Our friend, T.J. Walker , CEO of Media Training Worldwide and top communications expert, offers practical advice about getting feedback from the home team before you take your speech on the road in front of bigger audiences. He encourages you to try out your speech with a smaller audience – a “free focus group.”

Evoca can help you rehearse and get feedback. Record your speech using your phone, just like a mic, use Skype, or our online recorder.  Then email the voice recording right from your Evoca Express account to your inner circle to get feedback. Listen to it yourself, too. Once you’ve perfected it, you can email the entire recording or excerpts to the media in the cities where you are scheduled to deliver it. Need a transcription, too? You can order it online or email it to your in-house transcriber.

Take it away T.J. …

So you have just finished what you think is one of your run-of-the mill presentations, but this time it is to a group twice the normal size in one of your regional offices. After your speech, you are approached by three people.

• Suzy says to you, “Great job on the presentation.”

• Sam says, “Nice speech today!”

• Finally, Jim says (with a big smile), “I won’t forget your speech today, that’s for sure.”

You smile to your colleagues and you smile to yourself. You think, “Darn it, I AM good.” There is only one problem: your speech may have been horrible. How can that be, you may ask, given all of the unsolicited praise? Unfortunately, praise like that is meaningless when it is so general and abstract. Let’s look again at the praise you received.

• Suzy says, “Great job on the presentation.” What she really means is “Please recommend me for that promotion to New York City.”

• Sam says, “Nice speech today!” What he really means is, “I deserve a raise.”

• And when Jim says, “I won’t forget your speech today, that’s for sure.” He really means, “I won’t forget it because you put me to sleep in the first 30 seconds and I never heard it in the first place. Thanks for the time to catch up on my shuteye!”

When you receive praise from audience members immediately after you speak, here is what you should do if you are looking for meaningful feedback.

• Say, “Thank you. What part of the speech stands out for you?” or “What part of the speech was most helpful.”

If the person complimenting you says something like, “Oh, everything about your speech was great,” then you know your speech was a disaster and the person complimenting you is just giving your praise for other reasons, perhaps sympathy.

You should always probe audience members for what they remember in your speech. Which stories stick in their brains? How would they summarize your speech to a colleague tomorrow who was not in attendance? This research is golden for a speaker and it is FREE!

If you try out new material or a new story in a speech and nobody comments on it, maybe it wasn’t so great after all. If everyone tells you after the speech that they loved the story you told (almost as an afterthought) near the end of your speech about the time you went to San Diego and pulled an all-nighter with your team in order to close the sale the next day, then maybe you give that story a more prominent placement in your next presentation, as long as it makes the point you desire.

Great speakers are often great because they use each and every single speech as an opportunity to get a free focus group on how to improve for their next speech. You can to, as long as your probe your audience members after you receive compliments.

Copyright 2010 TJ Walker

Recording your voice has always been easy with Evoca using any phone, Skype, or computer mic. For Evoca subscribers using their phones to record valuable content such as interviews, conference calls, voice-overs, opinions, testimonials, language lessons, and stories, we have added France, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. This brings our Evoca worldwide phone coverage to 28 international cities and 34 cities in the United States.

Denmark: +45 78 77 50 08
Finland: +358 94 2419 190
France: +33 1 82 88 25 37
Norway: +47 21 05 82 36

Evoca access currently includes the European countries of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, along with Israel and Australia, and countries in Asia and South America. International numbers are listed at the end of the blog post. If you would like to request a phone number for your country, email Evoca Business Development and we will research its availability.

If you are new to Evoca, you can sign up for a free trial subscription and start recording from your phone immediately:

• Call, speak, hang up (or listen, erase and re-record)
• Recordings are instantly saved to your Evoca Express account as MP3 recordings
• You can email the recording, share it online using a standard viral player widgets, post it to Twitter — or keep it private
• For subscribers who want to customize player widgets, they can use our Evoca player wizard to brand it, size it, include an image to make a talking photo, select different player behaviors like loops and instant playback, and lots more.
• It is also convenient to record a phone interview or Skype interview. Conference call recordings are just as easy.

