Is posting your voiceover auditions & gigs on social media a good idea?
Some voice actors post their voiceover auditions & gigs on social media and sometimes it gets them in trouble. How?
These days, many voice seekers will do a social media "deep-dive" on you to check for not just commercial conflicts but to see if you have the potential to damage their image. I'm talking about posting content that is politically charged, sexually explicit, or demonstrates inappropriate behavior (drinking, partying, etc.). They're also checking to see if you're an NDA violator. Many voice actors have damaged their career by posting about auditions or bookings before the release of the ad campaign, audio book, video game, etc. and it got them in a LOT of trouble. Here's a great example of an innocent NDA mistake made by my friend and wonderful voice actor Debbie Irwin. This even happens with movie stars sometimes, like this Avengers: Endgame NDA-violating boo-boo.
TIP OF WEEK
If you're considering posting about one of your voiceover auditions or gigs on social media;
THINK BEFORE YOU POST. Here are four tips:
Ask yourself why you want to share this audition or gig with the world. What conversation are you trying to have? Who are you trying to have a conversation with? Are you just showing off? Or do you just have no idea how to use social media effectively as a voice actor?
Do you have permission to talk about it on social media? FYI you know you have permission if you can find it on a front-facing website like the company's business website, iSpot, or a YouTube channel. If you can't, I don't recommend trying to get permission. That may make the client nervous because now they have to see if you're doing something wrong.
Always assume ALL auditions are submitted under an NDA, even if you didn't sign one. Even posting about how excited you are about an audition you just did without disclosing who/what you did it for may get you into trouble. Don't do anything to make the voice seeker twitchy!
Be patient! After it goes live, talk about the journey to getting cast. Talk about your prep. Talk about the recording session. Talk about being directed or directing yourself.
The more you can demonstrate your professionalism, your humanity, and your joy, the more value your social media posts have. Focusing more on that and less on self-hype will do yourself much more good.
NEWS AND NOTES
Saturday, November 13th @2PM ET: The Voice Actors Studio "eLearning Performance with Guest Coach Tom Dheere!" eLearning, training modules, and instructional content is a leading category in voiceover opportunity! Join special guest coach Tom Dheere for a focused eLearning Performance workshop! Every voiceover genre has a unique set of “performance rules.” Get a clear understanding of what is required when voicing educational/training content. Soak up helpful pointers from Tom, a busy eLearning VO talent and coach, as he directs you on a variety of eLearning-specific scripts. Don’t miss three hours of script reading with Tom Dheere! You’ll be sure to “learn” a thing or two and have a lot fun while doing it!
Sunday, November 14th @1PM ET: Edge Studio "Managing Your Marketing Mindset". You’re looking to book voice over jobs but you don’t know how to best market yourself as an actor. In this one-hour webinar, you will learn how to think like a professional marketer and develop a positive and sustainable mindset to set yourself up for success in the industry, while keeping clients coming back.
November 12-14: The Mid-Atlantic Voice Over conference. I won't be speaking there this year but this is a FANTASTIC conference and I strongly encourage you to attend.
HAPPY HAPPYS
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 20 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.