I think there are bulletin boards (boards) and interactive forums established for just about every industry and interest on the net and in voiceovers, we have plenty of them. Some of the popular ones dealing with voice over in general (as opposed to animation voice over, etc.) are

• VO-BB.com – Run by my friend and a great female voice talent named DB Cooper, this is (if not THE first) one of the first boards about voice over and likely the best moderated.

• Yahoo Groups Voice Over Board -There are frequently some interesting discussions on this board. It’s certainly time well spent (although I’m not as keen on the graphic format/layout of this board, but its a minor thing).

• Voiceoversavvy.com This is run by the voice talent supported Voice 123 and has more drama in it than a soap opera and more fights than a Rocky movie, more on that in a second

• Voice-overs.com/forum – Voice talent Julie Williams runs this one and it’s fairly new but so far seems to be growing.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of time to spend on forums between work and family, but when I do, it is enjoyable reading…for the most part.

Voice over talents like me don’t work in a building with fellow talents (say, for example, like accountants might or computer technicians might). So these forums are a nice way to chat or communicate or network with fellow pros or the occasional newbie who’s dipping his/her toe into the VO waters. Board participants are usually pretty welcoming, especially if we spot real talent (remember, we’re not competing against our fellow VO’s, we’re competing for the ear…and sometimes against the budget…of the producer.) But if you’re a new voice talent willing to take totally honest criticism and build on it…some boards can be a real learning tool.
But sometimes there is way silly drama in them there posts!

What I try and remind myself when I read some of these voice over board posts is:

• voice talents work alone mostly so they often want/need to have some kind of human contact…even virtual…and thereby can sometimes get a bit too involved in board life

• we are called voice over artists and thereby have our drama built-in…at no extra charge to you the consumer…which may be another reason these posts sometimes get catty or over the top

• people are people and just about any jackass can post on a forum…as I have proven time and time again

But what I have noticed and what has been opined in conversations with my fellow voice over pros is that if you want to the finest in snarky, childish and sometimes boorish voice over forum behavior, head to voiceoversavvy.com.

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of the Voice 123 (V123) system (they own the voiceoversavvy.com board) and had decided not renewed my subscription just before their version 2.0 with SmartCast came out (I just keep the free page). In my opinion, the V123 site is a low ball (cheap price) casting directors’ dream with new “voice talents” (note quotation marks) seemingly willing to work for next to nothing. Other people really like the service and, not that they need it, but I offer God-speed and best wishes.

This board that V123 set up was to include the opportunity not only to participate in discussions about voice over topics but also to share input on the new version 2.0 web site that the company had introduced this summer. As with any beta (new) project, it had trouble at the beginning. Currently there seems to be a great deal of expressed dissatisfaction with the company’s new SmartCast system. It’s only the board’s most recent drama but we”l use it as a point of reference for this blog post.

At first, it seems, the clients (the voice talents who annually pay to be a part of V123) expressed their dissatisfaction (paying clients certainly have that right). But then some voice talents started hurling insults and disparaging the owner and staff to the point where the “Talkback” section of the board had to be shut down. The rest of the board’s forums are open and functioning but the owners had had enough “talkback”.

I don’t blame Voice 123 one bit for closing it down and I am sorry for them for the crap they had to put up with from some bone heads calling themselves VO pros. I am no saint and have been known to hurl a virtual stone or two but some of these posters were making a sport of it and that’s crappy. Not that my opinion counts for anything because based on the customer service I received from V123, they didn’t really like me anyway.

So what does this all mean?

Summary opinion one: The voice talents offering the insults on any boards and within these forums must be forgetting that their name and insulting posts can find their way to casting directors and that they are risking the only brand they have…their name…by coming across as (at best) unprofessional. If I was casting for voice talent and came across the posts of these whiney and carping voice talent posters, I wouldn’t even think of hiring them. Opinions are fine, even impassioned discussion is OK…but whoa on the name calling.

Summary opinion two: while I applaud Voice 123 for trying to adapt to the web 2.0 concept of openness and transparency by having this particular forum on their board, better moderation and even more importantly better customer service to address initial customer complaints would have saved them significant damage to their own brand’s reputation (and make no mistake, the Voice 123 brand IS now damaged). When you are dealing with people who talk for a living as your business’ primary source of revenue, you’d better quickly realize that if you (V123) even appear to screw up…the voice talents ARE going to talk (or post).

Summary opinion three: when the majority (not ALL) of the talents involved in Voice 123 are too willing to work at ANY price and are involved in a service (V123) that is just a costly cattle call, at least a few of your clientele (the voice talents) are likely going to lack a certain maturity both personally and professionally. With some immature clients, Voice 123 was bound to attract immature posters.

