D.C.-based digital agency Social Driver was featured on WUSA 9 on Jan. 20, when agency co-founders Thomas Sanchez and Anthony Shop, along with members of the Social Driver team, spent that Tuesday night in Social Driver’s “Social War Room”, created to track and analyze the social media conversation taking place while the nation watched President Obama address a litany of water-cooler topics during his State of the Union address.

Social Driver kept track of social media’s trending topics during the president’s address to members of congress and,  said Chief Strategy Officer Anthony Shop, “it’s a really fascinating way to see it. They’ve embedded content. They have images and they’re using hashtags.”

“The White House was telling people how to have conversations around the Affordable Care Act and how to have conversations around policy,” Shop stated.

The team at the digital agency spent the night monitoring their mobile devices, laptops, computer monitors, and television screens, providing insights into the role social media played in the State of the Union address. This year’s SOTU was a departure from that of previous years, with many of the broadcasts integrating hashtags and cues to tune into social media – especially when President Obama addressed NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, encouraging him to “make sure to Instagram” his year-long journey into the cosmos. Social Driver rapidly reacted, live-tweeting an image recognizing and highlighting the president’s “social media shout out”. In addition, the digital agency live-tweeted on behalf of clients within the education space who wanted to join the conversation.

As the evolution of the State of the Union took place before the address’ 31.7 million viewers, Social Driver kept up with the fast-paced conversation. Stated Shop, “in the State of the Union, they’re stimulating social conversations in how they’re presenting the message, which we’ve never seen before.”