Aug 27, 2024
Discover
indispensable strategies for maintaining an engaging online
presence, even when social media fatigue sets in. From MySpace and
Facebook's early days to today's multifaceted platforms, Anne and
Tom explore how social media has transformed into a cornerstone for
business promotion. Learn to create content that captivates both
human audiences and social media algorithms, and understand how
mastering these algorithms can elevate your marketing game.
Gain insights on how social
media plays a crucial role in purchasing decisions and the
etiquette voice actors must follow. The BOSSes share essential tips
on how potential clients vet companies and individuals through
their social media presence. Experience the power of video
content and the importance of authenticity in connecting with your
audience. Learn why the algorithm favors video and how being
genuine can build trust and likability among your followers. Anne.
andTom address the continuous challenges in voice acting,
emphasizing the need for consistency, strategic planning, and
adapting to industry trends.
00:00 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey, how's it going? Bosses Anne Genguza here. Elevate your
voiceover game with our VIPeeps membership. With VIP membership,
you can access our extensive library of over 350 hours of
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00:44 - Intro (Announcement)
It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level.
These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being
utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business
like a boss a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne
Ganguzza.
01:03 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Hey everyone, welcome to the VO Boss Podcast and the Real Boss
Series. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and I'm delighted to bring
back Real Boss Tom Dheere to the show.
01:15 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Hello, hey, , hello, hello, hello.
01:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
How are you?
01:19 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
I'm good, how are?
01:19 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
you, I'm good, tom. I have to apologize for being late because I
was creating content for my social media. And it's still a thing
you would think, after all these years, tom, both you and I have
been active on social media, it would get easier, like maybe
quicker, but it just doesn't. I mean, it is time consuming. I think
we should talk about it, because real bosses need to get out there
on social media and present themselves as real bosses.
01:47 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
This is also one of the questions that's most asked of me, as the
video strategist is talking about how to come up with an effective
social media presence. So, yeah, I think this is one that a lot of
people are going to want to tune in for.
01:58 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Sure, social media has just well, it's just blown up, obviously I
mean, but back in the day, back in the day when I first got into
voiceover, there wasn't much social media out there. Facebook was
just now. I'm dating myself, right, facebook was just
evolving.
02:14
I think I've been part of Facebook since its evolution which was in
gosh the early 2000s right, and so Facebook was the first social
media and then other ones popped up after that and they've just
exploded and then I think they kind of went beyond where people are
now like, possibly social media tired. Oh God, yes, I have social
media fatigue, social media fatigue, but yet there's still very
much a necessity for running our businesses and advertising our
businesses.
02:47 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Yes, I think I joined Facebook in 2007. And before that I had a
MySpace account which I was active on. If you remember
MySpace.
02:55 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I do.
02:56 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
And there was a little bit of voiceover stuff going on on MySpace.
And then Facebook came and the interface was just, you know,
superior, so everybody migrated. Myspace still exists, but it
doesn't even look remotely what it used to look like or function
Now. It's only for musicians or something like that.
03:10 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Facebook was great in the beginning. Remember.
03:11 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Yeah, back in. It was just like what are you doing? You know, you
just post what you're doing. This is what I had for
lunch.
03:16 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yep exactly. Nobody still cares what I had for lunch.
03:23 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
I don't care what I had for lunch.
03:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, I do, because now I'm into health and so sometimes people
want to know what I mean. There you go.
03:31 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Right, okay, I think that's the first thing to talk about is like
why should you post anything on social media as a voice actor?
Right, and it's evolved. When I post on social media and also
here's, the thing with you and I, anne, is that we're both
full-time voice actors who are always marketing, looking for
clients, voiceover clients, but we're also coaches, thought
leaders, presenters, guests on podcasts, you know, and doing things
like this. So we are also on social media looking for students as
well Students, listeners, followers.
04:09
Students, listeners, fans. You know connections of fellow voice
actors, of aspiring voice actors, voice actors in all parts of
their journey because we can help them with all of our products and
services. So you and I have like a dual agenda when we are on
social media.
04:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
We have a broad audience. We have a broad audience that we want to
reach.
04:24 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Right. So if you're one of the VO bosses who's watching, who is
most likely not a coach, not a demo producer, not a thought leader,
not a podcast host, you're just like what do I do?
04:34 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, if you're a boss, you're always a thought leader.
04:35 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
That's what I like to think, Ooh, I gleefully stand corrected. Yes,
I like to think that.
04:39 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, I mean that's fantastic Because to be a thought leader, let's
create content around that.
04:45 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Yes, okay, so that's what I wanted to get to is like why are you on
social media, who are you talking to and what do you have to say?
So, in its broadest terms, I've learned that to be effective on
social media as a voice actor is to feed the humans and the
robots.
05:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I like that. Feed the humans and the robots Absolutely yeah, just
similar strategy for anything digital these days, right.
05:12 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Right, it's always been true, but now, just as my understanding of
marketing in general and social media marketing in particular, and
all the platforms, I tell all of my students your job is to feed
the algorithms.
05:23
Feed the algorithms of search engine optimization Google, bing,
yahoo to increase your page ranking. Feed the algorithms of online
casting sites like Voicescom, voice123, badalgo, so on and so
forth, but also feed the algorithms of social media. Figure out
what those robots like to eat and feed it to them, and also
understand that different social media platform algorithms, because
this is what we're really talking about. Different algorithms
reward you for different behavior. Yes, absolutely. Instagram is
primarily photos.
05:55 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, and video now, and video now.
05:57 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Well, that's the next thing is that, like Facebook used to be for
typing, twitter used to be just for words. Back then, it was 140
characters.
06:05 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Oh my gosh, remember that when we were restricted.
06:08 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Yeah you for typing. Twitter used to be just for words. Back then
it was 140 characters. Oh my gosh, remember that when we were
restricted. Yeah, you're restricted to 140. Then it went to 280 and
it may be unlimited. Instagram is just for pictures, youtube is
just for videos, but now all of them are competing with each other
so much that all the platforms are super watered down because
they're trying to take users away from other social media
platforms. So, on all the social media platforms, you can write
stuff down, except for YouTube, but you can post photos, you can
post videos, you know, and you're encouraged to do all of those
things. So that's why it can get really confusing. But when the
coders first made all of those platforms, they had one thrust in
mind.
06:42 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
You're right, they had specific. Yeah, all of those platforms, they
had one thrust in mind. You're right, they had specific. Yeah,
twitter was the short post. Yeah, absolutely, youtube was always
the video, instagram was the photo, and they all had, like, their
purpose.
06:52
But, you're right, now that they're competing with one another,
they're starting to kind of have all these different capabilities,
and now the amount of content out there is insane. And so, as
bosses, you need to be able to stand out right and kind of cut
through the chaos, and I think there's two things to be really
aware of. Number one is your purpose, right, your purpose on social
media, and especially if you want to get work right on social media
versus use it as a social platform, remember that there was a
personal and a business page for Facebook, and you could do the
same thing for a personal and a business page for Facebook, and you
could do the same thing for, like, instagram and all of the other
platforms. You can have a business page and a personal page. But I
think, with the whole authenticity, be real, real bosses, with that
kind of evolving over the progression of social media, now you want
to make sure that you are authentic and being who you are and not
being selly because now people are like, no, don't sell to me Right
right.
07:50 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
A video that we did not too long ago was about branding, and I
think I talked about in that video that voice actors can be grouped
into two categories public voice actors and private voice actors.
The public voice actors are the audio book narrators, the video
game narrators, the cartoon narrators, because those are the ones
that when someone listens to your audio book, plays your video
game, watches your cartoon, you know who the voice actor is in
that.
