As a successful voiceover talent, your job can mean a lot of things, but the main focus is to effectively communicate ideas, emotions, thoughts and feelings to the listener. Whether it’s a commercial for a new burger launching at a fast-food restaurant, a promo for an upcoming HBO series, or a moody narration for a chilling new true crime podcast, the main objective is to use your voice to connect with your client’s audience.
Although communicating the client’s point-of-view is the main goal of the modern-day VO artist, it’s also important to remember that in today’s social media-driven world, developing a strong social presence is almost just as valuable. However, if you didn’t grow up in the wild world of the internet and aren’t too keen on all the ever-changing online trends and fads, social media can be a bit overwhelming. You might be asking yourself: What platforms should I be on? What kind of content should I be posting? How often do I post? How do I get more likes?! Do I need to be selling sexy pictures of my voice on OnlyFans?! Well, those are all very valid questions (except that last one) and, in this blog, we’re going to walk you through a quick-and-easy guide on how to properly promote yourself on social media as a voiceover talent.
ESTABLISH YOUR BRAND
Before jumping on Instagram and posting a bunch of random clips of your VO work, have a quick think on how you would like to describe your personal voiceover brand. Your brand should capture your essence, your aura, your energy – what makes you you! Voiceover is an extremely competitive industry, so really think about what makes you one-of-a-kind to break through the noise. Once you’ve zeroed in on how you want to present yourself to the social media world, think on how to package that brand and present it to the public. Think about how to elevate your personal bio and profile picture. How to make them “more you.” Spend time exploring different color palettes, fonts, templates and images that best encapsulate your brand as a voiceover actor. Whether you opt to do it yourself or hire a professional branding team, establishing your brand is a necessary and worthwhile investment in the world of VO.
PICK YOUR PLATFORM
Once you have all the elements of your VO brand in order, it’s time to determine which social media platforms you want to be on. In all honesty, you should probably be on all of them – it’s just the way of the world now! – but to start out, pick one of two to focus on, then scale up from there. If you have any doubts about which ones to be on, reach out to your manager or talent agency and see where they think you should start!
TIKTOK
TikTok is definitely the “cool new thing” and one of the most popular social media apps for performers and creatives to show off their work. It’s a short form video-sharing platform and a great way to share content with your audience in a fun and engaging way. Not to mention, the app is the most downloaded on the App Store, just behind YouTube, so it has a massive reach of over 800-million users worldwide. The best part about TikTok is you don’t have to be rich or famous to go viral. If you create an interesting piece of voiceover content like a fake, silly trailer or a ridiculous voice-match challenge, you truly have an opportunity to reach a massive audience. Give it a shot!
As the largest professional network on the internet, LinkedIn is one of the most valuable platforms to advance your career. Unlike the other popular social media platforms, LinkedIn is all business, so if you aren’t on there, you need to be. This is the perfect place to post the latest voiceover promo campaign, trailer or commercial you’ve worked on. It’s also a great place to build your industry network and keep up with industry trends so you know what your colleagues are up to professionally.
If you’re a voiceover talent and have a passion for visual storytelling, Instagram is the social media for you! As a voiceover artist, this platform allows you to provide more depth into who you are both inside and outside of your work. It’s a great place to show the behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to be in the booth recording a voiceover audition or a hot, new promo campaign. With a variety of awesome, user-friendly features like Stories, Highlight Reels, and a Live Streaming option, Instagram is a great way to show
the world the person “outside” of the voice.
While Facebook is mostly known nowadays as a place to find your boozy uncle’s latest conspiracy theory, it is also a hugely beneficial platform for voiceover talent looking to push their brand. You can either make your profile public for ease and accessibility, or you can set up a branded business page to post your latest trailer, promo or demo. It’s also super-user friendly and a great place to dip your toes in if you’re just starting your social media journey.
YOUTUBE
The sad reality of our modern “go, go, go” world is people would rather watch videos than listen to or read something – which is why YouTube is a great app to build and promote your voiceover brand. Being the largest online video platform, this is the place to aggregate all of your VO content from demos to promos to personal vlogs. YouTube is also a great source to search for trailers or commercial campaigns from the past to get inspired before you record a voiceover audition, or to just snoop on the
competition.
POST YOUR CONTENT
Whether you’re on one platform or all of them, the most important thing is to stay consistent – both in your activity and in your branding. The more active you can be on social media, the better your engagement will be. With all that being said, let us quickly walk you through how to set-up a strategic social media plan.
First thing’s first, you’re going to want to start brainstorming content you think you’d want to post on your social media platforms. Stuff like career milestones and wins, opinion pieces, silly voice challenges, new demos or general voiceover inspiration.
Now that you’ve landed on what you want to put out in the social media world, it’s not a bad idea to plan when you’re going to post. Put it on a calendar to keep yourself accountable. This ensures that you have a consistent presence on social media.
Once you’re out there posting like a pro, it’s important to remember to also engage with your audience. Like, Comment, Share, and Post. Keep your audience captivated.
Alright, folks. That’s all we’ve got for you today on how to promote yourself on social media as a voiceover artist. I know many people have mixed feelings about social media and its effects on our society, but if done correctly, authentically and consistently, it’s an incredible way to promote yourself and your ability as a voiceover actor. Now before you do your next big voiceover audition, get yourself out there and start posting!
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