I was visiting LinkedIn and realized I hadn’t spent much time connect with folks within the groups to which I belong. Specifically, I was reading about folks in the two University of Dayton alumni groups on LinkedIn.

I’m from the UD class of 1986 which does not seem like twenty-three years, one wife, two kids and twenty five pounds ago, but it is.

While I guess it shouldn’t have surprised me – given the news for the past year – I was taken aback by all the UD graduates who are out of work…talented, experienced folks, not simply new graduates (who I’m sure are experiencing job search challenges too.

I’ve got very little to offer these University of Dayton folks who are out of a job right now, no magic pill or super advice.

But I do have my networks.

There’s my LinkedIn network, my Facebook, network, my extensive off-line professional network of colleagues, clients and friends. That’s another thing twenty-three years since graduating from college gets you.

So I posted in both University of Dayton LinkedIn groups the following:

Hi Folks:

I was reading through many of the LinkedIn bios of University of Dayton grads on both UD alumni groups and WOW, are a lot of alumni (talented, experienced UD grads) out of work. This sucks but I’m not willing to just ignore the problem without trying – even in a small way – to help.

I’m fortunate; my voiceover business is going well as is my marketing business. But I understand how hard lean times are so I’ll simply offer this:

IF any of you are in the fields of broadcasting, media, advertising, marketing or web and you want to connect with me, feel free. I’ll accept your connection – even if we never met on campus. You’re a UD grad and that’s good enough for me.

THEN if you need or want an introduction to anyone in my network, ask. I’ll set it up. I’ll open the door – your talent and knowledge will have to keep it open. But I am glad to help get you started.

If you’re in engineering or law (or some other major that didn’t mentioned), my connections simply aren’t as strong but if you think I can help…I will try.

I have no idea if this will work for you or not but the way I see it, it’s a start, it’s free and something good may come from it. In any event, I hope it helps.

Best always,
– Peter

I’ve already made one connection with a person looking for some help and if that’s the only success, then great.

It helped me remember that we are not helpless to help. We ALL have connections but we all don’t think about them and how they can help others (hey, all this just occurred to me today and we’ve been in an economic meltdown for more than a few months).

So my question to you is: what will you do to help? I don’t mean you helping UD grads, unless you want to. It can really be anybody.

But you have to reach out to them…they don’t know you can help. Sometimes, like in this example, it can be electronically by pressing a few buttons. You can find people to help at your school, your neighborhood, your church…or something else, you choose.

And it’s not a heavy load- all I promise is an introduction to someone in my network for people who have shared a common experience with me: we all graduated from the University of Dayton.

In this experience, all I needed to do was realize I could do something…and I did.

So can you, this is just a friendly reminder.

Tags: commentary, community, facebook, linkedin, social media, social networking, university of dayton by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Do you have one yet? Some people were so excited last week when they came out that they proudly stayed up until midnight to grab theirs when it was first available.

I did not do that. In fact, until I read it on Twitter (which smacks of a bit of irony) I didn’t know Facebook was offering such a tool. And for a couple of days, I thought about it a bit.

Please don’t misunderstand, I don’t mean I spent days thinking about it. I mean when I read about it in a conversation I’d think about it – was it even worthwhile, what was the point- and then move on.

While briefly on the computer Sunday, I remembered, signed in and went to www.facebook.com/username and secured www.facebook.com/peterkoconnell

Overly impressed? You shouldn’t be.

Because a good portion of my voice over brand is…well, me, using my name makes sense. audio’connell voice over talent is a good portion of my brand too but Facebook is all about the person, not so much corporate names.

Why the K? A number of reasons and I’ll explain them briefly because it seems like 1 out of 3 people are kind enough to ask what the “K” stands for.

First, it’s my middle initial representing my middle name: Kinney.

Second, my middle name was also my Mother’s maiden name and I am the only one of the children in my family to carry the last names of both parents.

Third, I think maiden names sometime get the short shrift so I like to promote it a bit (although I am old fashioned, I think wives should take the husband’s last name- let the rebuttals begin!)

Finally, I’ve always used my middle initial on business documents and contracts (even the full middle name on my college diploma).

So you’d think with the preceding rather vain explanation (me, me me!), I would have been there right at midnight a few nights ago on Facebook to secure my spot.

Nah. I use Facebook mostly for fun, not so much for business (although a few folks realize I do voiceovers on Facebook and some business gets done, yea!) So a vanity URL doesn’t have as much branding value as it might elsewhere. But since its free and there may be a chance to do some business, I grabbed it.

For strictly social users, I can see the value of more easily directing friends to your page. So if you haven’t been vain on Facebook today, here’s your chance.

