I live in in the foothills of North Carolina, Newton to be specific.  Recently, like much of the Southeastern United States have been struck with destructive severe weather in the form of high winds, hail, and tornadoes.  While many of you know that I monitor the weather and post watches/warnings as they come into Catawba County, I thought I would share some of my resources so that you can be better prepared as well, here they are:

Facebook - I post updates, links, etc. on my personal facebook profile: http://www.facebook.com/leeyount

Twitter – I created a Twitter list named NCemergency (http://twitter.com/list/LeeYount/ncemergency) with several people, organizations, news, and government officials that tweet about emergency related items.

Hootsuite / Tweetdeck – I use both of these tools (depending on where I am and what device I am using) to follow different columns of Twitter and Facebook.  These are also great tools to use to search for hashtags.

Twitter Hashtags - Here are several (but not all) hashtags that I search when there is a severe weather event in North Carolina
(if you do not want to download or use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, you can always do searches directly on Twitter at http://search.twitter.com/ although it is not the most effective way to use Twitter search)

• #ncwx – north carolina weather
• #nctornado – north carolina tornado
• #tornado – tornado
• #damage – damage
• #tornadowarning – tornado warnings
• #smem – social media emergency management

You can also combine search terms in Twitter like this:

• #NCTornado OR #tornado OR #damage OR #tornadowarning OR #shelter OR #wind OR tornado
• twitpic OR yfrog OR plixi OR twitgoo OR picktor OR mobypicture OR twitxr OR posterous #tornado

If you find yourself in need of assistance here are a couple of good resources:

• 911 – Always call 911 if you have an emergency.
• Find a Red Cross Shelter – If you need to leave your home because of an evacuation or if your home is damaged, find Red Cross shelter openings here.
• Red Cross Safe and Well – After a distster, let your family and loved ones know that you are OK by registering on this site.  You can also search for family or loved ones here.

How to be prepared / receive National Weather Service emergency alerts:

• TV/Local Radio – As long as you have power, stay tuned to your local news outlets / radio stations for National Weather Service emergency information.
• Weather Radio – Weather radios are a great tool to have to wake you up in the middle of the night when there is the threat of severe weather of an emergency situation in your area.
• SMS/Text Message – The Weather Channel provides text message emergency alerts for your area.  You can also choose what you want to be alerted of.
• There’s an app for that – Weather Alert USA is the name of the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch app that will alert you of emergency alerts in your area.  Here is the iTunes link: http://ow.ly/4IAcs web link:http://ow.ly/4IAct
• Red Cross Emergency Preparedness Store – Find and purchase several products including, but not limited to Weather radios, first aid kits, preparedness guides, and more.
• National Weather Service Severe Awareness Page – This is a great page with a lot of useful information, especially the Preparedness Guide.

The bottom line is stay safe and use common sense.  When severe weather is eminent, take the proper precautions to protect yourself and your family / loved ones.  Stay safe out there!

I gave a presentation this morning at the Fall NCLGISA Conference in Asheville, NC titled How To Set Up Social Media Sites – Some new stuff | Crash, BOOM, tweet…with a twist.

Here is the description from the session:

You’ve done Facebook and tweeted to the world, so what’s next? Social media tools are maturing and becoming more than a way to send information to citizens. In this session,  explore the traditional social media tools and how they are interacting with new tools like proximity-based Foursquare, using tools like Quick Response Codes to steer users to sites, and crowd filtering tools to gather information. Andpublic safety? Could a tweet save your life? Hear what the Red Cross says about social media.

Click Here to Download the PDF with the presenter notes

Below are the slides from this presentation:

Today I am meeting with 2 representatives from local governments in North Carolina about how they can use social media in local government.  I recently gave a presentation about social media at the 2009 NCLGISA Spring Conference in Asheville, NC.  I showed how Catawba County uses social media and some different useful tools that make social media easier to manage.  You can find this presentation on slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/leeyount/leveraging-social-networks-2567263 .

So how do you use social media to enhance your everyday business/organization?

Do you see value in this new way of communicating or do you see social media as just another fad?

Check out this video from Erik Qualman about social media / socialnomics: