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dangerouslyawesome

high contrast thoughts and opinions from Alex Hillman

Unstick.me on LuckyStartups.comToday

I joined Dennis Lakes on LuckyStartups this afternoon to talk about Unstick.me. Watch the show below.

I had a blast on the show, Dennis asked great questions and so did the chat room.

If you’re interested in being on the show to talk about your startup, drop them a line.

Big news day today. Feeling good.

IndyHall part of the feature in Philly WeeklyToday

Reposted from IndyHall.org, since I know not everyone here keeps up on that site as well.

IndyHall and a number of other (but hardly all) of the members of the fabulous geek scene we’ve been a part of over the last 2 years got a really great FRONT PAGE feature in this week’s Philadelphia Weekly. The author, Steven Wells, did a great job capturing some of the diversity that makes Philly’s geek scene totally kick ass. There are some great quotes from Geoff and I, as well as a comparison to a sage Yoda and an impulsive Luke Skywalker. I don’t think anyone’s ever pinned Geoff and I so well.

It’s on newsstands around Philly all week, so if you want a hard copy grab yours now.

Thanks again to everyone who’s contributed to, led, supported, and cheered along with us over the last couple of years.

Geeks rock, and Philly geeks rock hard. Congrats Philly.

Cluetrain-a-Day 2009: Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.Today

This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Thesis #3: Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.

So far,  listening has been a theme. In order to be an effective listener it helps to know what you are listening to.

The crux of this thesis (and coincidentally, the two that follow it) is that in order for conversational marketing to work, it must take place between human beings speaking the same language. The problem is that companies, while made up of human beings, are traditionally dehumanized. Dehumanization removes all traces of the human voice, the language that customers are speaking in. Makes it kinda tough to be a part of that conversation, dont’cha think?

Things like “the royal we”, using a we that doesn’t clearly identify who (or how many) people it represents, is a common mistake. If you’re a single person company, own that. If you’re one of one hundred employees, say who you are and what part of the company you represent. This boils down to transparency and even more basic, honesty.

Automated respo

Cluetrain-a-Day 2009: Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.Yesterday

This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Thesis #2: Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.

On Christmas Eve of 2008, I had a phenomenal dinner with some friends visiting from NYC, UX Designer Whitney Hess and Flex/Flash developer Orian Marx. During that dinner I took took the opportunity to pick Whitney’s brain on what some of the pieces of her client projects look like. One of the core techniques she utilizes heavily is taking user and stakeholder interviews and molding them into user types, often called personas. What’s great about the way she goes about it is she gives those personas names, faces (literally, pictures!), and back stories. This gives the entire team a point of reference for decision making, and instead of it being against abstract cases and market verticals, they get to refer to people. Additionally, when Whitney makes recommendations, it turns her into the communicator (which is really a larger part of he

Cluetrain-a-Day 2009: Markets are ConversationsJanuary 5

This post is part of a 95 post series discussing the 95 theses of the Cluetrain Manifesto as they relate to business in 2009. Read more about the series in the introduction post. And check out the rest of the series!

Markets are Conversations. This is the core thesis that, naked and contextless, I believe has misled so many people.

Brian Oberkirch ranted about how completely borked the use of “conversations” in marketing has become:

Marketing should be dialogic. True dat. But the goal isn’t conversation. That’s just a way station en route to customers doing their thing.

Marketing isn’t a conversation. Opening your mouth doesn’t make you a marketer. It makes you noisy, and very likely, annoying.

Markets do converse, with or without you. Just because you have access to their conversations doesn’t give you permission to butt in.

In 2009, having a conversation is easier than ever before. Social media (which, for the context of this discussion only, is a set of tools that enable online discussions to take place) is the solution to, and the cause of, all of our current problems. The signal to noise ratio is