Here’s Something Every Artist And Ensemble With A Facebook Profile Should Do

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Adaptistration People 092Although there are no shortages of annoyances whenever Facebook rolls out new features, every now and then they offer up a sincere gem and in case you haven’t seen it yet, the latest addition in that collection currently in testing is the name pronunciation guide.

As of now, the pronunciation function seems to be limited to individual profiles and setting it up only takes a few moments. To get started, you’ll need to make sure it is activated inside your “Details About You” section which you can find by editing the “Profile > About” content. Once on that admin panel, look for the “Name Pronunciation” option.

pronunciation guide

Facebook will have some read-made options for you to review which also serve as a nice frame of reference for how their phonetic rules function. If one of those accurately pronounces your name, you’re all set, otherwise you’ll need to create a custom option. There are audio playback buttons for your name to help tweak the pronunciation and once you’re satisfied, a similar audio playback button appears in the “Details About You” section of your frontend profile.

Although the system currently uses a computer generated voice for the pronunciations, it would be nice if they allowed users to record a custom audio clip. Granted, that’s practically begging to be abused by spammers and sophomoric minded users but odds are Facebook will find a way to deal with it.

Nonetheless, if you’re an artist with a routinely butchered name (I’m looking at you Stuart Chafetz) you should really invest some time into activating and setting this feature up.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

View all posts by Drew McManus | Website

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2 thoughts on “Here’s Something Every Artist And Ensemble With A Facebook Profile Should Do”

  1. Wow. I had no idea this was a thing. Thanks!

    Do you have any idea about how this is used? Is it an accessibility feature for visitors using screen readers, or is it a way for FB to connect voice searches to pages? Or is it just a handy way for me to learn how to pronounce Donnacha Dennehy’s name?

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