President of Mongolia ranks 49th in the world leaders Twitter ranking

The President of Mongolia, Ts.Elbegdorj, is ranked a49th out of 123 world leaders with 36,928 followers in Twitter. At the time when this list was generated, Elbegdorj’s Twitter account (@elbegdorj) followers were 36,928; whereas, recently, he has 49,266 of them.

Digital activism is on the rise, but governments are also seeing the value of social media as a tool for engaging with their citizens. The latest study released by the US-based Digital Policy Council in December 2012 showed that three out of four heads of states (75 percent) now have a presence on social media site Twitter.

Since the organization began tracking data in 2009, there has been a stunning 93 percent compound annual growth rate of Twitter adoption by leaders and national governments.

In its last report published in August 2011, only 69 out of 164 countries (42 percent) were using Twitter. Today, 123 heads of state in out of 163 countries have Twitter accounts, set up using their own personal names or through an official government office.

“Based on these growth rates, the Digital Policy Council anticipates penetration on Twitter for world leaders to be nearing 100 percent in 2013. This would render Twitter as a de facto communication tool for all heads of state,” the report stated.

With 24.6 million followers, US President Barack Obama (@BarackObama) is leading the pack, followed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (@cavezcandanga) and Turkish President Abdullah Gul (@cbabdullahgul), with 3.8 million and 2.5 million followers, respectively. Jordan’s Queen Rania (@QueenRania), Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussia), and Brazillian President Dilma Rouseff (@dilmabr) rounded out the top six.

Among the Asian leaders, Philippine President Benigno Simeon Aquino III (@noynoyaquino) lead with 1.2 million followers, followed by Malaysian Prime Minister Mohammad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak (@NajibRazak), Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (@PMOIndia), and Australian Minister Julia Gillard (@JuliaGillard).

The Digital Policy Council noted in its report that 61 percent of counties on the list are considered politically stable, which it said reconfirms that “heads of states who are confident in their leadership role and assured of their political legitimacy are most comfortable with social media regardless of the form of government.”

In 2011, only eight percent of tweeting countries are politically stable. Today, 42 countries represented on Twitter are non-democratic, the report noted.

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