Weather Social Media is about Discovery Not Dissemination
I truly believe we are at a crossroads in social media weather communication. Weather alert distribution via various social platforms is a futile act. It’s unnecessary and dare I say a time-wasting venture.
In the world of meteorology, social media is a mining and discovery medium. It exists for us to see the indelible pictures and video of the aftermath of a tornado strike in Alabama, the whiteout conditions in Central Park during the height of a blizzard, the roaring rapids flowing down Main St. in Ellicott City, Maryland during a flash flood emergency, or the swaying palm trees in Cabo San Lucas as an intense hurricane approaches. Social media allows us to see and experience significant weather without being in the path of the storm.
We also use social media as a weather wire service and a place to gather around for water cooler talk; posting local weather status updates, our latest forecast thoughts (daily/seasonal), or passing along the latest thinking from NOAA, NCEP, and the National Weather Service.
During the last several years, we have placed great importance on perfecting the transmission of a coherent message of approaching significant weather across the various social media platforms. One that made sure the public understood all aspects of impacts and the forecast uncertainty. However, during that time of debating the nuances of social science, social media left us behind.
Audiences fragmented. The various mediums evolved. Timeliness lost out to algorithms.
Snapchat is now a huge player in social media. A younger audience has moved away from Facebook and Twitter and have embraced Snapchat. A weather alert posted on Facebook and Twitter means you are ignoring teens and young adults. Do more resources now have to be placed in the creation of Snapchat content? There will be new startups that take social media by storm. Will we have to then allot time and money for them? When does it stop?
Social media is not chronological. We see this blatantly in our Facebook news feeds every day. What good is a time sensitive weather alert if the public doesn’t see the alert until hours or even days after the event unfolds. Algorithms have taken over Facebook and Instagram. Timeliness has been sacrificed. You see first in your feeds what they think you want to see first. Life-saving information? Not so much. Twitter has even incorporated the algorithm idea. Fortunately you can opt in/out but who says it won’t be a permanent feature in the future?
Do you own a Facebook page? Nevermind the algorithm, good luck getting your time-sensitive weather alert post on any eyes in the first place. It’s pay to play. If you don’t pony up dollars to Zuckerberg, your post will experience very little engagement. Who has a social media budget? The answer is probably not many. You’ll have to dig into your own pockets to make sure an important weather alert is seen by an appreciable audience.
Finally, two words — third party. You are at the mercy of a third party service. You have no control over their operations (and down time). Social media platforms are changing everyday. They are changing this very moment. Just when you think you’ve optimized the way to distribute your life-saving weather alert, they’ll change on you. The algorithm will change. The pay-to-play charges will rise. The social media platform itself will move in another direction. Hell, the entire platform could shut down.
When thinking about platform evolution, Twitter immediately comes to mind. They are very important in the news wire service branch of social media but they simply aren’t making money. They need to make money. In order for them to start profiting, Twitter and its functionality will likely have to change. Just last night (Thursday, September 15), Twitter was live-streaming an NFL game. That’s a 180° from a breaking news wire service if I’ve ever seen one.
Embrace the transmission of weather facts and oddities, the coolness factor, the dropping of knowledge from fellow meteorologists, the history, the sharing of opinions, the arguments, the forecast questions from the public, and yes, even the numerical weather prediction guidance! Embrace it all across all social platforms if you choose. But we should leave the urgent weather alerts to the Wireless Emergency Alerts pushed out to our mobile phones, customized push notifications from your favorite mobile weather app, computer desktop notifications, or even the NOAA weather radio.
Oh and one more thing: these mobile alerts are not perfect by any means. They have to become more sophisticated. Remember the “transmission of a coherent message of approaching significant weather” I mentioned earlier? The social science awareness that many meteorologists have been researching for years now will need to be incorporated into these push notifications. That’s easier said than done.
