NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi is the most
followed world leader on Facebook with 40 million followers on his
personal page, and U.S. President Donald J.
Trump is in second place with 20 million followers on his
personal page, according to the newly released 2017 "World Leaders
on Facebook" study by leading strategic communications and global
public relations firm Burson-Marsteller.
As of February 1, 2017, the
institutional page of the Indian Premier, PMO India, is in third
place with 13 million followers, ahead of Queen Rania of Jordan, in fourth place with 10 million.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rounds out the top five with
8 million followers.
The study also analyzes the activity of 590 Facebook pages of
heads of state and government and foreign ministers throughout 2016
using aggregate data from Facebook's Crowdtangle tool.
Modi also had the most interactions (likes, comments and shares)
of any world leader on Facebook in 2016. With 169 million
interactions, Modi's activity far outpaces the second-placed world
leader, Cambodia's Prime Minister
Samdech Hun Sen, who had 58 million interactions. The now archived
@ObamaWhiteHouse page is in third place with 36 million
interactions, followed by Argentine President Mauricio Macri with just under 36 million. The
personal page of Barack Obama
completes the top five list, with 30 million interactions for 2016.
Interestingly, Obama, who was until recently the most followed
world leader on Facebook with 52 million followers, has one of the
lowest interaction rates at only 0.15 percent. By contrast,
Albanian President Bujar Nishani leads in this measure with a 10.79
percent interaction rate.
Almost 90 percent of all national governments have an official
Facebook presence. In addition, 87 heads of state, 70 heads of
government and 55 foreign ministers maintain personal pages on the
platform, according to the study. Based on the data collected in
February 2017, the World Leaders on
Facebook study found that 169 of the 193 UN member states maintain
an official Facebook page, which has not changed since 2015.
"Burson-Marsteller's second installment of the World Leaders on
Facebook study demonstrates the effectiveness of political
communications on the platform," said Don
Baer, Worldwide Chair and CEO, Burson-Marsteller. "It will
be interesting see if business leaders take lessons from the ways
world leaders use Facebook, such as bringing a personal tone to
their communications."
Donald Trump Brings 20 Million
Followers to the White House
When he came to power on January 20,
2017, U.S. President Donald J.
Trump brought with him a Facebook page with nearly 20
million followers, by far the most of any newly installed world
leader and a number which grew 400 percent during the course of
2016. He had 290 million interactions on his Facebook posts last
year, including 33 million shares and 30 million comments.
Today, Facebook has become one of the key platforms for world
leaders and governments to engage with voters, constituents and
other important audiences. As of February 1,
2017, all of the world leaders combined had a total of
311,093,076 followers. In 2016, they published a total of 398,982
posts, prompting 772,441,676 interactions.
The findings revealed that, while more than half of the posts
have photos, posts with videos attracted by far the most
interactions: 4,847 on average, compared to 2,935 for photo posts.
The 47,739 Facebook videos posted on world leaders' pages in 2016
have been viewed 2.5 billion times.
"In 2016 we saw just how influential social media can be in
political developments across the globe,'' said Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East & Africa and Global Chief Strategy Officer. "As
the world's largest social media platform, Facebook has
considerable power and influence, something that world leaders know
all too well."
The Government of Ethiopia's
Facebook page is the busiest with an average of 29 posts per day in
2016, adding up to over 10,000 posts in the year. The Government of
Botswana averages 28 posts per day
and the Government of Honduras has
23 posts per day.
Other key findings include:
- The most visited institution is The White House, with 4 million
check-ins, followed by the Ugandan State House with 35,000 and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Thailand with 35,000.
- The White House is the page most followed by peers, with 26
peer connections. It is followed by the European Commission with 20
peer connections and the Council of the European Union with
19.
- Other pages followed by world leaders include the United
Nations (liked by 39), the European Parliament (liked by 25) and
NATO (liked by 19).
- The governments, institutions and heads of state of 24 United
Nations countries are not present on Facebook, one fewer than in
last year's study.
- UK Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson and the UK Foreign Office are the only two official
government pages that follow the new POTUS page of Donald Trump. The Russian Foreign Ministry is
the only official government page to have followed Trump's
page.
About the Study
World Leaders on
Facebook is Burson-Marsteller's latest research into how
world leaders, governments and international organizations
communicate via social media. The research builds on
Burson-Marsteller's highly acclaimed
annual Twiplomacy study, which is now in its fifth
year. In 2016, the Twiplomacy study was expanded to cover all key
social media platforms and has massively enhanced
Burson-Marsteller's digital reputation worldwide.
About Burson-Marsteller
Burson-Marsteller, established in 1953, is a leading global
strategic communications and public relations firm. It provides
clients with strategic thinking and program execution across a full
range of public relations, public affairs, reputation and crisis
management, advertising and digital strategies. The firm's seamless
worldwide network consists of 73 offices and 85 affiliate offices,
together operating in 110 countries across six continents.
Burson-Marsteller is a part of Young & Rubicam Group, a
subsidiary of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY), the world's leader in
communications services. For more information, please
visit www.burson-marsteller.com
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