Today started of kind of depressing. Cold and rain have come to stay and we even had a dusting of snow that ultimately melted…all combining into my least favorite weather.

Add to that the sync between my phone and my computer is on the fritz, so I wasn’t expecting to much from this particular Wednesday.

But I am about to prove that what you think you know about a day ain’t necessarily the whole story.

Late today I was on Google and I checked the listings for voice over talent, a primary listing in my field. And I did a double take.

Right there, under the paid ad as the first organic listing was audio’connell Voice Over Talent’s web listing.

Number 1. Click the picture to see the page.

It’s a nice feeling. And I enjoyed it for the moment. Heck, I am enjoying it now. I hope I don’t sound like I’m bragging. I know better.

Search engine listings, even on the mother ship, can be fickle things and positions change constantly. Yet it was nice to see a ray of sunshine on my screen today as the weather turned gray.

Thanks to all of you who visit. Thanks even more so to those of you who visit and hire. Everyone on the site appreciates you attention and your business.

Tags: audio'connell voice over talent, commentary, google, internet, marketing, search engine marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
9 Comments »

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
2 Comments »

As every business owner in voice over, marketing or advertising has either used public relations for their benefit or their clients’ benefit or has been on the receiving end of a PR campaign at some level, I thought you’d find the recent experience of Michael Arrington of Tech Crunch interesting.

He received this email very recently:

From: Vanity Fair / Google
Date: August 27, 2008 9:06:32 PM PDT
To: Michael Arrington
Subject: IMPT: Google/Vanity Party Status
Reply-To: demconventionparty@google.com
Thank you for your interest in the Vanity Fair / Google Party.

We have reached full capacity for this event and are unable to accommodate additional guests.

If you have NOT received a Confirmation email–separate from the automated RSVP response– and a Party admission card with your name on it, you will not be admitted to the party. No exceptions.

If you HAVE received a confirmation email but have NOT picked up your admission card, you must reference your confirmation instructions and pick up your card by 4:00pm on Thursday. Admission cards will not be distributed at the door.

If you use the shuttle service you must have your party admission card to board. No exceptions.

Thank you in advance for your understanding,

Vanity Fair & Google Events team

Sad news for Michael, had he been wrangling an invitation or had he even been aware of the event. He had neither nor was he the lone perplexed recipient of that email.

But he did write about it….and so am I.

I’ll let you draw your own correlations between a publication the likes of Vanity Fair, celebrities and politicians (and please post them here as I know they’d make great reading).

My questions (which I also hope you’ll daine to answer) are the following: is any publicity really good publicity as the old axiom goes? As long as they spell my name right?

Maybe the publicity trick fits Vanity Fair’s branding but does it fit Google’s? Obviously the message is exclusivity but is it also awareness? Would you be willing to pull such a stunt (and make no mistake, this is a stunt) with your brand? Why?

Please open your blue book and use only your No. 2 pencil to write your essay answer. You have one hour.

Begin 😉

Tags: advertising, commentary, google, marketing, media, public relations, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

Here’s why I ask the question (and we’ve kinda talked about this before but bear with me here): a couple of times on sites like LinkedIn or in general research, I will type in a company’s specific name and hit search.

When a company’s web site doesn’t show up on the first or second search pages (especially if it’s not a generic name) I mentally dismiss the company as somehow inadequate or less than successful.

To me, their name is a vital and basic key word that should get some play early on in the search process but it doesn’t sometimes.

I realize that there are many companies who are successful who don’t yet use the internet very well, but my expectation is that a modern, successful company will have at least a modest web presence that should show up pretty quickly on Google or MSN or Yahoo.

Am I expecting too much? I am putting too much stock in Google? Have I become a technological snob? Will some companies (and individuals) just not let go of the phonebook? Or are some companies woefully undervaluing what a successful web presence means to their branding and their sales.

You have to talk me through this. What do you think?

Tags: advertising, commentary, google, internet, marketing by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
11 Comments »

While I am sure I am late to this wordsmith party (that which I will henceforth describe) I must note that while I think I am always late on these kinds of things, most of the world is a lot later than me so I hope you enjoy this.

I read (or more often scan) blogs and RSS feeds for many reasons with the primary one being my desire to learn new things.

And while learning about new marketing techniques, voice over opportunities and advertising campaigns are great fun, sometimes it’s the writing or a word that gives my day the wonderful epiphany we all seek (or at least should seek).

Today I was reading the Lifehacker blog, subtitled tech tips, tricks and downloads for getting things done. Gina Trapani was writing about email innovation you might want to know about (both still in beta and available now at a store or web site near you).

What caught my attention was this sentence regarding the dreaded and often unavailable “undo” button for emails we immediately regret sending.

At one time or another, all of us have hit the Send button and immediately regretted it. While Gmail offers a nice (and unusual) “Undo” option for most email actions—like labeling messages or archiving them—there’s no Undo once you’ve sent a message. What would be super-useful for those facepalm moments after you’ve sent a regrettable email is the ability to take it back.

The facepalm moment. Immediately I knew what it was but I had never heard it called that. I loved it. But I also knew such a great phrase must have caught on somewhere.

It did. Yes, that’s a site called facepalm.org featuring famous pictures of the dreaded facepalm. There are 530,000 references on Google for facepalm. This will be 530,001

Glad I could contribute.

Thanks for reading.

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Tags: blogs, commentary, google, internet, marketing, peter o'connell, silliness, technology, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
2 Comments »

My congratulations to Grace Moon of Canyon Middle School in Castro Valley, California whose artistic design (above) beat out over 16,000 entries from K-12 students in the Doodle for Google contest.

I’ve voted in the contest so I can tell you from the entries I saw that the world has a ton of great artists in our schools. Let’s keep educating and encouraging all of them.

Congratulations Grace!

Thanks for reading.

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Tags: commentary, google, internet, logo design by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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