08:15
Everybody else is a private voice actor and people want to search
you and everybody else is private, voice actor, e-learning
explainer, corporate. When you narrate that content, the only
people that are going corporate when you narrate that content, the
only people that are going to know who is voicing that content is
the producers of the content. The consumer of the content, the
employee or the student, have no idea that Anne or Tom or anybody
else narrated that content. So why do I bring this up? Think about
that as it applies to social media. If you are an audiobook
narrator, if you're a video game narrator, if you're a cartoon
narrator, you've got a lot more tools in your tool belt to
effectively use social media, because you're not just trying to
connect with voice seekers, like all voice actors are in all genres
You're also, if you're an audiobook narrator, you're trying to
connect with authors.
09:01
You're trying to connect with rights holders. You're trying to
connect with listeners. If you're trying to connect with authors,
you're trying to connect with rights holders. You're trying to
connect with listeners. If you're a video game narrator on social
media, you're trying to connect with the people who play the video
games and can become a fan of the characters that you portray, same
with the cartoon voice actors.
09:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And with that it's dual purpose. Right, because you, as the voice
actor, are not only voicing, but you're also marketing for the
company. Right, marketing for the.
09:28 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
And there's a little more responsibility with that, because when
you are marketing on social media and saying, hey, I was the voice
of this character in Halo or Fallout or Arkham Asylum or in this
Cartoon Network show, you are representing that company. So you
need to be very, very careful how you comport yourself, because you
don't want to do anything to damage the reputation of the product,
service company, stockholder, shareholder or whatever.
09:55 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Well, that's actually really good advice, no matter what you do,
because, again, you think about even if you're voicing e-learning
or corporate, but yet you might be on social media bashing the
script or something and saying how poorly written it was or how
you're annoyed at your client, and so it's always a good idea to
just serve it up with a little bit of professionalism, because you
don't know how many eyeballs are on Right.
10:18
A lot of times it's really hard to tell who's watching, who's
looking, and a lot of times people aren't commenting either.
There's so many things that I scroll through on a day to day basis
on social media that I read and I just don't comment on. I don't
even comment, I don't like it, I don't react. But yet I've
formulated opinions about certain people depending on the post, and
if I thought, oh, that is a little bit harsh or oh, I'm not so
sure, I'd want to work with that person, and so I've made my
judgments based on the post. And gosh, this has just been preaching
to the choir, but we've been saying that for years. Is you have to
be aware of what you post? I mean, it has an effect.
10:58 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
I'm sure that you have a list in your head of fellow voice actors
who you've observed on social media that you're like oh, I love
what they have to say. They're so thoughtful and so smart and so
funny and so insightful. I would just love to come up with an
excuse to work with that person based on their social media
presence. And then the other side of the coin.
11:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
In reality, I remember those a whole lot more sometimes.
11:15 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Do you know what I mean Because?
11:17 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
the ones who are not presenting well on social media are the ones
that are like, oh, watch out, watch out for that one.
11:23 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Yeah, and that's the thing is like we all have a little list in our
head of the people voice actors that we see on social media and,
based on how they're comporting themselves, it's like I will never
work with that person, either as a coach or as a fellow voice actor
maybe as a coach to maybe try to help them see the error of their
ways with how they are presenting themselves on social
media.
11:42
But it's just like it's very easy to behave yourself out of the
voiceover industry based on your social media content. You and I
have seen it happen multiple times where people implode on social
media, and it could be for any of a number of reasons, and that's
just a peer-to-peer thing. I mean. What our bosses want to know is
about voice seekers who are navigating social media. I will say
this is that the vast majority of voice seekers are not paying any
attention to anything that any of us are doing on social media.
Why? Because they're too busy making their own social media content
in hopes that they can get clients to give them money to make their
content their explainer videos or e-learning modules or audio
books.
12:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Unless of course.
12:30
I'm going to say there might be that exception when, when you get
somebody who finds you on the Web, right, you've been referred. And
then they go to your Web site, they see who you are and you've got
your social media links there, right, they've listened to your
demos, they like you. Or even if you're reaching out to them on
email and you've got your social media links on your email. I would
suspect. I mean, I know I've done it with certain brands that I
found interest in. I will go to their social media just to check it
out. I don't investigate, unless, of course, it's.
