World Leaders Use Twiplomacy To Communicate With The Public

The world's most powerful men and women are using Twitter to reach out directly to the public -- and they're typing the message themselves. In a recent study by researchers from Twiplomacy, around two-thirds of the top leaders of UN member countries maintain a Twitter presence, or roughly 264 world leaders. These accounts are updated either by the leaders themselves (about 40) or their designated representatives. While it may seem unusual for a politician to be brief and concise, these so-called "twiplomats" have managed to keep their messages under 140 characters, all in the name of public service. More interesting is the fact that 45 percent speaks mostly about personal accounts of everyday things, instead of the expected government-related musings. They also were found to not be followers of each other, although majority followed the likes of President Obama (@BarackObama) and the White House (@WhiteHouse). Despite the massive Twitter presence of the world's finest, however, some nations are poorly represented in the social media space. These include China, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. As of 1 July 2012, the 264 accounts enjoyed a combined following of 51,990,656, the study said.