#SOTU2015: How Obama is taking a centuries-old tradition into the Twitter age
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Step aside, mainstream media 鈥 social is where it鈥檚 at.
That, reports say, is the idea propelling the public relations build-up to President Obama鈥檚 State of the Union address this year: By the time he takes the stage Tuesday night for the annual presidential speech, Mr. Obama鈥檚 proposals on net neutrality, college affordability, immigration, and other issues will have been making the rounds on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Vine for weeks.
It鈥檚 all part of the plan to keep the president connected to his increasingly tech-savvy constituents, White House officials say.
鈥淚t鈥檚 still true that most people still get their news from television and big newspapers,鈥 Jennifer Palmieri, the president鈥檚 communications director, . 鈥淏ut if that鈥檚 all you鈥檙e talking to, you鈥檙e missing big parts of the population.鈥
Indeed, of online Americans are on two or more social media sites, according to the Pew Research Center. And , as do more than 60 percent of Reddit users, Pew reported last year.
鈥淭o not have an aggressive social media strategy in 2015 would be the equivalent of not having an aggressive TV strategy in the 1950s,鈥 Dan Pfeiffer, the president鈥檚 senior adviser and a vocal advocate of digital communication, said in the same New York Times report. 鈥淲e have to go to where the conversations are already happening.鈥
And so Obama鈥檚 team has been busy casting a wide net on social media, trying to get millennials and other online adults interested in the president and engaged in his ideas.
Mr. Pfeiffer, for instance, gave a preview of Obama's speech in a blog titled, 鈥,鈥 published on Medium. On LinkedIn, senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett .
On Facebook, the president explained his plan to make the first two years of college free in a , and he did the same with a Vine on Twitter.
An updated will also include a livestream of the president鈥檚 speech, behind-the-scenes videos, and an interactive grid with figures, charts, and other information.
To top it all off, lined up at the White House after his speech are YouTube stars , , and . Not one of them has less than 2.4 million subscribers on his or her channel.
This isn鈥檛 the first time Obama鈥檚 camp has taken to social media to get the word out about both the man and his policies. Facebook in particular played a big part in the game plan that landed him in the White House in the first place.
鈥淎 major success factor for Obama鈥檚 victory was how [his] campaign used social media and technology as an integral part of its strategy, to raise money, and, more importantly, to develop a groundswell of empowered volunteers who felt they could make a difference,鈥 according to a 2010 published in the European Business Review.
The president鈥檚 popularity has taken a dip in the years since his first campaign. In October, his approval rating was at 40 percent, . And tuned in to his State of the Union address last year, the lowest viewer turnout since President Clinton鈥檚 farewell State of the Union in 2000, Nielsen reported.
Combine that with a new Republican Congress with its own agendas to push, it鈥檚 no surprise that Obama鈥檚 team has been trying to keep the president鈥檚 policies in the public eye 鈥撀燼nd to make this year's speech what Vox calls 鈥.鈥