Who needs transcription, anyway?

As some of you may know, singing is a bit of a passion of mine, and I regularly sing in a local choral union. I always like having a bit of a chat in the break times with some of the ladies I sit beside, and I was telling one of them last night about how busy I’d been and how I’ve been trying to up my numbers by taking on last minute and urgent jobs. She then asked me a question that struck a bit of a chord with me – who actually needs a transcription service, anyway?

Do you understand the value of what I do?

My initial response was hesitation!

I then had a think about all the different types of content I transcribe on a daily basis.

And after that, I had a think about how I help my clients either use their content again, or have access to what they’ve recorded right there on the page, without having to be constantly fast forwarding or rewinding through a massive audio file.

I don’t think she was convinced, but then again, I don’t suppose she’s my ideal client!

So how can it help you? Here are a few questions for you…

• Are you recording audio and video content?
• Are you creating online courses with webinars, videos and mp3 recordings?
• Do you record interviews as part of your business?
• Do you do research with focus groups?
• Do you regularly speak at conferences and events?

Just typing these questions down made me think of quite a few more, but I think five is probably enough to be going on with!

Transcription can help with ALL of these. How?

If you’re recording audio and video content e.g. podcasts, how would you like to use this again for NEW content e.g. blog posts and ebooks? Do you need to put together show notes for your podcast?

Is your course content accessible to everyone? Some people prefer to learn by reading, rather than watching or listening.

Do you need to pull information from your interviews to put together material? Do you need to provide feedback for your interviewee? Are you doing research? How long is it going to take you to get all the information you need out of the recording?

The same is true of focus groups, and it’s likely you’re doing these for research purposes, and just imagine how long it would take to trawl through a 90 minute recording!

If you’re a speaker at events, you could record yourself speaking and use your content again. If you’re organising events, you could record the speakers, and make the content available in recorded and written form for attendees.

That’s just a few ideas for starters – have you got any suggestions?

If this has given you some food for thought, I’d love to hear from you. Please either drop me an email or pop over to my Facebook page and send me a message.