Social State of the Union

I watched the State of the Union Address differently than I have in the past tonight. I had my laptop up and running so I could see real-time commentary as President Obama delivered his speech. If you did the same, you know precisely why I couldn’t help but post about all of the social media buzz surrounding the address.

While President Obama spoke, #SOTU trended on Twitter allowing users to share their thoughts in real-time. If you take a look at the #SOTU hashtag conversation, you’ll see that Twitter status updates were rapid (and highly opinionated) during the address.

The CitizenTube channel on YouTube also served as an interesting discussion forum by giving viewers the potential opportunity to virtually interview the president. In addition to watching the address live, site visitors could submit questions for President Obama to be answered from the White House in the next week.  A quick look at the number of questions submitted, which rose from 574 at the beginning of the address to 4,467 shortly after the address, shows just how popular the forum was.

So what can we learn from the use of social media during the State of the Union Address as PR professionals? Many things, I’m sure. What stood out most to me tonight was the benefit of using social media to provide access. Rather than utilizing social media simply as a means for publicity, or “generating buzz” we all need to remember to use it as a tool to truly engage our audience by giving them a unique way to get involved. Even though our events, webinars, or Tweetups may not be as highly anticipated as the president’s annual address, we can develop equally successful social media campaign components by providing something extra. For example, if you’re announcing a new product, try making a brand manager available online during a set time frame to answer questions from consumers. If you’ve included a celebrity spokesperson in your program, why not give your online audience a chance to connect with them before, during or after the event? Direct access and the desire for interaction seem to be among the most common reasons consumers join social media networks in the first place. Focusing on those desires could bring tremendous results to a variety of PR programs.