Just as the offline conversation about health care reform is growing in the U.S., we are watching the online discussion grow and evolve as well. In the past month, health care reform discussions have increased by more than 1,000 percent, outpacing the online talk surrounding Swine Flu and the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program.

President Obama is keenly aware of the important role that bloggers play in sharing information about health care reform. On July 20, the President called for bloggers to help drum up support for his health care bill, causing another jump in online conversation in the days that followed. The White House has also been using Twitter to get the message out to the public. Of the 24 tweets that have been sent out in the last two weeks, 14 have been about health care reform.

Online discussion about health care reform – like offline discussion – is highly polarized. YouTube chronicles of recent protests at various public town hall meetings (which have been at the top of the list for most-cited videos in the last week), may have created an assumption that most citizens are strongly against the reform. However, in the past week there has been a slightly larger Web presence of those in support of reform, although the split is fairly narrow and is similar to other national polls on the topic. The bottom line is that the conversation is growing on both sides of the debate, as the following chart shows.

Much of the conversation centers around sharing the latest information on the health care reform debate, with both sides adding their own spin and attempting to debunk myths and misconceptions. The discussion is also highly charged, with some bloggers engaging in one-on-one arguments that degenerate to insults and name-calling. Some of these conversations are taking a very ugly turn, as we have seen them do in person as well.

While the health care reform conversation is taking place continues to grow in online political blogs and forums, it does not represent a significant share of conversations occurring on health care sites. Although patients may have the most at stake in health care reform, the conversations about this reform tend to be more political in nature and are less prominent in health forums and communities.

As the debate rages, consumers are increasingly turning to the official White House Web site to understand the key issues. In the last month, unique visitors to the health care pages of Whitehouse.gov have increased 390 percent, from 41,000 unique visitors in June 2009 to 201,000 in July. The administration has also established a site specifically dedicated to debunking the health care reform myths, www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck.

Where do you stand?

One hundred days is scarcely enough time to draw any firm conclusions about a new president’s capabilities. Even so, Barack Obama has garnered considerable respect for his media skills. Pundits have dubbed him the “new media president;” while some of the most cynical among them believe his underlying strategy is to end run traditional Washington gatekeepers by communicating more directly with constituents sympathetic to his agenda. But his fans and critics alike may be missing the bigger picture.

It’s true Mr. Obama has readily embraced most things digital. Throughout much of his campaign, his unique online audience bested those of his opponents – Hillary Clinton during the primaries, and John McCain in the general election – sometimes two-to-one. His historic 26-word text message announcing Joe Biden as his running mate reached nearly three million U.S. mobile subscribers, and is considered the nation’s single largest mobile marketing event ever. And since taking the oath of office, he has continued to use the web to blog on vital issues and field questions from the public. 

It should come as no surprise, however, that the president is taking full advantage of new technologies. Given the current state of the media, it would be more astonishing if he didn’t.

American consumers, like their counterparts around the world, have a seemingly insatiable appetite for information, from just about everywhere. Time spent with blogs and social networks, for example, is increasing globally at more than three times the rate of overall Internet growth, particularly among audiences 50 and older. Little wonder then that Mr. Obama is active on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and Twitter.

Much has also been made about the president’s penchant for his Blackberry. Yet with the typical U.S. mobile subscriber now sending and receiving more text-based data than voice calls, the ability to “thumb” a message is critical to reaching certain sectors of the population.

Still, it is with video, the emerging lingua franca of the 21st century, that Mr. Obama has probably been most prolific. Americans today watch more video than ever before, primarily on three screens – television, the Internet and cell phones. But despite the growth of online and mobile media, more than 99 percent of screen time is still in front of the TV set in the home. Acknowledging this fact, the president has made ample use of the medium. [see: Video Viewing Up At WhiteHouse.gov]

Tonight, he will hold his third televised press conference, raising his monthly average above any other president since John F. Kennedy. Last month he appeared on both The Tonight Show and 60 Minutes, helping to drive up their ratings to the highest levels in four and 10 years respectively.

Consequently, President Obama has underscored two important facets of an ever-changing media landscape. First, as audiences continually fragment into smaller, self-defined groups, communicating with them will mean working across multiple platforms.  Second, the process is not a zero sum game. At any given time, consumers tend to favor the best available screen, basing their decisions on factors such as convenience, availability of content and the quality of the viewing experience. Thus, new media alone will not be enough to successfully reach all constituencies.

