Tornado Alley, Twitter style

by on May 1, 2010 in Featured,Social Media

Apr 30, 2010 may well be known as the night that new media changed the game in the state of Arkansas.

Tonight was one of the most amazing examples of the power of Twitter and in turn showed how excruciatingly far we have to go.

Here’s how 4 little letters beat the entire mainstream media.

There is a storm a comin’

It’s springtime in the South and that means it’s tornado season.

Tornados are a very strange animals. They touchdown for seconds, change directions in a blink of an eye and travel at 50+ mph. It’s a weather event like no other.

We aren’t strangers to twisters down here and we all know to turn on the TV, break out the severe weather radios and wait for the weatherman to say “take cover”.

Only tonight was different.

There was one system that had better news, quicker updates, broader coverage, and more reporters in the field than any other. Twitter.

I can’t do it justice but let me attempt to give you a glimpse of what you could find

  • The National Weather Service guy, @wxmandan giving you updates on NWS bulletins and reports as he saw them. Every person in the stream had the info 1-2min before the TV (that’s an eternity in tornado time)
  • Regional forecasters adding 3d images and all sorts of graphs I can’t even explain
  • Storm reports statewide, eyewitness accounts of hail and funnel clouds
  • Links to webcast of the Arkansas State Police radio feed
  • Instant notifications of tornado sirens wherever they sounded
  • People reporting that tv/power was out and they were ONLY getting news via the #arwx stream. (That is huge! We are talking about keeping people safe. Not theory, ROI, or analytics but vital information distribution)

Simply, the most comprehensive data stream you can possibly imagine, made possible by the #arwx hashtag. There was only one thing missing. The organizations that are actually make a living reporting news and weather.

Broadcast Media is still only Broadcast Media

I can’t express what a miserable failure the online communication of these “news” organizations was so I’ll let the images speak for themselves.

From @KARK4News Since they are only using a Twitter client called Facebook they don’t even realize the important info is being cut off!

kark_fail

From @todaysTHV Hmm, same problem, same facebook connection. It’s almost seems like they have no idea how to use Twitter, but I’m sure they have some well paid social media consultants somewhere in the newsroom.thv_fail

And finally a most useful stream from @KATVnews … ok maybe not but at least they weren’t using Facebook for their tweets.

katv_fail Even our Governor’s @GovBeebeMedia Media account joined in. Perhaps I’m alone in this but if the word media is in your twitter ID you might want to learn how to use this tweeter thing.

beebe_fail

Perhaps I’m too harsh or just expect too much. Twitter is hard and they might not have known there was a Arkansas weather hashtag. I’m sure any of us would have missed a hundred mentions to these accounts asking them to use #ARwx in their tweets.

But as my friend Chad pointed out this is assuming they know how to check @ replies.

I realize I’m being pretty critical here but its high time that these news and media organizations realize that they aren’t contributing to diddly squat.

They were useless in the most powerful real time platform the world has ever seen.

The Right Stuff

So to my friends in the local media allow me to share an example of what you should have been doing.

Meet Dan Koch – @wxmandan

According to his profile, Dan is local Meteorologist for the NWS and an IT guy. (#Fistbump for my IT brethren). He’s been active on twitter since Apr 1.

Dan isn’t on TV. He isn’t doing a live webcast. He doesn’t blog. Dan only did 1 thing.

He contributed useful information and ended his tweets with #arwx

wxmandan_win

Even his capitalization proves his understanding of brevity communication. Dan was one of only a handful of actual meteorologists using the #ARwx tag tonight and almost every tweet he put out was retweeted and broadcast to thousands.

One guy trying to get information out and he beat every professional news organization in Little Rock.

If that doesn’t prove the power of Twitter then I don’t know what does.

Ok… maybe this

rachelpowell_win

I’d like to point out a couple of other stand out examples:

  • @AR_Emergencies – the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management – a state agency that was also sending out great info and using the hashtag (I learned last night that ADEM actually created this hashtag during the winter weather season and made it generic enoucgh to be used year round)
  • @RyanVaughan a meteorologist from KAIT in Jonesboro that was absolutely awesome

To our local media outlets

Please wake up, be useful and contribute to this amazing community or do us a favor and just close the twitter account.

