Who comes out on top of Twitter in Burson-Marsteller’s Twiplomacy study?

 25th July 2013    Good and Bad PR 
 Paarul Chand

As per the latest Burson-Marsteller ‘Twiplomacy study’, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has tried, so far unsuccessfully, to connect with his G20 peers in Brasília, Canberra, Moscow, London Ottawa, Tokyo and Washington on Twitter. While the Prime Minister’s Twitter account @PMOIndia, run by the office of the Indian Prime Minister is quite active with an average of almost 5 tweets a day, engagement on the account is extremely limited. Only 1 per cent of his tweets are replies and 5 per cent retweets.

However, the account is considered a great source of information as almost 95 per cent of the tweets have been retweeted. The most popular tweet sent by the Prime Minister is a message of sorrow after the brutal assault and murder that took place in late 2012 in New Delhi: “While she may have lost her battle for life, it is up to us all to ensure that her death will not have been in vain." The account is mutually following only the Prime Minister of Singapore.

The Twitter account of the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs @IndianDiplomacy shares content about key political and economic issues, but also about culture, art and sport including numerous videos from the ministry of foreign affairs YouTube channel and live-tweeting from events like the BCIM Car Rally 2013.  As per the report, The Public Diplomacy Division is quite engaging with other users as 40% of the tweets are retweets and 7 per cent are direct @replies. The most popular tweet is a message sent during the Yemeni Revolution in early 2011, advising Indian citizens in Yemen to exit the country immediately. The account mutually follows peers in the Albania, Australia, the UK and Russia and unilaterally follows seven other world leaders including US State Department and the Polish MFA.