The great thing about Twitter is following interesting accounts of world leaders, political figures, sports heroes and other essential Twitter accounts. A recently released report showed which world leaders had the most followers and the biggest impact with the 140 character social media tool.
The annual Twiplomacy report released by PR firm Burson-Marsteller gave an analysis on "How World Leaders Connect on Twitter." The report examined the most followed world leaders, most influential, most active and social media trends surrounding the A-listers. Some of their findings might surprise you.
"Twitter has proven to be a revolutionary social network even in politics. It is an extraordinary channel of diplomacy and of communication." — Federica Mogherini, Italian politician
Most Followed World Leaders
As of this publication, United States President Barack Obama (@BarackObama) rounds out the top as the most followed world leader. His impressive 58.9 million followers stands alone.
The next closest world leader is Pope Francis (@Pontifex). He's quickly gaining ground with close to 20 million followers, with all nine of his language accounts totalled together.
Rising to third is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) with more than 12 million followers. His ascent to third in 2015 surpassed Turkish President Recep Erdogan (@RT_Erdogan), who still has an impressive 6.3 million followers and is currently in fourth place. Interestingly enough, the White House (@WhiteHouse) sits at fifth place with around 6 million followers.
Trends Among World Leaders
So, what do all these world leaders have in common? Well, world leaders don't really follow anyone (with the exception of Obama who follows around 650-thousand people and has only 3 lists). On the off-chance that they do follow other users, they largely follow other world leaders.
Also, they don't really converse with others. Their Twitter use is mainly for political and diplomatic reasons, though surely there are examples of the contrary.
Most Influential, Most Effective World Leaders
Most influential, most effective; what does this all mean? According to the study, these keywords are meant to mean "average number of retweets per tweet." High retweets occur mostly when important political or world events happen surrounding world leaders.
For example, Barack Obama's "Four more years" tweet was retweeted around 750,000 times, which, just in case you were away, is still one of the most popular tweets among world leaders in Twitter history.
However, the most influential world leader is not Obama — despite his number one status as the most followed world leader. The most influential title goes to Pope Francis, "with 9,929 retweets for every tweet he sends on his Spanish account and 7,527 retweets on average on his English account." He surely doesn't need a lesson on how to manage his Twitter account(s). Those numbers are high and far better than Obama's retweet count, which stands at roughly 1,000 retweets for every tweet he sends.
Obama didn't even make it into second place. Saudi Arabia's King Salman (@KingSalman), who has close to 3 million followers, comes in at second and averages more than 4,000 retweets for every tweet. Venezuela's President (@NicolasMaduro) is third, with an average of 3,000 retweets per tweet.
Just for the fun of it, one of the most retweeted tweets belongs to Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow), which was easy to find with Topsy. This iconic selfie has been shared more than 3 million times, all with only one hashtag.
Most Active World Leaders
So, which world leaders spend their day's tweeting the most?
According to the report, the Venezuelan Presidency account (@PresidencialVen) has sent around 60,000 tweets at an average of 40 tweets per day. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) has sent fewer tweets, but averages around 64 tweets per day. More so, Mexico's Presidency account (@PresidenciaMX) has sent around 57,000 tweets at around 68 tweets per day.
The Most Tweeted Language
In what might be a surprising find, the report made clear that Spanish is the most tweeted language among world leaders. While English is certainly the "lingua franca of digital diplomacy," world leaders on Twitter have sent more than 800,000 Spanish tweets compared to around 700,000 English tweets. French comes in at third with around 200,000 world leader tweets.
What Do the World Leaders Say About Twitter?
As Federica Mogherini said before, Twitter has become a "revolutionary social network." As more and more world leaders use the social media tool, Twitter has become even more relied upon and important for communication and diplomacy.
"I am a firm believer in the power of technology and social media to communicate with people across the world." — Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
What do you think about Twitter being used as a social media tool for world leaders? Does it help their cause? Do you follow any world leaders? Why? And who do you find as the most influential?
Image Credit: twiplomacy.com