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egocentric social media for voice-over talents (is there any other kind?)

Peter K. O'Connell_aboutme

I’ve mentioned before in this space about how I am usually a late adopter of most social media. Yeah, people think I’m all up in social media but I’m a pauper compared to zombies like Dave Courvoisier and Trish Basanyi, voice talents who are ALL up in social media.

(BTW, I’m not sure what “all up in” means…but awkwardly using urban lingo in unnatural contexts is a new branding ploy I’m testing to drive customers away…I’ll let you know how that goes).

So Sunday I got a ping that a voice talent named Jim Edgar had faved my about.me page.

My first thought was “thank you Jim.” My next thought was “what about.me page?”

To say I’d not spent much time on that social media page would probably be about right. I had written some stuff (more like copied it off my web site) but that was about it.

And by ignoring it, I also neglected to check my about.me dashboard which I now saw had all the nice things other people had said about my fairly barren page. People like Randye Kaye, Fran McClellan,KC Curriden, Christian_Rosselli and GWIII (aka George Washington, III!

But it was another GW, this time George Whittam who woke me about to what we all in VO SHOULD be doing with our about.me pages when I saw his page chalk full of cool info including a sound cloud demo.

Ah, stupid Peter, THAT’S how you manage an about.me page! Well, I’ll learn all this someday.

Have you heard anything about this new thing called Bookface or Facetwit or something?

P.S. (which not only stands for post script but also are the initials of the person I need to speak of for a second) I would be remiss (or remister) if I didn’t again thank Paul Strikwerda for taking the picture I am using as the main cover shot on my about.me page. So remind me to thank him sometime.

an audiobook recommendation

cronkite

It seems like once or twice a year (usually in the summer, it seems) I get the notion that I need to find an audiobook to listen to on a car ride.

I was with the little audio’connells in Barnes and Noble and saw the audiobook Cronkite…so I grabbed it.

It was a wonderfully told story (though not always a wonderful story…the man was trusted but far from perfect) and as a student of broadcasting and a lover of history I very much enjoyed the book.

So if you’re looking for a new read, that’s my recommendation.

audio’connell in altoona

Voice Talents Peter K. O'Connell and Wayne Edwards

Fellow faffer Wayne Edwards is the first voice-over talent in the audio’connell travel meet-up series to arrive at a destination on a motorcycle. Yeah, he’s a bad ass!

Of course actually, he’s a very nice guy. He has to be…his wife is Canadian and all Canadians are nice and would only marry nice people. I think it’s like a law or something.

So Wayne was kind enough to join me for lunch at some strangely name restaurant that I’ve never been to before nor have I have heard of it before (I think the name began with a “P”) but we enjoyed ourselves none the less 😉

Thanks Wayne!

i’ve been crushed

Girls Guide to Voice-over

Considering the amazing amount of intelligent and entertaining voice-over talents in this industry, I take it as a special compliment to be invited on to some of the great voice-over podcasts out there.

So I find it an extra special compliment that I was not only invited on to the Girl’s Guide to Voice-over Podcast but that I was chosen as their “Boy Voice-over Crush of the Week”.

I’m pretty sure no woman has ever had a crush on me (including my wife, who woke up in Las Vegas with a hangover, wedding ring and me staring back at her with a goofy smile –j/k).

So anyway, here’s the link to the podcast— please check it out (and thanks to the Voxy Ladies for the invite).

please take my survey about this customer response

I want your opinion. My request is for you to tell me YOUR opinion about the response I received to my complaint with a recent hotel stay. I want to know your reaction to their response. This is strictly a review of how one should or should not respond to a customer complaint.

I will not give you my opinion yet on my reaction to how this was handled. I’d like to hear from you.

Here’s the background.

I had what I consider an unnecessarily bad hotel experience at a Holiday Inn Express in St. Louis, Missouri last month (June). In the scheme of life, these are minor issues except that when you travel a lot, the blatant mistakes are well, blatant.

The response I got to my complaints from the hotel while I was staying there was not what I expected. The hotel did try and fix some of the problems during my stay. In the morning, I received the feedback stated in the response below. Then I received an automated customer feedback request from Holiday Inn (Intercontinental Hotels) right after my stay and I told them all the details.

To my feedback – this was the response I received at 4:00 a.m. ET today:

Dear Mr. O’Connell,

Thank you for contacting Guest Relations regarding your experience with the Holiday Inn Express St. Louis Airport – Riverport, MO. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to bring this matter to our attention, and apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.

