I think it was about 5 minutes into last night’s “State of the Union” address that many people noticed the @BarackObama account live-tweeting key quotes throughout the speech. While some joked that it was from the iPad behind the lecture, it was a great example of some of the elements President Obama’s plan for our future.
Without getting any more political that I have to, I figured it would be fun to take a look at what the social media strategy that the White House used for this year’s “State of the Union”. Here’s a list of some of the elements, which can be seen here.
1) The slogan: “Watch and Engage” – something very simple and subtle , but gets the message across and really sets the tone for page
2) Youtube: Live Stream and Enhanced presentation – I’m probably going to end up watching the #SOTU address again, and it’s because it will be nice to see facts and figures to back up what the president is saying. Echoing the address, transparency is crucial, and this is a great start.
3) “After the address” timeline – This is a great example of bullet-by-bullet engagement. From the post-address panel of senior White House officials to the Facebook roundtable, The White House is encouraging discussion, not directing it.
4) The Mobile App – If you’re a political person and you want to keep tabs on what the Obama administration is doing while you’re on-the-go, there’s really nothing better. And coupling it with the engagement that’s being driven to the #SOTU page, I would be interested to see just how many people downloaded the app last night, for the first time.
I have to give kudos to Kalpen Modi, White House Office of Public Engagement and Sarah Bernard, White House New Media, for doing a great job at using new media tools and engaging people through these new mediums. I’m really excited to see just what comes next from them.
UPDATE: Looks like Fast Company agreed with me. Take a look at their article “State of the Union, the Digital Party” – Thanks to @eric_andersen for the link!
