VO clients, scattered everywhere on the Internet. With all the various social media channels at our disposal, which one is the best for getting voice over work? This kind of question could spark all manner of different debates but for this article let’s look specifically at Linkedin.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Linkedin is very much business to business. It’s probably the best platform for connecting with other business professionals and for forging business relationships on the Internet. As voice over artists we have an opportunity to utilise Linkedin to our best advantage but I wonder how many of us are really working Linkedin the way we should be?
Seduced by the ‘hanging out’ aspects of Facebook and Twitter , it’s very easy to spend a couple of hours a day reading posts, commenting, watching videos and generally being engaged by all the things that Tacebook and Twitter has to offer. Whilst some of this is definitely worthwhile, would we be better spending a bit more focused time on Linkedin to try and find potential clients?
Linkedin allows you to create a professional profile, showcase your abilities and work, and demonstrate what you have to offer. Using the advanced search facility you can start linking with people who you might be able to do business with. You can start connecting with studios, production companies and directly with potential clients. For example, look at companies and industries you have worked with in the past and connect with similar types of companies and see if you can introduce yourself. This doesn’t mean spamming everybody you fancy working with! You need to be a bit smarter than that!
What you could do is try and phone the company first, see if they can tell you who makes the marketing decisions, get a name and see if you can find that person on Linkedin. The majority of the time you can find them and then you can try to connect with them on Linkedin by saying something like…you’ve provided voice over services to X industry before and really enjoyed it so it would be great to connect with other businesses in the same sector…or words to that effect. By doing this, you are telling them that you’ve got experience and you’re not being overtly ‘salesy’. They may be intrigued enough to connect with you and check your profile or they may just ignore you! Either way, you’ve got nothing really to lose and if they do connect with you then you can tentatively start to build the relationship.
There are also plenty of groups on Linkedin where you can discuss common interests, share your expertise and generally join in the conversation. There are several VO groups on there where you can engage with other VO artists such as:
- Voice Over Professionals
- International Voice Over Talent
- Voice Over Vision
- Voiceover Gigs
- Voice Over Guild
- Global Online Voice Over
- Locutores
- Les Voix
- Taji’s Voice Over Casting Group
- Arabic Voice-Over
To name just a few…
Locutores is for Spanish speaking voice over artists so if your nationality isn’t represented then why not set one up? It’s pretty easy to create your own group on Linkedin and start inviting people to join. A word of caution however….you do need to maintain the group, help lead the conversation and contribute regularly otherwise there really is no point. Creating a group can raise your profile and credibility in the VO community so it’s worth considering.
As well as VO groups, there are hundreds of business groups which might be worth investigating so check them out and see if you can benefit.
There’s certainly no shortage of advice on the internet about how to use Linkedin to attract potential clients so as part of your overall marketing strategy, Linkedin is definitely worth a look.
At the end of the day everybody is on Linkedin for the same reason. They are there to network, make business connections, and hopefully pick up future clients. Nobody will be surprised by you wanting to make connections and as long as you don’t deploy hard-sell tactics, you might just pick up a few customers.
What do you think? Who else uses Linkedin proactively to promote their VO business? What are the results? Do you have a different approach to contact Linkein potential clients? Please let us know.