Soshable

“People Soshalize.  They don’t care how it’s spelled.  They just do it.”  That’s Soshable.com’s tag line.

Well, actually some people DO care how it’s spelled, but that’s another post for another time.

Regardless, Soshable.com is one of my favorite Social Media blogs these days.  Sometimes they put out an article that’s just so spot-on, I’m at a loss to improve or expand on it.

So…jut read “WHERE SOCIAL MEDIA AND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP COLLIDE”.

The author — Adria Saracino — pretty much nails it.  You wanna know how you should approach Social Media to create customer relations?  Read this article, then DO it.

Some other great Social Media sites I go to regularly for info:

SocialMediaToday
SocialMediaExaminer
Mashable
SocialMediaJam
SocialTimes
SocialTriggers
SocialFresh

I’d suggest you bookmark ‘em all in your RSS Feed Reader, and drop in once in a while.  The stuff you’ll learn!!

CourVO

Original Article

Seminar Preview

The month of May is gone, and I’m still trying to figure out where February went.

June brings with it the VOICE2012 Conference.  There’s still time to sign-up, BTW, although travel costs are starting to get expensive at this late juncture.

During the event, I’ll be presenting on the finer points of social media as it pertains to your VO marketing plan.  My cohorts in the seminar are Terry Daniel and Trish Basanyi.  Terry is presenting on FaceBook, and Trish will be explaining how she’s made Twitter work in her favor.

I’ll be presenting on the LinkedIn social network.  I’ve talked about this before this week here on my blog (LinkedIn Lip Service), and I’m hammering away at it, ‘cause I think there’s a lot of value here for any voice talent in her/his search for new clients.

I’m also working hard on gathering resources for the presentation, and you’re my guinea pigs.  Below is a brief video I’ve recorded that profiles a particular tool on the LinkedIn site called “LinkedIn Signal”. It’s a great way to sift your way through the stream-of-consciousness on your social networks.

Take less than two minutes to watch:

I hope that tips you off to something about LinkedIn you were not aware of before.  The entire LI platform is riddled with opportunities to refine and advance your search in this manner…almost from every screen.

CourVO

Original Article

Bzzzz

One of my favorite words of all time: onomatopoeia.

I guess I feel that way mostly because it has more vowels than Courvoisier.  Like “encyclopaedia” or “milieu”…how many vowels does it take to make the right sound?  :)  (those crazy Francophones!)

Well, in the case of a common use of onomatopoeia, you would say Zzzz to mean someone is sleeping…or oink to simulate a pig grunting, or moo to portray a cow.  But in this use of the word, Nancy Wolfson is building her 12th video VO tip around another definition of onomatopoeia:  “..the use of imitative and naturally suggestive words for rhetorical, dramatic, or poetic effect…” In other words, adding something intimately human to nudge more meaning from the utterance in a way only another human can understand.  This is part 12 of 13 video “teasers” leading up to the entire package: HOW TO SOUND REAL AND NAIL THE SALE.

Wolfson’s example with the voice talent in this video vignette is so telling.  Watch:

[quicktime]http://braintracksaudio.com/soundreal/12_onomat.mov[/quicktime]

You can also see the video here:  http://www.braintracksaudio.com/soundreal/12.html

We’re nearing the end of this set of 13 video “shorts” gleaned from Wolfson’s complete offering of 127 tips.  Honestly, I haven’t seen the whole thing in it’s entirety.  But, SHEESH!…127!!!  I mean, I think Wolfson is a genius, but I had NO idea that even she could stretch that much mileage out of her coursework.  I shoulda known better.  Even the 127-video package — as good as it is — doesn’t measure up to the time spent with Nancy in session.  I’m just sayin’.  Ask anyone who’s been there and back…Wolfson knows how to challenge you to be better in ways you didn’t even know you COULD be better.

Check out the offer she’s making (it’s a steal if you ask me!) at HOW TO SOUND REAL AND NAIL THE SALE.

Next week’s final installment:  The Trick to Voice Acting on Tag Lines

CourVO

Original Article