And if you haven’t yet, I hope you’ll friend me on Facebook and all of your social networks.

AND, report back here on what your new Facebook vanity URL is now.

Tags: branding, commentary, facebook, marketing, social media, social networking by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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Today my friend and client Leesa Barnes came to Buffalo to speak at a lunch seminar hosted by the Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives. She didn’t come in from her hometown Toronto either, she flew in via Las Vegas having attended and presented at the National Association of Broadcasters convention there.

Having gone through airplane connection hell in her travels back, Leesa tweeted me this AM asking if I would be able to pick her up at Buffalo Niagara International Airport. After we agreed to the fare… (just kidding!)

Glad to see her in action, presenting “Be Marketing Fit: 3 Ways to Get Active Using Social Media”. The 30+ in attendance really enjoyed her content as did I.

Leesa and I first met up in Toronto when Social Media and Social Networking were first starting via an international on-line networking group called Ryze. The Toronto Ryze chapter actually had in-person meetings and I would go up to TO and make contacts. That group eventually faded away.

Then she told me about the first Podcamp Toronto, which was great. Subsequently I’ve done voice over work for her podcasting clients and her podcasts as well.

But there you have another use for Twitter and Social Media…hailing a cab, or a ride anyway, from the airport. Monetize that, pal! 🙂

Tags: commentary, podcamptoronto, podcasting, social media, social networking, twitter by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
3 Comments »

As a courtesy, I’ll say upfront that if you’ve no idea what Twitter is or is all about then this contest I’m about to reference regarding CNN and the actor Ashton Kutcher probably won’t interest you. If you like topical stories or information about social media, it might.

Oprah’s name and that of Britney Spears will come up too. Oh, so NOW you ARE interested!

The deal is that Kutcher challenged CNN and Ted Turner to a race of sorts: be the first person or organization (as CNN is a thing not a person within the noun family) to reach 1,000,000 followers on Twitter. Late Thursday night, early Friday morning, Kutcher beat CNN to the 1 million followers mark. Britney Spears tried to ride this race’s coat tails and evidently came in third without so much as breaking a sweat.

As new people are obviously joining Twitter at a staggering rate with no followers, with my 280 followers currently, I did not come in in last place in the Twitter follower race. Phew! You can find me @audioconnell.

Kutcher has promised to donate 10,000 mosquito nets if he won. And when he won he showed up a donation check for $100,000 to be donated to the “Malaria No More”‘ fund. That’s nice.

Hitching her wagon to the Twitter train, Oprah announced she opened up a Twitter account and got 30,000+ followers before her first post which is supposed to come during a taping of her show Friday. Bet she sets the record for fastest to reach 1,000,000 followers. I also expect to see the Twitter Fail Whale a whole lot in the coming days.

What does this all mean?

Do these millions of new followers some of whom have to be joining Twitter for the first time have any idea why they are following these folks let alone what the service is and how it can be used? Using Twitter is not rocket science but I sure feel strongly that some of these people now joining Twitter are doing it because Ashton, Oprah or Britney said to and that’s where it will end for many of them.

It feels like one of those cross roads moments or possibly the perfect storm for Twitter. Tons of free publicity from a famous movie star, an international cable news organization and the most popular broadcaster and trendsetter in U.S. daytime television; to get just one of those parties to support them, most companies would be thrilled.

But Twitter is supposed to be about community. One follows other Twitter users because they think there will be interesting discussion based on content, the “name” or the “brand” matters little if nothing interesting is tweeted.

Some of my 280 followers don’t get that. They want to sell me something and think I’ll immediately follow them if they follow me. I don’t. I check their profile and only if it interests me do I follow them. I feel they are not in it for the “community” attitude of Twitter and therefore seem disingenuous to me. If I want a commercial, I’ll watch TV.

What will all these new users mean to social media as these new users get their first taste of it through Twitter and the links that often accompany tweets? Probably broader acceptance if these new users go on to follow more than just Britney, Oprah and Ashton (after all, if Britney, Oprah and Ashton lose interest and tweet less frequently, their followers will have less and less to follow).

Through the links in tweets I’ve been exposed to some interesting resources in social media, marketing, advertising, voice over and my local community that I would not have otherwise found. I’ve also followed some of the people on Twitter because of their content and they offer even more content. That is useful to me. I’ve no real idea if I’m saying anything of use to others…I guess I hope I am but I’m also not losing sleep over it.

I’ve also un-followed people whose content didn’t interest me after a while or those folks who offer nothing more than 140 characters of self-aggrandizing commercials. It’s a bit of a balancing act to gain the content that you want and don’t want on Twitter while not allowing it to be a complete time suck.

