More than three-quarters of the 193 UN member countries are represented on Twitter, making the site a valuable communication tool with which leaders can succinctly speak to millions of citizens. Though it is clear that Twitter has become an increasingly important political medium, there has been little analysis of their Twitter activity. Twiplomacy is a global study of world leaders’ Twitter activity that seeks to examine how the site is utilized as a diplomatic tool. Listed below are five interesting facts from Twiplomacy that shed light on the Twitter usage of world leaders.

1. Though a roughly 25% of world leaders and governments follow President Barack Obama and the White House, @BarackObama and the @WhiteHouse have only established mutual connections with four other world leaders, making them the least connected out of all world leaders.
2. @CarlBildt, the Swedish Foreign Minister, has 44 mutual peer connections – the greatest number out of all world leaders. Next on the list is @eu_eeas, the European External Action Service, which has 36 mutual connections.
3. @BarackObama is the most followed world leader on Twitter with 35,510,157 followers. The next most followed leader is Pope Francis with approximately 7.2 million followers.
4. The most active world leader account on Twitter is @PresidencialVen, the Presidency of Venezuela, which averages 41.9 tweets per day. The most conversational leader is @AmamaMbabazi, the Prime Minister of Uganda, who replies to 96 percent of all tweets.
5. 71 percent of African leaders are represented on Twitter, with ousted Egyptian President @MuhammadMorsi being the most followed leader on the continent. Morsi has 1.6 million followers.

Follow @Twiplomacy on Twitter to learn more about how world leaders connect on Twitter.

– Katie Bandera

Sources: Twiplomacy, Twitter
Photo: The Economist