The Weather Channel is integrating local, weather-related tweets across its television, Web and mobile platforms, as well as increasing the company?s two-way dialogue with consumers.

The Weather Channel Social will let users see real-time tweets about local weather displayed alongside forecasts on the company?s various platforms. Citi is the exclusive launch sponsor.

?Social is not a standalone product for The Weather Channel,? said Cameron Clayton, executive vice president of digital product at The Weather Channel, Atlanta. ?Instead, social is part of everything we do, and launching The Weather Channel Social is the next step in that strategy. 

?Making social a part of all of our platforms helps us tell a more complete story of how weather events impact consumers locally, combining that information with our expertise and forecasting,? he said.

?In addition, social helps us increase our two-way dialogue with consumers, which also has the end result of improving our content.?

The Weather Channel claims to reach more than 16 million unique users a month on the mobile Web.

Mocial
As part of its social integration, the company has created 220 custom local Twitter feeds for cities with populations of 100,000 and more.

The handles provide consumers localized forecasts every three hours.

Additionally, users can access feeds for their location by clicking the "Follow the Forecast" link from local forecast pages on weather.com or can enter their city, state or ZIP code from http://www.weather.com/social.

?Weather is the ultimate ice breaker and conversation starter,? Mr. Clayton said. ?People already talk about weather on Twitter, with 200 weather Tweets per minute on an average day and 2 million a day during significant weather events.

?So this partnership was a natural fit,? he said. ?And it?s a natural extension of what The Weather Channel has always done.

?In its near 30-year history, TWC has helped define both how we see and how we understand weather. Now, TWC Social redefines how we talk about weather.?  

Sponsorship
The Weather Channel worked with sponsor Citi and its digital agency Razorfish to create an innovative social integration that encourages user conversation about local and national weather and other relevant events.

Via the sponsorship, Citi will feature messaging in high-profile, high-impact placements across The Weather Channel?s properties.

In addition, via the company?s iPhone app, real-time tweets will be featured on every local forecast page. 

?The Weather Channel Social will be regularly featured on our television network and will have a prominent place online at weather.com and on our iPhone app,? Mr. Clayton said. ?As a result, we know that with our tremendous scale and reach, millions of consumers will become familiar with TWC Social.

?In addition, having worked successfully with multiple partners to launch this effort ? Twitter, Wiredset to analyze the conversations, and Citi and Razorfish in the ad space ? we know that the news of this launch will be relevant to people in a variety of industries.

?We are also working on external promotion through a social promotion with Klout and street marketing events in New York on launch day.? 

Final Take
Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York