Checking the weather on the Web is one of my most common uses of the internet. Now I find it is becoming more social. This is a good thing. Adweek, noted in, The Weather Channel Launches Redesigned Site, that they are adding new social features. They have always said that everyone talks about the weather so this makes sense. Cameron Clayton, of the Weather Channel said to Adweek, "If you think about it, one of the only topics of conversation to endure since we all lived in caves is the weather."
Their relaunch gives the viewer a more “personalized local and weather experience with an emphasis on the social nature of weather.” There are now new widgets that allow visitors to share their opinions on the current weather, which is then analyzed to track sentiment along with local and national trends for viewers. Weather.com also now features multiple ways to engage in weather conversation over the various social networks.
While tweets about the weather may seem common place and boring if the weather is boring. But what if it is not? I recently wrote about research on what makes a tweet be retweeted. These researchers concluded, “The research suggests that it doesn't fully matter who you are or how many connections you have, but what you're saying relative to the existing conversation is what really matters in spreading knowledge online.” So I concluded, that if you want to reach a lot of people write about what they are interested in at the moment, which could be the weather. The Weather Channel got over 54 million unique visitors in March. I was one of the tem. Adding social capabilities should only up that number.
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