HSAY 017 - Christian Toto - Award-Winning Journalist | Movie Critic | Podcast Host

The How Social Are You Podcast

HSAY 017 - Christian Toto - Award-Winning Journalist | Movie Critic | Podcast Host

Background:

“Journalism is either changing or collapsing depending on your view”

I’m an award-winning journalist, member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and founder of HiT. I studied art in college and, after collecting three degrees, realized I had a brighter future away from my pad and pencil.

I eventually landed a feature writing position with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, where I asked to review movies when our regular critic went on vacation. I essentially did the same while working for The Washington Times, volunteering to pen any entertainment story I could in between my regular assignments.

I finally emerged as one of the newspaper’s regular film critics, reviewing movies and interviewing A-list talent like Tom Hanks, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Spacey. I left D.C. for Denver in 2007, transitioning to a freelance career I later found work with both Breitbart News and LifeZette.com before embracing my HiT duties full-time. I can be heard each week on “Mike Rosen at the Movies,” “The Michael Brown Show,” “Garrison,” “Haus Rules” and “Walker Daniels in the Morning.” I previously appeared on “Stossel,” shown on the Fox Business Channel and the “Devil’s Advocate” program on Colorado’s PBS station.

Highlights:

• Art major in college who went into journalism
• Journalism is either changing or collapsing depending on your view
• Wanted to cover entertainment from a right of center perspective
• Realized there wasn’t really anyone covering entertainment from this perspective
• Worked for Breitbart and Lifeset
• Created Hollywoodintoto.com
• First social media he got involved with was Facebook
• Is political on his business page because that he part of his brand and part of who he is
• Conservative entertainment reporter-- but he doesn’t want to be vicious or irresponsible
• He tries to project his brand in a specific way-- i.e. no profanity, making fun of actors weight, etc.
• He wants his followers to trust him- know that he won’t make up things because of his worldview
• Wants to be credible-- might have made mistakes but never on purpose, and they are always updated with an editor’s note
• Wants to make sure everything is verified before reporting
• Social media is a great tool, but it can also do a lot of damage if you aren’t careful
• Always try to pause before sending something out
• Think before you tweet, retweet, or post because these posts can have consequences and repercussions
• Is what you are posting going to provide value to your followers?
• Entertainment is culture
• It is good to stand up for what you believe as long as you can back it up with solid information
• Staying uplifting on social media can be good for a brand
• Being consistent and staying above the fray as well as adding value are very important
• We are more social because of social media but also hard to really know who these followers/people on social media are
• However there is level of discourse on social media that has gotten sour
• People can really show a different side on social media-- allows us to be nastier then who we are
• There is this barrier that allows people to say things that they wouldn’t in person

Resources:

• Hollywood in Toto: http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/

• Hollywood in Toto Podcast
• The Franchise podcast
• Midnight Movie Cowboys Podcast
• Entrepreneur on Fire Podcast
• The Smart Pass of Income Podcast
• Social Media Examiner podcast
• Marketing in Your Car podcast

Connect:

• Hollywood in Toto: http://www.hollywoodintoto.com/
• Twitter: @HollywoodinToto
• Facebook: Hollywood in Toto
• Hollywood in Toto Podcast

• I hope you enjoyed and found value on this episode of The How Social Are You Podcast please feel free to share it on social media with your followers.
• You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Spreaker and Google Play. Your ratings and comments on iTunes are greatly appreciated.
• If you have questions about The How Social Are You Podcast or would like to be interviewed you can tweet or direct message me on GAB the new People First / Free Speech Social Network https://gab.ai/ at @ML as well as on Twitter @mlindheimer or on Instagram @mlindheimer and lastly on Facebook melindheimer and you can also email me at [e-mail].

Until next time, thank's everybody!

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