatest biz model at all - but I suspect this is in part why monetizing any service is a challenge. When you're passionate about something, you'd do it for free, and are happy to share your knowledge with others just so that things are done as well as you know it can be. But that doesn't (directly) pay the billls. Certainly, it can help grow your reputation and skills, and indirectly that can lead to greater things, but giving away what you can well earn money at doesn't appear to make a lot of sense on the surface.

p.s. I think many designers would take offense at your believe that they can deliver their dishes without input from the community. Good design is effective design.. which necessitates someone to impact.

Re: 12 Things That Suck About Social Media Consulting

BrettBorders — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:07:51 -0000

Andrea,

I've found that clients want lots of "dinner," served regularly - or they tend to walk out and try other "restaurants." This can create a lot of pressure that a designer or programmer don't feel - because they can confidently deliver their dishes without needing the client or the community to collaborate. But the social media consultant needs a lot of luck and cooperation to make things sizzle and pop. Even the most inspired ideas can fail miserably with just a little lack of either.

Maybe my philosophy is too generous, but if someone hires me - I tell them everything I know and how I found it out, what tools I used and where to get the recipe. I figure that's my job - to tell them what I discovered in all my hours of tinkering with it in exchange for money.

I don't think it's the greatest business model.

Re: 12 Things That Suck About Social Media Consulting

afhill — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:16:46 -0000

>Clients want results, not strategy.

this is a fantastic insight. We may think that people care about why we decided to promote a given content item, or ignore a certain outlet, but they really don't. It can be tough for those of us who take pride in our work, because so much more may go into it than people really expect. But I guess it comes down to analogy: do I care how long that sauce simmered before the third ingredient was added. Nope - I just care about the end result. Sure, some folks may be interested in the details, but in the end, we're paying for the dinner.

Actually, even as I write this, I see the other side. I find it odd that often we tell our clients the specific tools and techniques we use - some of that IS the magic behind the curtain.. perhaps giving them the food they ordered is sufficient, rather than divulging the secret of our success.