Today, I tweeted and Facebooked (what's the verb for FB? I believe it's called "bragging") about it and received a comment from fellow voice-over artist Ron Levine. He showed me a DVR Expander - which is basically an external USB hard drive specifically targeted at digital-hoarders like myself. I received other suggestions as well from several people about adapting a regular USB drive for the same purpose, getting another DVR box, or manning-up and taking back control of our entertainment (not gonna happen.)

What I loved most about this, is that all of the suggestions were sincere attempts to help (or poke fun at me.) No affiliate links; no "brands" trying to sell me anything. Just helpful tips from real people. That doesn't happen every day. Just a day or two ago, I tweeted (or ranted) about colleagues inquiring about your business. I was almost immediately engaged by another voice-over artist (for some reason, tons of voice-over artists tend to follow other voice-over artists and call it networking) who agreed with my point. It only took about two more tweets before she invited me to register for her webinar - at a fee of course. Uh... no thanks. I thought we were friends. Foolish me.

I'm not throwing stones here. I too tried my hand at internet marketing, only to have found myself going to bed nauseous every night. And so, I now use twitter and Facebook to converse with people who either do things for a living that fascinate me or have a similar passion for creativity, family, the arts, technology, and entertainment in general. Sometimes, those very same people hire me.  Sometimes, we just share a laugh. Sometimes, we share war stories. And, sometimes, we support each other as independent creative people. Other times I end up buying something from them; not because they pitched me, but because I like them and what they have to say. So, after looking at their profile and visiting their website, I buy something. It's like getting "more" of that person.

Give more of yourself. Your real self. It's refreshing. There's nothing wrong with talking about what you've done or feel proud of having accomplished, but, I beg of you, just don't sell me anything. I'm not interested in your product. I'm interested in you - especially if you're not a voice-over artist (but rather a real person that is.)

Here's to the real people online! You put the social in social media. Group hug.

-Anthony