World
Leaders and Social Media
(Commentary
by Ellie Ho)
Since the emergence
of social media, people started utilising it as a platform for business and fame-seeking
opportunities. Occupation categories such as Youtubers or Influencers which did
not exist 30 years ago, have slowly taken over the ambition lists of many
people. After looking at the dynamic interaction between people on social media
and observing the unfiltered feedback they get from their target audience, world
leaders are embracing the social media scene to get themselves connected to a
wider audience. This can be seen as a long-term investment, as world leaders
can target on the technologically savvy to increase their supporting audience
by upping their media exposure to the place of widest circulation.
I see this as a wise
move, as I find that being on social media is a good way for world leaders to
humanise themselves. In the eyes of the general population, world leaders are akin
to display items in the museum, no touching allowed. Of course, I don’t mean it
literally, but it’s more of not being able to get close to world leaders, in
that there is always a psychological gap (and physically, when they are
surrounded by bodyguards) between us and them, they are the unapproachable, the
untouchable, the intimidating. Because of this gap, we sometimes fail to
realise that they are human too, that they have emotions just like us. By
having world leaders being on social media, we get to see another side of them,
a side (hopefully) more human. Though it may be a side curated by an entire PR
team for good image, it still gives the audience an impression of them being
just like us, just with more responsibilities. The perception of gap between
them and us thus reduces.
However, world
leaders DO have to face the risk of everything they do being exposed to social
media. Multiple examples can occur – a bad PR team doing the wrong things
(which may need a lesson from Orchan or two) causing a backlash by the
audience; bad press being exposed and circulated throughout the Internet,
making it too late to retract, or maybe a simple occurrence of a bad tweet or
picture by the leader himself (Yes I’m looking at you, Trump). Everyone on the Internet
will ultimately face the risk of exposing themselves too much, especially world
leaders, considering that the media will be on them 24/7 for some juicy gossip.
Overall, World
Leaders on Instagram – yay or nay? I would say, definitely a yay! Moving into
new media allows world leaders to interact with their supporters while adding a
platform to market themselves the way they want to.
Image
Source: Rappler.com
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92/48/36:
World Leaders on Instagram
World leaders on
social media? Twitter—sure thing! Not only, though. It is a well-known fact
that politicians and world leaders use all kinds of social platforms, including
Snapchat. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that they are also pretty active
on Instagram. However, what’s interesting is that many of them make really good
use of this platform.
Two years ago, the
Twiplomacy* study analyzed the activity of world leaders on Twitter and other
social media sites. The number-one, uncontested political leader back then was
Barack Obama, with his six million followers. Dmitry Medvedev came second with
an audience three times the size of Obama’s, and Narendra Modi, India’s PM,
took the last spot on the podium. Six million followers—sounds nice, but still
seems slightly disappointing. Two years have passed and the peloton stretched
out. According to the latest data gathered by Burson Cohn&Wolfe* agency,
Narendra Modi, who has already won over Twitter, is the current Instagram
leader as well, with nearly 15 million followers. And yes—this is impressive.
Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, has a follower base of 12
million—still powerful! The last political leader with a two-digit score is
Donald Trump, with 10 million followers. Speaking of POTUS, however, it’s hard
to describe it as a success. Over the last two years, the number of Instagram
users has doubled. The number of US president’s followers has also grown, but
the account lost two positions in the global ranking.
Does Popularity on Social Media Reflect the Global Balance of Powers, Though?
I don’t think so, but
surely politicians (or rather their staffs and press offices) have become more
familiar with Instagram and are learning to use it to pave their way into the
hearts of (younger) voters. Or straight into their souls—just like Pope
Frances—the fourth most popular world leader on Instagram. Or the Iranian
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—an Insta Stories’ heavy user.
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Source: Twiplomacy/Burson-Marsteller
|
Let’s take a closer look now at how world leaders are using Instagram. What are they doing? Well, they are mastering Instagram Stories, for example. I must admit that despite the fact that I myself have been pretty active on Instagram for many years, I never went fully into the Stories functionality and learned how to use it in such a spectacular way as some world leaders do, e.g. the British Royal Family or Donald Tusk. Running logs (obviously with a political context) or serious high-level meetings—any sort of content works really well. But you don’t have to be the British Queen or the President of the European Council.
Some global leaders use Stories in more creative ways—often not too “serious,” but at the same time in a way that proves the perfect understanding of the tool. For instance, on World Emoji Day, the Israeli MFA posted 9 Stories—containing some surprising facts and trivia about Israel—using only emojis. The European Commission or the PMs of Singapore or Austria often use the interactive features of Instagram Stories—such as asking followers to participate in polls or posting questions from their followers, which they later respond to in their posts.
But what about the more “traditional” way of using Instagram? Here—as expected—we can find a lot of official photos, but politicians also don’t shy away from posting some more personal content. Often in a very honest and casual way.
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| Source: Twiplomacy/Burson-Marsteller |
The most popular photograph is the one with India’s PM welcoming his guests—the captain of the national cricket team and his wife—an actress. A total of 55 million followers of the three gave 1.8 million “hearts” under the picture. The lonely Modi waiting on a Davos bus stop garnered 1.6 million. Not a surprise as both the context and the picture itself is quite unique. By the way, thanks to “private” content, the British Royal Family’s account gained almost 600k new followers on the day of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding.
Emotional content is also widely used to improve the reputation of those politicians whose image among the world public is not good. As part of a series of pictures from official events and meetings with citizens, the Instagram account of the president of Syria posted a touching photo of Bashar Al-Assad visiting his wife in hospital, shortly after she has was diagnosed with cancer. Sometimes it can be snarky—like the photo of Donald Tusk offering Theresa May cookies with “no cherries.” At times, a picture which is nice and positive on the surface can serve as a medium for a strong message—like the one posted by Luxembourg’s PM, showing himself and his partner, captioned with a strong comment regarding the situation of the LGBT community in over 70 countries worldwide.
Another interesting issue is interactions. However, taking into account comments and favs for single pictures, the most effective were the accounts of Narendra Modi and Recep Erdogan (900k and over 400k, respectively). Having summed up all interactions with pictures and videos published over the last 12 months, the uncontested winner was Donald Trump with a total score three times the result of any of his competitors, that is over 218 million interactions.
While reading this post and looking at the photos, you may have the impression that politicians treat social media first of all as fun (counting “hearts” and blocking opponents). But the truth is that Twiplomacy is no longer just about fun or image. The world leaders, for the time being using mostly Twitter (but who knows what was going on in their DMs), are currently keen to explore Instagram, and their activities, strong political statements, or—last but not least—mutual interactions, clearly show that it has become another world-reach platform they are now using for their communications, not to mention its huge multimedia capabilities that they are eager to use. By the way—I am really curious to see how the world leaders will use IGTV in years to come. So far, they’ve been rather shy—only 15% published their first videos.
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Source: Twiplomacy/Burston-Marsteller
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And what’s the meaning of the numbers in the heading? 92 heads of states (crowned, elected in democratic elections or ruling authoritarian regimes), 48 heads of governments and 36 ministers of foreign affairs, running their personal accounts on Instagram, using their own names.
*About the study
World Leaders on Instagram is BCW’s latest research into how world leaders, governments and international organizations communicate via social media. The research builds upon BCW’s highly acclaimed annual Twiplomacy study, which is now in its sixth year. In 2016, the Twiplomacy study was expanded to cover all key social media platforms and has massively enhanced BCW’s digital reputation worldwide. For more information, visit www.twiplomacy.com.
Reference:
https://prowly.com/magazine/92-48-36-world-leaders-on-instagram/
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