Prime Minister Narendra Modi emerged as the fourth most followed world leader on Twitter with 4.99 million followers, ahead of the official White House account, which he surpassed on Wednesday.
The annual Twiplomacy report released by global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller showed that Modi was only behind United States President Barack Obama who leads the Twitter charts with 43.7 million followers, Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, who has 14 million followers and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who has five million followers. Modi is expected to cross the five million mark soon, to be the third most followed world leader.
The report showed that Pope Francis was the most influential leader on the micro-blogging platform given that his tweets are the most retweeted, with as many as 10,000 retweets of his Spanish posts on an average.
Modi's rise to power in India has reflected on social media, especially on Twitter. "Since his election in late May 2014, India's new Prime Minister has become the fourth-most followed world leader on Twitter with 49.9 lakh followers. He surpassed the White House account (49.8 million) on Wednesday and is using Twitter as a powerful tool to broadcast his messages," the study said.
Modi garnered lakhs of followers during his election campaigning and he completely dominated the social media compared to other Indian politicians during the elections.
Here are some interesting facts about Narendra Modi's popularity on Twitter during the elections –
Total number of Tweets mentioning @NarendraModi on counting day on 16 May = 0.75 Million
Total number of Tweets mentioning @NarendraModi since 1 Jan to 16 May = 11.85 Million
Top elections-related term on Twitter - Narendra Modi = 722.91K
Modi's tweet after winning the election is the most retweeted tweet in India, with more than 70,000 retweets.
India has won! भारत की विजय। अच्छे दिन आने वाले हैं।
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 16, 2014
Modi and his Twitter Account
Narendra Modi joined Twitter in January 2009, as per his Twitter account.
He has posted 5,298 tweets.
He follows 1,045 accounts of individuals and organisations on Twitter, including that of celebrities such as Rajnikanth and other world leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay.
Modi's Twiplomacy
Several world leaders took to Twitter to congratulate Modi on his election victory and he used the platform to begin his diplomacy with them.
Narendra Modi's tweets dominated the top ten most retweeted tweets during the elections this year.
(All Twitter figures are as per the time of posting the article)
