Something monumental (not really) happened recently that shook the social media world to its core (ha!).

My Twitter follower count went over 1,000 followers and my “Likes” on Facebook for my Peter K. O’Connell – Male Voice Talent page went over 100. My friends on my Peter K. O’Connell Facebook page is somewhere around 700 with a total of over 800 on LinkedIn. I’m just getting started on Google+.

So if you are in there somewhere, thanks. If you’re not, that’s OK too. And if you said “who cares?!”, I understand that too.

But it made me think of a question that has been asked before but I think still plagues folks…in Social Media, does size matter?

Nope. It does not.

It’s about the “who” not the “how many”.

I have a VO friend and a Social Media maven who has well over 1,000 LinkedIn friends (these all-welcoming connectors are called Lions). This person is actually feeling overwhelmed with all the connections. Many of the connections are not terribly applicable to his voiceover business. He was thinking about purging his list a bit…nothing personal, just practical, I think.

This person didn’t make a mistake per se in being an Open Connector, I started out as one too. And who knows where some of those currently inapplicable connections could lead someday.

But with time a precious commodity for all of us; it seems to me that making connections with people who are current friends, industry contacts or people who might be a prospect or a contact to a prospect make the most business sense for social media.

If you just want to be pals for the sake of being pals on Social Media, that’s OK. But if you are using Social Media as a business tool, as I am, connecting with people who can offer you an opportunity someday and to whom you (me) can offer help seems to me to make both business and social sense.

Tags: commentary, social media, social networking by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I’m sure there was some kind of furor about the community pages when they debuted – I guess by my research – about a year ago. I don’t remember caring much about the topic then but I do remember hearing about them. I just didn’t think it would ever relate to me.

Except now audio’connell Voice Over Talent has one and there’s nothing I can do about it.

This actually doesn’t make me happy.

This is how Facebook defines Community Pages:

“Community pages — the pages that link from fields you fill out in your profile — are for general topics and all kinds of unofficial but interesting things. You “like” these pages to connect with them, but they aren’t run by a single author, and they don’t generate News Feed stories.”

So when I saw in a Google Alert that I had this community page (which I immediate thought I had set up some long time ago and just forgot about – I’m getting to that age now) I wanted to make some changes to it. Which let me to this little Facebook provided factoid:

“Can I edit the content on a community page?
No. Community pages display Wikipedia articles about the topics they represent when this information is available, as well as related posts from people on Facebook in real time. At this time, there is no way for you to add your own pictures or edit information on these pages.”

If one uses social media to control branding (as much as possible) this lack of control is not a good thing. I don’t think I like it and at this moment it is a pretty negative element of Facebook in my eyes. To be continued, I guess.

Tags: commentary, facebook, social media, social networking, social networks and links by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Truth is this was a simple idea that I should have caught on to long ago but last week is when inspiration hit. My hope now is to give you an idea that you can customize to hopefully benefit your business.

I graduated from the University of Dayton in 1986 which didn’t seem like a long time ago at the time.

Looking at LinkedIn recently I was checking on UD groups and such and saw some called “Business Connects”; these were city specific networking groups made up of UD Alumni in that city.

Ooof! Simple. On-line. Free. Double ooof!

Now I had tried creating an in-person UD alumni group in Buffalo and long story short, it no longer exists but not for lack of alumni interest.

So I created University of Dayton Business Connect Western New York. This group would include any UD alumni who have or currently do live anywhere roughly between Buffalo, New York and Rochester, New York. But those are the only requirements (so if you don’t meet the requirements, don’t ask to join cause I’ll say no – but I’ll say it politely and with a smile).

I gotta think that if you graduated from a College or High School, something like this exists BUT if it doesn’t, I can tell you it is not that tough to slap one of these groups together. If you are willing to spend a couple of hours prospecting, ‘er, researching your school name and your city name on LinkedIn, I bet you can find folks who you can invite to join.

Over about 2-3 days, there are 11 members in our group. A ton? No, but a start. I’m not sure if I can give you a better example of social media at work.

To be fair, I have no idea how successful this could be but I have nothing to risk and individually and as a group we have everything to gain.

Do you think this would be worth doing in your area for your school?

Tags: commentary, community, linkedin, networking, social media, social networking by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Voice Talent Peter K. O'Connell with fellow Voice Talent and Founder of Voices of Vision Shawn Maroney

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, Toronto is one of my favorite cities in the world.

Shawn Maroney is an example why. As a Canadian voice talent attending VOICE 2010, he thought to himself that something like that event should take place in Canada and from June to September he set about to make it happen – Voices of Vision.

Because of personal commitments, I couldn’t attend the Friday and Saturday events but I was able to attend the mixer.

It was a great night – enjoying time with old friends and new – talking voice over all night long. Thanks Shawn for having the vision.

Voice Talent Peter K. O'Connell with Voice Actor and Coach Deb Munroe

Voice Over Talents Peter K. O'Connell and Patrick Sweeney

Voices.com Co-Founder Stephanie Ciccarelli with Voice Talents Peter K. O'Connell and Elaine Singer

Voice Talents Tom Cook, Jodi Krangle and Dan Lenard

Voice Over Talents Peter K. O'Connell and Jodi Krangle - a great friend to voxmarketising.com

Tags: commentary, social networking, voice actors, voice casting, voice talent, voiceover, voiceover meet-ups by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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If you are in or around the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area and have a new or continuing interest in social media as it pertains to you life (business or personal) I highly recommend you attend Podcamp Philly 2010.

Of course if you have a Podcamp ANYWHERE near you, I recommend you attend it.

The cost is only $20 (which basically weeds out the real attenders from the pretenders and makes headcount more efficient for the volunteer organizers) You can sign up HERE.

Tags: blogs, commentary, community, facebook, google, internet, linkedin, marketing, podcamp, podcampphilly, podcast, podcasting, social media, social networking, technology, yahoo, youtube by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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The one that started it all, Podcamp Boston, will celebrate its fifth anniversary this Saturday and Sunday, September 25 & 26, 2010 at the Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center (yes, you read that right).

That’s the good news. The bad news is it looks to be sold out and there is a wait list for tickets. So I guess blog posts like these for their event don’t seem so necessary anymore.

Well, good luck to all involved anyway.

Tags: blogs, branding, community, facebook, google, internet, linkedin, marketing, podcampboston, podcasting, social media, social networking, technology, twitter, yahoo, youtube by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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