How To Be A Social Media Influencer

How To Be A Social Media Influencer

Social media is a powerful platform that more and more people are using to earn a living. Social media allows people to build an audience in their niche and share information about certain topics. Building that audience is difficult and it can be hard to find where to start. If you are looking to become a social media influencer, you’ve come to the right place.

The Voice Shop offers a wide range of classes that help you improve your voice over skills and technique. We are now offering courses to help you improve your voice online and build your influence through social media. Here are some tips for starting on your journey to becoming a social media influencer as well as details on how to enroll for courses.

Find the Niche You Influence

Before you start as a social media influencer, you need to find your niche. There is no limit to the topics you can be interested in and establish yourself as an influencer. Whatever topic you feel you have researched a lot and know a lot about, you can become an influencer in that field. It takes a bit of work, but if it is a topic that you are passionate about, you will enjoy keeping informed on the topic.

If you are having trouble finding your niche, look at your interests. An influencer is successful because they have a passion for the subjects they research. They truly care about what they study and what they represent. If you are looking to be successful in this realm, you want to make sure that you can keep it up in the long run by choosing a niche that you are already ingrained in.

Know Your Social Media Platforms

Social media offers many opportunities to share your voice in unique ways. Social media influencers are knowledgeable about different social networks and how they can be used to their advantage. With that in mind, it is key that you learn each platform and the types of content that work best for you on each one.

Whether you are on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, or Twitter, you can find many ways to utilize the platform effectively to grow your influence. Taking the time to learn each platform and how you can distribute your content in the best light will add to the power you have as an influencer.

Enroll to Become a Social Media Influencer

If you are interested in growing your personal brand and building an audience, The Voice Shop offers courses on becoming a social media influencer. If you don’t know where to start or if you’ve been building your influence for a while, you can find valuable information on social media and how you can improve your influence. To sign up for courses, visit The Voice Shop or give us a call at 212-213-9487!

How To Become A Micro-Influencer

How To Become A Micro Influencer

Social media is a great platform to create influence and earn money for your influence. Micro Influencers have gained huge followings in social media and typically specialize in a topic or industry. Micro influencers are not typically public figures such as celebrities, but they are deeply invested in the topics they discuss. If you are looking to grow a career as a micro influencer, you have the opportunity to take classes to do so.

The Voice Shop is now offering courses to help people learn how to become a micro influencer. Becoming an influencer is hard work and it takes an understanding of social media, networking, and diligence. Before you sign up for our courses to help you become a micro influencer, here are some tips to getting started.

Learn Your Social Media Platforms

For many starting out on their journey to becoming micro influencers, the first place they start is learning how you can actually make money on each social media platform. Many of us understand how we like to use social media such as posting and sharing, but the trick is learning how to convert that into money.

Each platform offers different opportunities and it is crucial to understand the role they can each play. Between YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, SnapChat, Twitter, and more, there are a lot of platforms that you can choose to use. Pinpoint the one that provides you the most opportunity and focus on learning it. From there, you can spread out and handle each platform with the right strategy.

Be Part of the Conversation

If you have found the niche you want to influence, make yourself a part of the community. Not only that, be aware of the brands that would find your influence valuable. Join conversations on social media about the brands you could represent. If you are a fan of food, think of the content you can make that is food related. Rate local eateries in your area and become somebody people can trust to know everything about the local food scene.

If you are passionate about the topic, this is going to come easy. It is best to find a topic that you naturally follow already. Being an influencer takes a lot of time and dedication to news on your topic. What are the latest trends? What do people want to know about the topic? You are there to provide answers and direct people toward products. This will get you noticed by the brands you care about.

Get Classes to Become a Micro Influencer

If you want to learn the best techniques and strategies to become a micro influencer, now is your chance. The Voice Shop is now offering courses to teach you how to become a micro influencer. We can give you a good understanding of the strategies you can use to grow your influence in any topic. To sign up for courses, visit The Voice Shop or give us a call at 212-213-9487!

Podcast Lessons

Taking Professional Podcast Lessons

Coming up with a fantastic idea for a podcast is the first step you need to do to achieve success. Once you have an idea of what you want to talk about you can start to take the steps toward success. Many podcastors just start podcasting right away without any training or thought about what they sound like. This can be their downfall were they not careful in their creation process.

The content you produce is the first step, but in order for the content to be good you have to understand all the little trinkets going into the making of a successful podcast. The little details needed to make a podcast successful isn’t something you can typically pick up on the go. Joining a professional voice over acting school will help you learn all the factors going into making an infamous podcast.

Why Should I Take Classes for Podcasting?