And just so you know, severe weather is expected today as well so we’ll soon see if they are listening. Help them hear us, send them a tweet.

pleasert

Update 5/3: I invite you to read the follow up to this post. “After the Storm“.

Tagged as: #arwx, Perspective, Twitter

  • http://www.cottonrohrscheib.com Cotton Rohrscheib

    BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO!!! Awesome read to start my day!!!

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    A few things to address – Someone asked why I left out Fox 16. Not sure, no slight intended. their meterologist @JeffBaskinFOX16 is starting to use the hashtag.

    I made a typo earlier and the click to tweet pointed to @katv, it's been corrected to @katvnews

  • http://twitter.com/audcole Audreya Cole Parks

    Great post, Keith! Living outside the metro area, #arwx was a great way to get local info when TV news was (understandably) focused on storms in LR.

    Also helpful was my husband (a police officer) was trying to manage local info while answering questions from people concerned about loved ones in other areas. More than once, he called and said “What's Twitter got on the ___ area?”

    #arwx was invaluable, as was your leadership in using it! And I'm now a big @wxmandan fan too!

  • Kevin

    I agree with your overall message – realtime, distributed updates are far better than centralized broadcasts – but I don't completely agree that last night's events were some sort of huge shift in emergency communications.

    I watched the broadcast stations, followed #arwx, and also listened to local amateur radio operators to keep up with events as they happened. It was basically just to keep up with things; my area wasn't involved in any severe stuff.

    I noticed that the TV stations were often saying “this was just reported by amateur radio operators in the East End area”, or made some reference to things being sent to them by people on the ground where the storms were. It seemed that the TV stations only had two primary data sources to rely on – their radar, and the warnings issued by the weather service. Everything else they were passing along was heard either on the radio (from police, fire departments, amateur radio, etc.) or telephone reports. Meanwhile, over on Twitter, I saw many posts that had all the real information content of something similar to this:

    ZOMG!!!!1 Tornadoze! Oh noes!!!! #arwx lol!!!!

    True, there were *some* useful posts, such as the ones you described above. When anyone can post anything, though, and stick the #arwx tag on it, the quality of the information tends to suffer. I agree, when the lights are out and you have no other source, I'm sure a feed of even partially true information is better than nothing. However, having a battery-powered radio would seem to be a much more accurate and reliable method of getting current news than relying on the abilities of some random person on Twitter.
    I guess, in short, the problem is in the quality control…. in that there *is* none. Everyone has equal weight in the stream… both meteorologists and the guy in the beer-stained white t-shirt that ran out of the trailer when he “heard that train coming for me” can post.
    I don't think the value of the communications model (basically, peer-to-peer in this case) is due to the mode itself… it's all about the content. Useless reports from a thousand people are still useless, even though you have many of them. One good report from someone who *knows* what they're talking about is priceless, no matter how you access it.
    For my money, I'd vote for a police scanner. You can hear many different sources, most of which are reputable, trained people, and can be relatively sure that you're not listening to some yahoo that just figured out how to login and hit the “post” button.

    Anyway, just my two cents. Or four, judging the length of the novel this turned out to be… :-)

  • http://www.facebook.com/matt.outlaw Matt Outlaw

    Great post! I totally agree. I was keeping up with the weather via twitter! As a matter of fact, twitter was one of the first places I started searching for real time updates from people in the field. Anyone check out this site http://wall.chasertv.com/

  • Dogbert

    Many of the TV stations in Little Rock were simulcasting on the radio last night. What I couldn't believe is that the TV stations hardly ever (if at all) mentioned they were simulcasting on the radio. That is still the fastest way to find out information when a tornado warning is issued, and local cell networks become heavily lagged – especially once power outages occur. Another note: the Little Rock NWS transmitter was in “regular programming” – never did they go to just airing warnings on a continuous basis, which they should have done for a while when there were multiple tornado warnings out for their coverage area.

  • stupid

    Sorry,not everyone follows twitter. I would have welcomed any information, instead of belittling thier attempts to get out the information. If you in a safe location, you shouldn't have had a problem clicking a link. If you weren't in a safe location, why the hell were you watching twitter instead of spending that time getting safe. put down your cellphones folks and look out the window.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Thank you Cotton. I let my firebrand personality show a bit but I hope it still makes the point. Thank you for reading and for the comment.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Thank you Audreya. I love hearing that even your law enforcement husband was aware that there was good info being shared on twitter.

