Facebook Groups are probably my biggest time-suck right now and I bet it’s yours, too. But we’ll get into that in a moment…
First off, I’d like to say thank you for the MASSIVE response last’s week’s blog got. I’ve never had a blog entry commented on, shared, and re-posted so many times. A special thank you to those who sent me private messages of appreciation and support. It seems to have resonated with many members of the voiceover community. Curiously, there wasn’t a single negative comment. I guess when you shine a light on something important, the roaches scatter. 😉
Anyway, I want to engage in one of my favorite ego-driven exercises: quoting myself.
I have HAD IT with most of the voiceover-related Facebook groups. Many have gotten too negative and often downright toxic. It feels like every other blog post I write stems from someone’s awful behavior on one of them. It’s great blog fodder but it definitely increases my tension level. It’s like every day there is another smart-mouth know-nothing newbie, scumbag predatory demo coach, knuckle-headed flamer, holier-than-thou union member, or jaded veteran who has nothing better to do than Statler & Waldorf the group minus the funny.
I think it’s safe to say that Facebook Groups are a mixed blessing. They can be a wonderful place for fellow voice talents to gather and share important information, ask questions, share war stories, celebrate their victories, or just commiserate.
They can also be a place to brag, proselytize, insult, inflame, prey upon aspiring talent, or just be a dick. Even worse, they can waste hours and hours of your valuable time by participating in a soul-crushing thread, checking every single damn notification, or just scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling…
TIP OF THE WEEK
What can we do to get a better handle on Facebook Groups?
Control Your Facebook Group Affiliations: leave the ones that are redundant, inactive, distracting, or raise your blood pressure.
Control Your Feed: you have a lot more control over your Facebook feed than you used to. Click the arrow just to the right of the Help button on the top-right corner of your page.
Control Your Notifications: you can manage whether you get notifications from any given Facebook Group and how often. Just click the Notifications button in any Facebook Group.
Get The **** Off Facebook: You have important things to do to run your voiceover business every day. There’s nothing wrong with checking out the Facebook Groups once in a while in between auditions, research, cold calls, etc. but don’t jump down the rabbit hole every time someone asks what we think of Voices Dot Com or what microphone they should buy. You’re a grownup. Act like it. Control yourself.
NEWS AND NOTES
Thursday, August 15th @8:oo PM EST: The Edge Studio “Business and Money 201” Webinar, ‘Rates’. In this one-hour webinar, I’ll talk about how to build an effective Rate Sheet, how to negotiate rates with clients, how to bill them, and how to make sure you get paid. Click here to sign up!
Thursday, August 22nd @8PM EST: Edge Studio Marketing 201 webinar, ‘4 Words that will Kill your Marketing’. In this one-hour webinar, I’ll talk about your vocabulary can seriously damage, if not destroy, your voiceover career before it even starts.. Click here to sign up!
HAPPY HAPPYS
Happy Lemon Meringue Pie Day and World Elephant Day!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Tom Dheere is a 20+year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a voiceover business & marketing consultant known as the VOStrategist and produces the comic book “Agent 1.22”.
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