Twitter’s explosive growth as a tool in new media has outpaced our cultural understanding of its power to incite impassioned discussions that actually lead to change. In 2011 we saw its capacity to connect and organize people across and within nations, aiding those on the leading edge of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Most recently it has evoked intense condemnation from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who blames Twitter as “the worst menace to society” for the current protests in Istanbul and Ankara.
Twitter has the ability to lower the barriers to communication and connect the public with previously more remote groups of society, namely those figures on the main stage of foreign relations. These lowered barriers apply as well to channels of communication between world leaders themselves, exposing more deeply ingrained hierarchical characteristics of our global “web”.
To understand how Twitter impacts the way that our leaders communicate, global public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller undertook a massive study of Twitter activity by heads of state and related institutions. The study, dubbed Twiplomacy, spans 125 countries and 264 individual Twitter accounts. The firm utilized several websites to collect relevant information about Twitter behavior among world leaders, using a website called Twitonomy to collect analytic data reflecting more than 30 variables including tweet history, retweets, replies, handle mentions, use of certain hashtags, tweets favorited, number of followers and number following. Burson-Marsteller reviewed each leader’s and institution’s Twitter profile and tweet history, as well as their most popular tweet. All data was collected on July 1, 2012, and is intended to represent a “snapshot of their Twitter activity”.
To focus in more precisely on individual account activity, Burson-Marsteller used three websites in addition to Twitonomy. To find each account’s first tweet, analysts used MyFirstTweet—for those accounts with well over 3,000 tweets, it was often impossible to find the first one. To look more closely at following activity between individual accounts, analysts used doesfollow. This data reflects Twitter relationships between world leaders, exposing who follows (and does not) follow whom. Analysts searched specifically for which leaders follow and are followed by most of their peers, indicating a “well-connected” account. Doesfollow also allowed analysts to find those leaders with the most and least total followers. To analyze frequency of certain hashtags and mentions on individual profiles, analysts used Wordle.
The study aims to reveal patterns in following and communication activity between the most influential actors in today’s international relations. Twiplomacy looks at which heads of state follow or mention one another and which ones do not, and which topics are most forefront in their minds and on the world stage. It analyzes those leaders who were first in joining Twitter, which accounts have tweets written by leaders themselves, and which are managed more strictly by their leadership teams. Going further, it also explores what Twitter behavior reflects concerning the macro-level relations between our nations and institutions.
Government Leaders and Twitter
In Twiplomacy 2012, of 125 countries, two thirds of presidents, prime ministers or their institutions have a presence on Twitter. Together, their followers total over 50 million. Of those leaders, 120 have a personal Twitter account. Yet, only 30 of those leaders actually tweet themselves.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s personal Twitter account has the most followers of any leader. In fact, President Obama’s Twitter account is the 5th most popular in the Twitterverse. The next closest, the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had a little over 3 million followers last July; nearly 14 million less than U.S. President Obama. The White House Twitter account comes in third with nearly 3 million followers at the time of the study.
President Obama has also the most world leaders following him on Twitter. However, of the 76 leaders that follow him and the White House account, both only follow three other world leaders. This is a lack of what Burson-Marsteller defines as “established mutual Twitter relations.” EU President Herman van Rompuy has established the most mutual Twitter relations. He mutually follows 11 other world leaders. However, more than half of all world leaders on Twitter do not follow any of their peers.
Leaders from Central America and the Caribbean are some of the most active on Twitter. In South America, Twitter is very popular, and 75 percent of the continent's presidents have Twitter accounts, with several boasting over a million followers. Additionally, South American leaders are well connected with one another, and occasionally use "@" mentions to communicate with each other. Of European government leaders, 75 percent have a Twitter presence. The UK Prime Minister account has over 2 million followers and is the 5th most followed among world leaders. African leaders are among the most conversational and reply to many followers. President Jakaya Kikwete regularly engages with his followers and wishes them luck. There are not as many leaders in Asia with a Twitter, compared to other parts of the world, and most use their account as a news feed. Leaders in Oceania use Twitter the least of all regions.
World leaders tweet in 43 different languages, and Spanish leaders are the most prolific. This is followed by English and French.
Three world leaders have used foul language in their tweets. Of those, two claimed they did not write the tweet; the third one still remains.
Twiplomacy 2012 discovered that world leaders use Twitter mainly during election campaigns. Of the 264 profiles analyzed, 57 are dormant and include the accounts of many leaders who have already won or lost their last election. After French President Francois Hollande took office, his personal account went dormant, but the official French President’s Twitter account, @Elysee, has stayed active. President Obama’s personal account is a campaign account but also tweets about policies and events. The most retweeted tweet was @BarackObama’s “Same-sex couples should be able to get married – President Barack Obama.” It was retweeted nearly 60,000 times.
