I’m not talking about the Facebook, LinkedIn Groups, or Voiceover Universe memberships that are little more than a button press. This post is more about memberships in real world organizations that have events and meetings that I personally attend as part of my marketing efforts.

In this case, I needed to add some stuff and I am glad I did. Why?

People still do business with friends but to make the friends to do business with you gotta get yourself to the right events.

So where am I now a member? Well most of these are regional associations or groups but my point to you is you may want to take a look at groups in your area similar to mine and get in with them if it fits with your branding and marketing efforts.

Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives – Well this is a constant as I have been a member since 1989, past president the whole shootin’ match. Lots of friends and new faces. High comfort level. It used to be part of an international association (which didn’t do much) but my point here is that there are some other SME groups across the country and maybe in your neck of the woods. You should investigate.

The Ad Club of Buffalo –You’re never really sure who you are going to see here. It’s not an immediately welcoming group (with some very nice and notably exceptions) if you don’t directly work for an ad agency (or maybe they just have a thing against VO’s or even just me) but if you show up enough you become not so much accepted as expected. That’s how it feels to me anyway. But there’s money in them thar hills so we trudge along.

Amherst Chamber of Commerce – Buffalo has a chamber-like organization but its really not focused on small business. The Amherst Chamber, in our area’s largest and most affluent suburb, is focused on small business. Just joined their Business Resource Committee (cause you can’t join a group if you’re not willing to contribute…and that contribution usually pays dividends) so this looks promising.

Buffalo Broadcasters Association – I doubt there is a ton of business potential here; I think I’ve been a member for 2 years. To me it’s an association that’s still trying to find it way while doing work for the broadcasting community that has real worth. I just feel like I should belong and support that; and hey, some of the mixers are great fun too.

Media Communications Association – International – Well simply put, this is Connie Terwilliger’s fault. There is no Western New York chapter but maybe just being in the directory could lead to something. No, I will NOT be overseeing the start of a new chapter here.

Communications Association of the Southern Tier – This is another kind of distant group for me, about three hours away. But its near my in-laws so its not so out of the realm that I could attend a meeting or two. Plus I’ll be in the directory. Much in the plus column is the call I got from their membership chair recently welcoming me to the club. That kind of occurrence is more rare than you think or than it should be for a membership driven group. Kudos to CAST.

Where do you have memberships? Are they helping your brand and your business?

Tags: commentary by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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It is not new technology per se but because it’s being executed now in beta by Google Labs, Google’s introduction of a new service that will catalog all the words uttered from a posted an audio or video clip is news. It’s a game changer.

A company with billions of dollars and oodles of clout can do that.

This new audio indexing service directly impacts the businesses of voice over, marketing and advertising (and, well, actually every business that uses the web) in a monumental way.

Of course I’ll tell you why. 😉

A company’s success or failure on the web can be attributed, in my opinion, to one primary element: words. How a company manages and places its words on the web, whether it be in text, header bars, and ad words etc. creates results and rankings in search engines like Google that can mean success or failure.

Do you think companies interested in buying your product or service are going to sift through 10 pages on Google to find your 100th ranked search results after they have find what they need in the first two or three pages on Google? The odds are very low.

Using words correctly on a web site, key words particularly, is both an art and a science. But our audio and video clips haven’t had much of an impact on SEO save for maybe a tag here or there. But Google is ratcheting up the game of tag now.

If Gaudi (a bit like audi-o’connell don’t you think?) will catalog words on audio and video clips on your site…the SEO possibilities seem quite enormous. Posted commercials maybe written entirely for the web to enhance optimization. Audio demos that have brand names featured in copy might then have that brand more closely associated with a voice talent. The web becomes a more valuable tool with the automatic transcription of sound into words.

Possibilities = endless.

Want to know what else occurred to me, just for a nano second while ruminating around all these possible changes?

Because of all the words that will eventually be added to search as a result of Gaudi, what it becomes too much for the Google algorithms used as the basis of its current search platform? Or what if they determine that words are not the best element upon which to base their optimization tools? What if they are working on that completely new search engine model right now that will force all of us to totally revise our web strategies?

Wrap your head around that for a minute, won’t you? Don’t worry, the panicky feeling goes away eventually.

Tags: advertising, commentary, google, marketing, search engine marketing, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I was recently feeling overwhelmed, being unable to get my head around my personal organization and time management. It’s ultimately a good thing because it was my internal manager telling me to stop, drop and re-tool.

The main culprit of my concern was all of my own doing. It was my RSS feeds….all the blogs and news feeds I subscribed to got to be too much. I would open the reader up and there would easily be over 500 posts. A day. Every day.

No way in h-e-double hockey sticks did I read all those posts, many on technical issues that I wanted to try and understand but more often than not came away feeling more like an English speaking student in a French high school. Nothing made sense and my shot at a prom date was nil. Even on other non tech posts there was a bunch of content too that I felt obliged to scan. Crikey!

I needed to hold an intervention with myself. Armed with a delete key and an itchy index finger, I started cutting and deleting and I felt much better. I was reading stuff from people I thought I should follow but it turns out they didn’t keep my interest (and I’m sure people could and have said the same about me…posts like this don’t help my cause.)

