Finding the Needle in a Social Media Haystack

Trevor Boucher WFO Austin/San Antonio Twitter: @ZombieTrev5k

What we have learned in the weather world…

Let’s remember what social media is…

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic

It’s quick…

It’s easy…

80% of internet users visit

social media on their

mobile devices

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/11/social-media-statistics-2016.html

It’s fun…

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/11/social-media-statistics-2016.html

82% of people who use social media

use it to keep up with friends/fill time.

“Oh boy!

This is fun!”

It’s now…

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/11/social-media-statistics-2016.html

~18 min Median tweet “life-span”

Building a disaster kit

Is this preparedness action…

…quick? ….easy? ….fun? …now?

Another thing important to remember…

Credit: https://ambroisedebret.com/facebook-algorithm-boost-facebook-organic-reach/

Credit: Alfred Lua of Buffer Social

Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat are where the party’s at…

Live streaming too…

October 21, 2015, National Weather Association Comments: @matthewdux #nwas15

Outlook Stage

(Preparedness/Awareness)

Alert Stage

Watch

Stage

Warning

Stage

Proposed “Social Media” Model

72+ Hours Out - More General Forecast Info

- Highlight Broad Areas

- Good opportunity for relevant

awareness info

72 to 24+ Hours Out - Add forecast details (amounts,

areas of focus, etc) and stress

impacts.

24 to 0+ Hours Ahead - Further strengthen wording

- Stress confidence, impacts,

calls to action.

Event Ongoing - Focus shifts away from

forecast to NOWcast

- Situational Awareness

(internal AND external)

Increased

Accuracy

&

Certainty

Post-Event Stage After Event

- Summarization and

further info gathering

*Adapted from Dux/Schumacher/Wolf (WFO Sioux Falls, SD)

October 21, 2015, National Weather Association Comments: @matthewdux #nwas15

62% 32%

27%

39% 11%

27%

62% 32%

Outlook Stage

(Preparedness/Awareness)

Alert Stage

Watch

Stage

Warning

Stage

Which Medium is Best?

Post-Event Stage 2% 0%

*Percentage of top 25 posts total engagement

66% 38%

During the Disaster… You’ll have to… • Make event updates • Monitor incoming traffic • Coordinate with partners • Rumor control • Data-mine • Monitor multiple platforms • Filter out fake and bogus posts

You’ll have to become a social media ninja!!

Tweetdeck

• Free • Post scheduling • Sound & popup notifications • Real-time feed monitoring • Customizable columns built for data-mining

• Manage multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously

Hootsuite

• Free version • Monitor/post to multiple social networks

• Mobile App • Customizable columns for data mining.

• Multiple tabs for various platforms or search templates.

Pros Cons

• Monitor/post to Twitter only* • No Mobile App

Pros Cons

• No sound or popup notifications

• Near but not real-time feed monitoring

How to search Twitter

● Keyword search

● weather words - tornado

● impact words - slippery or broken

● heavy rain - returns tweets with “heavy” and “rain”

● “heavy rain” - returns tweets with the phrase “heavy rain”

● hail OR damage - returns tweets with that mention “hail” or “damage”

● ice -cream - returns tweets that mention “ice” but not tweets that mention “ice” and “cream”

● #mswx - returns tweets that mention the “#mswx” hashtag

● @timbrice17 - returns tweets that mention user “timbrice17”

How to search Twitter ● Geo-location search

● geocode:lat,lon,XXmi

● geocode:33.756,-84.390,50mi - 50 miles around Atlanta, GA

● near:”City,ST” within:XXmi

● (near:”Tulsa,OK” within:50mi) - 50 miles around Tulsa, OK

● Mileage will vary

● Miss non-geotagged tweets

● Sometime returns tweets from outside the search area

● Combine with keywords

● hail OR damage OR “broken window” geocode:31.79,-106.42,50mi returns tweets from

50 miles around El Paso that mention “hail” or damage or “broken window”

Search Keywords

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TcW85Y7Py8bWyzeo2D860dHcknRszVH2FHcwX-non_s/edit?usp=sharing

Other places to look

●Periscope* or Facebook Live

●Instagram

●Snapchat (map.snapchat.com)

●Google+

●YouTube

●Waze

●Google Maps

* can be filtered in Tweetdeck

● Drop the image into Google image search

● http://images.google.com

● Do a Tineye image search

● http://tineye.com

● Look at the images meta data

● http://regex.info/exif.cgi or http://fotoforensics.com/

● Check if the photo has been edited

● http://fotoforensics.com/

● When in doubt don't pass it along

Now go find all the reports!

SA Display to Ops

NWSchat

Skype/Hangouts

(Briefings)

Social Media

(Facebook, Twitter,

Youtube, Instagram,

Waze, etc.)

Quickly Tweetable Radar

The phone

AWIPS Station

(LSRs, Radar SA)

WFO Austin/San Antonio 3

What is a Virtual Operations Support Team?

“A VOST is a team of professional emergency managers and disaster volunteers around the country that lends

virtual support to those on the site of a disaster. - www.emergencymgmt.com

Why would we want to use this?

2

Active s Across the Country

What does this mean for the local WFO?

4

EWX

FWD

5

6

Midland/Odessa, TX Lubbock, TX

Atmo Science

Students

Communications

Students

Benefits of VOSTs

1. Can act as a message amplifier.

2. Participants can be trained for multiple purposes.

3. Can be activated or can be always active.

4. Turns one body into multiple. 5. Efficiently maximizes

workforce.

To learn more, visit vosg.us

Thank you!

Questions?

Trevor Boucher WFO Austin/San Antonio Twitter: @ZombieTrev5k