Podcasting isn’t just about talking about your favorite topic. There are various little details going into a successful podcast. One of the first ones being how you speak. Being too loud or too soft can drive people away from your podcast. Remember, a good amount of people use their phones or tablets to listen to podcasts. Their headphones or earphones go directly into their ear, so yelling can cause them a headache.

Speaking clearly is another attribute you need to be aware of. Speaking at the perfect level of sound may be an important factor, but you still need to be able to vocalize your words and enunciate each syllable. No one wants to listen to someone who can’t read or speak clearly. They’ll end up spending the whole time trying to decipher what you are saying, instead, of listening to what you are saying. Voice over classes will even teach you how to be a better “cold reader”.

A cold read is when your client offers you a script during the recording session or before. You will then be asked to read this script, which you most likely are seeing for the first. You will then read the script—then and there—as if you have memorized it a thousand times and emote the proper emotions. Thankfully, classes are available to heighten your cold reading skills.

Professional Voice Over Acting

Understanding all the little specifications can seem like a mind-numbing process. However, once you start to see how they all work together you will become a professional podcaster in no time. The Voice Shop in New York offers a variety of classes for you to choose from. Working with various celebrities and powerhouse companies has allowed them to train their students in ways no other school can.

The BBC, Nielsen, Gucci and Mercedes-Benz are just some of the vast organizations The Voice Shop has had their students work with. Your career will soar because of these new connections. You will be able to use your new skills in an applicable environment with various important companies paying for your work. Your notoriety will slowly start to rise and you will become a more household name. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an expert, there is always room to hone your skills even further.

Voice Over Coaching

Voice Over Coaching: What Does It Entail?

As opposed to singing lessons, voice over coaching involves finding your voice, perfecting it, and utilizing it in a way that stands out and is fit for the voice over industry. Of course, there are plenty of voice over coaches who work with aspiring singers, though a voice over coach most often works on speech and communication with voice talent. Regardless of what’s covered within classes, voice coaching is often necessary for those who’d like a career in voice overs.

If you are the aforementioned aspiring voice talent, The Voice Shop is one of the premier voice over schools in New York City. Our classes can help you start your path to landing a gig in the entertainment industry. While this always involves hard work, skill, proper technique and more, starting out with voice over coaching will surely be beneficial. Whether you’re just getting started in voice acting or would like to brush up on your technique, voice over coaching can help. Plus, the Voice Shop offers a range of voice over courses for every level. Now, take a closer look at voice over coaching and how a voice acting coach can help you start your path to a working voice over talent. 

What’s Involved in Voice Over Coaching?

Within singing, voice coaching essentially applies to the output of an individual's voice. That is: execution, vocal arrangements, phrasing, pitch, volume, etc. Within the voice over industry, voice coaching is quite similar, yet more specific techniques like pauses, emphases, and articulation are also covered. Moreover, coaching may focus on a certain discipline within voice over, such as commercial VO or narration. 

Given that most voice over coaches are experienced professionals, they can give you much-needed insight to the industry. This could include where your voice would be the best fit, how to approach agencies, what to include on your demo, and more. Plus, at the Voice Shop, our coaches can guide you in building your own recording studio and even help you develop the skills to market your own brand through voice over. In short, working with a voice acting coach could present numerous advantages to your and your path to starting a career in voice over.

Options for Voice Over Coaching

While your options will depend on where you receive coaching from, you can find voice over coaching for a range of specific topics and disciplines. As we alluded to above, you can focus on a particular subject like narration or animation voice over, among many others. However, topics don't have to be so specific. If you're just getting started in voice over, you can coaching and lessons for establishing your voice, perfecting certain techniques, and even in creating your own voice over demo. Here at the Voice Shop, we offer all of this and more. In short, we offer a range of voice over classes, all led by industry professionals. We've provided some of our voice over classes below to help you get an idea of your options:

• Fundamentals of Voice Over: As part of our Technique classes, Fundamentals of Voice Over covers an overview of the industry, finding your authentic voice, and touches upon a range of voice over techniques.

• Private Lessons: Of course, private voice over lessons can cover whatever topic you choose. Here, you can connect with our voice over coaches via Skype for guidance, critiques, and anything else you'd like to learn about voice over.

• Workshops (Webinars): From preparing for an audition to building a home studio and recording your demo, our webinar workshops are a great follow up to the classes. These topics are key in finding work and maintaining a career as a voice over talent.

How Voice Over Coaching Benefits You

Regardless of your current skill set, voice over coaching really offers something for everybody. It’s beneficial in finding your voice, perfecting your technique, and landing jobs as a voice talent. Take a look at the list of benefits below for more:

• Improve your delivery, speaking with color and emotion.

• Learn techniques such as increasing volume without shouting.

