Full-time at CTV Edmonton: Digital Reporter!

CTV EDMONTON

Work-life update! As of January 2, I officially became a full-time employee at CTV Edmonton! Prior to this I had been officially part-time, but working full-time hours (so this isn’t too different, except that I have switched over to working Monday to Fridays, as opposed to working Wednesday through Sunday, which is a huge difference! Normal weekends, yay!)

The other difference is my title – which has changed from ‘Web Reporter’ to ‘Digital Reporter.’ The digital part of it means I’m still writing articles for the website, but that’s not my main focus (though I still love writing articles!) My main focus is social media. I have been handling the CTV Edmonton Facebook & Twitter pages in my previous part-time role but with this ‘digital’ title it becomes officially a part of my job description. I focus on posting to/managing social media properties (at this point Facebook & Twitter – as the job progresses, I’ll be in charge of developing and managing other social media platforms the station decides to partake in). I monitor social media posts and pass along relevant information throughout the day to our assignment desk/reporters/producers. I will (have been doing this already but will do it more so now) work with reporters/staff to help them develop their Twitter accounts/better tweeting tactics for news gathering and story promotion/etc. I’m also working to develop and implement new social media initiatives for the station! In the future the position may also include on-air reporting related to social media. At this point I’m not looking to/focusing on that too much because I don’t believe reporting about what people are saying on social media is a very effective or innovative way of tying in social media with traditional TV. When we figure out a better way to incorporate it, then I’d be focused a bit more on that. But at this point I’m happy with working behind-the-scenes on social media to engage with our online audience, keep CTV top of mind for people & ensuring our website has the latest articles and videos!

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca

http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca

The web team recently got new video powers so we have a lot more freedom and ability to upload videos without going through Toronto first now, so video encoding/posting and promoting has also become a big part of my day. Also, as some of you know, I’ve also been sporadically live-tweeting CTV News at Six and trying to implement our #CTVYEG hashtag. This has been sporadic because I was part-time working weekends before. Now that I’m full-time this initiative should (hopefully) improve and include other things (yet to be announced! We are working on it!!) Oh my new position also means I’ll be tweeting from a new Twitter account (@LindaHoangCTV as per official CTV standards). I am NOT changing my @lindork account because that is a brand I’ve built for myself and do not want to lose. I’m very lucky that my boss is understanding of that! So I’ll just be using both accounts – and obviously the @lindork one will feature more off-topic, personal tweets as opposed to more newsy tweets from the official account. (I’ll find a nice, happy balance with tweets, don’tcha worry). Oh and article-wise I will typically lean towards writing more ‘talker’/feature-y stories. I’ve also been focusing on the CTV ‘Your Health‘ beat, so making sure we have web articles written for all the Your Health video reports. But then I’ll also cover off some of the news releases / hard news depending on how busy the day is (or how much hard news there is that day)!

Working away~

The above picture was taken during my first few days at CTV back in May – I haven’t gotten an updated photo taken since then but thought it’d be fitting to include again in this post. Look at me all bright and eager. (LoL! Still am!!)

Overall I’m very excited in this new(ish) position and I’m looking forward to continuing doing what I’m doing but also exploring those new initiatives and social media platforms that we haven’t gotten around to dabbling into yet. It’s a very interesting time for media right now and I think everyone is still trying to figure out how best to incorporate social media into their day-to-days and then also try to figure out how to make sure people don’t turn off traditional TV. That’s part of my new position – to figure out how to bridge that online/traditional TV gap. It’s definitely going to be a challenge, and I’ve got ideas that I think will help but will likely be difficult to implement… but I’ll sure try to push for things! :)

I’m very grateful for the opportunity and I love my co-workers and am looking forward to what the year has to offer!!! :)

Linda

4 Comments

  • glennkubish says:

    What a fun read, and congrats on the position! I have followed your work/brand/perspective for quite awhile, and CTV is lucky to have ya. It’s refreshing to hear that you won’t fall for the “and-here’s-what-they’re-talking-about-on-social-media” strategy of TV content. Keep one thing in mind, though: you are not behind the scenes. It’s a different scene. And you’re centre stage, imho. Good luck.

  • Yay! Congrats Linda, this is fab!!

  • Laurie Callsen says:

    Congrats on the official switch Linda! Your job seems very similar to my duties as Metro’s digital reporter :) We ought to get together sometime and compare notes!

  • Congrats Linda! You’ll do a great job keeping Edmonton all connected! :)

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