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by Megan Andriulli
and Rob LeFever |
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Time for a quiz! Is the following sentence correct?
“Our impressive line of spectacular products are available for immediate shipment.”
The answer is No.
Why? The noun of the sentence is “line”, not “products” as some of us might think. Since “line” is a singular entity, the verb must also be singular. Therefore, “are” is incorrect. The correct verb should be “is”. So the sentence should read:
“Our impressive line of spectacular products is available for immediate shipment.”
Still confused? Don’t worry; HOLDCOM’s Script Department consists of experienced writers and proofreaders who are trained to pick up on such common misconceptions, which may be lurking in your copy.
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by Steve Brown |
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May's music review is a classic... Media Classics 2! This collection offers familiar classical themes made famous by popular media such as commercials, television shows, and movies. Selections like Debussey's Claire De Lune and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 are the perfect way to convey an emotion in your project that strikes a familiar chord with your target audience. To sample selections from Media Classics 2, visit www.holdcom.com/music and look under "Classical".
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Congratulations to our Voice Talent Amy – she was the winner of the “Best Female Voice” award for the 2009 3rd Annual Voicey Awards!
Sample this award-winning voice for your next project at www.holdcom.com/voices.
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HOLDCOM is active in our community and we invite you to share these upcoming events with your friends, family and co-workers. We're looking for your support, so get involved! Contact us today at info@holdcom.com.
May 2009: American Cancer Society's Relay For Life - May 16, 2009 in Glen Rock, NJ http://www.relayforlife.org/relay/
June 2009: HOLDCOM's first Social Media Mixer, date TBA. For more details & info, email socialmedia@holdcom.com.
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The American Cancer Society will be signing up volunteers for its Cancer Prevention Study (CPS-3) at the Glen Rock Relay For Life on May 16th from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Glen Rock High School. Please note, you do NOT need to be participating in the walk to enroll for the study. The study, which will enroll a diverse population of half a million people across the United States, will help researchers better understand the lifestyle, environmental, and genetic factors that cause or prevent cancer, and will further efforts to eliminate cancer as a major health concern for future generations.
CPS-3 participants must be between the ages of 30 and 65, must never have been diagnosed with cancer, and must be willing to make a long-term commitment to the study. They will be asked to complete a brief written survey, provide a waist measurement, and give a small blood sample at the enrollment site. After that, follow-up surveys will be sent to participants’ homes on a regular basis over the next few decades to update health behavior information.
For more information or to learn how to become involved, contact Stacey Caropreso or visit www.cancer.org/cps3.
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Does your company have what it takes to be Holdcom’s “Client of the Month”? We think all our clients do, but Holdcom wants to hear why YOU think so. We’d also like to hear how our Audio Marketing Services have made an impact on your business. Simply send us a quick email, telling us why your organization should be named “Client of the Month”. Our nominating committee will review all the submissions, and your organization may be featured in an upcoming edition of the Holdcom Voice!
The Holdcom Voice is a great way to reach new prospects, highlight recent accomplishments, and promote all your organization has to offer. Send your submissions to Megan Andriulli today!
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Birthdays:
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Stacey Caropreso
May 16th |
Anniversaries:
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Megan Andriulli
8 Years |
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| By Harvey Edelman |
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In the Old Business World, our dad’s world or our grandfather’s world, everybody had their job to do, their assigned task, their area of expertise. Administrative assistants assisted, service people serviced, drivers drove, receptionist recepted, er… answered the phone, and, of course, salesman sold. And with big profit margins, they sold in style. Dinners, gifts, expense accounts, big ad campaigns. The profits could sustain any marketing budget and the marketing resulted in bigger ongoing profits. A moment of nostalgia here for a time gone by… Okay, let’s move on.
Along came the New Business World, where business got online, competition got fierce, the speed of doing business accelerated. No longer could a company depend on a couple of guys smoking cigars driving big cars, taking clients to the Copa, be counted on to bring in business. In the New Business World EVERYBODY SELLS. Every contact and every communication with a customer and/or prospect is a selling opportunity. Whether it’s overt, using sales tools and jargon, or subtle, passive or collateral, every contact or communication with a potential customer is a SELLING OPPORTUNITY.
And now, well into the New Business World, with the economy in a downturn, this approach is more important than ever, but now must be taken to its logical and profitable conclusion: Everybody Sells? How about EveryTHING Sells. Where ever there is a customer interaction, customer touch, or customer contact, your business needs to be there. From the sign on your building, to your logo on your website, to what your telephone callers hear on hold, EveryTHING needs to sell your company. Forget about having a dinner or afternoon on the golf course to tell your customers what your company is about. You might not even have a face-to-face meeting or a phone conversation that lasts more than five minutes. Between phone tag, texting, Blackberries, and social networking, the impression your company can make on your potential customer base is shrinking into sound bites and sight bites. Make use of them all.
In this economy, rather than cut back on these less than overt areas of marketing, most companies should be investing further. Getting your company's name, brand, product and service offerings in front of your customers at every opportunity is essential, and when it can be done at a affordable rate, it becomes a no brainer.
Don’t miss the forest for the trees. The trees are real, they’re in front of you, they’re in front of your customers, your buying public. Let them be seen, let them be heard, let them tell the story of your company, your business, your products, your services, your programs, your company’s value. Keep it current, pertinent, on task, state your mission, reach your goal, do business, be happy.