Who Does it Best
As Twitter encircles the globe, more and more global leaders and countries use it to further their causes. Currently the governments of almost two-thirds of the 193 UN member countries use Twitter to some degree, usually in an effort to promote government leaders and policies. Interestingly enough, while many countries have their own accounts, the majority of them are never used. Twitter is much more popular among the government leaders; 45 percent of the accounts analyzed are personal accounts of the heads of state and government.
The most pertinent method for a country to have a presence on Twitter is to secure the country's name on the website. This is something that most countries have done; however of the 193 UN countries, only nine have accounts that are officially managed by the government or tourism organizations. The best of these are Great Britain, Sweden, and Israel, who use Twitter to effectively promote their country in many different ways.
As previously mentioned, of the government leaders that have a presence on Twitter, President Barak Obama is the most followed with over 17 million followers, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez coming in second. While President Obama may be the most popular leader on Twitter, he is not the best connected. Of the many leaders who follow him, he only mutually follows Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, and Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg; ignoring his Canadian and Mexican neighbors, as well as other important allies. The leader who is recognized as the best connected is President Herman Van Rompuy of the EU, who mutually follows 11 of his peers. Australia’s former Prime Minister Julia Gillard comes in at a close second with 10 mutual connections.
The world powers may be the most popular on Twitter, but smaller countries are using Twitter in an effort to gain more attention, and are quickly gaining popularity. Less well known leaders often use Twitter in an effort to communicate eye to eye—or tweet to tweet—with their peers. The President of the Dominican Republic, for example, follows 71 other leaders, even though they seem content to ignore him in return.
Which country uses Twitter the most effectively is debatable, as each country seems to excel in one certain aspect while ignoring other possible uses. However, there is a clear winner when it comes to which region uses Twitter the most effectively: the extremely sociable Latinos from Central and South America have the largest presence on Twitter, and many mutual connections can be found around the area. While 75 percent of South American leaders can be found on Twitter, over 80 percent of Central America has a presence.
In conclusion, Twitter is becoming a very effective way for government leaders and their countries to communicate—140 characters at a time—especially with the younger generations. Leaders like President Obama have gained popularity with younger voters using his personal account, while others have effectively brought attention to critical policy changes. Social media has become a constant in today’s society, and as long as Twitter remains in the spotlight those who use it effectively will gain attention for their specific causes.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's July/August 2013 print edition.
Photo: opensourceway (cc).
a global affairs media network
Twitter and #Governments
August 15, 2013
Twitter’s explosive growth as a tool in new media has outpaced our cultural understanding of its power to incite impassioned discussions that actually lead to change. In 2011 we saw its capacity to connect and organize people across and within nations, aiding those on the leading edge of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Most recently it has evoked intense condemnation from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who blames Twitter as “the worst menace to society” for the current protests in Istanbul and Ankara.
Twitter has the ability to lower the barriers to communication and connect the public with previously more remote groups of society, namely those figures on the main stage of foreign relations. These lowered barriers apply as well to channels of communication between world leaders themselves, exposing more deeply ingrained hierarchical characteristics of our global “web”.
To understand how Twitter impacts the way that our leaders communicate, global public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller undertook a massive study of Twitter activity by heads of state and related institutions. The study, dubbed Twiplomacy, spans 125 countries and 264 individual Twitter accounts. The firm utilized several websites to collect relevant information about Twitter behavior among world leaders, using a website called Twitonomy to collect analytic data reflecting more than 30 variables including tweet history, retweets, replies, handle mentions, use of certain hashtags, tweets favorited, number of followers and number following. Burson-Marsteller reviewed each leader’s and institution’s Twitter profile and tweet history, as well as their most popular tweet. All data was collected on July 1, 2012, and is intended to represent a “snapshot of their Twitter activity”.
To focus in more precisely on individual account activity, Burson-Marsteller used three websites in addition to Twitonomy. To find each account’s first tweet, analysts used MyFirstTweet—for those accounts with well over 3,000 tweets, it was often impossible to find the first one. To look more closely at following activity between individual accounts, analysts used doesfollow. This data reflects Twitter relationships between world leaders, exposing who follows (and does not) follow whom. Analysts searched specifically for which leaders follow and are followed by most of their peers, indicating a “well-connected” account. Doesfollow also allowed analysts to find those leaders with the most and least total followers. To analyze frequency of certain hashtags and mentions on individual profiles, analysts used Wordle.
The study aims to reveal patterns in following and communication activity between the most influential actors in today’s international relations. Twiplomacy looks at which heads of state follow or mention one another and which ones do not, and which topics are most forefront in their minds and on the world stage. It analyzes those leaders who were first in joining Twitter, which accounts have tweets written by leaders themselves, and which are managed more strictly by their leadership teams. Going further, it also explores what Twitter behavior reflects concerning the macro-level relations between our nations and institutions.