You can learn more at our online How To section at www.evoca.com/how-to and our Evoca YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/evoca. To use another Evoca audio content creation tool, WordPress users can get information about adding the Evoca Audio Recorder plugin to their websites or blogs at the WordPress.org website or the Evoca website.

Here is a complete list of Evoca international phone numbers:

With media companies around the world seeking ways to increase their journalists’ reach and productivity, Evoca (www.evoca.com), the leading global voice-to-web recording service, has been cited as the essential tool to do it. Both professional and citizen journalists use Evoca to record and podcast interviews with newsmakers in the political, financial, environmental, entertainment, travel, domestic and international security, and other dynamic sectors. They also can instantly tweet the entire interview recording or use audio clips for radio programs, voice-overs in videos, and audio highlights embedded in online articles.

Evoca subscriber Orlando Montoya, Savannah-based news producer for Georgia Public Broadcasting (http://www.gpb.org/), is the Voice of the Coast across the state and nation.  Montoya explains how he uses Evoca’s phone-to-web service to record timely interviews from anywhere.

</p> <div style=”width:290;” id=”flashPlayerHTML-Mini”> <div id=”playerHeader”></div> <div class=”evocaFlashPlayer” id=”playerCode”> <span class=”mceItemObject” classid=”clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″ codebase=”http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,24,0″ width=”290″ height=”24″><br /> <span name=”movie” value=”http://www.evoca.com/evocaPlayer/wpaudioplayer.swf” class=”mceItemParam”></span> <span name=”quality” value=”high”class=”mceItemParam”></span> <span name=”allowScriptAccess” value=”always”class=”mceItemParam”></span> <span name=”wmode” value=”transparent” class=”mceItemParam”></span> <span name=”flashVars” value=”initialvolume=80&titles=Orlando Montoya Interview&rid=217484&soundFile=https://s3.amazonaws.com/evocacom/9/4/1271966449936.mp3&host=http://www.evoca.com/&listenURL=http://www.evoca.com/lc.jsp?rid=217484&file=https://s3.amazonaws.com/evocacom/9/4/1271966449936.mp3″ class=”mceItemParam”></span> <span class=”mceItemEmbed” src=”http://www.evoca.com/evocaPlayer/wpaudioplayer.swf” mce_src=”http://www.evoca.com/evocaPlayer/wpaudioplayer.swf” width=”290″ height=”24″ allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” wmode=”transparent” flashvars=”initialvolume=80&titles=Orlando Montoya Interview&rid=217484&soundFile=https://s3.amazonaws.com/evocacom/9/4/1271966449936.mp3&host=http://www.evoca.com/&listenURL=http://www.evoca.com/lc.jsp?rid=217484&file=https://s3.amazonaws.com/evocacom/9/4/1271966449936.mp3″></span> </span> </div> <div id=”playerFooter”></div> </div> <p>

Montoya cites “With Evoca I can do interviews for the radio wherever I am with a cell phone. Before, I had to make an appointment, drive to the radio station, and hope the production room was free.” In addition to initiating his outbound mobile call from the field or his home office, he adds, “Now I can give my subjects my telephone number. If I am driving I can pull over; it comes directly downloaded to my account and sends me an email that it’s there. And it sounds good.”

As a veteran reporter, Montoya observes that “in these times that we are in, we are doing more with less and we have to be more efficient as an organization.” He says he has been able to “become more flexible and efficient as a reporter.” Orlando Montoya’s reports can be heard across the state on GPB’s 16-station state-wide radio network and locally on WSVH 91.1 FM in Savannah and WWIO 88.9 FM in Brunswick. Montoya’s beat includes such diverse issues as tropical storms, troop deployments, the environment, political scandals, education, art, music, history and culture.

Instructions for recording an interview using any phone are found at Evoca’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/evoca#p/u/0/f_kpsEus9Ho and online How To guide: www.evoca.com/how-to/create-recordings/record-phone-interviews/. Recording interviews using Skype is just as easy, as the Evoca team explains on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/evoca#p/u/4/FugVzEUtAG8 and in our online How To guide: http://www.evoca.com/how-to/create-recordings/record-skype-interviews.  With interviews as a popular method of communication, many writers, researchers, human resources professionals, historians, genealogists, psychologists, and alumni groups find Evoca an easy tool for both the interviewer and interviewee when in-person meetings are not convenient.

