Sound Strategies: one to watch (or listen to)

Courtesy of a friendship link request in Melcrum’s Communicators Network I have been delighted to find Ronna Porter and her company Sound Strategies.

The opening flash splash is great: short, sharp and VERY to the point. Make sure your speakers are ‘on’ before you visit the site. It’s a treat and really makes you think.

Following in my best ‘Radio DJ’ tradition I have my signature music for my own podcasts and vidcasts — a catchy sort of latin thing — but Sound Strategies make me think about what branding occurs outside of those vehicles.

Sure, I have my photo and my (absurd) sense of humour, especially with black and white photo banners on many of my blog posts, but in this exceptionally ‘noisy’ age, what ‘sound picture’ comes to mind when people here my voice, or see my name, or somehow make a mental reference to me…?

Thought-provoking stuff — thanks for requesting the friendship link, Ronna; I’ll now try and hunt you out on Facebook.

Technorati tags: ronna porter, sound strategies

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Tagged as: nonverbal communication, pr

http://sound-strategies.typepad.com/ Ronna Porter

Hi Lee, thanks for the kind words. Anyone interested in following some of the stuff that we are interested in can subscribe to our blog at: http://sound-strategies.typepad.com.

I recently put together some tips on music in podcasts for my friends over at Internet Business Mastery who are looking for help to create their own distinctive theme music in the vein of ‘The Matrix’ theme music.

“Hi boys,

I caught your request about help to produce some bespoke music for use on the podcast – let me know if I can help you to find a composer. While Sound Strategies isn’t a music provider, we help organisations to create a distinctive and differentiating audio brand (voice, sound, music), often helping clients to draft a brief that composers, musicians, etc. can creatively interpret to achieve the desired business results. We led a discussion at the London Social Media Club earlier in the year on ‘How to Exploit Sound in Social Media’ which might give you and other podcasters some food for thought. (hear it and see some of the resources at: http://www.socialmediaclub.org/2007/03/19/london-meetup-exploiting-sound-in-social-media/).

It’s great that you already have an idea of the sort of sound that you want to have (and why?). Creating your own bespoke theme is the best route as it is:

* Ownable – only you can use it
* Distinctive – as long as you don’t let it get too derivative of something else (such as The Matrix)
* Memorable – make sure it is something people can hum
* Differentiating – so few podcasters use music really well, you’ll stand out
* Easier and less expensive to negotiate royalties with your collaborators (but be clear on the types and extent of use at the outset)
* Flexible – when producing the music, take the time to think through some of the possible future uses for the music (podcast opening, closing, section links, conferences, web/audio products, audio greeting, combination with voice, etc.) and also some of the different ‘emotions’ you need it to display. Producing a full selection of members of the theme family in one go is much cheaper and easier than revisiting later
* More easily designed to exploit the delivery medium eg. built in lap-top speakers have a much narrower audio range than, say, a quality MP3 player or a conference sound system, so you need to steer clear of the higher and lower ranges
* An audio brand for Internet Business Mastery, that you can use to extend an emotive link between your various offerings and loyal subscribers and customers

Perhaps there is a topic for one of your shows here!

Cheers, Ronna”
http://sound-strategies.typepad.com Ronna Porter

Hi Lee, thanks for the kind words. Anyone interested in following some of the stuff that we are interested in can subscribe to our blog at: http://sound-strategies.typepad.com.

I recently put together some tips on music in podcasts for my friends over at Internet Business Mastery who are looking for help to create their own distinctive theme music in the vein of ‘The Matrix’ theme music.

“Hi boys,

I caught your request about help to produce some bespoke music for use on the podcast – let me know if I can help you to find a composer. While Sound Strategies isn’t a music provider, we help organisations to create a distinctive and differentiating audio brand (voice, sound, music), often helping clients to draft a brief that composers, musicians, etc. can creatively interpret to achieve the desired business results. We led a discussion at the London Social Media Club earlier in the year on ‘How to Exploit Sound in Social Media’ which might give you and other podcasters some food for thought. (hear it and see some of the resources at: http://www.socialmediaclub.org/2007/03/19/london-meetup-exploiting-sound-in-social-media/).

It’s great that you already have an idea of the sort of sound that you want to have (and why?). Creating your own bespoke theme is the best route as it is:

* Ownable – only you can use it
* Distinctive – as long as you don’t let it get too derivative of something else (such as The Matrix)
* Memorable – make sure it is something people can hum
* Differentiating – so few podcasters use music really well, you’ll stand out
* Easier and less expensive to negotiate royalties with your collaborators (but be clear on the types and extent of use at the outset)
* Flexible – when producing the music, take the time to think through some of the possible future uses for the music (podcast opening, closing, section links, conferences, web/audio products, audio greeting, combination with voice, etc.) and also some of the different ‘emotions’ you need it to display. Producing a full selection of members of the theme family in one go is much cheaper and easier than revisiting later
* More easily designed to exploit the delivery medium eg. built in lap-top speakers have a much narrower audio range than, say, a quality MP3 player or a conference sound system, so you need to steer clear of the higher and lower ranges
* An audio brand for Internet Business Mastery, that you can use to extend an emotive link between your various offerings and loyal subscribers and customers

Perhaps there is a topic for one of your shows here!

Cheers, Ronna”