Tags: commentary, internet, marketing, media, technology, voice 123, voice actors, voice casting, voiceover, voiceover advice by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
7 Comments »

If you’re at a stage in your life, like me, where you’ve mostly stopped caring about what other people think of you (call it maturity, experience, selective amnesia) then you too can be brave and identify yourself publicly as a new technology idiot.

Pick your new technology and I’ll almost guarantee you’ll have to explain it to me twice. I don’t know if I suffer from bad wiring (I used to blame it on my floppy disc but we don’t have floppy discs to kick around anymore)…whatever, it’s the way I am.

So I am continually indebted to Lee LeFever and his Common Craft Show for again presenting a 3 minute explanation on new technology, this time about Social Bookmarking.

His videos, which I have referenced here before, are always entertaining.

Technology and gadget makers often focus too much on the “what” and “how” and not enough on the “who” (us mere civilians who will be using the “what” and need to SIMPLY understand the “how”.

I am the “who” (and so are you) and we “whos” owe our thanks to Lee LeFever.*
* Apologies to Dr. Seuss and the Whos of Whoville

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

There’s been a fair amount of chatter on blogs I subscribe to and also featured on pages like digg and reddit about social networks. I’ve even addressed it briefly here.

The hottest brands at the epicenter of this cataclysmic topic are Facebook and Linked In. Should you be in just one, should you be in both, which is better?

I’d not given the debate much thought because I am in both. But in reading Christopher Penn’s blog today, he very fairly sums up each network’s value.

As I jokingly chided him in his comments section…if goes around calmly, accurately and succinctly summarizing internet debates like this, the internet will fall apart, we’ll have nothing left to debate!

Great post Chris, thanks!

Tags: advertising, blogs, commentary, internet, marketing, media, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
Comments Off on a debate without presidential candidates

Not one to shy away from blatant, crass commercialism (what commercial voice talent would?), I have been Simpsonized for your viewing pleasure.

The home of the Whopper® has sponsored this little device that supposedly takes a picture you submit and reproduces it in the style of a Simpson cartoon.

The movie employees voice actors so I suppose their is some connection to this blog.

Well, they got the hair right.

Tags: character voices, commentary, marketing, peter o'connell, silliness, technology, voice actors, voiceover by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
1 Comment »

I’ve often thought that if employees at a company replaced their own name with the name of the company where they currently worked, the employee would treat customers in a totally different way (more better even ;). I think that’s especially important in the increasing virtual business world we all work within, where we buy things from telephone operators, not from stores.

The following story I’ll share now took place today. It involved me and Sage, a software provider who makes the contact management software ACT!

This story is for exposition purposes only, offering my first hand account as a long time ACT! customer (including many upgraded versions and even securing corporate licenses for some of my marketing clients). It’s not written in anger or with a desire for vindication but it’s certainly meant as an example of how easy it is to sabotage a customer relationship if it’s not “your” name on the door.

I have a Treo 650 phone on which I often run my business (voiceover is a very mobile profession…always has been). When I bought the phone, I made a separate decision to also upgrade my contact management system so I bought ACT! 2006.

The purchase of ACT! 2006 was a disappointment in that to get questions about the software answered after 14 days, I’d have to buy a service agreement. I did because it is not easy software to use even having used past versions. After I got my some of my initial questions answered, I never used that service again. I wanted to manage my business, not my software. Oh well, live and learn, right?

At the time of the ACT! 2006 purchase I did not buy the ACT for Palm OS (might not have even been available at the time, come to think about it) which is software that would much of the functionality look and feel of the ACT! 2006 to be integrated on to my Treo 650. As you can imagine, that would be a great convenience.

When I had a Palm Pilot (another hand held contact management device, sans phone and internet like the Treo 650 has now) I had used a similar ACT for Palm software and I liked it very much. So I decided today that I was ready to buy the new ACT for Palm OS.

There was a catch though. My Treo 650 is almost three years old and I may be upgrading that phone to a Treo 700 or 750. I needed to make sure this version of ACT for Palm OS software would work in a newer Treo phones…I did not want to buy another version of ACT for Palm OS software if I did buy a new phone.

Buying Experience #1
So with that in mind, I called ACT! The first sales representative to whom I explained all this advised me of two things very clearly:

1. The current version of ACT for Palm OS would work on my current phone and the newer Treo versions
2. I had already purchased ACT for Palm OS.

Number two was quite a surprise to me I told her and she sent me over to customer service so that I could find out where my ACT for Palm OS software went…it certainly didn’t arrive in my mail.

