So, I keep seeing this question pop up on various social networking groups…
“Are you on Twitter?”
Well, yes, I have a Twitter account. @ISDNVoiceover
And I have people who actively follow my tweets. Or have at least clicked on the link to Follow Me. And many of them will probably see this post when it gets fed to the various places it gets fed to when it is published.
But am I ON Twitter? Not very much.
I still don’t get it. Unless I am using it all wrong, it seems like a pull website. Where I have to go to it and pull the information. OK, Facebook is that way too, but for some reason I WANT to go to Facebook and check out what is happening. I just don’t find myself drawn to Twitter the same way.
Perhaps I just need someone to break it down for me. Talk to me like I’m six years old. Wait, the six year olds probably don’t need to be told. It is now in their DNA.
Want to see some of the most interesting, clever, stylish or funny of the new ads (mostly video, but some print too) being produced around the world? They are even including a random iPhone app of the week (what about my droid app of the week?).
Sign up to get Out to Launch – another of the multitude of enewsletters published by MediaPost.
This week they are showcasing spots for Orbitz which are pretty funny, Tetley Tea from an Australian firm, and Jagermeister’s first ad in the US. Just wish my internet connection was faster! Takes a while to download and play them.
While I am not directly involved in content creation as a producer anymore, or on the distribution side of things, this article caught my eye because of my interest in seeing good content.
I’m pretty sure I have posted links to this guy’s article before - Ashkan Karbasfrooshan is CEO of WatchMojo.com, a producer of premium video content.
These two articles talk about online content and exclusivity and include what seems to be an accurate picture of content being a “woman” and distribution, a “man.”
He postulates…
By and large, distribution companies
- never make any promises,
- have no-strings-attached offerings,
- make no commitments,
- rarely seek exclusivity, and
- when they do, it’s usually too good to be true.
Content owners, meanwhile,
- enter distribution deals with expectations,
- believe the promises they hear,
- expect a commitment, and
- want a guarantee.
In his second article on the same subject, he adds a third and fourth element to this relationship – the advertiser and the viewer and then it REALLY gets complicated. Good reading.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/163080/does-exclusive-content-matter.html#reply
One of the electronic publications that I read faithfully is MediaPost’s Online Video Insider.
The latest column – Bulleted Points Miss the Point, by Jerry Bader, took me on a little trip down memory lane and at the same time gave me some very interesting facts about online video marketing.
As a video producer and scriptwriter in a former life – I spent long hours with colleagues discussing what it was we were actually supposed to be doing for the client. Guiding them to the right media for their message was what we all hoped would be the answer from the bosses. And most of the time, in most of the companies I had the pleasure to do business with – either full-time or as a free lancer – we were afforded this power.
And our job was to make sure that the client’s message was delivered to their specific audience within their budget and time frame in such a way as to achieve the desired effect.
Many times while I working full-time in the video and film department of a major defense contractor, the client would show up at our door wanting to “make a video.” And after reviewing their needs, it became clear that in fact, they might only need a PowerPoint presentation – with bullets! But that was 20 years or so ago – and making video presentations has come a long way since the days of 1″ machines and linear editing. Surely it is easy now to make a video! Or is it!?
From the article (which focuses on marketing)…
However using the right tool is only effective if you are using it correctly, and using it correctly means more than a technical understanding of what buttons to push. Video marketing starts with concept that is implemented by means of an appropriate script and delivered with an entertaining performance. Much of what we see on the Web is either off-the-cuff winging it by do-it-yourselfers who think they know what they’re doing but don’t, and mind-numbing corporate videos that go in one ear and out the other. The overall quality of business videos on the Web is appallingly bad — both amateur and professional alike — and it’s often the result of business’s failure to understand how video communication works, an unwillingness to invest in hiring firms that do, and a penchant for being too impatient to stick to a clear, consistent brand messaging strategy.
From the first time PowerPoint appeared on the desktops of the engineers we have seen the quality of business presentations sink lower and lower. As software advances and everyone can “make a video” we will see more and more marginal messages being produced by people who know how to move a mouse, but don’t know how to communicate.
This quote from the article – actually the summation – clearly states the importance of the multimedia producer knowing how to communicate.
Listing a bunch of features as bulleted points is not communication, even if those bulleted points are presented as animated fly-ins beside a sterile spokesperson spouting platitudes. Real video communication requires context within the script and subtext within the performance in order to reach deeper into an audience’s psyche to create a meaningful, memorable message — that’s the essence of real video communication.
In my former life as a scriptwriter, I strove for that deeper understanding of the audience and their wants, needs, expectations as I found the “right” hook for the script. Now, as a voice talent and occasional on-camera actor, I use my background in scriptwriting and understanding the client and the script to find the right subtext as I deliver the words – looking for the “right” read.
Everyone likes a “thank you.” And sometimes we don’t take the time to pass along a sincere thank you to the people we interact with every day. Oh, we say “thanks” at the grocery store when we get our receipt. “Thanks” at the restaurant when someone refills our coffee cup or delivers the bill to the table. The sincerity of the “thanks” when someone hands us the bill for the meal is probably in question.
So it is nice to get a sincere thank you when none is really expected. I have toyed with the idea of sending out personal Thank You cards after sessions – and actually have some cards just for this purpose. Not many talent does this from what I can glean from various VO talent message boards. The trouble is, I am so busy just recording the jobs and creating the invoices that I simply forget!
And part of me wonders if the person opening the envelope will interpret the card as a sincere thank you – or simply as a marketing “trick.” Certainly the card has to be handwritten – or if not handwritten per se – using a service such as Send Out Cards - then with a truly unique reference to the specific project – something to indicate that it isn’t a mass mailing.
Now, I do like to receive a handwritten note, so perhaps the gesture will be taken as sincere. But the email thank you’s are great too! Just this week, I am basking in the glow of several really nice notes.
“Great job…thank you!”
“We appreciate you on SO many levels!”
“You just saved me. The next time I get to your neck of the woods… I’m buying the Starbucks.”
“Nice job. Love the voice and the read.”
“Thanks for knockin’ it out of the park again!”
“You Rock.”
“Wow that was fast! Thanks so much Connie!!!!”
And the thank you’s don’t even need to be written at all really. Case in point. I just finished an ISDN session with a client in Orange County and the first thing from the producer’s mouth was a thank you for the work I had done for them on the last project.
So – bottom line – a well-placed, sincere “thank you” is a wonderful thing. Now to just figure out what kind of “thank you” and the best way to deliver it when so much of what we do these days is through the electrons.
Ah – the loneliness of the voiceover actor these days. Day after day – alone in our padded rooms with only the occasional directed session – we rarely get to converse with our clients - much less actually see them face-to-face. Skype does’t count. And, like anything, if you don’t use certain muscles, they atrophy. Time for some cardio for my conversation muscles!
The VO team is usually a small one to begin with – so even if you do have a phone patch or ISDN session – you are still only talking to a small earful of people. Most of the time, it is my fingers doing the talking to the client, and my voice is reserved for the booth.
Last week, I learned that face-to-face interaction with clients and crew takes a lot more energy than I remember. After an all day on-camera shoot (OK, mostly all day) with a crew filled with old friends, followed by a day with a phone patch session, an ISDN session, a self-directed session AND an in someone else’s studio session – I was EXHAUSTED!
The shoot part wasn’t particularly difficult, it was the people interaction part! Don’t misunderstand “difficult.” The director, production manager, DP, LD, audio and make up person were all friends from another era in my life when I was doing much more on-camera and producing work. There were a few new people to meet too, both on the crew and the rest of the actors. But of those that I knew, it was like a college reunion.
Some of these people I have known for 20 years, but just never see much anymore as my work moved into voiceover work and into mostly out of market work from my home studio.
So catching up with them in and around takes, while still making sure we were all doing our jobs and listening to the director expended lots of energy.
The spots we shot start airing January 31st, for Cox – the one I did was for Digital Telephone. Initially they are set to run only in the San Diego area, but we did some generic lines, so who knows where they might end up.
Excuse me, did I miss something? Like the whole 2nd half of the year maybe? What is this pile of paperwork sitting here? Wait, what I meant to say was what are all these piles of paperwork sitting here? Why is that list of things to do getting longer instead of shorter?
Part of it is personal obligations – that has increased over the past year and a half or so – since my mom moved out here from across the country. Part of it is that my ability to be superwoman is diminishing due to hot flashes.
Part of it is a slight increase in the amount of time I am spending chasing down money from people I didn’t expect to have to chase down for money.
But a big part of it is the time suckers – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, other social media message boards, my volunteer time for MCA-I, this blog, the other blog, YouTube, Wimp and my new “droid.”
I love the phone – a Samsum Fascinate, but HATE the time it takes to delete email. I am assuming that eventually the phone will get “full” and slow down everything. If I am wrong about that – will someone let me know!
You actually have to delete the mail twice – unless I have missed something (see I would need to find the time to figure it out!). Delete it from the In Box and it goes to the Trash. You can select to delete all from the Trash, but that locks up the phone for minutes while it trys to accomplish this. That really needs to be addressed.
If it has been – again – will someone please let me know. I have a lot of work to do in the next few days and it would be nice not to have to worry about the phone slowing down due to lack of memory. God forbid that my life slows down at all.
Wait – maybe that would be GOOD thing!
OK – I think I can clearly see my addiction now. Facebook has been going down frequently over the past few days and I find myself compulsively refreshing the screen begging that its little blue interface appears.
There are many people with whom I have no other contact other than through Facebook. No email. No phone. Just a wonky URL.
So now I need to spend some time getting additional contact information from at least some of these folks. Hold on a moment…
Ah – Facebook is back up – for the time being…
See you later!
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