Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

September holds special promise for Voice Actors everywhere…an opportunity to bring better understanding to our business…a chance to extend your brand with a timely message, and the possibility of growing your business through a unique marketing tool.

I’d love to tell you about it now, but timing is everything.  Please check back here Wednesday morning to hear the details.

CourVO

The more I use it, the more I like LinkedIn.

Aside from hearing the company is now rated in value at $2-Billion (they’re doing something right), the managers continue to make savvy improvements in the interface and presentation that benefit the user…and many of these elements are available, still, for the free membership.

Here’s the latest: “… allowing you to host an unlimited number of multimedia projects that include still images, video reels, text, and/or audio samples….”

Basically, they’re offering an application resulting from a partnership with the Behance Network, allowing you to create a Professional Creative Portfolio Display including (as you saw in the quote from their site above), AUDIO SAMPLES.

You can read all about this new feature on the LinkedIn Blog HERE.

‘Guess I’ve got a little work ahead of me today.

CourVO

Where do I find this stuff?

Use only if it helps your VO business! — don’t be like me: an itinerant homeless web-surfer shuffling from one engaging site to another.

Addict-o-matic, like Google’s iGoogle, let’s you create your own buzz page using existing sites.  There’s a social media version of this that I’ve blogged about before:  Flavors.me.

But seriously, folks…here’s a really good tip to a great site.

Visit DuctTapeMarketing often.  The originator of this site — John Jantsch — posts the best tips for all kinds of marketing tools and tips, and he cross-references stuff unbelievably well.

Particularly, you’ll want to read one of his latest blogs: THE ABUSIVE MATH OF COLD-CALLING.  1-3% success rate (cold calling) vs. ~40% success rate if you have a referral (warm calling).

CourVO

Studio master, and voice-talent pro Michael Minetree is seeing a flurry of activity on his new website: VOICES WITH ISDN.

The site is self-interactive.  In other words, when you register as a user, you can begin to add yourself to the listings with a pic, brief bio, links, etc.

Michael is a genius at setting-up this kind of stuff, and for the price (free!), it certainly can’t hurt to add your info to the list of luminaries already joining.

There’s also a place to tout your Source-Connect capabilities along with your ISDN codecs and contact numbers.

Thanks Michael!

CourVO

When do you become an “expert”?

That word makes me uncomfortable.

That’s why, when I started my teleseminar Saturday morning  (Leveraging Social Media for Your VoiceOver Business) on behalf of the VoiceOverDirectory, I began by saying I’m a fan of Social Media, I enjoy Social Networking, I’m familiar and comfortable with New Media…I’m drawn to its potential…but “expert”?  Nah!

Social Media is too new, and so ever-changing for anyone to be able truly be an “expert”…at least by my definition, which I’m conveniently not stating here.

My talk was more about trends, indicators…mapping out a few directives that seem to be working FOR NOW…and why voice actors really shouldn’t ignore the opportunities afforded by New Media for furthering their brand, their personality…the relationships that may lead to enriching their personal lives, and advancing their business.

Amazingly, I talked almost non-stop about that for almost a half-hour, and still felt there was much left unsaid.

I’m a geek at heart, which means I’m a genetically hard-wired metal detector, perking up when a wayward  fragment of social media metal shows up on my radar.  But I know (that’s right, keep telling yourself, Dave) that Social Media is only one of the tools in my job-searching toolbox.  It just happens to be the one that captures my fancy (hey!…I found a gold doubloon!).

Maybe I’m on to something.  Maybe not.  Maybe it’ll bring me more VO jobs…or not.  Or maybe — just maybe — all this flailing around may lead me into an unexpected career vector that has little to do with voice-acting.  All I know is along the way I’m learning a ton, and meeting some of the savviest people on the planet.

Below is about a 2:30 excerpt of my teleseminar.  I recorded the whole thing on a trusty Logitech webcam…and the audio you hear is from the onboard Logitech mic (not the greatest).  On this segment I blatantly break a number of my own rules, stated so smugly on my new website: OnCamTips.com. But, there may be some value in watching this anyway: a segment on the rationale for voice actors to consider authoring a blog of their own.

I have no idea how many listened in, but quite a few responded afterward to say they’d like the resource material I promised to make available if they’d just send their e-mail address to me.  I think they were just being polite…;-}

BTW, write me at CourVO@CourVO.com, and I’ll put you on the mailing list for that resource material, too.

My thanks to Mark Davidson and Austin Alexander of VoiceOverDirectory for asking me to speak, and arranging this teleseminar so professionally. 

Also my gratitude to a couple of voice-actors who are social media VO giants in my eyes:  Trish Basanyi (@Trishsvoice) and Terry Daniel (@TDaniel39).

CourVO

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‘Heard that one before? 

Think about it.

We Google EVERYTHING indiscriminately, and come on…admit it…you’ve Googled yourself just to see what turns up.  In fact you should — regularly.

