The talented LeFever family (husband Lee and wife Sachi) have produced another Common Craft show that often explains services in social media more clearly and creatively than I’ve found anywhere.

They’ve done it again, this time all about Twitter.

I (audioconnell) am still figuring out how this tool can work for me and I wouldn’t say I am active with it but I am trying to see how it fits with me and I fit with it.

But the fun is in the trying and, because of the Common Craft show, the learning. Enjoy.

Tags: commentary, internet, marketing, media, social networking, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If you know the medical or psychological term for the feeling you get when you watch a function or service or job you really have an abiding passion and respect for just be ripped apart agonizingly slowly and painfully, please let me know.

Because that’s the word I would use to describe what all voice talents and on-air radio staffers have been feeling watching radio’s long enduring death spiral. I think we’re closer to the last third of the spiral than the first third of the spiral now though. The money is really running out for broadcast companies.

Not to harp on all the reasons most of us in the business know about but in case you don’t, radio listenership and usage is way down, that brings down ratings and advertisers won’t pay for a less useful marketing channel. The competition in the media world is too big. And radio companies over paid for their properties and are saddled with mind numbing debt.

Sales people (many of whom are hired as a first job out of college and are directed to a telephone and a phone book and ordered to “sell!”) aren’t coming up with the ad dollars.

The biggest line item in every budget is salaries. And the first people to get cut (excluding sales people but that’s always been a revolving door) are the on-air talent.

Clear Channel fired Rocky Allen at WPLJ and John Gambling on WOR both powerhouse stations in New York (the latest examples). Less known (but not necessarily less talented) names continue to be felled by HR in markets across the country. No one is safe and most sad of all is that the audience seems indifferent to the loss. There’s a full body paper cut for you.

I haven’t been on the air in years but it still remains one of my most favorite jobs. That and production director for a radio station. It was creative, it was fast, you interacted with the audience….that was a gift. If you’ve worked in radio, didn’t you feel the same way?

Sure, pay was lousy and you worked with a few idiots. But I have yet to see a job that didn’t have those issues…even now and I own my own companies!

But much of what was great about radio for those of us on air has changed. More syndicated programming covers our local airwaves with names like Delilah, John Tesh and Ryan Seacrest. Bland, awful stuff. But it costs less than local, real bodies running the board at your station.

Maybe I’m the only one who notices all this and who cares but if I’m not, I really would love to get your take (short or long) on all this. Angry? Resigned? Saddened? Frustrated? Past it? Let me know. Thanks.

Tags: advertising, announcers, commentary, commercials, marketing, media, peter o'connell, radio, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Some thoughts for your day…

Can Kodak rise from the ashes because of a discussion on a bulletin board?

If you’re following someone on Twitter who advises that they really like a product, are you more likely to buy it?

Does a blog post now make a bigger impression than a full page ad in the New York Times?

Every business owner is a marketer and thereby a brand guardian and promoter. Whether you are an accountant, a day care owner, a sign maker or a voice over talent, you either own or manage a brand through which a product or service is delivered.

In the good old days (which were only a few years ago) a radio campaign, a direct mail campaign, a series of print ads or a spot run on TV could help you gain brand recognition (depending on your audience and marketing budget…this is all broad brush stroke stuff here folks, not enough time for minute detail).

But as you may have realized or read, the tools of social media (or the practice of social networking) have thrown into a marketer’s mix such microscopic audience groups that knowing what it could mean to your brand is a bit unnerving.

There is reason to believe, therefore, that social networks could be killing branding as we all know it and practice it. And that, I’m guessing, is something you can understand could directly impact how you market your business, no matter the size.

In the Harvard Business Review, there’s a very engaging article (at least it was to me) about the impact social networks are having on branding. I encourage you to read it and then daydream.

Think about how you might need to change your current marketing planning, your messaging or your presence in the world of social networking. But be proactive as well as reactive. The sound you hear on your business door is opportunity…and it’s knocking.

And while many of you may have trouble attending logistically, I encourage any who can to check out Mitch Joel’s upcoming full day seminars on Social Media Marketing presented by the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada.

Tags: advertising, commentary, marketing, media, social networking by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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In what is arguably an exercise in either search engine optimization or humongous vanity, I very infrequently check the position of my name on Google.

Because my name is a key element of the branding of my voice over business, I think it’s a good idea to know where I stand.

