Do Have: Podcast Interview. Do Not Have: Goddamned Philly Accent

So last month, I did a phone interview for SFSU campus radio show and podcast No One's Listening. You might know the host, Irene McGee, from MTV's Real World: Seattle (You know, Irene? Curly hair. Lyme disease. Got slapped.)

The show focuses on media issues, and they wanted to talk with someone from AOL on blog and social media etiquette. So they ended up with me.

(This was actually my second-ever work-related phone interview; my first phoner was back in September, 2005, talking about an AOL survey about blogging trends and motivations, though it was for print-only.)

Anyway, I did the interview. It went about 10 minutes and I think I did okay -- you can listen to my segment online here.

(I posted a full writeup in one of my work blogs -- I'm basically repeating it -- but I hadn't gotten around to talking about it here. I did mention it at the last DC Bloggers' Happy Hour. Evidently, one of my resolutions for 2007 is to do more self-promotion.)

It was fairly basic stuff. We looked at each other's blogs, discovered a mutual liking of The Pogues' Fairytale of New York, talked about some etiquette items specific to blogs, then meandered over to discussing profiles and other social media.

I probably should have gotten in a few more plugs for stuff, but I'm generally happy with what I said. After all, I can regurgitate the conventional wisdom on this community stuff with the best of them (be transparent, be authentic, be responsive, etc) and I've given this kind of spiel internally a bunch of times.

However, how I said what I said needs some work. I was too close to the phone mike, so my b's and p's were popping (guess I need a pop filter), yet I was still too soft in spots. Plus, I talked over the host a few times. So I need to work on my delivery.

However, one problem I do not have is any sort of harsh regional accent. I speak pure, flat mid-Atlantic American English. So I don't care what any damn Web site quiz says -- I do not have a goddammed Philly accent:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Philadelphia Your accent is as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! If you're not from Philadelphia, then you're from someplace near there like south Jersey, Baltimore, or Wilmington. if you've ever journeyed to some far off place where people don't know that Philly has an accent, someone may have thought you talked a little weird even though they didn't have a clue what accent it was they heard.

What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I was originally prompted to take the quiz by one of Gene Weingarten's weekly chats (now on haitus).

Obviously, I must have misunderstood the quiz questions, or otherwise answered them incorrectly. (I took the quiz twice, though -- same result both times.)

If you've never spoken to me, you have the interview podcast audio to listen to, so you can judge for yourself.

Finally, Happy New Year.

Tags: blog etiquette, irene mcgee, N1L, no one's listening, quizzes, regional accents