NEW DELHI: The rise of social media in politics is no secret, and more and more world leaders are now turning to Twitter. According to Twiplomacy, a study by Burson-Marsteller, more than two-thirds (67.88%) of all heads of state and heads of government have personal accounts on the social network.
For many diplomats, Twitter has becomes a powerful channel for digital diplomacy and 21st century statecraft. As of June 23, 2014, more than 80% of the UN member countries have a presence on Twitter.
Here are 15 interesting facts about world leaders and digital diplomacy on Twitter:
1. Most followed world leaders: US President Barack Obama (@BarackObama) continues to rule Twitter with over 47.7 million followers. Pope Francis (@Pontifex) is the 2nd most followed world leader with 14 million followers on his nine different language accounts. Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (@SBYudhoyono), who has more than 5 million followers, is 3rd most followed on Twitter.
Since his election as India’s new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi (@NarendraModi) has skyrocketed to 4th place, surpassing President Obama’s official administration account @WhiteHouse and dropping Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul and PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan into 6th and 7th positions respectively.
2. Most connected: French foreign minister Laurent Fabius (@LaurentFabius) is the best connected foreign minister, mutually connected with 91 other peers and world leaders.
(Graphic courtesy: http://twiplomacy.com/)
3. #DigitalDiplomacy: More than 3,100 embassies and ambassadors are now active on Twitter.
4. Most popular: Pope Francis (@Pontifex) is by far the most influential tweep with more than 10,000 retweets for every tweet he sends on his Spanish account and 6,462 retweets on average on his English account.
5. Global influencers: All but one of the G20 governments have an official Twitter presence, and six of the G7 leaders have a personal Twitter account.
(Graphic courtesy: http://twiplomacy.com/)
6. Are they tweeting themselves? Not really. Among the few world leaders who actually tweet include Estonian President Toomas Henrik Ilves (@IlvesToomas) and UK foreign minister William J Hague (@WilliamJHague). Most other world leaders occasionally tweet themselves during Twitter chats.
7. Early adopters: US President Barack Obama was the first world leader to set up a Twitter account on March 5, 2007.
(Graphic courtesy: http://twiplomacy.com/)
He was still a senator then. Other early adopters include Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto (@EPN), Belgian Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo (@ElioDiRupo) and the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (@PMHarper). Most world leaders followed suite in 2010 and 2011.
8. Tweets in numbers: According to Twiplomacy, as of June 23, 2014, all world leaders combined have sent 1,932,262 tweets posting on average four tweets each day.
9. Most active world leader: The Venezuelan presidency Nicolas Maduro (@PresidencialVen) has sent close to 50,000 tweets, averaging almost 40 tweets each day!
10. Most ‘chatty’ leader on Twitter: Ugandan Prime Minister @AmamaMbabazi is the most conversational world leader with 95% of his tweets being replies to other Twitter users.
(Graphic courtesy: http://twiplomacy.com/)
11. Size really matters: The meteoric rise in following of Indian PM Narendra Modi and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono show that leaders of the most populous countries clearly have an advantage over others.
12. #HashtagDiplomacy: Over the past year, world leaders have used hashtags to promote specific issues, be it #BringBackOurGirls or #ENDViolence against children.
13. Top listed: Another sign of Twitter popularity is the number of times an account appears on a Twitter list. US President Barack Obama is the clear winner appearing in with 207,673 Twitter lists. PM Narendra Modi appears on over 10,000 Twitter lists.
14. Language twiplomacy: Spanish, not English, is the language most world leaders tweet in.
(Graphic courtesy: http://twiplomacy.com/)
French is the third most-used language in world leaders’ tweets.
15. #Selfie: The selfie craze has reached the higher echelons of government. Some of the most notable selfies include Barack Obama’s funeral selfie with David Cameron, US secretary of state John Kerry’s group selfie in Manila and Narendra Modi’s election booth selfie. |
A number of world leaders, including Pope Francis, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, have also posed with admirers for selfies.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social/Twiplomacy-15-interesting-facts-about-world-leaders-and-digital-diplomacy-on-Twitter/articleshow/37238819.cms