I know that for many industry key words, like voice over talent, Google likes me just fine, ranking me in the first three pages (first page being best).

But where I would like to ensure I am also well known, my name, I’m doing pretty well as far as Google is concerned as well (at least as of this moment, these things do change).

Now the ultimate test of SEM prowess (read: enormous ego) is typing in the key words on the Google home page and not hitting the button “search” but rather “I’m feeling lucky” which leads the visitor directly to the domain of the top ranked site for those keywords.

For company branding, I’m right there with audio’connell, audio’connell Voice Over Talent and the like.

Like wise for Peter K. O’Connell, Peter O’Connell…number one. Well that’s good.

And while I’m not number one for “O’Connell” I am on the first page, which I’m cool with.

What this exercise did teach me though is that I am no Madonna.

If you Google the name “Peter” I am not on the first page or the fiftieth page or even the last page (which for Google I guess is one hundred). Peter Tork’s web page (he of “Monkees” fame) is listed but not me. Not once. So there, Herr Hubris, take that!

Peter Coyote is the first voice talent that comes up under “Peter” on Google and that’s not until page thirteen (the one hundred and twenty ninth most popular “Peter” on Google.) But he should be there…he’s one of my favorite voice talents, anyway….loved when he announced the Oscars a few year back.

So I guess I have my SEO, SEM and PR work cut out for me. And that’s OK, otherwise I’d get complacent and that is not a place I’d like to be ranked first.

Oh, by the way if you do Google the name “Peter” and you do scroll through all the pages to find me….we need to help find you a hobby 🙂

BUT, I do want to know where you ranked on Google in your name searches! Do tell!

Tags: commentary, google, internet, marketing, search engine marketing, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If you have a web site and you want to be found, you understand how Google is currently the world’s primary search engine when it come to marketing or optimization (Search Engine Marketing or Search Engine Optimization ).

Microsoft’s search engine, MSN, is by most accounts the third man in a two man race between Google and its waaay back in second place competitor, Yahoo. You may be aware that Microsoft decided this week it didn’t want to be an also ran anymore and that MSN wasn’t going to be a player on its own. Microsoft submitted an unsolicited offer for over $44 billion to buy Yahoo. Yahoo, whose financial health isn’t the strongest, is deciding what it wants to do.

For internet users and for business people, the prospect of this type of change could be a big deal.

I have the gall to comment on such a humongous business deal not because I am so connected in the tech world or so incredibly web savvy but rather because search engines are a valued part of my voice over business. Mine is a web-based business, primarily, and as such depends in some measure on my search engine success.

So as a point of reference I shall offer up some general statistics to let you know what this proposed merger means to my business regarding search engines. And don’t worry, these will be easily relatable statistics that won’t make your eye bleed.

From January 1, 2007 – January 1, 2008, the following were the search engines that guided the most visitors to my voice over business web site, audio’connell.com

1. Google 2,833
2. Yahoo 173
3. AOL 58
4. MSN 37

Quick math will tell you that Yahoo, AOL and MSN combined don’t total even 10% of the visitors guided to my web site by Google. So what’s the near-term impact of the merger to my business (especially since I own no stock in any of these companies)?

Nothing.

It may make good business sense for Yahoo and Microsoft (or it may not) but unless they come up with some amazing search engine idea that can blow the wheels off Google, it won’t help my business. It won’t hurt it either.

I’m just one business example however and I’d love to hear your comments on how this merger would (or would not) impact your web based business based on your search engine traffic.

Tags: commentary, google, marketing, search engine marketing, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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My congratulations to little Brian McGuire of Mrs. Smith’s 3rd grade art class in Ottumwa, Iowa who was chosen among all the 3rd grade school art students in the country as the winner of this logo design contest.

Brian wins a pair of tickets to the tailgate party for Super Bowl 43 (at the Hy Vee Arena in Des Moines, not Tampa where the actual game will be played) and a Super Bowl 43 baseball cap.

The comments above are, of course, a joke.

I’d like to say so is the logo but no, that’s the real logo unveiled tonight by NBC.

Please keep this blog post away from any professional graphic artists or even….anyone with the ability to draw a straight line. Artists are very sensitive people and somebody got paid to design that…thing!

Upon further review, this design sucks worst of all.

Tags: logo design, marketing, media by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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