Why?  Because your brand, your reputation, your integrity, and your image on the internet could be the most telling statement about your life from this point on.

Remember the old saying:  “The only words you can take back are the ones never spoken?”  Well, the internet is that way now with images, words, impressions, videos, and references to you. 

My wife and I have tried to impress on our kids that every single image and video they post on FaceBook is gone to the ages, the moment they upload it.   And yes, even “unfriended” people can manage to see your profiile with the right hack. 

Why do you think employers feel they’ve found such a bonanza with the online social networking sites?  They don’t need your resume — you know…that document you’ve carefully crafted to make you look good from HS graduation ”to present”.  If they want to know what you are REALLY like, they Google you.

Hence, Google is your resume.  Guard it.  Protect it.  Guide it.  Heck, you can even manipulate it to your advantage.  Uh-huh, it works both ways.

Thursday morning, I spent an hour with a group of UNLV college students in a class called:  “Introduction to Interactive Media Design”.  The professor had invited me to speak to these mostly Junior and Senior Journalism students about real-world application of social networking sites.  How does a working journalist apply New Media to traditional media?  Do they mix?  Can they work together?  Should they?

Here’s a short clip.

I enjoyed being there for an hour, ’cause many of the same concepts I shared with the UNLV students, I’ll be expected to articulate to my co-workers in the KLAS-TV newsroom next week.  My boss has tapped me to help my news colleagues understand how all these social networking sites can have ANY possible relevance to news gathering.  I think it does, but I digress to my night job.

Voice Acting as a business is largely conducted online.  Hence, the “GOOGLE IS YOUR RESUME” concept applies. Your website, your profile on pay-to-play sites, your participation in forums, LinkedIn, YouTube, shared e-mails, Voice-Over Universe.  All that contributes to your online, hence your real-world personna, because until they visit your home town, that’s all people have to go by.

So…again:  Guard it.  Protect it.  Guide it.  Heck, you can even manipulate it to your advantage.  Uh-huh, it works both ways, and I’ll get into THAT in my next blog.

CourVO

‘Would love to know if anyone’s used this service, and whether it’s brought success in any way.

It purports to get your name and your work in front of all TV and Radio Stations (and more) on a regular basis.  The one testimonial on the site said it got him a $98,000 job.  That’d be sweet.

Check it out HERE.

CourVO

‘LOVE Seth Godin‘s blog, his books, his perspective, and especially the way he turns most conventional marketing theory on its ear.

See the following video (only 1:18 of your time) to see what Seth thinks of social networking’s value to marketing.

CourVO

For the past few days, I've been seeing a very ostentatious face and message on Twitter.  I even hesitate to mention it here in a bad light, because there IS no such thing as bad publicity, and I REALLY don't want to give this guy any help.

Twitter will accept a certain amount of self-promotion.  There are a ton of people into marketing on the service, but everyone kinda knows when you cross the line,  Twitter is more for sharing, being human, helping, and just being conversational.

For this guy, it's all about hyping his voiceover service.  Here's what a typical "Tweet" looks like:

Most all of his Tweets have this exact flavor.  All CAPS!!!  Shouting, hawking, and being obnoxious in my opinion.  I don't know "Big Ray Petty" as his website identifies him…and I'm not sure whether I should be jealous or puke.

Twitter is largely believed to hold much promise as a marketing tool in the New Media sort of way.  Many people claim to have capitalized on that, but they're marketers, and you're never quite sure if they're hyping or making money.

So then, along comes @RaunchFoxxx (Gak!…even the twitter name he's chosen is obnoxious), and he's openly inviting people to use his VO service.  Maybe it's working.  I dunno. Maybe I should be doing a bit more of this kind of in-your-face marketing for my own voice-acting.  NOT!!!

CourVO

Safely snuggled away for months in my list of tasks I'd like to get done "soon" is one that began with a Marketing pitch from Bob Parsons.

Bob is the force behind…has been the force behind… well, he's just a force — sometimes in his own mind, but a legitimate force on the web, nonetheless. 

His current claim to fame is GoDaddy.  Which is no small matter.  It's one of the top domain-search/hosting/everything web sites in the world.

Many months ago, he was singing the praises of the .mobi domain name.  'Said it was the next big thing since the Ford Focus.

Anyway…I bought.  I bought  http://courvo.mobi.  And I've finally launched.  You can click on that link, and look at the site in a regular browser, but it's meant to be seen within the usually limited confines of a cell-phone screen…no "www" needed, really, although that works too.

Go ahead.  Try it right now on your phone. 

You'll find a meager menu, a few facts you already knew about me, and some contact info.  It's just enough for me to be able to show someone a quick view of my business… on the phone…at the airport, with no laptop on a layover in Fargo, ND.

I'm not sure of it's marketing potential yet, but it wasn't expensive, and it wasn't hard.  It may actually come through in a pinch sometime.

Let me know what you think.  I'd be glad to tell you how I did it.

CourVO