I have been thinking about this post for quite some time. So long that Mitch Joel beat me too it in a recent Six Pixels of Separation episode, but heck, I think it is worth talking about a bit.
Motivation from this post comes from own experience. Although in phases, I often comment on FIR, Managing the Gray, Jaffe Juice and lately also 6PoS. Lately, I found myself cringing at my comments more often then patting myself on the shoulder, so here are my tips for leaving a good audio comment, with an extra pinch of “especially if you are a non-native speaker”.
1. Is your thought really worth sending in? Mitch calls this “move the conversation forward” and “adding perspective”. Think about that. Is your thought valuable to the community or just for you? Do you maybe just want to leave a comment on the blog or send it in via email.
2. Think before you speak. Know what you are going to say before calling the comment line or hitting the record button. If English is not your native tongue, you might want to give it a few dry runs to get rid of “ums” and “ahs” or missing vocabulary. If necessary, make some notes. This will also help you getting inside Mitch’s desired “two minute lenght” and to “speak clearly”.
3. Make your comment the highest audio quality possible. If you have the tools, record it yourself and send in an mp3. The next best thing IMHO (I tried a lot of things) is the MobaTalk Comment System Shel and Neville use on their site, followed by calling in the call-in numbers FROM THE US. If I call in with my cell phone it usually sounds bad, if I use Skype on my cell phone even worse. It is a test run for me, but torture for the podcast listeners.
As I said, this comes from being unhappy with my own comments. If it helps you, leave a great audio comment, the better.
8 Comments
Mitch Joel - Twist Image
I think a great concept – like the ones you bring forward – trump the other concepts.
If you can deliver a clear message, the other stuff is not as important – but definitely worth thinking about.
I always appreciate your comments Seb – so thanks!
Sebastian
Thanks Mitch, but still, time to hook up my external mic.
Michael Bailey
Hi – this is Michael, creator of MyChingo – I’m glad that you find it useful.
One thing that I have noticed is that a lot of people in the “social media” space happen to be Mac users and I guess all of the mac laptops have built in mics and cameras.
From a technical standpoint I have all the stuff figured out for online video and audio recording – but I’m a one man shop – I do everything and so I hope to have a few new things out there real soon.
Without a budget and only so many hours per day – there are a few limitations! ;^)
Sebastian
Thanks for the comment. I have the built in stuff too. But the machines is rarely silent enough to record a good audio comment – once I fire up some software, the fans kick in and the quality down the drain. MobaTalk is there right away and I can be done with the comment quick enough.
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