I guess as a crossroads moment, it’s an evolution for the service itself and for social media. Sometimes it takes famous peoples’ involvement to help the general public be aware or take the time to learn about new products or services like Twitter and Social Media. As there are no rules per se with Social Media, how these many millions of new users will drive the service is an unknown.

Twitter probably won’t be the same after all this and I guess that’s as it should be.

Tags: audio'connell voice over talent, branding, commentary, commercials, community, internet, social media, social networking, twitter by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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I do enjoy the dust up of opinions caused by the discussion of Social Media and Social Networking and how to use it from a marketing perspective and from a user’s perspective.

There’s….

“The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread” Tribe

“The Social Media/Networking is a Total Time Suck” Tribe

“The Occasionally Dip My Toe in The Water” Tribe

…and the always popular

“Prove It To Me” Tribe

There is always a few with such strong opinions (usually negative) that I get a kick out of it. Make no mistake, I myself do not shy away from strong opinions while also knowing that when I issue absolutes, I risk a little egg on my face.

As usually, I’m always the odd man out as I belong to the…

“Social Media/Networking is a Part of My Overall Marketing Mix” Tribe

Ours is a small tribe made up of folks who actually write and live by a marketing plan that has objectives, goals, targeted audiences and measures against it.

Some in our tribe do not use Social Media at all…but they can still be in our Tribe and not the “Time Suck” tribe because they have reviewed – not unilaterally dismissed – Social Media tools and decided it doesn’t work for their marketing objectives.

Smart marketers, whatever their business, adapt and study a changing landscape. Today’s change includes understanding and usually adapting to having Social Media and Social Networking as a part of the marketing mix.

The Social Media marketing mix is like an old family recipe – you make up the ingredients and portions based on some basic assumptions. A cake will need things like flour, eggs, water etc., but you may decide to add a little bit more of this or that or bake for a shorter or longer time than is standard.

With Social Media and Social Networking – it’s like an internet cake. Basic ingredients include having a free account on the most popular Social Media outlets: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, FriendFeed. Again, it’s free – the worst that could happen is that you get some SEO love from your account if all you ever do is set up a basic informational profile.

Then, if you want to dig deeper, you can figure out how these services and others (like blogs, podcasts, video sharing) might or can benefit your marketing objectives. Because your time is valuable, part of how you assess the marketing value of these tools is to decide how much time you can and are willing to commit to their execution. Time is as much a marketing expense to a business as the actual layout of cash.

If the answer is yes – we/me should do this and I can do this – great, carry on. If the answer is no, it doesn’t fit with our objectives and budget (primarily time but also possibly money) – great, carry on. In both cases, you really studied what you need to know about the tools and compared them to your marketing objectives and made a smart business decision.

You were not simply dismissive!

It seems simple but that process is a fail for many small business people because their busy-ness (not their business) helps them to avoid learning new things and ultimately they seem resistant to change…they enjoy the comfort zone of the familiar.

To them I wish nothing but a comfortable and obviously unplanned snooze.

Tags: branding, commentary, facebook, internet, linkedin, marketing, social media, social networking, twitter by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
6 Comments »

[audio:http://audioconnell.com/clientuploads/mp3/voxmarketising_episode104_090315.mp3]
Click here to download the episode!

â–º (0:00) Show Open: (Voxmarketising Episode #104, Show date: March 15,2009)

â–º (1:00) Welcome:

â–º (1:41) Oversight (Stuff You Might Have Missed):
• Mitch Joel – Don’t force your decision about marketing to consumers using social media based on YOUR uses of social media…focus on their usage of social media. common sense adoption of social media into each consumer or each company’s marketing strategy towards consumers
• Facebook has a new home page or should we call it Twitterbook? The Advance Guard’s Facebook White Paper
• In Memoriam: Paul Harvey and Brian James (Facebook link)

â–º (7:14) VMT Interview (On voiceover or marketing or advertising or all of the above):
Seattle, WA based male voice over talent Jeffrey Kafer

â–º (17:12) Brain Spanking (Funny, Weird, Annoying News of the Day But Stuff That Usually Makes You Think):
• How Google Got Its Colorful Logo
• Review– How to Work a Room: Your Essential Guide to Savvy Socializing.

â–º (20:01) Show Close:
Comment Line – +01 716-989-6151
Email – peter at audioconnell dot com
Blog – audioconnell.com/blog (Subscribe)
Twitter – @audioconnell
Add us to your Linked In or Facebook

Tags: audio'connell voice over talent, commentary, peter o'connell, podcast, podcast episodes, radio, social media, social networking, twitter, voice talent, voiceover, voxmarketising podcast by peter k. o'connell, your friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent
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