Top10 Rankings 2013 Summary Report

Research Note: World Leader Rankings on Twitter December 2013 8 Regional Concentrations Latin America In Latin America, notably South America, Twitter has melded with leaders’ personal identities -- heads of state take to the social platform with an unmatched zeal. In fact, data in the fall of 2013 showed Spanish as the third most popular language on Twitter (English is number one at 34%, Japanese second at 16%). South America’s most prolific tweeting presidents – Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez, Colombia’s Juan Manuel Santos, and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro all send a large percentage of messages themselves, according to inside sources. There were no new additions within Latin America in 2013, with the exception of Paraguay and Venezuela’s newly elected officials. Latin American leaders are likely to have high Klout scores in the 70-80 range. (President Obama had the highest Klout score at the writing of this report at 99, followed by the leaders of UK, Canada, Israel, El Salvador, and Ecuador.) Those with Klout scores from 70-80 are “thought leaders that are not only referring content, but creating original content and ideas.” Eighty and above reflects that the personality is extremely well known. The South American Twitterverse lost its most popular leader, following the passing of President Hugo Chávez, who at his time of death in March 2013 had amassed 4 million followers. In 2012 he weighed in as the second most popular world leader, although he had 20 million less followers than President Obama at that time. It was no surprise that Twitter erupted with tweets regarding his death, and in Venezuela his favorite political slogans were trending days after his death, where it became a rallying cry for his supporters and a warning for his detractors. His successor, President Nicolas Maduro, was immediately popular, entering the ranking in the Top 15. However, in November a number of Venezuelan government Twitter accounts were suspended or cancelled, according to the country’s Ministry of Information and Communication. The list includes the accounts of ministers, as well as journalists and prominent government supporters. President Maduro denounced what he described as a “massive attack” by Twitter and the “international right wing.” He added that he mysteriously lost 6,000 of his 1 million followers as part of “a campaign to destabilize the government.” Europe Several European countries now have an active Twitter presence such as Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Belarus. For Ireland, the @MerrionStreet has emerged as the country’s main governmental presence on Twitter. While no European leader appears in the Top 10, France, Spain, and the UK are all at around 500,000 followers. UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who finally established a Twitter handle in his own name @David_Cameron in 2012, did see a 35% growth in followers over one year, but has not cracked the

Top10 Rankings 2013 Summary Report

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