NEW YORK, April 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has taken
over former U.S. President Barack Obama's position as most followed
world leader on Instagram with 6.8 million followers on his
account, closely followed by U.S. President Donald J. Trump in second place with 6.3 million
followers, according to the newly released 2017 "World Leaders on
Instagram" study by leading strategic communications and global
public relations firm Burson-Marsteller.
Pope Francis is in third place with 3.7 million followers, ahead
of the White House account with 3.4 million followers. Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has seen a 673 percent growth in his
followers over the past 12 months, putting him in fifth position
with 3.4 million followers.
The study analyzes the activity of the 325 Instagram accounts of
heads of state and government, and foreign ministers over the past
12 months using aggregate data from Facebook's CrowdTangle tool. As
of April 1, 2017, the accounts have a
combined total of 48.7 million followers and published 61,281 posts
in the past 12 months which have garnered a total of 371.7 million
interactions (comments and shares).
Modi, who has only posted 53 photos during that period, is also
the most effective world leader on Instagram, considering that each
of his posts receives an average of 223,000 interactions (comments
and likes). Turkey's President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is in second position with 141,000
interactions and Pope Francis' Instagram posts receive 138,000
interactions on average.
At 9.67 percent, the Turkish President has one of the highest
interaction rates, which is the total number of interactions
divided by the number of posts and the average number of followers
over the past 12 months.
The World Leaders on Instagram study also found that 140 of the
193 United Nations member states maintain an official Instagram
account, four more than in the 2016 study. Seventy-three heads of
state, 38 heads of government and 28 foreign ministers maintain
personal pages on the platform, which tend to get better engagement
than institutional accounts.
World leaders use Instagram to get their messages across in
interesting and creative ways, tapping the full range of Instagram
features. World leaders create breaking Instagram stories and use
grand picture collages; they even post so many videos that now one
in 10 posts contain them. The selfie has now taken the place of the
traditional handshake photo, clearly signaling the new diplomatic
environment in 2017.
"Burson-Marsteller's second installment of the World Leaders on
Instagram study demonstrates the popularity and effectiveness of
visual communications in the public sector," said Don Baer, Worldwide Chair and CEO,
Burson-Marsteller. "Leaders around the world are creating online
communications that convey global social and political context
while also sharing a sense of personality and creativity. Leaders
of business and all other sectors can learn from governments' use
of Instagram."
On January 20, 2017, the White
House Instagram account, set up under President Obama in
January 2012, and all its 1,747 posts
were archived on the @ObamaWhiteHouse Instagram account. A new
@WhiteHouse Instagram channel was set up for the Trump
administration, which started with a clean slate yet kept the
3,586,458 followers accumulated under Obama. So far the Trump
administration has only posted 33 times, and since the transition
the account has lost more than 100,000 followers as Obama
supporters have unfollowed the Trump White House Instagram
account.
Other key findings include:
- President Trump tops the most interactive world leaders ranking
with 114,554,016 total interactions. He is followed by Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in second
place, with 89,090,894 interactions and then Pope Francis with
45,408,641 interactions.
- The Government of Brunei has
the most active account, posting on average 16 times per day. It is
far ahead of Kuwait's Ministry of
Foreign Affairs which posts 6.6 times per day and Ghana's Nana
Akufo-Addo who posts 4.7 times per day.
- World leaders have taken to Instagram's new video feature –
sharing video posts has more than doubled over the past 12 months
and videos receive an average of 2,027 more interactions than
simple photo posts.
About the Study
World Leaders on
Instagram 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 77 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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SOURCE Burson-Marsteller