Pointing to Evoca’s mission to offer easy-to-use web and phone services to support journalists, bloggers, activists, and anyone with something to say, Evoca CEO Murem Sharpe recalls, “Evoca chose the tagline ‘Empower your voice’ to underscore this mission.” She adds, “We have become an ideal tool for professional and citizen journalists, bloggers, writers, and activists, who understand that real voices from real people make their stories fresh, compelling, and genuine.” Transcriptions of recordings are also available through online ordering.

About Evoca
Evoca (http://www.evoca.com/) is a leading global Voice-to-Web services provider, enabling businesses, organizations and individuals to easily create and share interviews, testimonials, opinions, stories, and language lessons using phone, Skype™, and its browser microphone. Its online recorder also enables recording through any computer mic. Evoca subscribers can share recordings on Facebook, Twitter, websites, and blogs by posting player widgets streamed by Evoca or use recordings within a private group. Evoca’s YouTube channel subscribers how to use its features to record and share interviews, conference calls, testimonials, comments, language practice sessions, voice-overs, storytelling, and for many other audio-based content creation purposes.

Evoca Express is available online as a 30-day free trial, Pro, Local, or Toll-free subscription. Subscribers access the call recording feature by dialing any of its worldwide public phone numbers or Skype (http://www.evoca.com/skype/), and also can get dedicated local or toll-free telephone numbers in over 45 countries and more than 5,000 cities around the globe to invite their audiences and followers to record news, comments, and opinions. It is delivered through Evoca’s highly scalable “Software-as-a-Service” media platform. Large organizations, other web services, and telecommunications partners also can license Evoca Enterprise, its multi-media, enterprise-grade platform delivered through a flexible interface (RESTful HTTP API – applications programming interface).

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com, use our online contact form http://www.evoca.com/contact.php, or record your message using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder. Any Evoca Express subscriber can receive the Evoca Express webinar training schedule by emailing: customerservice@evoca.com.

©2010 Evoca LLC. All rights reserved. All copyrights and trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective owners.

By now you know we are big fans of TJ Walker, expert on media and presentation training and CEO of Media Training Worldwide and blogger at TJWalker.com.

Many Evoca subscribers embed audio recordings within their PowerPoint presentations, either as a link to the web page with an embedded Flash player (provided by Evoca – standard or customized by you) or from their Evoca Express account. Evoca streams the audio playback from our servers. Player widgets can be for a single recording or playlist.

So we are always on the lookout for good advice about using technology in presentations, especially to incorporate voice recordings that bring PowerPoint slides to life. For example, you can let your own customers or supporters record a testimonial  to enliven a success story or case study. Real people’s voices bring credibility to your assertion that your product or service is the best in the market.

With his permission to publish, here are TJ’s:

Ten rules to follow when you are using technology in a presentation

1.    Assume the worst.
2.    Practice using the technology, that includes the laptop, microphone, projector, speaker, microphone, laser and anything that you are going to use in front of people you should practice in advance.
3.    Practice in the same environment as you will be giving your final presentation, i.e., if you are presenting to 400 people in a conference hall using a big projector, then practice in that hall or one similar. Don’t simply practice on your laptop in a hotel room because it’s easy to do anything with your laptop in a hotel room and this will give you a false sense of confidence.
4.    When microphones [and speakers] break and computers freeze, don’t panic and don’t complain. If there is a tech person around, calmly mention that your microphone is no longer working and ask for help. If you computer freezes, calmly restart it without drawing attention to your problems.
5.    Have a plan B. If your PowerPoint stops working, just be ready to talk to people using nothing more than your paper notes.
6.   Test all technology either right before you speak (if possible) or during the largest break of the day (breakfast, lunch or dinner) preceding your presentation so that you can make sure you know how everything works.
7.    If you get lots of feedback from a microphone, just stop talking and step back. This solves most problems right away.
8.   Never, ever try to learn any piece of technology in front of people. Every laptop keyboard is slightly different; every remote control is different. It’s really tough to learn anything new when you have the tension associated with being in front of people and they are staring at you.
9.    If you are going to use PowerPoint with video clips [and/or audio clips] and use a microphone, give yourself an extra hour to rehearse in the room where you will be presenting—because there are a million things that can go wrong.
10.    Never forget, the presentation is about the ideas you have to help, inform, inspire and educate you audience, the presentation is not about your technology.

