Social Media Marketing

Here’s A Quick Way To Convert Audio To Text

As an Internet Marketer, I have developed audio recordings of business tips, and many training videos. So I began to think about another way to re-purpose that content. Such as turning them into transcripts and re-purposing them as an ebook, a seven-step series on “how to” do whatever I was discussing, or a free tips sheet for my opt-in box.

I had used a virtual assistant in the past to to listen to the audio and transcribe it for me. Which took several hours to complete and was very costly. I needed something quick and easy (and free would be great too!). After some research, I found VoiceBase. This free web-based program allows you to upload files manually into VoiceBase or automatically through their API. They support many different file types and accept files up to 750MB. You can also record audio or video directly from your computer using your microphone and webcam and upload it to VoiceBase.

VoiceBase has a unique feature in that you can “search” your uploaded files by typing in your keywords. Also, there is a public search feature where you can find public radio and podcasters who have content on VoiceBase.

The free version allows you to store your files for one year. Any time during that one year period you can choose to permanently store your files for around $1 per hour of audio. Also available for an additional cost is human transcribing, which takes approximately three days to complete.

I uploaded a couple of webinars that I had previously done. They were 45 minutes to 1 hour in length. Both files uploaded quickly and in less than two hours, the transcripts were complete. I didn’t see an easy way to save a file, so I just copied and pasted it into a Word document. The transcribed content is not usable and will have to be reviewed extensively in order for it to be re-purposed. However, they did state that the clearer your audio is, the better the transcript will be. So I’m not giving up on this program as a great resource. Keeping in mind that I should speak clearly and slower, I believe the next audio that I upload will produce a much better transcript.

VoiceBase also has a free iPhone App so that you can record from your phone. Overall, I like it and will continue to use it for now. What program are you currently using for audio to text conversions?

The New Facebook Timeline – An Online Scrapbook

September 27, 2011 By Terri 2 Comments

As I sat in my office watching the Live Feed from Facebook’s F8 Conference last week, I quickly saw the new Timeline being much like an online scrapbook. I love to scrapbook and have gotten together with friends to share stamps, templates and other embellishments for by books. But the one thing I don’t do with my scrap-booking is to…Keep It Up To Date! I’m terrible about this. I have really good intentions, but I put it off and put it off until my children are grown and all the wonderful events of their life are outdated, so why put that book together now?

Well, with the new Facebook Timeline, (and everyone should remember this, you don’t HAVE to put your life out there, it’s your choice) I can can go all the way back to my birth and start building my life online. I’m not so sure that I want everything out there or if I even want to go back that far. But I have that option now.

And there are Apps that will make the Facebook experience more like a community. We can share music, movies, books and videos with each other and even watch them together and chat about them, all from within Facebook. Be careful, not to make yourself a hermit with this feature and never go out to a real theater or bookstore. You still need human touchy-feely relationships.

Here is a run down (as I noted it) of the new Timeline and it’s accompanying features:

The heart of the Facebook experience is your Profile
The Story of your Life will be represented in Timeline
Timeline will be a lot more visual
On the right of the Timeline will be the years and you can click it to see what you posted for that year
A large area for a Cover Photo at the top of your Timeline. Can be changed daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
Visual Tiles for the Apps you use
Works on Mobile Devices
You can go to the beginning of your life and build your Timeline, or just start where you are
Apps express who you are by highlighting and curating all your stories and giving you complete control over everything and everyone that sees it
A new Report feature to allow you to see quickly a summary of your Apps, like what you ate, what movies you watched, where you have been, etc.
Ticker (which a lot of people find annoying) is a lightweight stream of information. It moves quickly and shares posts from your friends so you can jump into a conversation with them
Open Graph – a new class of Apps will cover four areas, Communication, Games, Media and Lifestyle
Through Open Graph you will discover new things from your friends – Frictionless experiences and Realtime Serendipity (this is the music, movie sharing feature I mentioned above)
Open Graph is the biggest change on Facebook since the 1st F8 conference

The beta period for Timeline began last week for developers. But many people have declared themselves developers so they can begin building their Timeline. Myself…I’ll just wait until all the bugs and kinks are worked out and build mine. Which will only be a couple of weeks.

After everyone has gotten to learn and use Timeline, the Open Graph will be rolled out.

So you have lots of decisions and choices to make. Do you want to have your entire life online for everyone to read? Do you want to share just the highlights of your life? Do you want to build relationships with your friends over a song, book or movie? You can (or cannot) do it all with the new Facebook Timeline and Open Graph.

How do you feel about these features? Will you use them? I’d love to know your thoughts.