Dave Courvoisier's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘social networking’

All trends are pointing to the contrary.

Don’t believe me?..then maybe Roy Wells’ article on the website Social Media Today will convince you.

It’s titled:  Social Networking is Dominating Online Activity.

…and while you’re at it, take a moment to read some of the related posts at the bottom like:

“I only use email to communicate with old people” -and- “Four Things That People Do Online” (very thought-provoking)

Don’t forget our specially-designed web page for voice artists who want to get a handle on social media:  SocialMediaVO.com.

CourVO

Social Media and Social Networking is at the heart of my VO Marketing plan (heh), and if you haven’t yet seen or visited, my friend Terry Daniel and I offer a resource site on Social Media techniques for voice-actors HERE.

Below, I’m repurposing a single page of content from a publication heralding the upcoming Affiliate  Summit in NYC  in a couple of weeks

(already sold out!).  I’m not an affiliate marketer in the truest sense, but the successful ones are staunch apostles of good Social Networking techniques.

Lots of people claim an expertise in Social Media, but over time, you look for the ones that tend to make sense, have good referrals, and offer consistently good content.  Brian Solis is certainly among those who fit that criteria.

He lists below 21 “Best Practices” to navigate almost any Social Media Platform.  Do these, and  reap the rewards!

CourVO

Read the rest of this entry »

…purposely misspelled in the spirit of texting.

For a while during my hour-long teleseminar on Social Media sponsored by Edge Studio June 22, 2010…I waxed eloquent on the suggested do’s and don’t's of social media…that is, if you want to get and keep friends and followers.  Otherwise, it doesn’t matter what you do.

The whole teleseminar, of course, was based on the supposition that you DO want to get and keep followers and “friends”.  Furthermore, extending your brand onto those social media platforms may even garner you some new clients.

These concepts are not new, but apparently — with a teleseminar attended by the maximum allowable 100 listeners — a good many voice actors have a hunger for learning more about social media tools.

I set up my trusty FLIP video cam to record some of my end of the call, and the clip is below.  Mind you, I took NONE of my own advice for how to set up a good shot, as stated in my helpful website: OnCamTips…so forgive the terrible angle, and the news map of Las Vegas in the background.

To hear the full hour’s teleseminar session click HERE, and scroll down to the subheading ‘Marketing’.

Also, visit SocialMediaVO to see a more complete resource on leveraging New Media for your voiceover business.

CourVO

Thursday was one of those remarkable days…a day of surprising results from actions taken months…even years ago.

No fewer than 5 apples dropped off the New Media tree and landed in my email box.

5 ripe contacts from the sewing of Social Media seeds of past months.

Would that every day could be so fulfilling!

I take it as some small acknowledgement of my gambit that social media is the VO marketing tool of the future, and as fodder for my upcoming  presentation at VOICE2010 on leveraging social networks for the explicit purpose of building a successful voice acting business.

The experience was SO cathartic that I was moved to record the following video of my harvest…I hope you won’t think it too self-approving.

CourVO

Let me swallow big and come clean on something.

Dave Courvoisier has been egregiously ignoring LinkedIn, and CourVO is the loser.

As part of my preparation for the VOICE2010 presentation I’m making with Terry Daniel on Social Media, I agreed to take on the section on LinkedIn.  Terry admitted he was a lightweight on this particular online tool, and I was not far behind.

In the last two years, I’ve been quietly amassing more than 11,000 “connections” on LinkedIn.  Mind you…if I wanted to meet most of them in person, I’d have to go to Mumbai, India…but that’s not important right now.

What’s important is that I’ve rediscovered this important social media networking site, and I’m here to tell you, you should too.  Actually, that’s not fair.  I see many of you on LinkedIn, and apparently I need to do some serious catching up.

ONLY PROFESSIONALS NEED APPLY

LinkedIn is billed as the PROFESSIONALS Social Networking site.  Not for gadflies satisfied with 140 characters, or for your Aunt Gladys to post pics of her grandchildren.

Probably THE best feature of LinkedIn is the ability to join groups of like-minded folk.  There are a number of active groups on LinkedIn catering to the business of voiceovers, and they’re mostly populated by seasoned and fairly serious peers in the business, discussing timely topics.