Regardless, Barack Obama will increasingly turn to new and emerging media technologies, as will the rest of the nation. Yet he is hardly the only president to do so. Some 67 years ago, Franklin Roosevelt became the “radio president,” as people began listening to radio to help carry them through the Great Depression. For his part, JFK initiated live, televised news conferences.

Back then as now, neither was the first to use their respective medium, though each was the first to truly master it. Like President Obama today, each was also able, to some degree, to bypass mainstream filters and talk more directly to the public. Since the invention of movable type, that has historically been one of the key advantages of any new medium. What is more, it is not likely to change.

President Barack Obama’s inauguration marked the beginning of a new era, which included the launch of a dramatically overhauled White House Web site. President Obama wasted no time ensuring that the official site, WhiteHouse.gov, represented a continuation of his campaign’s masterful use of the Internet and social media.

During President Obama’s first month in office, it seemed like the overhaul had paid off with unique visitors to WhiteHouse.gov reaching an all-time high. However, as the novelty of having an Internet-savvy administration seemed to wear off, so did the visitation rate, leaving one to wonder if the revamped WhiteHouse.gov will actually become the effective tool for communicating with the public that the President hopes it to be.

On its own, the decline in Web site traffic doesn’t seem to be that surprising or interesting a finding. Site launch, followed by a surge in traffic and then a steep decline in unique visitors mirrors the trajectory of visitation to brand Web sites and online discussion after a large-scale (i.e. Super Bowl-level) campaign.

Interestingly though, Web traffic alone does not tell the whole story when it comes to WhiteHouse.gov. While some might see the drop-off in visitors as evidence of a gradually disengaging public, there’s more going on with these numbers. Despite the decrease in March, those visitors that did come were actually spending more time on the Web site than in January and February. The online town hall meeting on March 26 proved to be successful in engaging visitors on the site, as individuals submitted votes and viewed the meeting online.

So what does it mean that fewer people are spending more time at WhiteHouse.gov? From the corporate world, we know that a well-run online campaign thrives on two fronts—attracting new visitors and maintaining an active and engaged user base. Because time spent on a Web site is a key indicator of engagement, it is clear that while one front of interest has dwindled (i.e. traffic), another is beginning to blossom (i.e. engagement). Having dedicated visitors who are willing to spend time and engage with the site is certainly an encouraging sign for an administration that has expressed a desire to communicate its policies directly to the people.

Of course, WhiteHouse.gov is not the only resource for those interested in learning more about the Administration, and it wouldn’t be fair to assess engagement without also considering these other destinations. The Administration provides many avenues for communication, reaching consumers where they are already congregating. The official YouTube channel has received over 21 million views, President Obama’s Twitter account boasts over 800,000 followers and his official Facebook page has attracted over 6 million supporters to date.

But despite all of the social media activity, WhiteHouse.gov is perhaps the most compelling example of President Obama’s vision because it is a site that his administration controls as opposed to a third-party site. Frequenting the official site illustrates a level of effort and commitment that is not required when following President Obama on Twitter or becoming a supporter of his Facebook page. While it is hard to say definitively at this point, engagement on WhiteHouse.gov may prove to be the Administration’s most valuable online metric in the long-run.

As we continue to follow President Obama’s online presence, it will be interesting to see just how much of an impact the retooled White House Web site is actually having and how President Obama’s strategy adapts to the ever-changing, online landscape.

The proliferation of video across the site, from the President’s weekly video address to video segments on the site’s blog, has helped spur this impressive growth. Unique viewers of video content increased 236 percent month-over-month, growing from 75,000 in February to 252,000 in March 2009, while total video streams increased 350 percent during the same time period.

Unique Video Viewers and Total Video Streams at WhiteHouse.gov 

So who is viewing video at WhiteHouse.gov? Viewers of video content at the site over-indexed among males and people between the ages of 35 and 49 and those over 65 in March. Unique viewers 35 to 49 were 78 percent more likely to view video on whitehouse.gov than the average viewer, while people 65 and older were 48 percent more likely.

Unique Viewer Composition Index by Demographic Group for WhiteHouse.gov

Average Composition Index is 100

Another new video feature on whitehouse.gov, Open for Questions, was launched this March. It is a section of the Web site in which the President addresses questions posed by citizens via online video. Open for Questions was one of the top subdomains visited within WhiteHouse.gov, receiving 618,000 unique visitors during the month.