    #ARwx was amazing and only played a very small part, but thank you.

    I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and to leave a comment.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Thank you Matt. I think many of use were turning to Twitter last night.

    Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment. Much appreciated.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Dogbert, very good point. These stations have so many outlets at their disposal and they should regularly remind people of the different ways to recieve the message. TV, Radio, Twitter, Facebook.

    I even saw some news personalities using their personal facebook profiles for news last night and while I commend the effort I think it would be wiser to point people to a centralized resource like the website, station fb page, or twitter account so even if one person gets busy the audience knows where to turn.

    Thanks for the comment.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    I think your generalization about clicking a link misses the point. Many people where on their mobile phones in non-3g coverage. Meaning slow links. The links would be valuable if it pointed to actual information instead of just a method to get the rest of the message. It shows a total lack of understanding that you have 140 characters to convey an update.

    I regularly had people there were taking cover and they were only using their phone at that point. So that makes this that much more important.

    I completely disagree with your perspective but I appreciate the comment. Thanks Stupid.

  • Phreaky

    I felt so bad for Jim Cantore last night. He announced that due to the severe weather outbreak, the Weather Channel would be canceling it's usual movie night to stay focused on the severe weather. Next thing you know, he tweeted that he was mislead and that they WERE showing a movie on the weather channel. He was upset, kind of like “why am I bothering when the friggin weather channel isnt even interested in this enough to cancel a movie.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Kevin thank you for your comment and I absolutely agree, there is not substitute for an official emergency NWS bulletin radio. Accurate breaking news.

    However, there are plenty of situations where this isn't possible. If someone is travelling or just in the car then you are relying on terrestial radio for information and it may or may not be talking about your locale. With the #ARwx twitter stream you could do a quick scan or even ask a question for specific info and social media is the only platform that invites that interaction.

    Concerning the worthless updates, yes I completely agree. I hope the community understanding will increase and people will treat those tags with respect. I would say however that a great majority of updates were actually informative. When you consider that a couple of these stations were using Facebook for news platform then the problem is exasperated with farmville updates and non weather related info. You can't narrow the stream like you can in twitter with a hashtag.

    Your points are dead on but I still think this communication is groundbreaking and may prove to be a case study moving forward.

    I really appreciate your thoughts and taking the time to share them. Much appreciated.

  • Patrick

    “Tornados’ are a very strange animals” should be:
    “Tornados are a very strange animals”.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Wow. I'm very glad you shared this. I had no idea. (For others here is
    his tweet
    <http://twitter.com/JimCantore/status/1316503948… want to apollogize to
    all of you. I was SEVERELY mislead. Was told we were bagging the “movie” to
    do what this network was created for.” /by @JimCantore

    I'm glad to find him on twitter. It's interesting to see that it provided
    him a platform to share his thoughts even when his normal medium was
    unavailable.

    Thanks again. I really appreciate it.

  • http://twitter.com/justingehrts Justin Gehrts

    Interesting post – especially as a broadcast meteorologist (although I don't work in Arkansas).

    Part of the problem is that broadcast meteorologists don't have the manpower to exclusively update Twitter. NWS offices typically have six or so staff in during severe weather events, depending on the situation. Broadcasters? Two to four meteorologists. And that's covering how many different platforms? TV, web, social media, you name it. That's a lot for a few people to cover effectively and quickly. When you have more people, you can do more.

    News stations *are* embracing Twitter and are trying to figure out how to succinctly and quickly get out information to drive people to their product. Is there room for improvement? Definitely, as evidenced by your post. Are we working on getting better? You better believe it.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Thank you for the catch. I've had to correct several typos today. I guess
    that is what I get from blogging about this at 2AM

    I really appreciate you taking the time to read and for caring enough to
    help correct me. Thank you, it has been corrected.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Justin, I really appreciate you sharing your insight.

    While I was a bit harsh my goal is to hopefully show others how their
    unmatched resources and skills can be put to better use through social
    media. I have no doubt that there is a lack of personell but if management
    (which we all know is 90% of the problem) understands that these are legit
    ways to spread the word they can solve the problem.

    I don't mean to lay this at the feet of the producers and meteorologists. I
    have several friends that are active on social media and work for local news
    stations and I know for a fact that they understand this platform and how to
    use it, unfortunately the decision makers are apparently ignoring them.