To now scan about 150 posts in my main areas of interest with people whose content I more closely value is a cake walk. Again…I scan all and read some. But to start with such a big number as I used to really made me feel overwhelmed. Now, not so much. It used to be hitting “Mark All As Read” was a kind of a white flag, a surrender of sorts for posts that I would never get to. Now it’s cause I scanned and am done. Much better feeling.

How are you at managing your RSS habit?

Tags: blogs, commentary, internet, social networking, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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BUFFALO, New York, September 16, 2008 – – Professional male voice over talent Peter K. O’Connell has agreed to be represented by three talent agencies with primary offices in five states, it was announced today.

O’Connell will be represented in Texas by Houston-based Pastorini-Bosby Talent Agency and in Georgia by Atlanta-based RSH Management. Headquartered in Nashville, Dan Agency will handle voice over bookings for O’Connell in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama. O’Connell has existing professional representation in New York, California, Illinois, Ohio, Arizona and Colorado.

“Each of these agencies have wonderfully straight forward management when it comes to talent representation and I know that’s not always easy to find in this business,” O’Connell said. “I’ve said no to more agents than I’ve said yes to because in the past it’s been clear the business relationship wasn’t going to work in the long term. But after some really frank discussions with each of them about the voice over business, I feel very comfortable working with RSH, Pastorini-Bosby and Dan Agency,” O’Connell concluded.

A professional voice over talent and audio producer for over 25 years, Peter K. O’Connell is president of audio’connell Voice Over Talent, a worldwide, English language-based voice talent company. He also operates International Voice Talents, featuring foreign language male and female voice actors.

Both organizations provide professional voice talent for commercials, animation, corporate narrations, documentaries, broadcast voice imaging, audio books, podcasts and messaging on-hold (MOH). Industries served by the two companies include advertising agencies, media and broadcast production companies as well as both large and small businesses around the world.

Mr. O’Connell also owns Voice Over Workshop, which provides professional voice over training to novice and experienced voice talent around the world.

The three businesses are all a part of O’Connell Companies.
– 30 –

NOTES TO EDITORS

Company Media Releases ON LINE:
http://www.audioconnell.com/media

Company Name Pronunciation:
au·dio·o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-oh-kah-nel) or au·di-o’·con·nell (awe-de-oh-kah-nel)

Company Name Spelling:
Use lower case letters- audio’connell or audio’connell Voice-Over Talent

Company Web:
http://www.audioconnell.com

Company Blog:
http://www.voxmarketising.com

O’Connell Voice-Over Resume:
See resume here

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Tags: media releases by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on MEDIA RELEASE – O’Connell’s Voice Over Representation Expands In Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama

We’re right about in the middle of hurricane season in the U.S. and it looks like it’s going to be another hard season.

If you know of any broadcast, cable or internet outlets that can use this PSA (public service announcement), please forward this post or this PSA to them.

LISTEN – Public Service Announcement

[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/080914_RedCross_Hurricane_FINAL.mp3]
Click here to download the Red Cross Hurricane PSA!

As always, we’re not looking for compensation or publicity, just an outlet to broadcast the request for donations all to benefit the American Red Cross. There are no usage restrictions on this audio as long as it is used in its entirety.

If you want to record the PSA yourself for your station, here’s the script.

The physical damage is severe but the emotional toll is catastrophic. The 2008 hurricane season in the United States is upon us and as always, the American Red Cross stands ready to help.

The Red Cross is sheltering thousands along the Gulf Coast while preparing to shelter more along the Atlantic coast as storms approach.

They are mobilizing Red Cross people, our fleet of emergency response vehicles and mobile kitchens.

The Red Cross is also delivering meals and clean up supplies across the Gulf Coast and staging food and supplies along the Atlantic coast.

Please support the American Red Cross as they once again support Americans in their time of need.

Donate now by visiting Red Cross dot org or by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS. To donate $5 right now, text the word “give” to the number 24357, or spelled out as the number 2, HELP.

Support the American Red Cross as they help Hurricane Disaster Victims again this year.

And if you could throw the American Red Cross a couple of bucks in the effort, that would be good too.

Please note in the comment section of media to whom you have sent this to or (if you’re the media) what outlet you are from.

Thanks for being a good person.

Tags: commentary, public service announcement by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on free PSA supporting red cross donation for disaster relief efforts

Truth be told, initially many internet radio stations seemed to be little more than young people slapping together a mix tape/disc of their favorite song and setting up a radio station. Some folks took it a step further and really tried to piece together a more professional sound. I think conceptually, a lot of it was good but in truth the commitment wasn’t really there with a lot of internet radio station owners.

But as happens in the shake down of any new “thing” the strong survive. In the case of internet radio, those who survive we’re able to stay committed to their primary goal of sharing their music while also securing an advertising arrangement that would allow them to pay their bills and even keep a little some thing for themselves.

One of my clients is one of those long haul pioneers in internet radio who has stayed true to his programming objective and kept the money flowing as well. It’s eclectic, relaxed and cool in sound and attitude. I hope you’ll spend some time listening to Roo Radio and enjoying the true spirit of broadcasting that I think many of my fellow voice talents respect. Also here is a sample of some of the recent voice imaging I did for the station.

LISTEN TO ROO RADIO STATION IMAGING
[audio:http://www.audioconnell.com/clientuploads/audio_for_blog/080914_audioconnell_RooMontage.mp3]

Tags: advertising, commentary, commercials, internet, radio, voice talent by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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