12:59
I don't know, maybe it's a product that I want to buy, but I'm not
going to go crazy in depth, but I will take a quick look at oh,
there's a YouTube channel. Let's see what they've got there. Maybe
they've got other products, or maybe they have like a help section
or they have something, a tutorial, and so I will kind of breeze
through the social media to see if it's something that I want to
follow. Because I'll tell you what the way I'm making my purchase
decisions these days is really a lot online, through influencers,
through following on social media, through SMS text messages.
That's a lot of the communication for people saying here I've got a
product, are you interested?
13:39 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Right. You've made an excellent point, which is that if they do,
and when they do, check you out on social media, which is usually
related to, you've done your marketing you have social media links
on your website and then they give it a click. They're vetting you.
And you know what? In my experience, when they are vetting you,
they're looking to see and you said this if you're a client, basher
they're looking to see if you're an.
14:03
NDA violator. You'd be shocked at how many voice actors implode on
social media because they're posting videos of their auditions.
This is the cardinal sin of so many people.
14:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
If you take nothing else away from this podcast, that is yeah that
is the cardinal sin.
14:23 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Assume that every audition that you do is under an NDA. Always do
that.
14:27 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Audition and client. Like don't even speak a client name until
you've got something that's out there published and you've got
permission, that's all. I say All that humble bragging I mean I
think that's fine, but it's great when you've got the permission to
do so.
14:41 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Yeah. So what I always tell my students is that if you want to
record yourself doing auditions to have social media content, do it
Great, Go for it. Then you wait, Do it Great, Go for it. Then you
wait. You wait until the project's been cast, whether it's you or
somebody else and wait until the finished product is posted online.
It's front-facing, whether it's you or not. Once you've cleared
those two hurdles it being cast and it being posted then you can
post it.
15:08 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But even then— but honestly, why not? Just write your own
script.
15:12 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
I'm just saying yeah, if you want to show off.
15:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, I mean write your own script. There's so many tools out
there. Tom and I think we had an episode. Yes, yeah, there's so
many script libraries out there.
15:23 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
What tool could I use to write a script these?
15:25 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
days, or where could I find a script? There's tons of stuff out
there. I mean honestly. There's Scripps, libraries everywhere and,
as a matter of fact, there's tons of finished products and
commercials out there already in reality, and you could just
rewrite one of those.
15:38 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
You know what else you could do. Anne is like. I've seen a lot of
voice actors over the years who will find a company and they'll
look at their content online and listen to the voice actor and the
voice actor is awful and what they'll do is they'll re-record it
and send it to them and say compare the difference. Wouldn't you
rather work with me? If you want to find something that's on social
media and the voice acting is not great, you could record yourself
doing a better job. You got to be careful about that because you
may insult the client because they didn't make good business
choices and you may insult the voice actor who did the
job.
16:11 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, don't try to get the work by insulting. That's the biggest
thing.
16:14
And I always say that you know to my students when they're quick to
say the copy is not correct and so I'll just record it the correct
way. And I'm like, be careful of that, because usually that copy
has been through rounds and rounds of approvals and if you just
come up and say, oh, you made a mistake like nobody wants to hear
that they've made a mistake, especially if it's gone through
multiple approvals right, so you're better off. I would say, subtly
communicating with your client, like, hey, I recorded this extra
take just in case that's what you meant for the script and give
that to them. Don't charge them for it.
16:43
Give that to them, and then you'll be the hero, you'll be the
savior of the day, and that is honestly they'll be like thank you,
anne. I can't believe it got through all of these people right. Or
I can't believe I made that mistake and forgot the S on the end of
that word or whatever it is. You know what I mean. Nobody wants to
be finger pointed at and said well, you just did a stupid thing and
you made a mistake, Right.
17:02 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
So I do that all the time. I have a lot of European clients, yeah,
and it's a lot of translated scripts, because often I'm asked to do
an explainer video that's already been produced in French or
Italian or whatever. And they say here's the updated
script.