About Evoca

Evoca (http://www.evoca.com/) is a leading global Voice-to-Web services provider, enabling businesses, organizations and individuals to easily create, post, and share fresh, engaging voice recordings using any phone, Skype™, and its browser microphone. Evoca Express is available as a free 30-day trial, Pro, Local, or Toll-free subscriptions. It provides voice recording and online digital content distribution services through its highly scalable “Software-as-a-Service” media platform, providing worldwide public phone numbers, as well as dedicated local and toll-free telephone numbers available in over 45 countries and more than 5,000 cities around the globe.

Evoca’s Twitter audio update feature, TweeVoca, enables posting of audio recordings to this popular micro-blogging site. Evoca subscribers can also share recordings on Facebook, MySpace, websites, and blogs by posting digital media players streamed by Evoca. Large organizations and partners can license, Evoca Enterprise, its multi-media platform delivered through a flexible interface (RESTful HTTP API – applications programming interface).

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com, use our online contact form http://www.evoca.com/contact.php, or record your message using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder. Any Evoca Express subscriber can receive the Evoca Express webinar training schedule by emailing: customerservice@evoca.com.

Inspired by the annual “National Day of Listening” sponsored by StoryCorps and National Public Radio, Evoca makes family storytelling and recording a daily event during the holidays and year-round.

Using 21st century Internet and phone technologies Evoca launched “Every Day of Listening” to enable family members who are getting together at Grandma’s house or even across the ocean from each other to record using any phone, Skype, and a computer mic. With a shared Evoca account, creating a family audio memory album is possible whether family members can get together in person or not.

Getting underway is easy. The family “organizer” signs up online for an Evoca Express Pro subscription and registers up to 30 phone numbers of the family members who can call to record stories, memories, and humor. For family members located in different countries or any Skype users, 30 Skype accounts can also be registered. The organizer can sign up for a free trial subscription to practice. Then any family member with a registered phone number or Skype account simply dials any Evoca public phone number, hears the cheerful Evoca greeting: “Welcome to Evoca. Record after the beep and hang up when you’re done”, talks, and hangs up. The recording is instantly stored in the family account as an MP3 recording. Recording a Skype call starts by clicking on the Evoca Skype Call Recorder contact in your Skype account. Since Evoca is a web service, no software downloads or updates are required.

J’miah Nabawi, national award-winning storyteller, teaching and performing artist, and Evoca’s Artist-in-Residence offered, “Everyone has a story to tell. With Evoca, precious stories of family members, especially our elders, can be captured, shared, and saved for future generations.” He added, “We applaud StoryCorps and National Public Radio for encouraging the telling and sharing of family members’ stories. We are thrilled that Evoca makes it possible for anyone, anywhere to share their stories, short or long, simply by picking up their phone. They also can include singing, music, and laughter for their loved ones to hear.”

Two family members can easily record together with one of them asking questions and the other giving the answers. StoryCorps calls them “interview partners” and offers a terrific “Great Questions” guide. Evoca provides step by step instructions about how to record an interview by phone or Skype. The family can even record a group of people in “conference call” style using Evoca’s phone or Skype features. Evoca also provides its subscribers with a Browser Mic, an in-browser Flash recorder, which can also be embedded in a family genealogy website or blog to collect voice recordings using any computer mic.

The recordings can be kept private, emailed to family members, downloaded to a CD to mail to Grandma, or posted to family and genealogy websites, blogs, and social networking profiles such as Facebook. RSS feeds can alert family members to new recordings that they can add to their  Tunes, iPhones and iPods. Transcriptions are available through Evoca’s online transcription service.

