Then Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama extensively used social media such as microblogging site Twitter to win the presidency in 2008. Seven years later, he has gone beyond Twitter and has tapped other forms of social media for the State of the Union address to reach more Americans.

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Since a big chunk of TV viewers were lost to other platforms, the White House opted not to fight social media - which got the viewers - but rather to deliver the annual presidential address through YouTube or other video sharing sites or as embedded material in government websites that could be viewed even on mobile devices.

It was even posted on Facebook and tweeted to meet the Office of the President's goal "so that you can consume the State of the Union wherever you want, whenever you want," LA Times quotes White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer.

The new strategy sought to find the missing 30 million viewers since viewership declined to 33 million in 2014, the second-lowest number of viewership on record. In contrast, at its peak, the State of the Union address delivered by then n1ewly inaugurated President Bill Clinton was watched by 67 million viewers in 1993, according to Nielsen ratings, when it began to track presidential speeches.

The 30 million isn't back yet, but at least more are being added to the numbers, including the 1.2 million who viewed Obama's 2014 State of the Union address on Whithouse.gov, of which 30 percent of the visits were done using mobile devices - thrice its 2012 share.

But while the medium may have expanded, crafting the message hardly changed said Pfeiffer, who explained, "You still need to write a coherent speech that tells a story about where the county is and where it is going. And you still need to have good solid policy that supports that story."

TagsBarack Obama, State of the Union