17:16 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
But I have so many clients now who say Tom, make whatever changes
you need to make in the script Exactly, which is lovely, but if
you, don't have that permission structure with a relatively new
client, give them alts.
17:26 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Oh, yeah, yeah, give them alts, just give them alts All day long.
Give them alts all day opportunity and don't charge them for
it.
17:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I never charge them for that To me that's nickel and diming and
that's not the professionalism I want to show my client.
17:37 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
So, on social media, obviously avoid insulting anyone on any level,
but one of the most important things to do to try to put yourself
out there as a voice actor on social media is to demonstrate value
and progress. What is your value as a voice actor? How can you
demonstrate that on social media? What progress have you made as a
voice actor? How can you demonstrate on that social media? I'm now
going to contradict myself, anne. Oh, okay, the most important
thing is just be a human. Yes, be a good human, hanging out with
good humans, collecting good humans, sharing good human stuff with
good humans. That's more important than any explainer video that
you could post.
18:12 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, it doesn't have to be work-related.
18:14 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Exactly A lot of times, when you're posting content about voiceover
accomplishments, it comes out as very braggadocious, yes, and
self-aggrandizing.
18:21 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Absolutely, and, yeah, I think, if you just showcased your
personality, showcase who you are and bring some. I'm going to say
these days, a lot of social media is either educational or
entertainment-based, right? So why do I watch videos? Right? And
videos, of course, I mean. This is why we're recording in video,
tom, because video seems to be the media of choice.
18:43 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
The algorithm rewards it the most.
18:45 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, in order to cut through the chaos. So of course, there's
video. So, guys, you got to get brave and I'll tell you what. I've
been making videos for many years and it's not something that you
can do quickly. It does take some thought, some strategy and some
practice to get good at it. But if you're authentic, right, and
you're showcasing and you're trying to really bring value to the
people who are watching, that's going to come through, and so it
makes it, in a way, easy. You don't have to be like, oh, I do
voiceover or even demonstrate, Because if you're just talking into
the camera and you're being authentic and real, guess what? Guess
what 90% of the casting specs are written to hello real
conversational authentic and allow yourself to come
through.
19:27
allow that and it's interesting because I always say for my
students, like the last layer to put on top of your voiceover
script or your audition is the point of view, is your emotion
right? And that is what. When we're talking to one another, gosh,
we bring that out in spades, but yet somehow, when there's words in
front of us that aren't our own right, it's very difficult to
figure out what point of view, or we can't get past the read of it
to even showcase right the point of view. And so when you're out
there on social media, connect to people with your heart, connect
to people with your authenticity, and people hire people they know
like and trust. Isn't that like 101, like marketing 101? People
hire people that they know like and trust. So have them get to know
you on social media have them get to like you on social media and
have them trust you on social media.
20:12
All the get to like you on social media and have them trust you on
social media All the three things.
20:16 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
My most powerful social media tool that I've had for 20 years is
blogging, Blogging, putting it on your website and then getting it
out there on social media and the specific tool within my blog is a
video.
20:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
A video and a blog, I think.
20:33 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Video. Oh God, the combination is it's a synergistic combination,
but the tool within the blog that I would put on social media. That
was a big part of getting me to where I am today, as both a voice
actor and the video strategist was talking about all the ways that
I screwed up.
20:50 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Yeah, I had a tip of the week.
20:52 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
For like almost 15 years. I had a tip of the week in all of my
blogs, which is this is the mistake that I made last week as a
voice actor. This is what I learned. And I'm going to pass along
that lesson to you, so you do not make that mistake. Before that,
all of it was just self-aggrandizing. Look at me, look at me, look
at me. And nobody read my blog Once I started talking about my
vulnerability and my mistakes and my humanity.
21:15
My social media presence got a lot stronger. I was connecting with
a lot more people. I got a lot more readers and subscribers. So
it's always made a difference because social media, it's social
media. They use that word for a reason.