About Evoca

Evoca is a leading global Voice-to-Web services provider, enabling businesses, organizations and individuals to easily create, post, and share fresh, engaging voice recordings using any phone, Skype™, and its browser microphone. Evoca Express (www.evoca.com) is available as a Free 30-day trial, Pro, Local, and Toll-free subscription. It provides voice recording and online digital content distribution services through its highly scalable “Software-as-a-Service” media platform, providing worldwide public phone numbers, as well as dedicated telephone numbers available in over 45 countries and more than 5,000 cities around the globe.

Organizations of any size can easily integrate and customize Evoca features into their online properties, marketing programs, education and language training courses, and customer-facing operations. Evoca launched its Twitter audio update application, TweeVoca to enable posting of audio recordings to this popular micro-blogging site. Evoca subscribers can also “share” recordings on Facebook, MySpace, websites, and blogs by posting digital media players streamed by Evoca. Large organizations and partners can also benefit from Evoca Enterprise, its multi-media platform delivered through a flexible interface (RESTful HTTP API – applications programming interface).

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com, use our online contact form http://www.evoca.com/contact.php, or record your message using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder. Any Evoca Express subscriber can receive the Evoca Express training schedule by emailing: customerservice@evoca.com.

©2009 Evoca LLC. All rights reserved.  All copyrights and trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective owners.

Evoca (www.evoca.com) has expanded its voice recording services to instantly convert Apple-supported AAC, MP4, and AIFF audio file formats to MP3 recordings for easy posting online, sharing with customers, audiences, and supporters, and emailing to professional and personal contacts. This increase in services directly benefits users of Apple products and services.

For example, Evoca Express subscribers with an iPhone 3G can create a voice recording, known as a Voice Memo, let it auto-synch to iTunes™, and then upload the Voice Memo from iTunes to their Evoca Express account. Evoca already supports MP3 file upload and WAV upload conversion to MP3 files.

Apple suggests ”Capture a thought, a memo, a meeting, or any audio recording with Voice Memos”. The Evoca team adds: “Then share your Voice Memo online with your customers, audiences, or supporters using Evoca’s Flash player widgets, email, or bookmarking.”

Users of Apple products and services who also subscribe to Evoca Express have many choices for posting and sharing recordings from their Evoca Express account: post online in an audio player widget provided by Evoca; share the widget with their website visitors to post in their own social profiles, blogs, or websites; email recordings to colleagues, followers, students, and friends; download recordings to their computer, burn a CD, or archive it online. Recordings stored on an iPod™ can also be auto-synched to iTunes and instantly converted by Evoca to MP3 recordings upon upload to their Evoca account. In compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), protected WMA files in iTunes cannot be converted.

To experience the benefits first-hand, iPhone, iPod, and iTunes users can sign up for a Free 30-day trial or an Evoca Express Pro, Local, or Toll-free subscription starting at $4.95 per month. As a web service, no software downloads are required. Subscribers can also create voice recordings using any phone, Skype™, and browser mic. Current Evoca Express subscribers get this service expansion at no additional cost.

An audio file format is a file format for storing audio data on a computer system or other digital devices such as smart phones, iPods, and MP3 players. The file formats mentioned above are summarized as follows:

• MP3: The file format extension is .mp3. Evoca converts WAV files and Apple-supported formats AAC, M4A, and AIFF to MP3 format and then stores and streams these MP3 files per the subscriber’s decision to share a recording or keep it for private use. It is a common audio format for consumer audio storage, as well as a standard of digital audio compression for the transfer and playback of music on digital audio players. A 32 bit 44,100 Hz MP3 recording is stored at 32 bit 44,100 Hz. When Evoca detects a new file’s existing sample rate, the audio gets up-sampled to the next 11,025 Hz if it is not already an interval of 11,025 Hz.

• WAV: Windows Audio Format. File format extension is .wav. Short for Waveform, it is a format used on Windows systems for raw and typically uncompressed audio. Since uncompressed WAV files are quite large in size, as file sharing over the Internet has become popular, the WAV format has declined in popularity. It was developed jointly by Microsoft™ and IBM™. Evoca converts WAV to MP3 files upon upload and also in its Phone-to-Web voice recording process.

