While diligently searching for innovative ways to provide quality content and search engine love for our websites, many businesses are implementing text to speech software to present their material to the public. Although these programs deliver spoken word, can they even compare to an oral communication presented by a real human voice? Are they receiving positive accolades from the public?
To answer this, let us turn to a recent University of Missouri study entitled “The Use of Human Voice as a Relationship Building Strategy on Social Media Networking Sites”. This study found that “Applying a personal human voice when communicating via social media leads to much higher user satisfaction ratings than impersonal communication from business and nonprofits.” Common sense tells us if this is true in social media then naturally the same holds true for all public websites.
Audio becomes most potent when it connects and engages your audience, and this is where the point for using professional voice over talent is strongest. Voice over actors will be able to emphasize the important words, as well as be able to create a real identity for your content by implementing interpretive reading and giving the proper voice inflections during this dramatic performance.
With the proper voice inflection, tone and pace spoken at key times and with the vital points being emphasized with the corresponding emotion in an interpretive reading, your content is brought to life. However many webmasters are turning articles from their blogs, and other promotional material into audio content by using special text to speech software. This software reads whatever text is entered and then speaks it back using a range of computerized and digital voices.
The user is able to customize the voice utilized during play back by changing the gender, pitch, and accent of the “reader”. While text to speech programs do work, and will produce a voice over of your content there is a major flaw. The “reader” still IS a computer after all, and there is no disguising it! While your content will be “spoken” back, there is no effectual pace or pause, no voice inflection and there is no emotion or expression coming through.
What you end up with is either a dull, boring sounding message or a comedy that was intended to be a drama. Either way, both are unlikely to hold a listeners interest, let alone get them to subscribe to your website. In short you totally lose the the purpose of your content and the human voice element that is so vital in audio media.
On the flip side, when your goal is to to move your audience with compassion when speaking about orphaned children who lost their parents in tragic accidents, a powerful interpretive reading performance of the material will convey that pain and evoke compassion if employing a professional trained in voice acting.
Or if the intention of the message is to incite overwhelming joy when the family’s pet was lost during a trip 900 miles from home and miraculously shows up at their house six months later, sheer elation will come spilling across the airwaves and be experienced by the audience through the oral communication of a human voice over professional delivering a dramatic presentation. This simply cannot be achieved when using text to speech software or other digital voice synthesizers.
Ensuring your listeners have the best possible experience when faced with your content is vital if your purpose is to obtain public satisfaction, trust, loyalty and positive word of mouth referrals. Utilizing the personal human voice such as is what is accomplished with trained voice over actors is the most effective and efficient method available.
How will you broadcast your next message to the the public? Will it be via text to speech software and other digital voice generators or by a real human voice over that brings forth the true sentiments of your content?
