This document provides an overview of social media platforms like Google Plus, Facebook, and Twitter and how to effectively use them. It discusses what Google Plus is, how to use circles, and tips for using Facebook pages and profiles. It also reviews social media dashboards like Hootsuite and tips for using hashtags and filtering tweets. Finally, it discusses how to identify fake photos on social media and resources for verifying images.

1. Social Media and You!?!
North Florida Chapter
AMS/NWA
Questions: shout them out or use the
hash tag #WXbootcamp on Twitter

2. Google Plus, Hootsuite and Facebook Oh
My!
#WXbootcamp

3. What is Google Plus?
•Google’s attempt at a social network (social
layer)
•Started June 2011
•Currently 400 million users (100+ active)
•Integrated into all Google products
–Search
–Gmail
–YouTube
–Picasa #WXbootcamp

4. Hangout with your friends or by yourself
#WXbootcamp

5. Circles, Circles Everywhere

6. Facebook
#WXbootcamp

7. Facebook Good, Bad and Ugly
1.Facebook pages ≠ profile
2.Profile page for your friends and family (Friend)
3.Profile page for your persona (subscribe)
4.Pages – for your business (Like)
5.Page posts only reach 12% of users (unless you
pay $$$ for a higher percentage)
#WXbootcamp

8. Facebook – the good, the bad and the ugly
• Only about 12% of people see your
fan page posts.
• Google FB profile verses
page differences
• Set up a profile page and
allow people to subscribe
• Facebook keeps changing the rules.

9. Consider your audience
• Remember you are talking to people
• Better – act as if you are talking to one
person
• Discuss topics people love (like the
weather)
• Ask questions
• Use personal pronouns and
contractions
• Have a relaxed, friendly tone
#WXbootcamp

10. Keep it short
• People scan Facebook; they don’t read it.
• The longer the post, the less engaging
fans find it.
• Research shows that Facebook posts
with 80 characters or less receive 66
percent higher fan engagement
#WXbootcamp

11. Use an eye-catching image
• There is no type of content that elicits a
better response than photos.
• Posts with good pictures get better
visibility in the news feed due to the
higher EdgeRank score.
• When you share photos, make sure
they’re eye-catching in a smaller
version.
#WXbootcamp

12. Other tips
• Add links to your post
• Avoid complicated posts
• Respond to people
• Tell fans/subscribers what to do
• Ask a question
• Use a variety of posts
• Paint a picture with your words
#WXbootcamp

13. Social Media Dashboards
• Allows you to monitor and publish
• Hootsuite
• TweetDeck
• MediaFunnel
• Sproat Social
• Argyle Social
• Seesmic –
•Just bought by Hootsuite
• Plus many others…
#WXbootcamp

14. Hootsuite
#WXbootcamp

15. Using Twitter - Hootsuite
• To many retweets (RT) in your streams, filter them out –
• #nmwx OR #nmfire -filter:retweets
• Extraneous words in your streams, filter them out –
• snow OR rain OR wind OR ice –cream
• To many tweets from an annoying user in your streams , filter them out –
• #okwx OR #okice -centexwx –StormAlertsOK
• Set up a stream of local media, law enforcement, and power users –
• from:elpasotimes OR from:abc7breaking OR from:krqe OR
from:LOSRanchosEM
• Hootsuite training document
• http://owl.li/dKXIV
• NWS Hootsuite training video - Twitter streams and searches -
• http://owl.li/99HR4

16. Using Twitter – Hootsuite
• For Sandy:
• Kept an eye on my home feed
• Created a #Sandy column in Hootsuite
• Found an awesome curated list
#WXbootcamp

17. The three “F’s”
Sniffing out fake, false and phony
photos
#WXbootcamp

18. If it were only this easy
#WXbootcamp

19. Or this easy…
#WXbootcamp

20. But what about this one…
#WXbootcamp

21. Or this one…

22. What about this one…

23. What to do
• Think first before you hit retweet
• Does it make sense and/or look right
• Try and trace the image back to it source
• Drop the image into Google image search
• Do a Tineye.com image search
• Look at the images meta data
• Jeffrey’s Exif Viewer
• Look for lists of fake photos
• http://owl.li/f6Hk3
• When in doubt don’t pass it along
#WXbootcamp

24. Tim Brice
El Paso National Weather
Service
http://about.me/timbrice
@timbrice17
#WXbootcamp