pictured l-r: John Florian, Peter O’Connell, Trish Basyani, Doug Turkel, David Kaplan

John Florian’s Panel

Highlights of the Voice Actors Survey conducted by Focus 25,  was sent to a sample of 7600 names with 12 percent response

( about 900)

30%  are full-time at VO

90% Non Union

5% Fi-Core

Income

30% 0

33% under 5k

Who uses internet

50% have personal websites

SEO- most don’t work on it.

Does income correlate to SEO?

Online Casting

58% V123

51% Voices

How much is spent for P2P sites annually.

Most seem dissatisfied on qty of work., Especially those in higher income bracket..

Most are selective about auditions.

Get rid of cheapskates.

Screen process for talent pool.

Online marketing tools- blog, promo, video, email

All will be published on VoiceoverXTRA. This is a must-see bunch of facts that will enlighten and baffle!

There was a short while I had to step away from this presentation in order to record a quick session in the room next door in Dave and Dave’s excellent vocal booth. They’ll email me the mp3 which I can email to the client. Several ISDN sessions were booked yesterday and today. What a great amenity to have here for us!

John Florian’s panel of experts included voiceover pros and friends Trish Basyani, Dave Kaplan, Peter O’Connell, and Doug Turkel. I missed Peter O’Connell’s remarks while vo called. Sorry. 

Peter is a marketing expert, David Kaplan can clone himself online (talk about multi-tasking)! (lol), Doug Turkel (the Unnouncer), and Trish , Social Media Guru.

Here are some key points from Doug:

1. Don’t market yourself as merely a voice talent, but to market yourself as a brand.
2. Find ways to tell your story
3. Use cloud computing to keep track of your clients, and find work.
4. Find ways to be yourself and stand out. Your personality is what it is about your work that will get you hired.
5. Buy specific google adwords/phrases that  typify your niche.
6. Make it easy to be found and buy domain names! Instorevoiceovers.com, inflightvoiceovers.com, supermarketvoices.com, etc.
7. Subscribe to trade magazines catering to audio producers, etc.
8. Get off the internet and attend or start a workout /networking group.

Trish uses Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Skype.

1. Use import contacts feature and update contacts into FB and Twitter
2. Create relationships take time but will pay off. Keep it up!
3. Don’t rely on P2P sites. Creating relationships makes for a steady stream of work.
4. Create a fan page on FB for your business.
5. Status updates- Don’t ALWAYS talk about voiceovers! Post a link every once in a while. Have fun!
6. Staying top of mind is key!
7. Twitter is the best way to find work directly. Twellow.com and Hootsuite are great for this.
8. Facebook has a good search engine.

Dave Kaplan- Voice on the run.

1. Market yourself, and offer customer service! Be available to your clients.
2. You’ve got to be really bad at this to get really good. And you need to be really good in order to be really great.
3. Communicate 24/7 via internet if you’d like.
4. Be accountable to yourself! Use the Ross Report. Reach out to people with demos. Be personal! Don’t blast.
5. Top of mind marketing WORKS!