Using Social Media to Empower the Public

The National Weather Service (NWS) has been utilizing social media to engage partners, customers, and the public since 2011. Benefits of using the Facebook and Twitter platforms to support risk communication strategies for significant events have been identified in recent NWS service assessments. The Warning Decision Training Branch (WDTB) is creating a series of training modules which address many of these best practices as well as what has been learned from social sciences. The goal of the training is to help forecasters learn social media best practices and implement them into operations. The training is intended to create a foundation upon which all offices can build to improve their social media strategies and increase the consistency of these services provided nationwide. Key takeaways from this compilation of best practices are highlighted and discussed.