Hello and Happy Victoria Day! God save the Queen…
Last week I’m having lunch with a friend in New York City and my phone rings. Looking at the Caller ID, I assume its a potential client. I apologize to my friend and take the call. (I missed a gig by a matter of minutes a few days before so I didn’t wanna make that mistake again). The guy says he’s from a financial company and a friend of mine told him to call me so I thought oh cool it actually is a voiceover referral. He says my friend and I used to work together at Chili’s (actually it was at Applebee’s but I didn’t see the point in correcting him) and how I had this great booming voice when I used the PA system to seat guests (which I didn’t) and now I’m a voice talent and isn’t that wonderful. Then he starts telling me about all the financial services his company offers. I ask if he wants me to narrate a video about what he’s describing and he says no he’s offering his services as a financial planner. Yeah.
I say I already have a financial planner but thanks anyway. Then he tells me what he can do for me that my current financial planner can’t and that’s when I’d had enough. I told him I was in a lunch so he asked if he could call back and I said no. Then he asked if he could email me and I said fine. I hung up, apologized profusely to my friend, and we resumed our lunch.
I followed up with my Applebee’s friend the next day and asked if she gave this clown my phone number and she said no. Apparently they are connected via LinkedIn and he went trolling through her list of connections.
Was I a fool for assuming he was a potential client and not a parasite? Maybe. Often, when someone I don’t know calls me and drops the name of a friend of mine it’s a ramp up to a voiceover gig.
I gotta tell you, that pissed me off no end. This, in my opinion, is the exact opposite way to use social media responsibly.
BTW the only thing I hate more than making cold calls is getting cold calls, and this ass-hat broke all the rules!
TIP OF THE WEEK: So how do you use social media responsibly? Well, certainly not that way. Let’s rewind!
Say I’m a financial planner and I’m looking for prospects on LinkedIn. I find your LinkedIn profile and I think we could be a good fit. I see that we have a Connection in common. I ask our mutual Connection for an Introduction. Here’s how to do it. It’s not that hard, people. Have manners, have a clue, and use the tools that are designed to help you use social media responsibly!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
STUFF!: Audible is running a “Vine That Line” promotion where audio book narrators recite the classic “To Be or Not to Be” line and post it on Vine. BTW Vine is a Twitter-backed service that lets you post 3 to 6 second videos. I tried to come up with a clever way to say it and failed. This is what I did instead.
From Tom Dheere’s apartment, this is Tom Dheere: GKN News…
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