Social Media & Crisis Communication: The story of #memstorm Presented at TechCamp Memphis (#tcmem) 5/12/2012 MemphisWeather.net meteorologist Erik Proseus

1. Social Media &
Crisis Communication:
The story of #memstorm
Erik Proseus - @memphisweather1

2. Brief History of MWN
 MemphisWeather.net (MWN) brand
started in April ’03
 Blog and mobile site started ’08
 Facebook and Twitter – early ’09
(automated weather alerts on Twitter in
Jan ’10)
 iPhone/Android apps – spring ’11
 April 24-May 7, 2011: website had 18K
visits & 66K page views

3. MWN Social Media background
 Adopted in 2009 using
@memphisweather1 handle
 Started slow as social media (esp. Twitter)
was just starting to gain momentum
 Continued use and word-of-mouth… and
the snowball picked up more snow
(literally)
 Rapid growth in 2011 → now >10,000
followers

4. Why MWN uses Social Media
 Connect to the community – build
relationships
 Information gathering on specific topics
 Gather feedback on products / services
 Brand lift / product promotion
 Public: trusted & reliable information
source

5. How MWN uses Social Media
 Conversation: community-building,
customer service
 Cross-posting of blog articles, YouTube
videos, etc.
 Link back to resources on MWN
 Education (weather concepts, geography)
 RT/share non-weather info (#memtraffic)

6. MWN & SM during a crisis
 Nowcasting:
 Ultra-short-term, hyper-local forecasting
 Used with MWN (web) to provide rapid
updates during severe weather events
 “Wall-to-wall” coverage via internet
 On-demand weather
 Highest reach, most interactive, best
feedback

7. What platforms MWN uses
 Facebook/Twitter – quick posts, weather
updates/nowcasting, interesting links,
cross-posts, self-promotion (web, apps)
 YouTube/Flickr – videos/photos
 Blog – forecast discussions, event recaps/
summaries, links to website & other SM

8. In a crisis, the public wants:
 Latest information
 Consistent message
 Trusted sources
 Call to action
 Ways to be involved / provide aid
Not just weather crises!

9. Why social media for weather?
 Immediacy

10. Why social media for weather?
 Immediacy
 Aggregation
 Feedback
 Ground truth, instantly

11. Twitter hashtags (#)
 Keywords or search terms tagged with #
 Extremely important for effective sharing
 Best way to share info in a crisis & create unity
 Community journalism
 Community building
 “Virtual bulletin board”
 FASTER than news reports!

12. Twitter hashtags (#)
#GoGrizz
#BelieveMemphis
#GrizzNation
#SeeYouSunday

13. Twitter hashtags (#)
#wxreport – NWS-initiated for storm reporting
#tnwx #mswx #arwx – State-specific
#memstorm – Local severe weather
#memflood – Historic spring 2011 flooding
#memheat – Record breaking summer heat
#memsnow – Not this year!

14. Birth of #memstorm
 Proposed by local social media experts to
enable single source of info
 Has become synonymous with severe weather
in Memphis after April ’11 storms
 Feb 24, 2011: ~700 tweets on it’s first night of
use!
 April 27, 2011: >2000 tweets reached 200K
Twitter accounts w/ 1.4M impressions!

15. #memstorm

16. Future of public info gathering?
Courtesy @BrennanSomers

17. Then, #memflood
 Community-driven
 Immediately adopted in May 2011 for
expected historic MS River flooding
 Local & national media adoption
 Used by gov’t & quasi-gov’t agencies
 Sample of 500 #memflood tweets on
5/2/11: 1.2M views w/ an audience of
154K

18. The power of social
7,345+ views in 1 day!
Originally posted on private Facebook account with 328 friends

19. #mSpotter – ground truth
 Twitter storm spotting for the metro
 Reports sent via Twitter, filtered by MWN,
and forwarded to NWS in realtime
 Contribute to public safety and “protection
of life & property”
 Uses geo-tagging and smartphone
cameras to “self-verify”

20. How can you participate?
 Share personal observations

21. How can you participate?
 Share personal observations
 RT, share, and promote info from “trusted
sources”
 Don’t RT old reports and purport them as
current

22. How can you participate?
 Check your sources: Don’t proliferate
mis-information!
HAIL???

23. Where to find MWN…
 http://www.memphisweather.net
 http://m.memphisweather.net
 http://blog.memphisweather.net
 http://www.facebook.com/memphisweather1
 http://twitter.com/memphisweather1
 iTunes or App Store & Android Market

24. HOW WILL SOCIAL MEDIA BE
USED IN THE NEXT CRISIS?