• AAC: Advanced Audio Coding. File format extension is .aac. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC is best known for being the default audio format for Apple’s iPhone, iPod and iTunes, and is also the standard iTunes Store audio format.

• M4A: File format extension is .m4a.  M4A stands for MPEG 4 Audio. An M4A file always contains only MPEG 4 Audio. Apple Computer started using and popularizing the M4A file extension to denote the file was an unprotected (non digital rights management) MPEG 4 Audio file.

• AIFF: Audio Interchange File Format. File format extension is .aiff or .aif. Created by Apple, it is used for audio and video applications. Like any non-compressed format, it uses much more disk space than MP3.

About Evoca

Evoca is a leading global Voice-to-Web services provider, enabling businesses, organizations and individuals to easily create, post, and share fresh, engaging voice recordings using any phone, Skype™, and its browser microphone. Evoca Express (www.evoca.com) is available as a Free 30-day trial, Pro, Local, and Toll-free subscription. It provides voice recording and online digital content distribution services through its highly scalable “Software-as-a-Service” media platform, providing worldwide public phone numbers, as well as dedicated telephone numbers available in over 45 countries and more than 5,000 cities around the globe.

Organizations of any size can easily integrate and customize Evoca features into their online properties, marketing programs, education and language training courses, and customer-facing operations. Evoca launched its Twitter audio update application, TweeVoca to enable posting of audio recordings to this popular micro-blogging site. Evoca subscribers can also “share” recordings on Facebook, MySpace, websites, and blogs by posting digital media players streamed by Evoca. Large organizations and partners can also benefit from Evoca Enterprise, its multi-media platform delivered through a flexible interface (RESTful HTTP API – applications programming interface).

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com, use our online contact form http://www.evoca.com/contact.php, or record your message using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder.

To invite customers, fans, and supporters to record a message, our Evoca Express Local and Evoca Express Toll-free subscribers can easily customize their welcome greeting any time —  every day, week, or month — or keep the original one.  The frequency is completely up to the Evoca subscriber because it’s 100%  self-service.  Idea:  Ask your CEO,  one of your sponsors, or your favorite celebrity (or sound-alike) to record the message!

Record a new welcome prompt

• Dial the number that comes with your Local or Toll-free account
• Or record using our Browser Mic
• Or upload a “voice talent quality” welcome prompt – it’s up to you

Activate it instantly

• Click on My account > Dedicated phone number > Welcome prompt drop down menu
• Select (name of recording) > Click UPDATE button – you’re done

Hint:  We automatically append the Post-recording options menu that invites your callers to “press any key for more options” when their recording is completed. They will be able to make the following selections:

Want to disable the post-recording options? Go to  My account > Dedicated phone number > Post-recording options menu > Disabled

To get started exploring how our Voice-to-Web recording services can enliven your website or blog with customers’ audio  testimonials, readers’ and audience members’ spoken-word opinions, and fans’ shout-outs, we offer a 30-day free trial subscription. You can upgrade to an Evoca Express Pro, Local, or Toll-free subscription any time.

We’re pleased to let you know that our Browser Mic plugin for  WordPress 2.7 and above users is available, making it easy for customers, fans, and supporters of WordPress users to record comments, opinions, stories, and feedback.  By adding Evoca’s online Flash recorder widgets to their websites, blogs, and social media profiles, they can increase interaction with their online visitors, who they can invite to add comments, opinions, stories, and language practice sessions of value to the host and the visitors. The Evoca Browser Mic operates like a global toll-free phone number without any telecommunications fees.

Our mission is to increase ROI — Return on Interaction™ — by enabling our subscribers to engage their online visitors with audio commenting. Given the enormous popularity of WordPress.org as a web publishing platform, Evoca is supporting the WordPress community’s interest in useful plugins by offering the Evoca Browser Mic.  Evoca’s Browser Mic attracts fresh, compelling user-generated content every day. The genius of WordPress is that it combines the dynamic content of a blog with the static content of a traditional website.

In addition to the Browser Mic plugin available for WordPress version 2.7 and above, Evoca offers plugins for WordPress 2.6 and below, TypePad, Blogger, Drupal, and a generic plugin that will work on all sites that allow copy/paste HTML and enable Flash objects. Recorders can be embedded on one or more pages to invite comments about different topics. Recordings are instantly saved to the Evoca Express subscriber’s account and can be streamed through Evoca Flash players on any website, blog, and social media profile to share with the world or kept private to share with a customer service team.

