Speaking at WordCamp

This summer, the team at Create My Voice has been Speaking, Sponsoring, and Volunteering at WordCamps.  WordCamps are organized in cities around the world and are where people get together to learn about topics related to WordPress.  WordPress is a content management system used to power about one-third of all of the websites on the internet.  For 2019, the Create My Voice team has been to WordCamps in Atlanta, Jacksonville, Boston, and Birmingham, we are on the way to Lehigh Valley in central PA.  and plan to attend WordCamp in New York, Philadelphia, Boise, and Seattle.  Regardless of the CMS that you use, Voice Technology is starting to impact how you engage with your audience.  The team at Create My Voice is providing education on how to prepare your brand for Voice Technology.  Topics include:

• The explosion of Voice Technology
• The Privacy versus Convenience debate
• The Difference between Traditional Branding and Verbal Branding, and
• What it means to own your Verbal Brand

Voice Technology will be everywhere

Voice technology isn't just in smart speakers like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomePod.  Voice technology is in Smart Phones as well.  And companies are adding Voice Technology from cars to dorm rooms, to hotel rooms, to appliances like microwaves, refrigerators, and stoves.  In an article titled “The Future of Voice and the Implications for News”, published for the Reuters Institute, Nic Newman says:

"The tech companies’ vision for voice goes way beyond smart speakers to become embedded in every device, supporting and anticipating user needs.”

Convenience will win over Privacy

It wasn't that long ago when we moved from using a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to primarily using the computer in our pocket. Smartphones have more computing power than most of the old desktop computers.  But when we added GPS to our smartphones, privacy came front-and-center. But once we experienced the convenience of navigation, our concern with Google or Apple knowing our location went away.  But Voice Technology takes privacy concerns to a new level.  However, Voice Technology usage continues to increase.  I think it's clear, most people prefer the convenience that Voice Technology offers and are not concerned with privacy.

For business owners and influencers, whether you use GPS or voice technology is not the point.  Your audience wants the convenience these devices offer.  Your audience is using voice assistant technology.  As a business owner or influencer, these devices offer a new platform to engage your audience.

Voice Technology is complicating traditional branding

While sonic branding has been around for a long time, most branding is visual in nature.  But voice interaction does not require a screen.  So, what does your brand look like (I mean sound like) in a voice-first world?  When our audience is no longer sitting in front of a computer screen, when they are cooking breakfast or driving in their car, how do we maintain our brand?  The primary components of a verbal brand include our brand name, our ear-con, and our content.  Going forward, it will be critical to expand our brand awareness, and ensure that our content represents our brand in a coherent and cohesive manner.  

Own your Verbal Brand

Voice interactions on Smart Speakers and Smartphones come in two forms. The primary interaction is controlled by Google and Amazon.  Google has been developing technology to create what they are calling a "featured snippet".  You can see examples of a "featured snippet" by doing a Google search.  Many Google searches result in a new entry in position zero called a featured snippet.  Because voice interactions don't do well with a list of possible answers, Google has been working to determine the best answer, this best answer gets position zero and is used for both mobile and voice responses.  But even if we could guarantee that the content from our website would always be the featured snippet returned to our audience, Google and Amazon still control the interaction.

The alternative to relying on Google and Amazon to manage the interaction with our audience is to build what is referred to as a Voice App.  Google calls these voice apps Actions, Amazon calls them Skills.  A Voice App is how we determine how to interact with our audience.  Using a Voice App, we can control our brand.

Let's end this post with another quote.  This time from Britt Armour from Clearbridge Mobile.  He says:

"Voice Is the Future of How Brands Will Interact With Their Customers"