Twiplomacy study finds two thirds of world leaders on Twitter

The study shows that 77.7% of world leaders have a Twitter account and 68% have made mutual connections with their peers.

Most followed

The findings indicate that US President @BarackObama is still the most followed world leader on Twitter with more than 33 million followers. However, while 148 of all world leaders and governments are following Obama he is not the best connected leader; he only mutually follows two other world leaders - Norway's Jens Stoltenberg and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev. The @WhiteHouse and the @StateDept are followed by 132 and 99 peers respectively, but they are also giving all other world leaders the cold shoulder; The @WhiteHouse follows three other leaders and the @StateDept is not following any other foreign ministry.

The Pope (@Pontifex) has become the second most followed world leader with more than 7 million followers on his nine different accounts. Although Pope Francis does not engage with other Twitter users, his Spanish tweets especially are retweeted on average more than 11,000 times, making him the most influential world leader on Twitter. In comparison, Obama's tweets are only retweeted on average 2309 times despite his massive following.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül (@cbabdullahgul) and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (@RT_Erdogan) are among the top five most followed world leaders with more than 3.4 million followers each.

Swedish foreign minister @CarlBildt is the best-connected world leader mutually following 44 peers. The European External Action Service (@eu_eeas), is the best connected foreign service with 36 mutual connections, followed by the Polish foreign ministry @PolandMFA, the UK @ForeignOffice and the French foreign ministry @FranceDiplo?.

Integrating government communication

"This study illustrates how Twitter and social media in general have become part and parcel of any integrated government communications," said Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa. "While Twitter is certainly not the only channel of communication and will not replace face-to-face meetings, it allows for direct peer-to-peer interaction. I expect we will see an increasing number of corporations and CEOs also embracing the new tools that are connecting our world leaders."

Turkish Prime Minister @RT_Erdogan, ousted Egyptian President @MuhammadMorsi, Rwandan President @PaulKagame, Israel's @PresidentPeres, Singapore Prime Minister @LeeHsienLoong, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte @MinPres and 35 other accounts do not follow any other Twitter user.

On the other hand, Ugandan Prime Minister @AmamaMbabazi is the most conversational world leader with 96% of his tweets being @replies to other Twitter users. The second and third most conversational leaders are Rwanda's President @PaulKagame and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt with his @fragaCarlBildt 'Ask Carl Bildt' account.

Engaging leaders

The study found that Twitter has become a formidable broadcasting tool for world leaders. Although not being conversational, the @Pontifex account has seen phenomenal Twitter growth over the past six months, as have the accounts of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono @SBYudhoyono and Venezuela's President @NicolasMaduro, who both signed up to Twitter in March 2013 and now rank among the top 20 most followed world leaders.

Even dormant accounts of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff @DilmaBR and French President François Hollande @FHollande, who both suspended tweeting after being elected, have seen their followers increase.

"People want to engage with their leaders on Twitter," notes Matthias Lüfkens, the company's digital practice leader EMEA and author of the report, "However, it is astonishing to see that accounts with the largest number of followers have the least interaction with other Twitter users."

There are 227 personal accounts and 76 world leaders tweet personally albeit many only occasionally. Seven of the G8 leaders have a personal Twitter account and all but one of the G20 governments have an official Twitter presence.

Smaller countries

Twitter is also used by smaller nations to put them on the world map and tweet eye-to-eye with their peers. The Croatian government (@VladaRH) and the Foreign Minister of Iceland (@MFAIceland) are unilaterally following 195 and 142 peers and world leaders respectively in the hope that they will return the favour.

All 45 European governments now have an official presence on Twitter. In South America, all countries except Suriname have an official Twitter presence. In North America, Asia and Africa 79%, 76% and 71% of all governments have a Twitter account. Only a third (38.4%) of all governments in the Pacific uses the micro-blogging service.

South African President Jacob Zuma and Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta are Africa's most followed leaders with more than 200,000 followers each. For more information, go to http://twiplomacy.com.