The annual State of the Union address is one of those rare opportunities in which the president of the United States knows that millions of Americans are watching his speech. And in today's world, those viewers are reacting in real time, on social media, to what the president says.

美国总统都知道，年度国情咨文演说是自己的一次难得机会，可以博得数以百万计美国人的眼球。在当今的世界里，观众还会通过社交媒体对总统的言辞做出实时反应。

So what was the reaction to President Barack Obama's address Tuesday?

那么，奥巴马总统星期二的国情咨文演说获得的反应如何呢？

A tech company, in Washington D.C., monitored what Americans were saying on social media -- second by second.

在华盛顿，一家技术公司一秒一秒地监测美国人在社交媒体上的回应。

Social media have changed the way things work in Washington, especially at the White House.

社交媒体改变了华盛顿特别是白宫的运作方式。

“We’ve noticed some of the key quotes from the president are under 140 characters. So they’ve actually written the speech to make it easier to share on social media,” said Anthony shop, co-founder of Social Driver.

华盛顿的社交媒体策略机构“社会驱动力”(Social Driver)的共同创办人安东尼·肖普说：“我们注意到总统的某些关键语录在140字以下。所以，他们真的是在写便于社交媒体分享的演说稿。”

During Obama’s seven years in office, his administration has been very active on social media. Just this week, the White House joined Snapchat. And hours before the State of the Union speech, Obama went live on Facebook to invite his followers to watch his speech.

七年来，奥巴马政府在社交媒体上一直非常活跃。就在这个星期，白宫加入了“阅后即焚” (Snapchat)。就在发表国情咨文演说的几个小时前，奥巴马上了脸书(Faceebook)，邀请粉丝观看演说。

Politicians now use social media to circumvent conventional media and talk directly with people.

政治人物如今利用社交媒体来绕过传统媒体，直接与民众沟通。

Social Driver, a social media strategy agency in Washington, was watching closely how viewers reacted to Obama’s final State of the Union speech.

“社会驱动力”密切追踪观众对奥巴马最后一次国情咨文演说的反应。

“Social media gives us the ability to listen to people all over the country, and all over the world really, in ways that would’ve been unimaginable a few short years ago," said Shop. "And now it’s possible to listen to what everybody is saying, to tap into those conversations and to learn from them.”

肖普说：“社交媒体让我们能够倾听来自全国各地乃至全世界的声音，就在几年前，这种方式还是无法想象的。如今，我们可以听到每个人说的话，可以进入这些交谈并从中学到东西。”

And the reactions were nothing if not unpredictable. Health care, normally a divisive issue, brought people together when the president jokingly acknowledged Republicans and Democrats will never agree.

人们的反应完全在意料之中。医疗保健议题通常引起分歧，但当总统开玩笑承认共和、民主两党人士永远也不会有共识时，人们全都笑了。

Also, surprisingly, Obama’s proposal to end cancer was not well-received.

而让人吃惊的是，奥巴马提出的治愈癌症建议却未受好评。

“You would think something like cancer, ‘o.k. we’re going to cure cancer,’ everyone can really rally behind that. But in reality it was one of the most split things he said and I would assume it is not something that they expected,” said Emily Rasowsky, of Social Driver.

“社会驱动力”公司的艾米莉·拉索斯基说：“你会以为对癌症这种东西，如果有谁说‘好，我们要治愈癌症’，人人都会响应。可现实是，这是他说的引起最大分歧的话题之一。我认为，这是他们之前预想不到的。”

Yet what caught the most attention on social media might seem astonishing to many.

不过，社交媒体关注最多的话题也许会让很多人大跌眼镜。

“The two key moments that really were surprising, that got a lot of traction, were Michelle Obama and what she was wearing... and the second really surprising conversation on social media tonight was the livestream and not the fact that they had it but how they laid it out," Rasowsky said. "Right from the go the people were talking about how it kind of looked like a PowerPoint presentation.”

拉索斯基说：“两个引起很多关注的关键时刻的确让人吃惊。一个是米歇尔·奥巴马和她穿的衣服；在社交媒体上让人想不到的第二个话题是流媒体(livestream)，引起热议的并不是他们使用流媒体，而是他们如何设计的流媒体。从一开始，人们就在谈论，他们的流媒体有点像幻灯片文件展示(PPT)。”

But Social Driver does not do this for fun. They share their findings with clients and help them tailor their messages on social media platforms. Proving, once more, how social media have changed the game.

不过，“社会驱动力”公司并不是出于好玩而这样做。他们把发现结果与客户分享，帮助他们在社交媒体平台上发布量体裁衣式的讯息。这再次证明社交媒体是如何改变了游戏。