Top 10 Rankings 2012

Research Note: World Leader Rankings on Twitter December 2012 4 #6 #3 #4 #2 #7 The 2012 re-election of President Obama broke several Twitter records. Following the news that he had been declared the winner, Obama’s account sent out the tweet: “Four more years” along with a photo of himself and the First Lady, which became the most retweeted tweet of all time. Throughout the day, more than 31 million election-related Tweets were sent out, creating the most tweeted-about event in U.S. political history. PRESIDENT HUGO CHÁVEZ OF VENEZUELA grew his account by two million followers and maintained the #2 spot, although he had 20 million less followers than President Obama in 2012. When he found himself fighting an election campaign from his sick bed in Cuba, Twitter became his main tool for communicating with the electorate, a tool predominantly used for challenging his opponent and fighting the rampant rumors about his ill-health. There’s no doubt that Twitter had a hand in rallying his 3.8 million followers to secure his re- election in October. In 2012, PRESIDENT ABDULLAH GÜL OF TURKEY increased his following by over 2 million people. An early adopter of Twitter, he tweets mainly in Turkish but important statements are also made in English. Following his visit in 2012 to Silicon Valley he tweeted, “This is the first time a Turkish president travels to this region of the U.S. Here is where technology that changes our lives is born.” QUEEN RANIA, THE QUEEN CONSORT OF THE KING OF JORDAN, grew her account by over one million followers despite the fact that she continued to scale back her public activities since facing criticism that she was playing too prominent a role in “running Jordan.” On her Twitter account, followed by more than two million people, she describes herself as “a mum and a wife with a really cool day job.” A fresh entry into the top ten in 2012 was RUSSIAN PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV. He chooses to tweet in his native language and in English, with separate accounts for each. In 2010, a personal account in the president’s name was established in both languages and currently his Russian language @MedvedevRussia has the largest following. Following this trend, 2012 saw several other leaders open Twitter accounts in both their native language and English in order to reach a larger audience. These leaders are the prime ministers of Japan, Thailand, and Kazakhstan, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Turkey; and the governments of Serbia and Montenegro. PRESIDENT DILMA ROUSEFF OF BRAZIL remained at spot #6 in 2012. At the time of her election in 2011 she had already 330,000 followers and while her activity dwindled after the election, her account continued to gain followers, indicating a desire on the part of the people of Brazil to connect with their leader. When ARGENTINEAN PRESIDENT CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ DE KIRCHNER appeared on Twitter in 2010, Argentine politics were utterly transformed as Twitter was quickly established as the central battleground between politicians and citizens. During the re-election of Chávez in 2012, the Argentine president sent five messages in quick succession, congratulating Venezuela with “Your victory is also ours.” #5

Top 10 Rankings 2012

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