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Tag: Burson-Marsteller

  • However, whilst the social network offers direct interaction between users, almost half of world leaders don’t follow any of their peers

    BM study finds almost two-thirds of world leaders are on Twitter

    By A Correspondent

     

    Burson-Marsteller, the global public relations and communications firm, released “Twiplomacy” – the first-ever global study of world leaders on Twitter. The study shows that almost two-thirds of world leaders have a Twitter account. However, whilst the social network offers direct interaction between users, almost half of world leaders don’t follow any of their peers.

     

    “Twiplomacy” is the first research of its kind, aimed at identifying to what extent world leaders use Twitter. Burson-Marsteller analyzed 264 government accounts in 125 countries.

     

    Data used was taken in July 2012 from the accounts of 264 heads of state and government and their institutions in 125 countries world-wide looking at over 30 variables using Twitonomy. Burson-Marsteller used Doesfollow to analyze Twitter relations between world leaders and MyFirstTweet to identify the first tweet of each world leader.

     

    The findings indicate that over a quarter (76) of all world leaders and governments are following Barack Obama. However @BarackObama mutually follows only Norway’s Jens Stoltenberg and Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev but hasn’t established mutual Twitter relations with other world leaders. European Union president Herman van Rompuy (@euHvR) is the best connected world leader, mutually following 11 other peers. Australian prime minister @JuliaGillard is the second best connected leader.

     

    Russian President Putin, Rwandan President Kagame, Singapore Prime Minister Lee, Dutch Prime Minister Rutte and 35 other accounts do not follow any other Twitter user; effectively cutting themselves out of the conversation.

     

    On the other hand Ugandan Prime Minister Mbabazi and Rwandan President Kagame are the most conversational world leaders on Twitter with 96 per cent and 93 per cent of their tweets being @replies.

     

    “This study illustrates how Twitter is closing the communication gap between us and our world leaders. On the one hand, it allows heads of state and government to broadcast their daily activities and government news to an ever growing audience. On the other hand it allows citizens direct access to their leaders. Consequently, it is now, more than ever, critical for these leaders to get it right on the social network”, said Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa.

     

    The study found that politicians often discover Twitter during election campaigns but once elected, these accounts tend to go silent, such as the accounts of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff @DilmaBR and French president Francois Hollande @FHollande who have abandoned their followers since taking office. There are 120 personal accounts, however only 30 world leaders tweet personally and then only occasionally.

     

    “16 of the G20 leaders have are actively using Twitter for public diplomacy, but it is sad to see that the heads of state and government in China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Italy still do not have joined the Twitterverse”, said Matthias Lufkens, Burson-Marsteller’s Digital Practice Leader in Europe, Middle East and Africa.

     

    Twitter is also used by small nations to put them on the world map and tweet eye-to-eye with their peers. The president of the Dominican Republic unilaterally follows 71 other world leaders. The president of Portugaland the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobagoboth unilaterally follow over 50 other peers in the hope that they will return the favour and the young Republic of South Sudan hopes to gain international Twitter recognition by following 16 peers.

     

    Twitter is most popular in North and South America with 80 per cent of governments active. Barack Obama is the most followed world leader with 17,115,077 followers, globally in 5th place just behind Britney Spears. Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is in second place with 3,152,608 followers, followed by the White House, Queen Rania of Jordan and10 Downing Street, all having over two million followers.

     

    Other key findings include

    • Out of the 264 accounts of heads of state and government, 90 have never ever sent a retweet and 99 have never sent @reply
    • US President Barack Obama was the first world leader to sign up to Twitter on March 5, 2007 followed the same month by @EPN, the account now used by Mexico’s president-elect Enrique Pena Nieto.
    • Most popular tweet: “Same-sex couples should be able to get married.” – President Obama”, retweeted 62,047 times on May 9, 2012
    • World leaders tweet in 43 different languages. English is used by 34 per cent followed by Spanish (15 per cent). However Spanish and Latin American leaders tweet three times as much as their English counterparts
  • Study finds leading voices are politicians, journalists and bloggers

    Burson-Marsteller releases list of the most influential political voices

    By A Correspondent

     

    Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public relations and communications firm, on Monday released a list of the top 10 most influential political voices on Twitter inIndia. This list was developed as part of a global research study- G20 Influencers – that named the 200 most influential political voices on Twitter across the G-20 nations.

     

    G20 influencers is a study conducted by Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public relations agency working with Klout, the social media analytics company. The study aims to identify the ten most politically influential people on Twitter in each country of the G20. The study measures influence by using a tweeter’s Klout Score. Burson-Marsteller created a list of over 900 politically influential people on Twitter across 26 countries. This included politicians, journalists, bloggers, public affairs specialists, NGOs, and industry and trade associations. The data used for the study was taken in March 2012 based on activity over a 90-day period.

     

    The list of the top 10 political tweeters was determined using data from Klout (klout.com), the standard for influence. Klout analyzes engagement across social networks and creates a Klout score, based on this data to help users understand and unlock their influence.

     

    Burson-Marsteller’s global public affairs and digital consultants drew up a list of close to 1000 people on Twitter who are politically influential in the G-20 nations. Klout then assessed and scored them against its influence metric, set on a scale from 1-100, measuring influence based upon a user’s ability to drive action.

     

    The ten most influential Twitter accounts inIndiaare (alphabetically):

     

    1. Kiran Bedi – @thekiranbedi

    2. Anand Mahindra – @anandmahindra

    3. Narendra Modi – @narendramodi

    4. Derek O’Brien – @quizderek

    5. Vir Sanghvi – @virsanghvi

    6. Jonathan Shainin – @jonathanshainin

    7. Digvijaya Singh – @digvijaya_28

    8. Dr. Subramanian Swamy – @Swamy39

    9. Sushma Swaraj – @SushmaSwarajBJP

    10. Shashi Tharoor – @ShashiTharoor

     

    “The G20 study is representative of how social media is an increasingly trusted and utilised platform for shaping public opinion here inIndiaand around the world,” said Rahul Sharma, president of Genesis Burson-Marsteller’s public affairs practice. “Citizens are not just seeking new information, but looking for a forum through which their voices can also be heard. Twitter is definitely becoming a preferred medium for delivery and discussion of new ideas, policies and whatever else that is the shaping the political and social landscape.”

     

    The study found that the top political tweeters inIndiaare politicians, journalists, bloggers and campaign advisors. The study found that over a 90-day span these influencers: received an average of 28,110 re-tweets; received an average of 24,600 mentions and had an average of 337,964 Twitter followers.

     

    The other countries covered in this study include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States and the European Union (including Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden).

     

    Burson-Marsteller, established in 1953, is a leading global public relations and communications 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 web-related strategies. The firm’s seamless worldwide network consists of 69 offices and 80 affiliate offices, together operating in 107 countries across six continents.