Government Leaders and Twitter
In Twiplomacy 2012, of 125 countries, two thirds of presidents, prime ministers or their institutions have a presence on Twitter. Together, their followers total over 50 million. Of those leaders, 120 have a personal Twitter account. Yet, only 30 of those leaders actually tweet themselves.
U.S. President Barack Obama’s personal Twitter account has the most followers of any leader. In fact, President Obama’s Twitter account is the 5th most popular in the Twitterverse. The next closest, the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had a little over 3 million followers last July; nearly 14 million less than U.S. President Obama. The White House Twitter account comes in third with nearly 3 million followers at the time of the study.
President Obama has also the most world leaders following him on Twitter. However, of the 76 leaders that follow him and the White House account, both only follow three other world leaders. This is a lack of what Burson-Marsteller defines as “established mutual Twitter relations.” EU President Herman van Rompuy has established the most mutual Twitter relations. He mutually follows 11 other world leaders. However, more than half of all world leaders on Twitter do not follow any of their peers.
Leaders from Central America and the Caribbean are some of the most active on Twitter. In South America, Twitter is very popular, and 75 percent of the continent's presidents have Twitter accounts, with several boasting over a million followers. Additionally, South American leaders are well connected with one another, and occasionally use "@" mentions to communicate with each other. Of European government leaders, 75 percent have a Twitter presence. The UK Prime Minister account has over 2 million followers and is the 5th most followed among world leaders. African leaders are among the most conversational and reply to many followers. President Jakaya Kikwete regularly engages with his followers and wishes them luck. There are not as many leaders in Asia with a Twitter, compared to other parts of the world, and most use their account as a news feed. Leaders in Oceania use Twitter the least of all regions.
World leaders tweet in 43 different languages, and Spanish leaders are the most prolific. This is followed by English and French.
Three world leaders have used foul language in their tweets. Of those, two claimed they did not write the tweet; the third one still remains.
Twiplomacy 2012 discovered that world leaders use Twitter mainly during election campaigns. Of the 264 profiles analyzed, 57 are dormant and include the accounts of many leaders who have already won or lost their last election. After French President Francois Hollande took office, his personal account went dormant, but the official French President’s Twitter account, @Elysee, has stayed active. President Obama’s personal account is a campaign account but also tweets about policies and events. The most retweeted tweet was @BarackObama’s “Same-sex couples should be able to get married – President Barack Obama.” It was retweeted nearly 60,000 times.
Who Does it Best
As Twitter encircles the globe, more and more global leaders and countries use it to further their causes. Currently the governments of almost two-thirds of the 193 UN member countries use Twitter to some degree, usually in an effort to promote government leaders and policies. Interestingly enough, while many countries have their own accounts, the majority of them are never used. Twitter is much more popular among the government leaders; 45 percent of the accounts analyzed are personal accounts of the heads of state and government.
The most pertinent method for a country to have a presence on Twitter is to secure the country's name on the website. This is something that most countries have done; however of the 193 UN countries, only nine have accounts that are officially managed by the government or tourism organizations. The best of these are Great Britain, Sweden, and Israel, who use Twitter to effectively promote their country in many different ways.
As previously mentioned, of the government leaders that have a presence on Twitter, President Barak Obama is the most followed with over 17 million followers, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez coming in second. While President Obama may be the most popular leader on Twitter, he is not the best connected. Of the many leaders who follow him, he only mutually follows Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev, and Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg; ignoring his Canadian and Mexican neighbors, as well as other important allies. The leader who is recognized as the best connected is President Herman Van Rompuy of the EU, who mutually follows 11 of his peers. Australia’s former Prime Minister Julia Gillard comes in at a close second with 10 mutual connections.
The world powers may be the most popular on Twitter, but smaller countries are using Twitter in an effort to gain more attention, and are quickly gaining popularity. Less well known leaders often use Twitter in an effort to communicate eye to eye—or tweet to tweet—with their peers. The President of the Dominican Republic, for example, follows 71 other leaders, even though they seem content to ignore him in return.
Which country uses Twitter the most effectively is debatable, as each country seems to excel in one certain aspect while ignoring other possible uses. However, there is a clear winner when it comes to which region uses Twitter the most effectively: the extremely sociable Latinos from Central and South America have the largest presence on Twitter, and many mutual connections can be found around the area. While 75 percent of South American leaders can be found on Twitter, over 80 percent of Central America has a presence.
In conclusion, Twitter is becoming a very effective way for government leaders and their countries to communicate—140 characters at a time—especially with the younger generations. Leaders like President Obama have gained popularity with younger voters using his personal account, while others have effectively brought attention to critical policy changes. Social media has become a constant in today’s society, and as long as Twitter remains in the spotlight those who use it effectively will gain attention for their specific causes.
This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier's July/August 2013 print edition.
Photo: opensourceway (cc).