Using the Browser Mic online visitors can opt in to tag their recordings with their email addresses and additional typed comments, which is highly valuable information for commercial, nonprofit, and political organizations that are building email lists. Evoca also alerts the subscriber with an email message when a new voice comment is created and saved as an MP3 recording to their Evoca Express account.

“Evoca’s WordPress recorder plugin is a terrific tool to help companies connect with their customers. Using actual voices to deliver customer testimonials, supporters’ opinions, and fans’ enthusiasm makes the online experience genuine and believable”, contributes Jonathan Nery, CEO of the Kloudgroup, the digital media consultancy. “Because it’s our job to create strategies and design for effective web communication, we have embraced WordPress as a web development platform for its agility and easy integration with social media applications like Evoca.”

Here are some FAQs:

How does the Evoca Express Browser Mic plug-in work?
When you install the plug-in, we will place a voice recorder in your blog or website’s navigation bar. Any user that visits your site can leave you a voice recording using this plug-in.

Where will the voice comments go?
Any new voice recording that is made will be stored in your Evoca Express account. You will find the recordings made using the plug-in under “Comments” in your Evoca Express home page.

Can I post the voice recordings to my blog or website?
Yes! All recordings that are made will come with a custom HTML code you can use to post a voice comment into your blog. So, if a reader leaves you a voice comment that you want to share on your blog, all you do is copy and paste the HTML code provided into your blog post, and your readers will be able to listen through the players we provide. The “Share” button on the player enables your online visitors to instantly post it to their Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, and other social media sites as well as email and bookmark it.

Does the person who leaves me a voice message need to install any software?
No. The Evoca Express Browser Mic plug-in uses standard browser technology to enable readers to record using their existing settings. All they need is a computer microphone. By simply clicking on the “Record” button, they are ready to go!

Are the recordings saved as public or private?
All recordings are saved as “private” in your Evoca Express account under “Comments”. You can move the recording to your My home page , keep it private, or make it public to stream from a player in your Evoca Express account or that you embed in your website, blog, or social media profile.

How will I know when a reader leaves me an audio message?
We will send you an email each time you get a recording with a handy link to go straight to listen.

About Evoca

Evoca is a leading global Voice-to-Web services provider, enabling organizations and individuals to easily create, post, and share fresh, engaging voice recordings using any phone, Skype, and its browser microphone. Evoca Express is available as a Free 30-day Trial, Pro, Local, and Toll-free subscription. It provides voice recording and online distribution services through its highly scalable “Software-as-a-Service” media platform, providing worldwide public phone numbers, as well as dedicated telephone numbers available in over 45 countries and more than 5,000 cities around the globe.

Organizations of any size can easily integrate and customize Evoca features into their online properties, marketing programs, education and language training courses, and customer-facing operations. Evoca launched its Twitter audio update application, TweeVoca, to enable posting of audio recordings to this popular micro-blogging site. Evoca subscribers can also “share” recordings on Facebook, MySpace, websites, and blogs by posting digital media players streamed by Evoca. Large organizations and partners can also benefit from Evoca Enterprise, its media platform delivered through a flexible interface (RESTful HTTP API – applications programming interface).

For more information, visit www.evoca.com or contact Evoca at +1.212.372.7670, toll-free U.S./Canada +1-866-940-9988, businessdevelopment@evoca.com or using our Skype call recorder contact: evoca-bizdev-call-recorder.

Calling all authors, journalists, publishers, and promotional firms:  Conducting interviews while researching or writing your book or article? Promoting writers, books, or articles?

Evoca makes it easy for you to record interviews using any phone or Skype and then post interviews to websites, blogs, and social media sites.  For your online visitors, real voice recordings bring words, photographs, and writers to life.

Evoca saves your interview as an MP3 recording to your Evoca account. You can keep it private to use while researching or drafting or you can use it in your online marketing campaigns.

