Middle East leaders turn to Twitter to engage citizens (page 1 of 2)

It was offline protests that have been fuellinged Mena governance changes in recent years, but it was social media that kept the dialogue between flowing between the politicians, media and general public.

Burson-Marsteller devised the 'Twiplomacy' study to analyse the tweeting habits of 125 heads of state, 21 of which were from the Middle East and North Africa. The report breaks down details such as tweet history, follower numbers and interconnectivity.

Almost two-thirds of the 193 UN member countries have a presence on Twitter: 45% of the 264 accounts we analysed are personal accounts of heads of state and government; 30 world leaders tweet themselves, giving citizens direct access of to govermental updates of 140 characters or less.

"Governments have no choice but to embrace social media and be part of the conversation," says Sunil John, CEO of ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller.

"The use of social media as a credible and direct channel of communication has also reached policy makers as they realise the opportunities of being part of a mutually beneficial conversation. This is extremely positive and encouraging, and will change the way governments answer to their citizens," he tells AMEinfo.

The Twiplomacy study lists Arabic as the fourth most used language among world leaders, following English, Spanish and French. A total of 43 different languages were recorded.

UAE's Sheikh Mohammed is the leader to follow

One of the region's most active users, tweeting in both English and Arabic, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, recently toipped one million followers and is on the heels of Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan, with 2.2 million subscribing to her updates. However, the ruler of Dubai is followed by 13 other world leaders - more than any other leader in the region. Queen Rania comes fourth by this measure.

Other prominent leaders employing Twitter include Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki (69,217 followers); Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati (54,782 followers); Lebanese President Michel Sleiman (39,092 followers); Palestinian Prime Minister Dr Salam Fayyad (1,551 followers) anmd Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali (1,324 followers).

"[His Highness Sheikh Mohammed] embraced Twitter more than 3 years ago to communicate with his people and is celebrated for it," explains John. "With over 1 million followers, his community is large and continues to grow. His tweets have made him approachable to the masses and his open engagement with audiences on all social platforms demonstrates the UAE government's efforts to be open to dialogue that is an example for the region."

The most conversational Middle East leader tweeter is Lebanon's Prime Minister, Najib Mikat, who has been known to personally engage with 54,700+ followers at length - conversing for up to four hours. Almost 20% of his tweets are replies.

In November 2011, Mikat showed a great willingness to engage with his followers by arranging a Q&A session on the microblogging platform with UK Ambassador Tom Fletcher. Also, Lebanese president Michel Sleiman falls into the minority of national leaders that tweet personally, signing off as 'MS'.

Twitter an effective engagement tool?

Nearly three quarters of Middle East young people believe governments have become more trustworthy and transparent, seeing the Arab Spring as a positive development, according to Burson-Marsteller's Arab Youth Survey, released earlier this year.

"In that context, it is extremely encouraging to see leaders from the region use Twitter as a platform to disseminate information and communicate with their audience," says John.