ConVOrgence. ‘A play on the word “convergence”.
We talk so much in the voice over world about niches. “The market is fractionated,” we hear.
“Opportunities fall into scores of categories.” Choose one.
“Leads are all over the place”. Find one.
“Your voice is perfectly suited for a few good target products.” Decide which.
But all around and through and threaded into those seemingly true statements are arguments to the contrary.
Why are SAG and AFTRA seeking to merge?
Is your mobile audio chain becoming as good as your studio chain?
Do you use your phone to read copy, record auditions, AND market yourself?
Nowhere is this trend more evident than in the wave of Social Media washing over our culture.
Take yesterday’s canvassing of our email boxes by REFERRAL KEY invitations. People posting to VO forums were puzzled. Is this just another Branch-Out march of the lemmings? What’s in it for me? I got some invitations from other Voice over talent…what am I missing out on?
Referral Key may be the next big thing. Or not. I’m tired of deleting the invitations I get from all sorts of online communities: Affluence, BizNik, Ushi, etc. My guess is, you get out of them what you put in. The same could be said of freelance job sites like Guru and Elance. Worth it? Meh.
But look at what Referral Key throws into one site:
1) Meeting new people
2) Referring them business and vice versa
3) Sharing leads, profiles, and information
4) Offering a “reward”
5) Marketing yourself
6) Growing the site and growing your chances
I could go on, but you get the idea. Name one place you could go ten years ago (heck…even 5 yrs) and do all those things in one place. That’s not niche…that’s nice.
Same with LinkedIn and FaceBook. These proprietary “islands” make sense of the overwhelming chaos of global internet traffic. Even so, an island of 600-million souls is a pretty big and pretty organized FaceBook island. A place that lets you take out ads (marketing), display your demo (auditioning), make contacts (growing your audience), engage in meaningful conversation (networking), gain the trust of new strangers (job mining).
Niche? Nah! This is a bonanza supermarket galaxy of possiblities for VO’s….a conVOrgence.
ConVOrgence is the next big thing…not Referral Key or LinkedIn or FaceBook. ALL OF IT…the trend, the paradigm, the future. Jump in! Engage! Most of it is free. Sure it takes time…most worthwhile things do.
CourVO