21:31 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And it's so interesting because you want to present yourself in a
certain way on social media or it's always been like oh, you know
the whole filter thing, right. So you talk about the filters,
especially for like women, and people are like okay, I'm showing my
face, I've got photos, I've got video now and here's a filter. And
I think that people are just again, they can see through the
filters and they really want that authenticity.
21:53
And for me, as much as I want to say I want to look great on camera
a lot of times if I sit here and say to you well, my gosh, you know
what, I've got these wrinkles, or I've got some sort of physical
like I may have just lost a bunch of weight, but I'll tell you what
I've got loose skin now. So I'm really working hard, right, so that
I can feel better, get better. And so if, by admitting that and the
vulnerability of how I still feel, like, oh, I want to look
perfect, but I'm certainly not, and I tell people about that,
that's what's going to connect people with me, to want to follow
me, is that okay? So she's not that perfect looking filtered face
or body or gosh, I have so many flaws. And I think if I say my
flaws, that's what makes people say, oh, identify, I've got those
flaws too. So I feel like if she can feel confident, then I
can.
22:44 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Right, right. If there's one thing I've learned over the past few
years, is that voice acting it doesn't get any easier.
22:52 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
No, it doesn't, it just doesn't.
22:54 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
There's just different and new types of hard. So Anne and I, who
are much farther along in our voiceover journey than many of our
bosses, we have our own struggles.
23:04 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
We just have different sets of struggles.
23:06 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
You're having struggles as bosses when it comes to getting
training, getting a demo, building a website, setting up the home
recording studio.
23:13 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Figuring out what to post on social media.
23:15 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Figuring out what to post on social media and you recording studio,
figuring out what to post on social media, figuring out what to
post on social media. And you know, anne and I have checked off
those boxes years ago, but you know what. We still need new
microphones, we need to replace cables, we need to upgrade our
dogs, we still need to record content, we still need to follow
industry trends to make sure our performance is relevant to what
current casting is calling for.
23:35 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
And we need to evolve with social media because that is honestly
how we get eyes on our business, that's how we market. And, tom, if
I had a nickel, for the amount of times I consulted with somebody
that said, how do I get work? I mean, this is what you do, too
right? How do I get?
23:51
work in voiceover. Well, you can have the best voice in the world,
but if nobody knows about it, they can't hire you. I say that over
and over again, and so how are they going to see you, how are they
going to hear you? Right?
24:02
You've got to advertise, and advertising is more than just. Of
course, you can do the mining on LinkedIn and get yourself some
contacts and do some cold calling. You can even do some direct mail
marketing. But I'll tell you what. As I just mentioned, boss has a
great product for that, a Boss Plus. But you've got to make sure
that these days, you are really tailoring it to your audience. You
have to tailor it because there's just so much information and even
email now it's harder and harder to get through somebody's inbox,
and so you've got to be very strategy conscious when you are
creating those emails. You have to know who your audience is. You
have to know how to talk to them, just like you do on social
media.
24:39 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Yeah, To be great is to be consistently good, and you can't just do
the occasional blast on social media, get bored, tired, scared or
busy and then just wander off and then go back. Because here's
another thing the algorithms of social media need to be fed
consistently, you know, and not all of your content is going to be
top notch viral content. It's just not going to be what the
algorithm recognizes. Consistency as a result of persistency on
your part. It is not a sprint, it is a marathon.
25:13
So to be consistently posting on social media, whether it's photos
or videos or blogs or other content. You have to be consistent.
Come up with a long-term strategy. Come up with a schedule. There's
so many content schedulers out there. There's so many AI-related
tools out there to help you come up with ideas for your social
media content, Create your social media content Schedule and post
your social media content. It takes thought. It takes
work.
25:40 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
It takes time and it's not easy.
25:42 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
No, Anne and I were talking about this before we started recording.
It's a constant struggle to come up with new interesting content,
assemble the content, edit the content and then schedule the
content. And then the second you click that publish or schedule,
it's like, okay, what's the next thing I got to do? Amen.