Here’s a list of a few of them:

VOICEOVER PROFESSIONALS
VOICEOVER UNIVERSE
VOICEOVERS
VOICEOVER GIGS
VOICEARTISTS CONNECTIONS
VOICEOVER JOBS
LA-BASED VOICEOVER PROFESSIONALS
WORKING VOICE ACTOR GROUP
VOICEOVER VISION
ELEARNING VOICEOVER GROUP
SAVOA

….and many more.

Not satisfied that there were already that many LinkedIn VO groups, I promptly created another one: “SETTING VOICEOVER RATES“.  I’ve noticed the high interest in this topic whenever I blog about it, and already two discussions are gaining momentum under this heading.

ACCEPT MY INVITATION?

Here’s your invitation to join that group…if you’re already on LinkedIn, and have room for any more group memberships (50 is the limit), please click on the link above and join us.

As far as that goes, I’ve ALSO noticed a number of voiceover professionals on LinkedIn are second generation connections to me.  I’d like to make them 1st-generation connections, so look for an invitation from me soon, and hopefully, you’ll approve my request.

If you want to send me an invitation…here’s my e-mail address:  courvo@courvo.com (you’ll need that to prove you know me).

Also, here’s my the link to my LinkedIn profile:  http://www.linkedin.com/in/courvo

Also, I am digging pretty deep into LinkedIn’s newly revamped interface, and have some great suggestions for you at the V2010 Social Media General Session Friday morning.  I hope you’ll plan to attend.

This stuff is fun!

CourVO

Why am I such a sucker for this stuff?

It just FINDS me.

Simple, harmless, helpful FREE.  ‘Takes minutes to set-up.

Check out FLAVORS.ME.  It aggregates all your social networking sites into a sublimely plain, customizable interface on an easy-to-find page.

To see mine, just click on the pic above.CourVO

Cyber Monday is here, and some pretty special offers from a few of VO’s best are certainly worth considering:

VOICE2010.  It’s gonna be here before you know it!  The other thing you know:  budgets are tight…that’s why you should really look at this one-day offer from James Alburger and Penny Abshire.  Browse around the Website…the conference has a pretty incredible line-up of seminars and instructors.  They’re even gonna let me and Terry Daniel do a session on Social Networking.

Also, the following specials are courtesy of Julie Williams, and her helpful “VO Things of Interest” Newsletter

VOCareer.com is offering $100 off a demo. (Regularly $700-$900)Click HERE. Or go to http://www.vocareer.com/home/Demos.php

Deb Munro is offering several discounts, including, $25 off private coaching sessions, , and $50 off her Creating Voices home study course. Contact Deb at chantidm@telusplanet.net.

Julie Williams is offering $50 off How To Make Money in Voice-Overs Even If You Don’t Live in N.Y. or L.A.  Email julie@voice-overs.com

Rob Sciglimpaglia will offer a free legal info mp3. Email Rob at robscig@usa.net

Visit Julie’s free forum at www.voice-overs.com/forum

CourVO

For about an hour-and-a-half this last Saturday, I waxed eloquent on the topic of social media for a few score VO-types on a teleseminar sponsored by VoiceOverDirectory.com.

Ironically enough, my audio was so-so…(bad phone connection), but apparently the content was engaging enough that quite a few of the participants wrote with requests for a hard copy that I promised to compose.

It strikes me that  many of you may glean a little something from my ramblings too (or not).. 

You can see a copy of the newsletter: LEVERAGING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR VOICE OVER BUSINESSES HERE.

Please let me know what you think of the content.

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

.

This I could not have predicted.

In the search for better ways to market my VO services, I’ve stumbled upon a lot of insights about Social Networking and New Media.

People actually seem interested in knowing how I do that!  AMAZING!

Anyway, Mark Davidson of VoiceOverDirectory.com noticed, and asked me if I’d mind conducting a teleseminar on that topic.

Of course I said yes, and there’s room left for you.  Wanna join in?     Cool!

It starts this Saturday at 1pm EST and will last an hour, hour-and-a-half maybe….check out the specs HERE.

CourVO