• Perfect the speed of your speaking

• A coach will serve as an extra set of ears, observing your speech and vocal range.

• A coach will point out strengths and help you improve other areas.

• They’ll also help you create the perfect demo.

Overall, voice over coaching can help in nearly every aspect of voice overs. No matter where you need improvement, the right coach will help you find the right voice, apply it to a certain industry, and help you land gigs. In addition to taking classes with our coaches, you can find plenty of helpful information on the pages below:

• Creating a Demo

• Tips For Voice Acting

• Common Voice Over Terms (Glossary)

Benefit from Coaching with the Voice Shop

No matter your skill set, anyone can take advantage of voice over coaching. Experienced professionals can assist you in every discipline, from finding your voice to setting up your very own studio. More importantly, voice coaching will help you develop the skills necessary in making it as a voice talent and marketing yourself for such.

If you’re interested in benefitting from our voice over coaching, be sure to contact the Voice Shop, the best voice over school in New York City today. You can give us a call at 212.213.9487 to learn more and sign up. 

Types of Voice Over

Types Of Voice Overs

When looking to get your foot in the door of the voice over industry, you will need to do some research into which type of voice over work you would like to focus on. Voice overs are immensely important to brand reputation and awareness, but not every voice over serves the same purpose. 

In short, there are many different types of voice overs, and each requires a specialized form of training. With the Voice Shop, we aim to provide newcomers to the industry with information and classes to help them get started in this excited industry. Let us fill you in on the different types of voice overs and how our classes can help you get a step ahead of the competition.

Types of Voice Over Work

Within the industry, there are many different types of voice overs and each requires research and practice to perfect. Some of the most common types of voice overs are:

• Commercials: One of the most common forms of voice overs are seen on television commercials. Nearly every commercial has a voice over to help carry along the story the commercial is trying to tell. Often times, commercial gigs are difficult to land and you will likely need to gain experience in other types of voice overs.

• Radio Ads & Segments: Much like television commercials, radio ads and segments typically require a fair amount of voice over experience. Radio is still the most consumed form of media and these ads and segments have the potential to reach millions of listeners, depending on the station and market. 

• Narration: Whether for a documentary, or company used training material, narration voice overs can be both large or small projects. Local narration voice overs, for example, can be a great way to break through into the voice over industry and build you voice acting resume. 

Voice Over Acting Classes from The Voice Shop

Regardless of the type of voice over you want to focus on, voice over classes from the Voice Shop in New York City are essential. In fact, even experienced voice over talents continue to take classes and look for ways to improve their skills and expand to other types of voice overs. 

Sign Up for Voice Over Classes Today!

If you are interested in getting your foot in the voice over industry or simply are looking for ways to improve your current skill set, the Voice Shop is here to help. Contact us today by calling 212.213.9487 and sign up for one of our classes! 

Best Vocal Warm-Ups for Voiceover and Singing

By Nate Myers

Whether you are a singer or involved in voice-over work, warming up your voice is essential to ensure optimal performance, prevent strain, and maintain vocal health. A proper warm-up routine prepares your vocal cords and surrounding muscles for the demands of singing or speaking, enhancing your vocal range, clarity, and flexibility. In this article, we will explore some of the best ways to warm up your voice, providing techniques and exercises to benefit both singers and voice-over artists.

Breathing Exercises:

A crucial aspect of voice warm-up is establishing proper breathing techniques. Deep diaphragmatic breathing helps to support your voice and control airflow. Start by standing or sitting in a relaxed position. Inhale deeply through your nose, expand your abdomen, and then exhale slowly through slightly pursed lips. Focus on controlled, even breaths, ensuring your chest and shoulders remain relaxed.

Vocal Exercises:

Incorporate vocal exercises into your routine to warm up your vocal cords and improve vocal agility. These exercises help to loosen up the muscles and enhance vocal resonance. Here are a few effective vocal warm-up exercises:

1.    Lip Trills: Gently press your lips together and exhale, creating a buzzing sound. Gradually move up and down your vocal range while maintaining the trilling sensation. This exercise helps to relax your vocal cords and promotes smooth airflow.

2.    Humming: Humming through various pitches and scales helps to activate the resonating chambers in your face, promoting clear and focused sound production.

3.    Tongue Twisters: Engaging in tongue twisters not only improves diction and articulation but also helps to warm up the muscles involved in speech production. Start with simple tongue twisters and gradually increase the complexity as your warm-up progresses.

Vocal Range Expansion:

Expanding your vocal range is a goal for many singers and voice-over artists. Incorporating exercises that focus on gradually extending your range can be beneficial. Begin with comfortable pitches and gradually ascend or descend through scales or arpeggios, pushing yourself slightly to expand your range over time. Remember to maintain good breath support and avoid straining your voice.

