Follow James Spann… What To Expect

I honestly am not a “social media” expert… despite a number of local, regional, and national media articles saying I am. But, I do enjoy interacting with people, and have managed to attract a large audience on Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, and Google Plus.

Want to join in? Here is what to expect…

*Facebook: Don’t try to “add me as a friend”… the regular accounts on Facebook are capped at 5,000. You will simply get a message that I “have too many friends”. I hang out on the “like page”, where there are no limits. Over 66,000 are over there, and I enjoy the conversation and engagement we have. One thing you will get there… all Alabama severe weather watches and warnings. They are posted automatically as they are issued, and it is a great way to stay in touch on severe weather days.

I post occasional weather updates, including all Weather Xtreme videos as they are produced. On active days, lots of information is pushed out. With the exception of the warnings, I type everything manually. The wall is open for everybody, and I enjoy seeing your pictures and thoughts as well. But please don’t post commercial advertisements. Nobody likes a spammer.

Facebook is also a crucial way of getting weather reports from various parts of Alabama on active days. I often crowd source to get reports on suspicious thunderstorms, or on winter weather threats. Extremely helpful to us.

*Twitter: Warning… I tweet pretty heavily, especially on active weather days. You will get a steady stream of short weather updates, along with retweets from others across Alabama with reports. Warnings are not automatically put on my Twitter feed… you can follow our @ewarn account for those.

You will also see tweets about traffic issues, power outages, and other random stuff like sunrise and sunset photos that I think might be helpful or fun for the masses. As host of WeatherBrains, I have many followers in other parts of the nation and in other countries, so from time to time WeatherBrains notes will be posted as well.

But, if you don’t want your Twitter stream to fill up quickly when something is going on, you might think twice about following the @spann account.

Come join the over 33,000 who are there.

*FourSquare: This is a “check-in” location based social network. Nothing here other than following my adventures. And, FourSquare has a 1,000 friend limit, and like Facebook, and I am capped off.

*Google Plus: The newest social network is one I enjoy… seems like there are mostly weather and tech geeks over there, but I post the Weather Xtreme videos as they are produced, and occasional thoughts involving tech and weather. I don’t believe this is totally open to the public yet, but it sure worth a look.

Broadcasting has become a two-way communications entity thanks to social media… join in the fun!

Tags: social media

Category: Hodgepodge