    It's encouraging to hear that the desire exists for the stations to take
    advantage of the platform. They'll get there.

    Thanks again @justingehrts

  • Phreaky

    You're very welcome, I enjoy following him on Twitter. Really good guy and clearly loves what he does. Also should have pointed out in my original post how much I agree with what you wrote here. So many dismiss Twitter as a useless time-waster, but in times of severe weather, it is so valuable, and I imagine if we ever had another disaster like Katrina, or even non-weather like 9/11, Twitter would be more helpful than all the network and cable news stations combined. Good job on putting this story together.

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  • DDwx

    Another source that provided excellent info through the event was TWC online, @TWCBreaking and @wxchannel, as they picked up much of the slack dropped on them by the TWC on-air portion. Kudos to them in which one was at home giving up his Fri night to make sure folks got the information when turning to weather.com! Overall, Twitter was an excellent source of information throughout the event and proving so again today across TN, AL, MS and AR!

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  • http://twitter.com/chad_gardner Chad Gardner

    The point of this post was not that Twitter is the best way to spread information. It's just that Twitter is being used as a place to dump links from Facebook or other websites. News organizations are missing the power of Twitter if they only use it as a place to dump posts from FB. Everyone here would agree that there are multiple ways to spread information and TV is by far the best way (currently). When the power goes out, you're sheltered in a bathroom, and only have access to your mobile network, that is when time is of the essence. Following a truncated link to a FB site, isn't the best method.

    That's what this post was about. Not disparaging the severe weather coverage, which was great. It was about the method and tools these news organizations are using to spread the information.

  • BK

    Fuck twitter, learn how to use whatever you use, Don’t assign and try to force one medium of communication on everybody. Its like saying wtf is wrong with people when they decide to use TV instead of radio. Everyone has thir own way of staying connected, so dont try to force that useless bullshit on me when FB is the same exact thing except for a more glorified, mindless tool.

  • http://www.jbhaber.com JB Haber

    Question: Suppose I want to follow Twitter for news about the twister in Arkansas. How would I have found out about the special hash tag that was created? I mean, I usually log in to my Twitter account and see the usual suspects there. But if I don't already follow this weather guy, or any news stations, what is going to tip me off?
    Thanks.

  • http://KnowtheNetwork.com Keith

    Hopefully someone that you already follow will send a tweet like this “If
    you are looking to find or share information on Arkansas weather please use
    the #ARwx hashtag”

    Several times during the night different people would tweet/retweet this
    type of informational message so that their followers would be made aware of
    the hashtag.

    Also if you happened to do an advanced Twitter search,
    http://search.twitter.com/advanced and looked for the words storm or tornado
    within 100mi of your location there is a good chance you'd discover the
    hashtag.

    In the future, we hope that Twitter trending will show this hashtag as
    trending for your state or region and if the news media twitter accounts are
    using the hashtag then that helps improve visibility.

    But, since @AR_emergencies had the foresight to create a generic tag that
    can be used for all weather events then #ARwx will be the place to turn.

    Thanks JB.

  • http://macsmiley.tumblr.com/ MacSmiley

    I also posted about a Facebook auto-posts to Twitter on my Tumblr:

    http://macsmiley.tumblr.com/post/394758092/

    I focused on the aggravation and inconvenience of this practice, but your article shows it could be a matter of life & death.

    So now, more than ever, UNLINK YOUR FEEDS!

    http://unlinkyourfeeds.tumblr.com/post/38764425…

  • Guest

    Wrong! The Little Rock NWR DID go to Warning mode, and they DID have instant updates for ALL their warnings, complete with full EAS and warning alarm tones as the warnings came out. The Weather Radio EAS alerts automatically and continuously cut in over the commercial radio simulcasts of the TV Warnings, as they were issued. I monitored NWR AND Commercial TV & Radio alerts and they ALL functioned properly.

  • Guest

    Wrong! The Little Rock NWR DID go to Warning mode, and they DID have instant updates for ALL their warnings, complete with full EAS and warning alarm tones as the warnings came out. The Weather Radio EAS alerts automatically and continuously cut in over the commercial radio simulcasts of the TV Warnings, as they were issued. I monitored NWR AND Commercial TV & Radio alerts and they ALL functioned properly.

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