Over the past five years, Twitter has become the ultimate channel for digital diplomacy for world leaders and governments. According to Burson-Marsteller’s Twiplomacy study, an annual global survey of world leaders on social media, it is the prime social network used by heads of state and government in 173 countries, representing 90 per cent of all United Nations (UN) member states.
Facebook is the second-most used social platform by world leaders, with 169 governments having set up official pages. However, leaders have on average twice as many followers on their Facebook pages as followers on Twitter.
YouTube ranks third among social sharing platforms, used by 78 percent of all UN member states, ahead of Instagram which is used by 70 per cent. While Twitter communication is mainly text-based including visuals, Instagram is picture-driven with minimal text and more behind-the-scenes pictures.
Governments with larger social media teams also have been exploring more visual communications with Vine and Snapchat, both of which target a younger audience of Millennials. Governments that do not have full broadcasting capabilities, mainly in Latin America, are embracing Periscope and Facebook Live to broadcast their press conferences.
The 2016 edition of Twiplomacy, which previously focused solely on Twitter, has been expanded to examine the use of other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and more niche digital diplomacy platforms such as Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google+, Periscope and Vine. The Twiplomacy website includes live rankings and the first ever social media atlas for each country studied.
Don Baer, Worldwide Chair and CEO, Burson-Marsteller, said, “As engagement becomes one of the critical measures of social media influence, our Twiplomacy study shows which political communicators are most successful on which social platforms and what we can learn from them.”
The latest installment of the 2016 Twiplomacy study analyzed 793 Twitter accounts of heads of states and governments in 173 countries with a combined total audience of 324 million followers.
With the largest following of all world leaders combined, Barak Obama will retire with an audience of 137 million followers, fans and subscribers. The Barack Obama Twitter account following alone numbers 74 million, well ahead of Pope Francis in second position, with 28 million, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in third with 19 million followers.
The most followed non-government account is the United Nations Twitter account @UN, which is followed by 296 of the 793 world leaders' Twitter accounts; The New York Times (@NYTimes) is the most followed news organization, and @UNICEF is the second most followed international organisation.
