With more than 35,000 Twitter followers, KIRO traffic anchor Jenni Hogan is known in Seattle for both her presence on-air and her presence online. Hogan talks with Lost Remote about Internet etiquette and the first time she thought about integrating her online presence into her work:
I remember the exact moment seven years ago. I was a few weeks into my first on-air job in Lewiston, Idaho. I was at a Starbucks and a viewer walked up to me and started talking to me. This viewer knew everything about me, and I had nothing to add to the conversation about their life. This moment changed me forever. I didn’t like the fact that being on TV was a one-way relationship. I was determined to make my job a two-way relationship.
Hogan — who Lost Remote measures as the most-popular local television personality on Twitter — attributes her online success to the open nature of her thoughts:
I don’t Tweet teases to watch our show, I tweet what it’s like to do my job. If I am watching an accident on our chopper feed and it’s hard to look at, I’ll Tweet that. If I get starstruck by someone who is in our studio, I’ll let my followers know. It’s more of a behind-the-scenes. I know they can get the news by following our news Tweets, so my feed is all about what it’s like to be me. If I’m covering a story, then they’re going to get information on that story, but it’ll be through my eyes and emotions.