Buying Experience #2
Customer service said she didn’t know what the other operator was talking about as no such purchase appeared on my record. She sent me back to sales so that I could buy ACT! for Palm OS software. The wait on hold was longer than with the first call to the sales department but eventually I had…

Buying Experience #3
This sales representative confirmed that:

1. I hadn’t purchased ACT! for Palm OS software
2. This current version of ACT! for Palm OS software would NOT work in the newer versions of the Treo phones

He further added that ACT! would be coming out with an upgraded version of the ACT! for Palm OS software that WOULD work in the newer Treo phones in the next four months.

I appreciated that update and asked if I did purchase the ACT! for Palm OS software today, would I be given the free upgrade to the version for newer Treos since I didn’t want to spend twice for basically the same software with minor tweaks for the newer Treos. He said he understood that logic and needed to check on that with “a manager”.

He came back on the line having spoken to his manager to advise me that he really wasn’t sure when the newer version would come out, he said he had only heard that “four month” time frame and nothing official had come out from ACT! so no, I would not be getting the free upgrade.

Big yellow flag for me!

Not having had such a great experience to this point on this call and because my original ACT! 2006 software purchase (and service agreement fiasco) came flooding back to me, I did not buy.

I don’t know if I should ever buy from them. I was a disciple of their software for years…Goldmine or Outlook or anything else couldn’t match ACT! Now I don’t think I could in good conscience direct someone to ACT! based on my most recent experiences.

I’ll leave it to you to tell me whether I am wise to avoid this company in the future, if I am over reacting or if this is just the way business is headed and I am expect too much regarding good service anymore. Right now, I think ACT! blew it with me.

Tags: commentary, marketing, technology by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
4 Comments »

A recent Harris Poll survey asked consumers the following question:

“We would like you to think about brands or names of products and services you know. Considering everything, which three brands do you consider the best?”

They’ve been asking this question since 1995. These are spontaneous replies. Respondents are not read or shown a list of brand names. Here’s the entire story and here are the top 10 winners with their 2006 ranking in parenthesis:

1. Coca Cola (3)
2. Sony (1)
3. Toyota (4)
4. Dell (2)
5. Ford (5)
6. Kraft Foods (9)
7. Pepsi Cola (not in top 10)
8. Microsoft (not in top 10)
9. Apple (10)
10. Honda (6)

Good news for Coca-Cola, bad news for General Electric (they were 8th in 2006, this year they did not crack the top10) and even better or worse news for some advertising agencies depending on where their client finished on the list.

I talk about brands all the time because it’s critical for the financial success of every business including the voice over industry. It projects the identity of a business in the mind’s eye and heart of its intended audience. Some people think this only means a great logo or a flashy web site but those are only two channels through which the marketing message gets sent.

Others think you can buy branding with enough money spent on advertising. No doubt there is a bit of weight to this theory, certainly a consideration based on the top 10 finishers…..but it is NOT the whole story.

While you need money to expose your brand and marketing themes to the masses, there are a variety of simple, low cost, even guerilla techniques any size business can apply in EVERY phase of their business. There are hundreds of books with the steps to make it happen.

From answering the phone to how to handle complaints, to invoicing to exterior landscape to business cards…everything about your customer’s experience and interaction with your company involves continually establishing, maintaining and/or changing their opinion about your business in their mind’s eye and heart. It simply never ends.

Looking at it that way, you can see branding often has little to do with a logo.

It has a lot to do with the company attitude – towards its customers, its industry and its own culture. Corporate culture is a part of branding? Oh yeah. When it comes to branding your company, start from the inside…then head out. Yes even the smallest company has an attitude and your customer both perceive and shape it.

So take a look at these companies….think about how you have interacted with them in your daily life…what makes you buy their product, feel safe about ingesting their food or giving it to your family, spending large chunks of money of their devices? Is it simply price? Or is it trust? Is it comfort? Is there a “coolness” factor involved? What makes them cool?

Now think about how you came to feel that way….how did you evolve (or in a negative case dissolve) into that perception?

From all that, what can you apply to your business? Yes you, the non multi-billion dollar, non-thousands of employees, non summer home on the Cape – you. Your business.

My point is the principles that are implemented by these top 10 brands are basic and can be applied to your business too but you must THINK about them, consider them and decide which to apply. They won’t all work and some you will not be able to afford. But some you CAN apply and some you CAN afford and some (many) you are NOT doing now.

So first think, then do. Enjoy the process…its one of the reasons you went into business for yourself in the first place.

(All brand trademarks and copyrights acknowledged)

Tags: advertising, commentary, commercials, marketing, media by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »