Well, I did it. It’s 5 months late, but I finally got my most recent newsletter out the door. You should have a copy waiting in your e-mail box.
This one’s pretty much all dedicated to Twitter. I think Twitter is big, and so do millions of others.
You’ll find specific tips and links to VO-related Twitter groups and sites. There are also suggestions for how to find stuff that VO people tweet. Twitter can be a time-suck, but it can also be an incredible (and I can’t overstate that) resource.
If you didn’t get it, or just want to read it now, I’ve inserted a copy of it below-the-fold here. If you like what you see, let me know. If you don’t like it, or you find some mistakes…uh…don’t tell me today… wait till tomorrow. Heh. (some of the color formatting got lost in translation when I copied and pasted…but all the info’s there)
CourVO
Dave Courvoisier May 2009
Voice Acting in Vegas
CourVO.com
Newsletter
“news” is bad right now.
I wish I could say that’s why it’s been
so long since I’ve written.
This edition of my newsletter was originally slugged “January ’09, then Jan/Feb ’09…and…well, you get the drift.
A number of you are getting my newsletter for the first time,
’cause I’ve made new friends through networking, social media, and New Media (the focus of this newsletter).
You can “opt out” down at the bottom if you want, but I hope
you’ll stick around to get this occasional eclectic gathering
of random thoughts in your e-mail.
…Dave Courvoisier
by CourVO
{10-3-2021 UPDATE: Pls see this site for latest tips: https://bulk.ly/social-media-tools/}
A Twitter Primer
and it’s got a strange name: TWITTER.Most
of us have heard that being a successful voice actor is 20% talent and
tech-savvy, and 80% marketing and promoting yourself and your product.
If
that’s true, and most of the advertising, marketing and media attention
is moving online, then what have you to lose by being on FaceBook, a
blog, online VO subscription sites, FriendFeed, MySpace, and more?
My
personal favorite is Twitter…something that’s increasingly proving
it’s value to me as a social marketing and product marketing tool.
This newsletter is meant to edge you into this online community if you aren’t already.
GETTING STARTED
Go to http://www.twitter.com
and click on “Get Started — Join”. You choose a username and a
password to start your account. It could be anything, but I’d suggest
you use something consistent with your branding. I use CourVO. Doug
Turkel uses “UNnouncer”. Liz de Nesnera uses Lizden, and so forth.
OK, great…now what?
Well,
it really behooves you to quickly fill out a profile. Where you’re
from, a brief bio, maybe a pic of you, or your brand logo AudiOconnell uses that cool “a” with an “O” around it). People are naturally curious about you, and it doesn’t take much to satisfy that.
Twitter offers several basic backgrounds you can use. They’re boring. Go to http://www.twitterbacks.com
to find better (free) ones. There are also services on the internet
that will actually design a Twitter background with personal
information — if that’s important for your busiiness.
FIND FOLLOWERS…BE A FOLLOWER
Twitter
is built around communities you create — your followers. You may join
someone else’s community by following them. The more people you
follow, the more “tweets” will pop-up on your screen.
Click
on other people’s followers…go fishing…visit websites that offer
suggestions of who to follow (suggestions below)…search for your
friends (there’s a link at the bottom of the Twitter screen for that).
When you find a name, Twitter will take you to their site, and you can
just click on the “follow” button under their pic.
The more followers you have, the more people will see your messages.(more about messages below)
The
basic Twitter interface is very very simple. The founders keep it that
way. You can continue to use it just like it is, but most people are
taking advantage of any one of thousands of other “helper” interfaces
that have sprung up like a cottage industry around the information
Twitter puts out.
See below for some interesting information and links.
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Nuts ‘n’ Bolts | |
The Basics
SETTING UP YOUR ACCOUNT
At
the top of the basic Twitter screen, you can see your own profile,
search for people, change your settings, get help, or sign out.
One
hint: when you first sign up DO NOT “protect” your updates. I have no
idea why Twitter offers that. It runs absolutely counter to all that
has value on this service. It virtually guarantees you will turn away
possible followers. Do yourself a favor, and keep your updates
unprotected.
Another hint: Put SOMETHING in your profile… many will disregard you
and not follow, if you don’t offer up a little about yourself.
MAKING MESSAGES
All
you have to do is type a few thoughts of 140 characters or less and hit
“update”, and alla sudden your message is out there for millions to see.
What messages?
Ah…that’s
the magic of twitter. In this get-it-quick, attention-span-spoiled
generation, you only get 140 characters to tell your message. That’s
1, 2, maybe 3 short sentences. Don’t worry, Twitter will tell you when
you’re over your limit.
You’d
be surprised how much you can say in 140 characters. (see next section
below for ideas WHAT to say…there’s a whole philosophy surrounding it)
HANDLING MESSAGES
If
you want to message someone in particular, and you know their sign-on
name, just put the “@” symbol before their name as your first
characters in the message…no space…then their name. Example:
“@CourVO”. Everybody else sees the message, but now it’s flagged for
that person to see when they check messages meant just for them.
To
send a “direct” message, just put a capital “D” before the name, leave
a space, then the name. Example: “D CourVO” This message goes only
to tht person, and no one else sees it.
How can you see direct
messages meant only for you? Just click on the “direct messages” link
on the right of your Twitter home page. To see “@” messages to you,
click on the link right above the “direct messages” link. It’s a link
made up of the name you’ve chosen.
“Favorites” are those
messages you found so worthwhile, you saved them by clicking on the
star symbol next to the message. Those messages are set aside under
the “favorites” for you to see later if you want.
RT Hash on Fridays
“Hash-tags”
are popular. They’re indexing terms for doing a Twitter search. For
instance, if you’re putting up a Tweet about voiceovers, and you want
others to be able to see it who are not necessarily your followers,
just put the hash-tag flag like this: “#voiceover” (without the
quotes). Anyone who puts up a search for #voiceover will see all
messages flagged like this. You’ll see hash-tags for everything…and
I mean everything.
One other thing: on Fridays, you’ll see a
lot of messages with the hash-tag “#followfriday”. There’s an
unwritten rule that on Friday’s Tweeples offer suggestions of other
people they like to recommend for you to follow. Therefore, you’ll see
hundreds of Tweets with that hashtag, followed by a list of people
names (with the @-symbol) before each name.
Finally,
“Re-tweeting” someone else’s message is a compliment of the highest
order in this world, All you have to do to re-tweet is copy the
message, and paste it in your message box with the cap-letters “RT”
before it, followed by a space. It’s a courtesy to say who first
tweeted it in the first place, and of course, you may have to trim in
some way to make sure it’s only 140 characters.
Those
are the absolute basics. Entire books and helpful websites are
available to help you with more, and I’ve got some links below, but you
can do very well with just the above information.
by Dave C |
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All A-Twitter |
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So….What do I say?
When
I first signed-up to Twitter, I didn’t see the value, and let it
languish for months. Now I’m back with a vengeance, and partly because
Twitter changed, too. It’s referred to as “Micro-Blogging”.
Some
people use Twitter to just share their day. Others go out of their way
to throw out a plethora of facts they’ve researched on the internet
with links to cool sites. Still more stick to their specialty and work
to curry followers in their area of interest.
MAKE IT AN EXTENSION OF YOU
Here’s
my take: Twitter is for the purpose of letting people know who you
are. That means it’s up to you to build your personna the way you
want. Be friendly, helpful, informative, caring, rude, political,
“expert”, guru, marketer, promoter, beneficiary, or buffoon.
Whatever
it is, if you’re consistent, your followers will figure it out, and
your following will grow. People get to know you, and you begin to
join-in conversations, get replies, and direct messages.
Some
people may find you are not their cup of tea, and they may “unfollow”
you. (Yep, they can do that). You may make that decision about some
of the people you’re following too.
QUANTITY vs. QUALITY
A major debate: Do you build a QUALITY group of followers?…or go for QUANTITY?
Apostles
for both sides have good supporting reasons. Keeping your group of
followers/people-you-follow small ensures coziness, familiarity, and
like-minded discussions. Seeking more and more followers for the sake
of racking-up numbers leads to less homogeneity and closeness, but
certainly builds a bigger audience who will see your “tweets”.
| by Courvo |
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LINKS |
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OK, here’s the good stuff.
OMG you have no idea how many Twitter software and websites are out
there… thousands, and more everyday. Apparently a lot of people
have plenty of faith that Twitter is the next best thing since the
bicycle.
ALTERNATE WEB INTERFACES:
(runs on your current browser, requires no installation)
http://www.peoplebrowsr.com
http://www.itweet.net
http://www.hootsuite.com
http://www.tweetvisor.com
http://www.twitterfall.com
http://www.tweetgrid.com
Power Tweet (Mozilla FireFox add-on to Twitter– very helpful!)
ALTERNATE STAND-ALONE BROWSERS:
(requires you to download and install with Adobe Air)
http://www.tweetdeck
http://www.twhirl.com
http://www.destroytwitter.com
http://www.digsby.com
TWITTER-ADJUNCT SITES
(a few of the thousands capitalizing on Twitter data)
MrTweet (he sugests people to follow)
TwitterGrader (find out how you compare_
Twitter Fan Wiki (the master list of all Twitter programs)
Twitter Analyzer (analyze your friends)
IFollowBack (grows stronger networks)
TweepleRank (ranking the top recommended people)
TweetLater (helps you with follow-back messasges)
FriendorFollow (who’s not following you back)
Twittermap (puts tweeples on the map)
Tweepler (organize fans)
Wanna buy an actual book on the subject?:
I recommend Joe Comm’s “TWITTER POWER” Amazon link HERE.
by Courvo |
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Voiceover on Twitter |
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I’ve arranged for voice-actors to have their own Twitter group. Sign up to Twitter first (free and easy), then click HERE to go to the TwitGroup/voicetwitter.There’s also a new “Twibe” of Voiceover artists. Click HERE.
You can see how you rank against other VO’s on Twitter HERE, then enter the term “voiceover” in the box in the upper right corner. THIS is a similar site.
On
whatever Twitter browser you use, just enter the search term
“voiceover” or “#voiceover” (no quotation marks) to search for any
tweets coming down the pike with that word or hashtag in it.
In
some Twitter interfaces — like Tweetdeck — you can organize your
followers into groups and give them their own column. I have one
called “Voiceover” and it’s populated with my followers that I know are
into VO.
OK, I”m done now…this was a long newsletter, and if you read this far, you’re a patient person.
Have fun with TWITTER… it’s a non-stop stream-of-consciousness subculture that many find very engaging.
………Dave Courvoisier
by Article Author |
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New? |
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are not on my mailing list by mistake… but I don’t want to abuse the
privacy of your e-mail. If you think you’d like to continue getting
this newsletter, you need do nothing. If you’d like to opt-out. The
link is at the bottom.I hope you’ll let me send you a little
something every month. I really try to make it worthwhile. In between
newsletters, you can see my ramblings by subscribing to my ‘VOICE
ACTING IN VEGAS’ blog by clicking on the RSS on my blog page: https://courvo.com, or just click HERE.
by Dave |
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