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Being Social as an Anchor

Today was my second shift as a Wednesday anchor for WUFT News. It went so well and am very proud to say I did not make as many mistakes as I did the first night. While there is always room for improvement, tonight's show was packed with awesome stories and I think all of our reporters did a great job.


Before I went live tonight, I was thinking about things I can start doing to implement in my Wednesday routines aside from just anchoring. And one thing I thought of was to utilize my social media accounts to engage viewers before and after the shows happens.

Tonight I decided to give it a shot by posting a video to my Brand Facebook page to say hello and to remind everyone to tune in at 5 p.m. for the show.

However, there are a few other things I'd like to test out moving forward. Below is a list of things I'd like to implement and plan on adding to my social media accounts during my time as an anchor for WUFT to engage viewers before, during and after our 5 p.m. shows...
  1. Do Facebook lives before the show starts, answer any questions people might have and introduce a few of the stories we will cover in the show.
  2. Use Twitter polls to find out what stories viewers are most interested in learning about before the show.
  3. Post a video to both Facebook and Twitter showing what the process is like to get ready for our show.
  4. Mid-show, go live on Facebook to see how viewers are doing, what they've liked so far about the show and what they're looking forward to the most moving into the second half of the cast. 
  5. After the show, go back on Facebook or Twitter and host a Q&A session to see if any viewers need more clarification or answer any questions they have about a story covered in the newscast. 
Although these are just a few ideas, I want to start making this changes to my anchoring routine just so I can start to engage viewers more and to make them feel like they are a part of the newscast process as much as I am as an anchor. Hearing their feedback and likes/dislikes can really help me grow as a broadcast talent and can help me make their news watching experience more enjoyable. I'll be sure to post my future attempts but in the meantime, if there is anything you'd like to see, please let me know!

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