Social media to help President Obama reach out following State of the Union address

As the nation awaits President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address to the Congress, the White House has released an announcement to the effect that President Obama and senior administration officials will hold a series of live online events to answer questions from the general public in the hours and days following the address.

The State of the Union address will be streamed live on the Whitehouse.gov site from 9 pm on the 25th, immediately after which a panel of senior White House officials will answer questions from the public. The panel comprises National Economic Council Deputy Director Brian Deese; presidential assistant for education policy Roberto Rodriguez; director and aide to senior advisor, David Simas and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, Ben Rhodes. Questions may be addressed through Twitter (@whitehouse with hashtag #sotu), Facebook (posted on White House wall) or through the web platform on whitehouse.gov

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will answer questions from Twitter on Wednesday, before he holds his post-State of the Union press briefing.

The President himself will answer people's questions on a live Youtube interview on Thursday, January 27th starting 2:30 p.m. EST (youtube.com/askobama). The same day will also see several online discussions with White House policy experts about issues addressed in the speech through a live roundtable format. Questions for these may also be posted on Facebook on the White House page.