Speaking at Bulldog Reporter’s packed Media Relations Summit yesterday here in Washington, technology columnist David Pogue opined about blogs, podcasts, vlogs, digg, FlickR, Craigslist, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace… and clogs (commercial blogs like Gawker and Engadget):
“The corporate blog is a special sub-species. It will become a treasured tool in your tool chest.
It’s not advertising; it’s not PR. You do have to be careful to do it right.”
– David Pogue at Bulldog Reporter’s Media Relations Summit (June 12, 2007)
Well that was music to my ears, of course. I spoke at a session on Monday at 4:30 PM on The Powerful Sense (and Nonsense) of Corporate Blogging with Christopher Barger of GM FastLane fame and Chris Halvorson of Stonyfield Farm fame.
David Pogue is a funny funny man. At least he tickles my funny bone. One colleague disagrees with me. She finds his presentation style a bit over the top. I love it.
He shrieks. He struts. He paces. He threatens to leave the stage.
He jumps up and down. He pantomimes (silent scream, etc.). He pauses…
All the while looking like a typical Gweilo or white guy: tall, skinny, corporate, blue blazer. (I’m boning up on a bit of Chinese in preparation for my October visit to Beijing and Shanghai.)
Tips from David Pogue on texting etiquette
Seriously, in addition to being entertaining he made some sharp observations. Yesterday’s keynote was similar to his presentation last November (links to my write-up) for Bulldog Reporter. No matter; I laughed just as hard.
Here’s a sampling of his guide to texting acronyms. Forget email. It’s akin to snail mail for Gen Y, he pointed out:
DQMOT = don’t quote me on that
SFETE = smiling from ear to ear
IMNERHO = in my not even remotely humble opinion
WYGOTM = will you go out with me (is that right??)
and biggest laugh for…
MOS = mother over shoulder
POS = parent over shoulder
David Pogue’s thoughts on the speaking circuit
I was lucky enough to sit next to David Pogue at lunch before he spoke. Well all 30 seconds during which he sat in front of his plate without jumping up and down to greet another admirer, er tech gadget flack.
He told Bulldog Reporter publisher Jim Sinkinson and me that his speaking career (which is in addition to the technology column, e-newsletter, blog, videos, book writing and TV) really took off after he was videotaped playing the piano and singing at last year’s TED conference. He’s been doubling his fees and still getting more requests than he can handle, he said.
Jon Greer asked how he managed it all. He replied: with a sharp focus and an amazing wife who handles all the administrative details. He does, however, share actively in the care of their three young children.
I told him he ought to write about that; people are fascinated by “the secrets” of productivity. Dontcha think?
Useful Links
More coverage of Bulldog Reporter’s Summit by Sally Falkow (here and here).