Articulation and Pronunciation:

Clarity and proper articulation are vital for effective communication. Incorporate exercises that target specific sounds, syllables, or words to improve articulation and pronunciation. Practice enunciating consonants and vowels crisply and distinctly, ensuring each sound is produced precisely and clearly.

Voice-over coach Mike George (left) focuses on voice articulation with a student voice actor at the Voice Shop in New York City.

Physical Warm-up:

In addition to vocal exercises, warming up your body can positively impact your voice. Engage in light physical activities, such as stretching, neck and shoulder rolls, and gentle body movements, to release tension and promote overall relaxation. Good posture is crucial for optimal breath support and vocal production, so pay attention to your posture throughout your warm-up routine.

Hydration:

Maintaining proper hydration is essential for vocal health. Drink plenty of water throughout the day and especially before vocal activities. Hydrated vocal cords are more pliable and less prone to strain. Avoid excessive caffeine and alcohol, which can dehydrate the body and negatively affect vocal performance.

In conclusion, warming up your voice is vital for both singers and voice-over artists to ensure optimal performance and maintain vocal health. Incorporating a well-rounded warm-up routine with some or all of the above techniques can help you achieve your best vocal capabilities.

Listen to your body, take breaks when needed, and consult a vocal coach or speech therapist for personalized guidance.

The Voice Shop offers extensive coaching on Voice Over and vocal training. To learn more, check out our home page or upcoming classes!

Upcoming Class Schedule: http://www.voiceshopcoaching.com/class-schedule

Genres Of Voice Over

By Nate Myers

Voice over (VO) is a talent and career path where a Voice Artist records a spoken narrative for a professional project, such as a film, television program, commercial, or video game. VO Artists are skilled professionals who use their voices to bring life to characters, provide narration, or present information. Voiceover is integral to modern media, entertainment, and our relationships with companies and products.

 Voice acting students practice different types of voice-overs
with a voice acting coach at The Voice Shop. 

Several genres of voice-over have emerged over time. In this article, we will discuss the different genres of voice-over, their characteristics, and the skills required to excel in each:

1.   Commercial Voice Over: Commercial voice over refers to voice work done for commercials that promote a particular product or service. These voiceovers can be found on radio and television ads and online advertisements. Commercial voiceovers are designed to sell a product or service, and the voice artist must be able to convey the desired emotion and tone of the commercial. This genre of voice-over requires the artist to be energetic and persuasive and to deliver a compelling message that will make the audience take action.

2.   Narration Voice Over: Narration voice over involves the utilization of a voice artist to narrate a documentary, a film, or a video presentation. The artist's voice guides the audience through the content, providing context, background information, and explanations. This genre of voice over requires the artist to have a clear and articulate voice, the ability to project authority and credibility, and the skill to match the tone of the content.

3.   Character Voice Over: Character voice over is a genre that uses voice to bring animated characters to life in television shows, movies, and video games. Voice artists create unique voices for characters, ranging from humans to animals or even inanimate objects. This genre of voice over requires the artist to have a broad range of vocal abilities, be able to create unique and memorable characters, and bring a level of authenticity and emotion to their performances. Animation voice-over is highly competitive, and voice artists must be able to create a wide range of voices and characters to stand out in this industry.

4.   IVR Voice Over: Interactive Voice Response (IVR) enables businesses to automate customer support through pre-recorded voice prompts. IVR voice over involves using a voice actor to record the prompts that guide customers through the system. This genre of voice over requires the artist to have a clear and friendly voice, be able to articulate complex information clearly and concisely, and have the ability to engage with customers effectively.

5.   E-Learning Voice Over: E-learning voice over involves using a voice artist to record audio content for educational and training materials. This genre of voice over requires the voice actor to have a clear and articulate voice, the ability to explain complex information clearly and concisely, and a detailed script (or, even better), a deep understanding of the subject matter itself. E-learning voice over artists must be able to engage with learners, deliver information in an engaging and memorable way, and convey a sense of authority and credibility.

Each category can get more granular, leading to infinite opportunities to specialize or diversify as a Voice Over Artist. For example, there are niches in Cartoons, Video Games within Character Voice Over. These smaller niches can be a specialization or career direction if desired!

If any of the above categories interest you as a possible career, The Voice Shop is here to help! We offer courses from Industry Experts in Voice Over, Animation, Narration, and more. Take classes from veterans of the voice-over industry like Mike George, Steve Tardio, and Piper Goodeve. Explore our classes HERE. Or contact info@voiceshopcoaching.com for a free consultation on which voice acting class would be best for you and the direction of your voice acting career.