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US President @BarackObama is the most followed global leader on Twitter with 33,510,157 followers.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who joined this social network in January 2012, has tried, ‘so far unsuccessfully to connect with his G20 peers,’ according to “Twiplomacy,” a study of Twitter use by world leaders conducted by public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller.
Twitter is a communication tool allowing the broadcast of short messages to millions of followers. It also invites direct interaction between users and two-thirds of world leaders have made mutual connections with their peers. A quarter of world leaders and governments unilaterally follow Obama and the White House but @BarackObama and the @WhiteHouse have established mutual Twitter relations with only four other world leaders.
Swedish Foreign Minister @CarlBildt is the best connected world leader, mutually following 44 peers. Ugandan Prime Minister @AmamaMbabazi is the most conversational world leader with 96 per cent of his tweets being @replies to other Twitter users, it says.
Asia
Twitter is the communication tool of choice for three-quarters of Asian governments. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono @SBYudhoyono has enjoyed phenomenal follower growth over the past 2.5 months. Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd @KRuddMP is among the most conversational leaders, frequently sharing personal moments on Twitter.
Manmohan Singh
Indian Prime Minister’s Twitter account run by his office is quite active with an average of five tweets a day. The purpose of the account was to disseminate information as the tweets are mainly government news and announcements, quotes from statements made by the Prime Minister, messages to the people from the prime minister and what is “happening now” at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Engagement on the account is extremely limited. Only one per cent of his tweets are @replies and 5 per cent re-tweets. However, the account is considered a great source of information as almost 95 per cent of the tweets have been re-tweeted.
raja.simhan@thehindu.co.in
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