VO Review #1: Twitter Marketing that Doesn’t Suck (Vol. 1, punk rock marketing) by Michael Clarke1/4/2016 A brief explanation to the method of my madness:
This is my first review for voiceover and voiceover related topics. So why am I posting a review on social media first? I believe many voiceover artists (myself included) at least know the basics of their craft; that is to say, voice acting. It is after all, the product that they are selling. What they don’t know is the business side of the coin. In general many of us know little about self-promotion, either through ignorance or apathy to the process. Learning marketing and self-promotion needs to become at least as important as auditioning and even the acting part of the profession. People can’t hire you if they don’t know who you are, even if you are (in one’s mind at least) a voiceover deity. But don’t despair - I have many other books, webinars, and videos that pertain directly to the craft of voice over that I’ll be posting about in this series. I have found Twitter to be a very easy and engaging social media platform. Even with the meager marketing instincts I have and without any education on Twitter, I found it useful to spreading the word about my business. Twitter has already directly boosted engagement on my website from nothing to several hundred unique hits a week. However, I knew I was just starting to understand it's capabilities, and it was time to learn more. Overview of contents: Short and Sweet: Simple, easy to read and informative and the price is a sweet deal. In Depth: Mr. Clarke starts with a simple introduction on what Twitter is, and the bare bone basics. Even here, I found a few interesting bits and pieces. If I would have read his intro before I took up Twitter a few months ago, I would have saved myself a few initial headaches (when I started, I didn’t realize Direct Messages were a bad thing, for instance). He also explained in brief a few of the tools that still I didn’t know what their purpose was. This was just the first few pages, so I think first time Twitter users would appreciate this part right off. The chapters that followed were short, sweet, and full of information. Each chapter built upon each other, and easily read and understood. I was able to enact changes to my Twitter account within minutes . Chapter 1 covers a boiled down explanation of direct and indirect marketing. This is information that can be applied to any platform or marketing idea. Chapter 2 covers how to setup a well made Twitter profile. Topics like how to pick a twitter name, and what to put in one's bio. Chapter 3 gives solid ideas on what to tweet about, how much to tweet, where to get the information, and how to tweet in proportion to your other tweets without ticking your readers off with too much spam and salesy stuff. A nice bit of advice! Chapter 4 indicates when the best and worst times to tweet are. It’s worth paying attention to, because otherwise, your tweets might just get lost in the other feeds coming through much more easily. This is useful as a gauge only, and the author admits different times might work better for different businesses. At the very least, an excellent starting point. Chapter 5 speaks about how to construct a well made tweet. The size of the tweet, and use and placement of hashtags. Also how to say things in a tweet. I found this very interesting and useful. Also it made sense. Many times I would read his words and think “of course!” why didn’t I think of that? I found this very useful tidbit that makes this chapter worth the price of the book to make the tweets as short as possible, so people have room to retweet. I never thought of that! Chapter 6 talks about how to gain followers fast without doing anything that would anger the Twitter gods. Mr. Clarke talks about how to follow, who to follow, and also ways of making yourself appear to be an established expert of your field. This is a chapter in which the author states that it still will take some work on one's part to grow one's followers, but it is logical and consistent and makes total sense. Chapter 7 delves into ways to engage followers through contests, chats and streaming, the author gives solid information on what to use and how to use various Twitter friendly sites. This is something I never thought of, and the information can be used for other kinds of social media. really, a lot of the book has principles that can be applied to other forms of marketing. Finally Chapter 8 gives information on making many of the skills taught in the previous chapters automatic through various websites. This is especially useful to the time crunched business person (and who isn't?) All in all, I found this a great introductory read that gets you up and moving quickly. It is a short, (76 pages) easy to read book with lots of information, told with tongue and cheek humor by the author that keeps the reader awake through the grind of the technical aspects of Twitter.And at $2.99 on Kindle, well worth the small investment of time and money.
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