Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is by far the most popular world
leader on Facebook, with more than 43.5 million likes on his personal
page and 13.7 million likes on his institutional Prime Minister of India
page, according to the newly released 2019 World Leaders on Facebook
study,
part of the Twiplomacy series by leading global communications
agency BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe). The study also found increased use of
paid posts by world leaders.
U.S. President Donald Trump is in second place, with more than 23
million likes on his personal Facebook page and Jordan’s Queen Rania is
in third position with 16.9 million likes, reaching an Arabic and
English audience well beyond the 5.8 million Facebook users in Jordan.
However, Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office on
January 1, 2019, has dominated the rankings of World Leaders on Facebook
over the past 12 months, taking the top spot in terms of interactions.
His Facebook page has registered more than 145 million interactions,
almost twice as many as U.S. President Donald Trump, who has 84 million
total interactions and 2.5 times as many followers.
The study, using aggregate data from Facebook’s CrowdTangle tool,
analyzes the activity of 962 Facebook pages of heads of state and
government and foreign ministers, 50 more than in the 2017 study. As of
March 1, 2019, the pages have a combined total of 345 million page likes
and published 449,739 posts in the past 12 months which have garnered a
total of 767 million interactions (comments, likes and shares).
With Facebook’s change of algorithm, favoring posts from friends, family
and groups, it has become more difficult for pages of governments and
world leaders to reach their audiences. Followers of world leaders’
Facebook pages grew by 10 percent year on year but the interactions on
their pages have dropped significantly. While world leaders registered
1.1 billion interactions in 2016, that number has decreased by 32.3
percent compared to their interactions in 2018.
To counter the changes to the algorithm, many leaders are promoting
their posts and pages with Facebook ads. In early March 2019, 50 pages
had been running ads according to Facebook’s Ads Library, a new
transparency feature which is now available on each page. President
Trump’s Facebook page has posted more than 50,000 ads since its
inception, while UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s page posted 74 paid ads
in December 2018 to promote her Brexit plan.
“Our latest Twiplomacy study confirms that even among political figures
who easily attract the attention of the public in social media, a paid
strategy is still essential to secure reach and make a serious impact,”
said Chad Latz, Chief Innovation Officer, BCW. “Additionally, we see how
some leaders are very successful by being personal and approachable on
the platform using all the tools at their disposal, from Facebook Live
to Facebook Stories, to engage their audiences.”
Other Key Findings Include:
-
Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta is the most popular leader in Sub-Saharan
Africa with 3.6 million likes, ahead of Ghana’s President Nana
Akufo-Addo with 1.6 million likes. -
Jordan’s Queen Rania has been topping the list of the most popular
leaders in the Arab world for several years. With 16.9 million likes
she has twice as many followers as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi (7.3 million likes) and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United
Arab Emirates, with 3.8 million likes. -
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has become the most popular leader
on Facebook in Latin America ahead of Mexico’s new President Andrés
Manuel López Obrador with 5.6 million likes and Argentinian President
Mauricio Macri with 4.4 million likes. -
The page of the British Royal Family is the most followed of world
leaders in the European Union with 4.1 million likes ahead of French
President Emmanuel Macron with 2.3 million likes and Romanian
President Klaus Iohannis with 1.8 million likes. -
The Facebook page of the government of Botswana is the most prolific,
with an average of 37 posts per day. The presidential administrations
of the Dominican Republic and of Ghana both average more than 20 posts
per day. -
In early February 2019 German Chancellor Angela Merkel deleted
her personal Facebook page @AngelaMerkel, which had 2.5 million
fans, after stepping down as leader of the Christian Democratic Union,
and in mid-March 2019, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta temporarily
deactivated all his social media profiles including his Facebook page
which has 3.6 million followers.
About the Study
World Leaders on Facebook is BCW’s latest research into how world
leaders, governments and international organizations communicate via
social media. The research builds on BCW’s highly acclaimed annual Twiplomacy
study, which is now in its seventh year. In 2016, the Twiplomacy study
was expanded to cover all key social media platforms and has massively
enhanced BCW’s digital reputation worldwide. For more information, visit www.twiplomacy.com.
About Burson Cohn & Wolfe
BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe), one of the world’s largest full-service
global communications agencies, is in the business of moving people on
behalf of clients. Founded by the merger of Burson-Marsteller and Cohn &
Wolfe, BCW delivers digitally and data-driven creative content and
integrated communications programs grounded in earned media and scaled
across all channels for clients in the B2B, consumer, corporate, crisis
management, CSR, healthcare, public affairs and technology sectors. BCW
is a part of WPP (NYSE: WPP), a creative transformation company. For
more information, visit www.bcw-global.com.
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