Kenya’s President Dr. William Ruto is the most influential African Leader on Twitter in 2022. This is according to the 2022 World Leader Power Ranking report from BCW’s Twiplomacy, a digital diplomacy initiative by the strategic communication agency, BCW Global.
At a time when new leadership at Twitter has made the future of digital diplomacy on the platform uncertain, one thing remains clear: You can’t take the social out of social media – even for politicians.
The top three bring together big personalities, geopolitical clout, and a strong domestic following – all factors that determine a world leader’s influence on the platform.
BCW’s Twiplomacy new ranking algorithm has been designed to identify what influence is on Twitter among a particular list of handles.
Analyzing data from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022, Twiplomacy’s algorithm assigned a tailored weighting to variables including mentions, tweets, retweets, reach, impressions, follower changes, likes, and follower count.
It then applied additional variables such as gender, age, length of time in office, and others to further contextualize, compare and understand influence factors in the ranking.
At a time when new leadership at Twitter has made the future of digital diplomacy on the platform uncertain, one thing remains clear: You can’t take the social out of social media – even for politicians.
The top three bring together big personalities, geopolitical clout, and a strong domestic following – all factors that determine a world leader’s influence on the platform.
What else determines a world leader’s success on Twitter? Authentic, human language; quick reaction times; and a sense of humor or flair – attributes that depart from the formality of traditional diplomacy.
Top-ranked leaders in the report – from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (rising six places into the top 10) to Chilean President Gabriel Boric (breaking into the top 10 in his first year in office) – have engaged audiences with shorter, more emotional content.
While President Zelenskyy’s rise is driven in part by widespread support for Ukraine in the wake of war, if this ranking had been released a year earlier, he’d still make the top 15, in part because of his distinctive, raw Twitter personality and skillful use of the platform.
“The list includes leaders of UN-recognised states with executive power, who were in office as of September 30, 2022. They are also on Twitter with a handle that belongs to an individual, whether by name or job title, but not an office,” BCW said.
The agency used a bespoke algorithm to rank, which examines the trends shaping digital diplomacy on Twitter in 2022.