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HOLDCOM is putting the Social back in Social Media |
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| by Andy Bengnoche' |
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Have you tweeted, posted, or blogged lately? Are you wondering what people are talking about when you hear these terms? Interested in learning more about Social Media or want to share what you know? Starting in June, HOLDCOM will be hosting our first Social Media Mixer here at the HOLDCOM offices at 955 Lincoln Avenue in Glen Rock, NJ. This is a free event that is open to all HOLDCOM clients and friends. Come join the conversation and learn with us. Please email socialmedia@holdcom.com if you are interested in attending.
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| by Megan Andriulli |
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OK, confession: I loved to use bleach. But when my husband and I moved into our new house a few years ago, we found out that it’s not that great for our septic. It’s harsh as a runoff from storm drains, and on top of that I wanted to cut down on the harmful chemical once we had a baby in the house. Since it’s so readily accessible, we’re all so used to picking up easily available chemically laden cleaners that we don’t realize we can use simple ingredients like baking soda & vinegar to clean indeed. Check out the following link and see if you can cut out some chemicals from your chore list. www.doityourself.com/stry/vinegarbakingsoda
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Tony is part of HOLDCOM’s garden of talents and we’d like you to take this opportunity to get to know this possible voice behind your next project.
Holdcom Voice: How did you get into voice over work?
Tony: Well, luck, coupled with a strange need to play with audio equipment. My start was in radio, actually while I was still in high school! I was on-air, as well as production for a few years before moving into promotions. After radio, (or as I like to call it AR), I became a producer doing live events and show productions in venues across the country. Voice work just continued to follow me. I was voicing radio, TV, live announcing, on hold messaging, etc…
HV: How long have you been working as a voice over?
Tony: Unofficially, 10 years! For a long time I didn’t really tout myself as a voice actor. Things just always came up, and I had the chance to voice it. Then a few years ago, all the stars aligned and I decided to make a full time go at it. I’ve been very fortunate to have these opportunities…and a very patient wife.
HV: What is the most exciting/interesting aspect of working as a voice over talent?
Tony: Wow! How much time do you have? I love everything about it! The clients, the scripts, the things I get to become “the voice of”, the products I see, the gear…everything! The best part for me though is finding a solution for a client. It goes beyond just a voice. It has everything to do with the little things that can make a project better. The difference in music, sound effects, scripting, delivery etc… can be the most important. I love giving that consultative approach to help bring a project to life.
HV: Feel free to share something unique about yourself (i.e. hobbies/interests) and or any career highlights that you’d like to mention.
Tony: Well besides from being the bruschetta master, (that’s what being raised in a family restaurant will get ya), I’m a big sports nut too. For me though, one of the best career highlights was being a live announcer for a 15,000-person show in the Georgia Dome! Just being there was amazing! Thinking about all the great games that had been played there, while I’m backstage at the 20 yard line with a mic in front of me….unreal! Crowd had a ton of energy, which just fueled the fire. It was mind-blowing!
Sample Tony’s voice at www.holdcom.com/voices today! |
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| by Ralph Gioseffi |
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Forget the economy for a minute. Worry about something you CAN change. The food we consume is crippling our nation. About two-thirds of adults in the US are overweight, and almost one-third are obese. Scary? Check this out- A third of U.S. children, about 25 million, are either overweight or on the brink of becoming so.
How did this happen? There’s a long list of reasons. 524 pages to be exact. Marion Nestle, a Nutrition and Food Studies Professor at NYU, dives deep into an alarming amount of facts, in her book "What To Eat". From the FDA, Corporate Food Companies, Supermarkets, and more, she takes an objective look of how it works, and works against us.
Consider this: there are 320,000 edible products for sale in the US. Your favorite supermarket might display as many as 40,000 of those. If you think that everyday items such as milk and eggs are in the back of the store by chance, think again. You’re forced to pass as many items as possible so you’ll purchase more. Guess what, statistics show it works all the time.
So we buy more, then eat more. Even if you stick to your grocery list, you’re likely to buy larger quantities because they are often cheaper. Ever notice how close the small sizes are to the larger ones? In a study by Ms. Nestle, she found at her local supermarket a 50 cent difference between a 6-pack of 8 ounce cans and a 6-pack of 24 ounce bottles. That means a lot more calories and a lot more sugar. Ms. Nestle goes on to reveal this quantity and price formula in all types of food. Buy more, consume more. Costco? BJ’s? Yeah, she’s talking about you.
To purchase this book or for more info check out the author’s blog, www.foodpolitics.com.
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| by Aaron Kamphuis |
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This month's Technically Speaking article is about audio file formats. Whenever you order voice prompts or a message-on-hold program for your phone system, you need to check to make sure that you are ordering the correct file format. Many of the newer USB Messenger systems and VOIP systems use MP3s. Some phone systems, particularly older ones, use WAV files. There are several variants in the WAV family, and they are not all the same, and usually not cross-compatible!
To be sure, check with your IT staff or telecommunications tech to find out the specific format required for your system. WAV files are typically either CD quality (16 bit, 44.1kHz), PCM (16 or 8 bit, 8kHz), or MuLaw (8 bit, 8kHz). PCM and MuLaw are very very similar formats, but are not always compatible with each other. If your phone system requires the Dialogic VOX format, check to see if it needs "ADPCM" (Adaptive Pulse Code Modulation) or MuLaw VOX.
Choosing the proper file format when you place your order ensures that when you receive your voice prompts or message-on-hold program that they play properly and sound the way they should for your callers. If you have questions about your file format or need assistance contact production@holdcom.com and we will be happy to assist you. If you're confused by any of this you can always check with your HOLDCOM Client Relations representative who will answer your question or direct you where to get it. |
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