A study has shown that Ugandan Prime Minister Patrick Amama Mbabazi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame are the most conversational world leaders on Twitter.
The Twiplomacy report said 96 per cent of @AmamaMbabazi’s tweets were replies to other users while @PaulKagame came in second to his Ugandan counterpart.
The study was carried out by Burson-Marsteller and refers to data taken in July 2013 from the accounts of 505 heads of state and government and foreign ministers and their institutions in 153 countries.
The study also shows that ousted Egyptian President Muhammad Morsi is the most followed leader on the African continent with 1.6 million followers
South Africa president Jacob Zuma and Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta are the most followed sitting African president’s on Twitter, with having more than 200,000 followers.
US President Barack Obama is still the most followed world leader on Twitter with 34.5 million followers.
Seventy-one per cent of African leaders are on Twitter, but they are currently not that well connected, either among themselves or with other world leaders.
The President of Mali, @PresidenceMali, has the most mutual Twitter connections.
Burson-Marsteller’s study said that more than three-quarters (77.7 per cent) of world leaders have a Twitter account and two-thirds (68 per cent) have made mutual connections with their peers.
“This study illustrates how Twitter and social media in general have become part and parcel of any integrated government communications”, said Jeremy Galbraith, chief executive officer of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa.