How to record an interview using your phone:

• Call your interviewee
  • “Hi Brenda, this is Fred. As planned, we’re going to do the interview today by phone. I’m going to start the interview as soon as I bring in the recording service.”
• Dial your favorite worldwide Evoca phone number
  • Save your favorite Evoca number to speed-dial it any time.
• Join the three lines together to record your interview
  • This phone feature is known as three-way dialing on your Blackberry, iPhone, and most mobile phones and landlines.
  • If you want to interview two or more people at the same time, it’s a conference call. Once you get all the interviewees on the call, add Evoca as the last party on the call.
• End the call and your interview is instantly saved as an MP3 recording in your Evoca account.

How to record an interview using Skype:

Skype™ is a free call recording service that works from your computer. You can host and save an interview recording using the Evoca-Skype call recorder. Add it to your Skype contact list.  Since Evoca is a web service, our Skype recorder doesn’t require any software downloads (or permission from your IT department).

• Make a free Skype call to your interviewee
• Add in the “Evoca Skype Call Recorder” from your contact list to begin recording
  • It’s especially convenient and affordable for international interview sessions and also handy for within-country calls.
  • Interviewee not a Skype user? Make a Skype Out call at Skype’s low per minute rates.
  • If you want to interview two or more people at the same time, it’s a Skype conference call. Add as many people (Skype contacts) to the call as you wish.
• End the call and your interview is instantly saved as an MP3 recording in your Evoca account.
  • Evoca sends you a Skype chat message so you can access it in your account, email or download it instantly.

How to use interviews in your online marketing campaigns:

• Post your interview player widget on your websites, blogs, and social media sites
• With the viral “share” button, invite your fans, readers, and supporters to post the recording widget to their blogs, websites, and social media pages
• Add e-commerce and other promotional links inside the viral player headers and footers
• Email it to your interviewee, editor, colleagues, and followers

Try an Evoca Express free trial subscription. No credit card is required to sign up. During your 30-day trial period you get 15 minutes of recording storage time. Need to start recording an important one-hour interview now?  Sign-up for your Evoca Express Pro subscription to conduct an interview of any length. You get 10 hours of recording storage time and can  add “buckets” of 10 hours any time.  You can also just click to order a transcription online from right inside your Evoca Express account.

Hint #1:  To make it really easy to use the recording or find it later on, create Albums named for your books, articles, or authors. You can easily add each new interview recording to the appropriate album.

Hint #2: Practice an interview recording before you record your first “real” interview. Once you’ve recorded your first interview using Evoca;  it’s like riding a bike, you’ll be able to do it again and again.  You can also bookmark or print this blog article.

The first in a series of free WordUp Workshops for aspiring and experienced storytellers to learn about, practice, and share storytelling techniques is scheduled for Wednesday, August 26 at 7:00 PM at the Bull Street Library Branch of the Live Oak Public Libraries, located in the first floor auditorium at 2202 Bull Street (north of 37th Street), Savannah, GA.

The program begins with a “How To” session delivered by J’miah Nabawi, Savannah’s national award-winning Master Storyteller, Teaching Artist in the Chatham County school system and educational and community programs throughout the United States, and Performing Artist at the renowned Savannah Music Festival.  “Everyone has a story to tell”, says Mr. Nabawi, “especially here in Savannah. We are reaching out to storytellers of all ages and experience levels to create stories from our treasure trove of memoirs, humor, folklore, history, and experiences.”

Participants will receive hands-on assistance with developing and performing their stories, non-fiction and fiction, and can take home a CD with their recordings. To continue to record following the workshop, Savannah storytellers can receive a complimentary subscription to Evoca Express, the Voice-to-Web audio recording service from WordUp Workshop co-sponsor, Evoca. The Savannah-based audio web services company enables anyone to easily create and post audio recordings to their private accounts as well as blogs, websites, and social media profiles using any phone, online recorder, and Skype.

For more information about the Wednesday, August 26th WordUp Workshop in Savannah and future workshops, please call 866-860-9988 or email wordup (at) evoca (dot) com. Inquiries also are invited about launching WordUp Workshops in other U.S. and international cities and to learn how to host “virtual” workshops using Skype, the free international phone service.