Almost three months have passed since I last wrote and announced my decision to leave CBS4 News after 10 1/2 years On the News Desk.

I’ve been waiting for my feet to find steady ground.  I’ve been finding my new place and how exactly I fit.  I’ve been too exhausted at the end of the day to write.

I have composed many blogs in my mind and seriously need to start recording my thoughts so they aren’t lost!

My personal blog has been just as neglected, which is truly sad because I had planned on writing all about having a baby girl and growing step-sons. (Yes, this plays a part in being exhausted at the end of the day!)

I’ve tried to write and end up watching the cursor blink at me blandly.  It’s not that I don’t have anything to write.  It’s I have so much I could write.  Pay special attention to “could.”  That’s where I get hung up and curse the blinking cursor.

My career took a huge step into Management. I now have many more responsibilities and boundaries that I didn’t have before.  It’s no longer just me pioneering and experimenting with social media as a journalist, and hoping along the way the station adopts the “best of” practice on which I stumbled. 

I am now creating policy and implementing social and digital media strategies for the networks of 9NEWS (trust me, there really are several entities to make up these networks) and for individuals within 9NEWS.  I’m in meetings of all sizes to discuss the big picture and the pictures within the big pictures.  Sometimes I’m in so many meetings that I see my desk only to drop off and to pick up my purse.

I wonder what became of my day and wonder what my Facebook and Twitter friends have been doing.  Then I see my ideas being implemented and smile with pride and excitement.  In that moment I forget I haven’t checked in with my own social networks in hours.

My strategies aren’t anything that I haven’t spoken or written about before.  I am a journalist who works every day to advance our industry in ways to connect to current and potential news consumers.  What I do is not about me. 

I’ve always hoped what I’ve done has helped another journalist use social media.  Now I’m seeing it done.  I don’t claim that I and my coworkers have done anything revolutionary, or even done something first.  That’s not the point.  The point is that we’re doing it and working together to find ways to connect with news consumers.

I may not always be at liberty now to explain the strategies and ideas beforehand or as we first try it.  This is one area I must respect now as a Manager.  This doesn’t mean I can never talk about it.  Now when I share what’s happening, it’ll be more of an analysis of what we’ve done.

Every day I am thrilled to walk into 9NEWS as Digital Content Manager.  Every day I ask, “How are we going to use social networks today?”  Every day I get to define this use and to lead those efforts. 

Yet, I don’t do it alone.  Every day I get to collaborate with journalists who are testing their own boundaries and use of social technologies.  Their excitement and accomplishments make me so very proud, and keep pushing me along when I’m working on other projects or training others.

I’m still finding my footing and am still answering, “What is it you do now?”  I have found more balance lately.  I have an answer: “I help make our on-air news and our web site play well together in the social media-sphere.”

This answer may surprise you.  What I do is about the end product – the stories we tell.  I need to get you to want to hear our voices, our stories amidst the overwhelming voices, and clutter, on the World Wide Web and on the hundreds of television stations many of us have to choose among. 

We have to add our voices to the masses and must make our voices stand out so you know we’re there.  We have to gain your trust so you’re willing to come see our stories.  This can be accomplished in the social media-sphere.

My goal is to define our social media use, instead of letting it define us.