Social Media in the National Weather Service - Past, Present and Future

In less than two years the National Weather Service has gone from almost no social media presence to forecast offices, national centers, and regional/national headquarters all having accounts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. This presentation first focuses on the early efforts in the use of social media by various NWS offices, including an evaluation of the “#wxreport” experiment. Next, I will discuss the current status of the NWS usage of social media. In this portion I will review usage statistics of the offices' Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts, and also highlight selected “viral” posts that attracted substantial interest from the public. Finally, I will briefly look at challenges and opportunities the NWS faces as it increases its involvement in social media. These challenges include training NWS personnel on the effective use of social media and taking advantage of the latest social media trends.

Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise does not constitute an endorsement, a recommendation, or a favoring by the National Weather Service or the United States government.