New York, April 12, 2017 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has overtaken former U.S. President Barack Obama in the race for the title of the most popular world leader on Instagram.

With nearly 6.8 million followers, he ranks first, followed closely by Donald Trump with 6.3 million followers. These are the findings of the latest study “World Leaders on Instagram” conducted by Burson-Marsteller, a leading global strategic communications and public relations firm. The results of the Burson-Marsteller study show that 73 heads of state, 38 heads of government and 28 foreign ministers have personal Instagram profiles.

Rounding out the top three is Pope Francis (3.7 million followers), ahead of the official White House account (3.4 million), while the top five is closed by Indonesian President Joko Widodo with 3.4 million followers – a result owed to growth of 673 percent over the past year.

The study analyzed the activity of 325 Instagram accounts run by heads of state, heads of government and foreign ministers over the past 12 months. The analysis used aggregated data from the CrowdTangle tool provided by Facebook. As of April 1, 2017, these accounts had amassed a total of 48.7 million followers and published 61,281 posts, which together generated 371.7 million interactions (comments and likes).

The key is activating users

Modi, whose account featured only 53 photos over the past year, turned out to be not only the most popular but also the most effective world leader on Instagram. Each of his posts generated an average of 223,000 interactions (comments and likes). Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ranked second in this category with an average of 141,000 interactions, while photos published by Pope Francis on Instagram collected an average of 138,000 interactions each.

The ratio of interactions to the number of published posts and the number of followers over the past 12 months, holding steady at 9.67%, makes the Turkish president's account one of the leaders in this category as well.

Heads of state use Instagram to promote their content in an interesting and creative way, drawing on the full range of the platform's capabilities. They create “Instagram stories” for major events, compile collages from multiple photos, and also publish plenty of video content – on average in 1 out of every 10 posts. The traditional handshake photo has now been replaced by the selfie, which clearly points to changes in the nature of modern diplomacy.

How to conduct political communication on social media?

“The second edition of Burson-Marsteller's ‘World Leaders on Instagram’ study shows the popularity and effectiveness of visual communication in the public sector.” – said Don Baer, Worldwide Chair and CEO at Burson Marsteller – “Leaders around the world are engaging in online communication, moving the context of social and political content there while adding a personal element and a touch of creativity. Business and other sector leaders can learn from heads of government how to use Instagram.”

On January 20, 2017, the White House Instagram account, set up during Barack Obama's presidency in January 2012, along with 1,747 published posts, was archived as @ObamaWhiteHouse. The new @WhiteHouse account was launched from scratch by the Trump administration, but retained the 3,586,458 followers accumulated under the previous president. So far, only 33 posts have been published on it, and since its relaunch the profile has lost more than 100,000 followers – Obama supporters who stopped following Trump's White House profile.

Several important conclusions emerge:

  • President Trump leads the interaction ranking with a total of 114,554,016 comments and likes on posts.

  • Second place went to Iran's leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with 89,090,894 interactions, and the next spot was taken by Pope Francis with 45,408,641 interactions.

  • The government of Brunei is the most active on Instagram, posting an average of 16 times a day. That is far more than the next leaders in the ranking – Kuwait's Foreign Ministry with an average of 6.6 posts a day and Ghana's Nana Akufo-Addo (an average of 4.7 posts a day).

  • Leaders readily use the platform's new functionality and publish video content. Their number doubled over the past 12 months, and videos gain on average 2,027 more interactions than photos.

About the study

World Leaders on Instagram is the latest study by Burson-Marsteller on how world leaders, governments and international organizations communicate through social media. It is an extension of the highly regarded annual Twiplomacy study, which has been conducted for 5 years. In 2016, the Twiplomacy study was expanded to all major social networks and significantly boosted Burson-Marsteller's reputation worldwide for its Digital communications expertise.

Burson-Marsteller (founded in 1953) is a leading global communications and public relations firm. It provides clients with a strategic approach and delivery across the full range of public relations, public affairs, reputation management, crisis communications, advertising and online strategies. The firm's global network consists of 77 wholly owned offices and 85 affiliate offices, operating in 110 countries across six continents. Burson-Marsteller is part of Young & Rubicam Group, owned by WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY), the world leader in communications services. More information: www.burson-marsteller.com.