A picture is worth a thousand words, and world leaders have adopted Instagram as part of their communications.
Over the past five years, governments and world leaders have shared on social network their official pictures with a worldwide audience. Government use of Instagram as a communications channel is mainly frequent in Europe, Middle East, Latin America and parts of Asia.
The heads of state and government, as well as foreign ministers of 140 countries, now have personal and institutional accounts on Instagram, representing 72.5 percent of all 193 United Nations (UN) member states. On February 24, 2017, the Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan (@AzerbaijanMFA) became the latest foreign ministry to set up an official Instagram account.
Who is the Most Followed?
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become the most followed world leader on Instagram with 6.8 million followers, narrowly followed by U.S. President Donald Trump with 6.3 million followers. Both leaders together have fewer followers than former U.S. President Barack Obama who left office on January 20, 2017 and now has 13.8 million followers on his @BarackObama account.
Pope Francis, who set up his Instagram account on March 19, 2016, is in third position with 3.7 million followers.
Who is the Most Effective?
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also the most effective world leader on Instagram, with each of his posts receiving on average 223,000 interactions (comments and likes). Turkey’s President is in second position with 141,000 interactions and Pope Francis’ Instagram posts receive an average of 138,000 interactions.
Who is the Most Active?
The Information Department of the government of Brunei is the most active government account, with more than 16 posts per day on average. The Foreign Ministry of Kuwait is the second most prolific with 6.6 posts per day.
What do World Leaders Post on Instagram?
Several governments use quote cards, a picture of their leader with an excerpt from a speech or a memorable statement. Other governments have shared pictures of presidential decrees, or even full press releases which require zooming in and are rather hard to decipher, especially on mobile devices.
Over the past 12 months, tragic news of terror attacks has also dominated postings on Instagram. However, it is hard to break sad news or convey condolences on Instagram because users only have the option to ‘like’ pictures, or share their sorrow in the comments.
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