It is IHG’s goal to consistently provide superior service and accommodations and your comments are very important to us. The feedback we receive from our valued guests, like you, enables us to target problem areas and take the necessary actions to ensure similar situations can be avoided in the future. We appreciate the candid feedback we receive and welcome any opportunity to improve.

I have forwarded your comments to the hotel a copy of this file has been made available to the General Manager and ownership for their records. I know they share our vision of providing the best guest experience possible, and I am confident they will take the necessary steps to continue to improve their services.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. We value you as our guest and hope you will continue to choose IHG for your future travel needs.

Sincerely,

(Name omitted)
Case Manager
Guest Relations
IHG
Reference No. 37920958

Phone: (omitted)
Fax: (Name omitted)

Americas Region
Email: (omitted)
www.ihg.com

On 6/24/13 5:57 PM, peter@audioconnell.com wrote:

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP FEEDBACK

——————————————————————————–
C O N T A C T I N F O R M A T I O N

——————————————————————————–
Contact Name: Peter O’Connell
Priority Club Number:
Street Address: (omitted)
City: (omitted)
State: (omitted)
Zip Code: (omitted)
Country: United States
Region: UNITED_STATES
Home Phone Number: (omitted)
Email: (omitted)

——————————————————————————–
H O T E L S T A Y I N F O R M A T I O N

——————————————————————————–
Hotel Location: Holiday Inn Express ST. LOUIS AIRPO
Confirmation or Cancellation Number: 69112792
Check-In Date: Jun-18-2013
Check-Out Date: Jun-19-2013
Comment Type: GENERAL_SERVICE
Spoke With Management: Yes
Comment: * The phone in the room was disconnected and broken * The TV changer was broken and not replaced * There were 3 kinds of bugs in the room at 3 different places in the room – When I told the front desk about all this in the morning, the lady only said “It’s a good thing we’re renovating.”

So what would YOUR reaction be?

MEDIA RELEASE – Highlights HIGH FIVE Selects O’Connell for their Audio Publication

BUFFALO, NY, July 8, 2013 – – Little children love having a magazine of their very own! Highlights HIGH FIVE magazine invites preschoolers and young children to explore a world of fun and learning with fresh new stories and activities every month. To encourage independence and help children begin to read, Highlights HIGH FIVE magazine created a special on-line audio version of the subscription-based magazine. Voice-over talent Peter K. O’Connell was recently selected as the male voice talent for Highlights HIGH FIVE magazine’s audio presentation.

O’Connell provides male character voices like “Dad” and “Grandpa” as well as serving as the narrator for some stories and how-to items in Highlights HIGH FIVE magazine’s monthly audio production.

About Highlights HIGH FIVE Magazine

Highlights HIGH FIVE magazine for kindergarteners and preschoolers is filled with features that help build important skills. Each monthly issue brings 40 pages of read-along stories and poems, simple crafts and recipes, learning games, puzzles for beginners and other activities that can set children on the path to becoming a life-long learner. Each issue reinforces skills that prepare preschoolers for reading, math and other areas of learning. Highlights HIGH FIVE also offers positive role models and constructive activities that help build character and self-confidence.

About Peter K. O’Connell

In addition to this most recent narration production for Highlights HIGH FIVE magazine, Peter K. O’Connell’s professional voice-over credits include regional, national and international voice-over productions for companies such as PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), Shell Oil, Pitney Bowes, Bacardi Rum, Deloitte Canada, U.S. Army, Starz Cable Channel, BlueCross BlueShield, SunSetter Awnings, Time Warner Cable, New Jersey Tourism, First Financial Bank, N.A., Harlequin Enterprises, The Buffalo News, Darien Lake Theme Park and Pathmark Supermarkets.

Described as a natural born storyteller, O’Connell’s voice-over productions have been heard around the world in radio and TV commercials, medical narrations, television infomercials, political commercial voice-overs, TV network promos, e-learning narration projects (computer-based training, internet-based training and web-based training), PSA’s, message on-hold as well as other video and media productions.

Known as America’s Friendly, Neighborhood Voice-Over Talent, Peter K. O’Connell owns audio’connell Voice-Over Talent and International Voice Talents, both are divisions of O’Connell Communications, LLC.
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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