25:59 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I mean amen Again. Like I keep bringing this up, like if I have
people that sign up for my free consults and they say you know
what? I've got a great demo, but I can't get work, there's two
things right Either it's your performance and your auditions, or
it's you haven't marketed yourself enough. And again, I can
guarantee more than half the time it's going to be the fact that
you didn't market yourself enough. You have to market yourself,
like insanely, and these days, to market yourself, social media is
a huge part of that picture. It just is.
26:28
And so what do you do when you're just a voice talent, right? And
how are you going to market yourself? How are you going to, like,
think outside the box? Well, as Tom and I mentioned before, what
can you bring to the table that brings either some educational
value or some even entertainment value? I feel like voice artists
can really bring the entertainment value, because that's really,
when I scroll at night, that's what I'm looking at, things that
bring me entertainment value, because my brain is fried, because my
brain is fried, and so I feel like as voice actors, as actors, we
can do something creative and gosh. There's always podcasting, too.
That's a form of social well, it's podcasting, but I consider it
like a social media marketing.
27:07 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Oh, it absolutely is. What do you do? The second your podcast is
published. Where's the first place you go?
27:11 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
I social media market the podcast.
27:13 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
You put it on social media.
27:15 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
Exactly exactly. And that podcast doesn't have to be talking about
voiceover. That podcast can simply be whatever you're passionate
about, whatever you're experienced in. Bring that past experience
to your podcast. I mean, the possibilities are unlimited. And with
that, without you direct marketing and hard selling your voice,
you've got a platform where people hear your voice and they hear
your voice on a consistent basis. And if you end up doing like
Riverside, like we do, or some sort of video podcast, they're going
to see you as well. So look at, you've just like killed how many
birds with you know. I mean, you've just literally checked off
multiple boxes just by having a podcast, that's video
recorded.
27:52 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
Yeah, and they're hard to put together and you know you need a
creative team. You need to be able to be objective and figure out
what are you lacking, what skill sets are you lacking, and do you
develop those skills or do you outsource those tasks? But the most
important thing of all of this stuff, regardless of the social
media platform you use whether it's video or audio or pictures or
whatever is that your most valuable asset to having a strong social
media presence as a voice actor is you. You are unique. You have
your own set of thoughts and feelings and opinions and experiences.
Everything that happened to you before this moment informs you in
this moment. So so many of my students try to sell themselves
short. Well, I just started to be a voice actor, so I'm not worth
anything. Yeah, but it's like weren't you a teacher for 20
years?
28:41
Yeah, well weren't you a registered nurse for 25 years? Well, maybe
you know, it's like you have so much stuff to share.
28:48 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
You have so many amazing life experiences and stories, all of which
can be analogous you know, or allegorical, or anecdotal or any
other SAT word I can come up with, because of all the A words
you've just come up with A lot of A words in there, like Ann, to
informing Thomas.
29:05 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
There's an A in Thomas, but no one calls me Thomas, except for
relatives that aren't with me anymore. But, like, all of those
things can inform your social media presence, because who you are
is authentic. The more authentic you can be, regardless of the
content, the more you're going to resonate with people. Just to be
successful on social media, be a good human, collect good humans,
share human stories. That's your best bet to be successful as a
boss.
29:29 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
What a wonderful note to end our discussion on actually yeah, be a
lovely human and bring that to the masses. Oh gosh, we could
probably go on forever about social media, but guys bosses, do the
thing. As Mark Scott would say, do the thing. Or who else ever says
that? It is something that does take time, it takes a strategy. It
is a marathon and not a sprint. So thank you, tom, for chatting
with me today about that. Always lovely to chat with you.
29:57 - Tom Dheere (Guest)
You too.
29:58 - Anne Ganguzza (Host)
All right bosses. Big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You too can
connect and network like bosses. Find out more at IPDTLcom. Guys,
have an amazing week and we'll see you next week.
30:09 - Intro (Announcement)
Bye. Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your
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