The National Hurricane Center said only about 16 percent of its Facebook fans are seeing its updates. Reuters/NOAA National Hurricane Center/Handout
Two weeks into hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center has a message for Facebook users looking for critical storm updates: You might be better off on Twitter.
The center, a part of the U.S. National Weather Service based in Miami, told International Business Times on Thursday that Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has throttled the organic reach of its Facebook page so drastically in recent months that only a small percentage of its 260,000 fans now see its updates. The decline is part of a controversial trend over the last year in which Facebook has grown more aggressive in filtering newsfeeds so that users supposedly see only posts deemed relevant by its algorithm.
Given the limitations, the NHC said it can’t rely on the world’s most popular social network as a primary way of disseminating time-sensitive information. In an email, Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and the NHC’s public affairs officer, said people might have better luck on Twitter, which doesn’t filter its users’ tweets. “In some sense, Twitter is more valuable to us,” Feltgen said. “Because everyone who follows our Twitter accounts will receive a tweet whenever we issue a new tropical cyclone advisory, directing them to the NHC Web page for more information.”
According to Feltgen, statistics from…