I recieved an email today from Juan Salcedo from Voice123.com talking about “Demo tags”…
From Juan’s email:
When the new Voice123 Search Feature comes out soon, the very tags you choose to keep in your new ‘My Voice Tags’ section of your profile, can assist you in being found quicker and easier. Simply put, these are keywords that have been anonymously left on your profile demos by other professional talents throughout the last year.
There have been opportunites for voice talents to tag other talents in the past months, and now voice123.com is making it part of the voice talent profile feature.
I do have some questions about this feature…it seems like it could be cool, yet…
1. Why are other VO talents tagging my demos? Wouldn’t it be wiser to have potential clients/ or current clients tag my demos?
2. Will limiting tags, limit my auditions? (if so, that means I have to constantly check these new tags to make sure that I have nothing there that will limit my auditions.
3. How much weight will these tags have in the new ‘Algorithm’ for auditions? (This goes back to question number two. If I am limited in my auditions by these tags, that defeats the purpose of the voice123.com service.
Perhaps you know a bit more on this than I do – those are just my first questions…
If you do have a scoop, please leave me a comment, I would love to figure out the tagging thing for the benefit of myself and others!
UPDATE: [Steven Lowell from Voice123.com has commented on this post - make sure that you read the comments for the answers!!!]
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hi Stu!
I found this blog today. I hope you are ok with me answering, and I certainly hope others will reply to this questions.
1. Why are other VO talents tagging my demos?
I believe the main reason has to do with something that happened in 2007, when keywords were first used in SmartCast. Many had copied and pasted keyword clouds, or ‘white text’ in profiles. Having the community do it, prevents abuse of the system. That sounds weird, but I had a chance to go through the 23,500 tags that were left, and found that this actually worked. Honestly, if it did not work, we would not use it.
There is also no limit on the amount of tags that can be left.
Q. Wouldn’t it be wiser to have potential clients/ or current clients tag my demos?
A. You would think…but talents know talents better than seekers know talents. Talents are the artists. Seekers are the business. Also, quite honestly, seekers only use the site to hire talents.
2. Will limiting tags, limit my auditions? (if so, that means I have to constantly check these new tags to make sure that I have nothing there that will limit my auditions)
Nope, not at all!
The tags will be used as part of a keyword search on the new search feature. It has nothing to do with SmartCast. In fact, the more tags you have, the more likely you are to be found, meaning more auditions. If a tag does not fit, keep in mind, it is an anonymous opinion, so think about whether or not the tag will serve you before removing it. This does mean you will have to check from time to time.
I have an old profile. My tags were goofy, hip, and Gen Y. I am keeping those.
3. How much weight will these tags have in the new ‘Algorithm’ for auditions? (This goes back to question number two. If I am limited in my auditions by these tags, that defeats the purpose of the voice123.com service.)
Nope, no weight at all in SmartCast. It is all related to the new search feature, which we have been testing and working hard to perfect the past couple months.
All the best to you Stu!