Narendra Modi twice as popular on Facebook as Donald Trump with more than 43.2 million page likes

Geneva: According to a study 'World Leaders on Facebook' released on Wednesday by Burson Cohn and Wolfe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is far ahead of other world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, when it comes to popularity on the social media site. It said that 43.2 million people follow him on Facebook, while Trump, who rules the other social media platform Twitter, is in second place with 23.1 million followers.

The study analyses the activity of 650 Facebook pages of heads of state and government and foreign ministers from January 1, 2017, using aggregate data from Facebook's Crowdtangle tool, it said in a statement.

Over the past 14 months, the Facebook page of Trump had by far the most interactions of any world leader on it, with a total of 204.9 million interactions (defined as the total number of comments, likes and shares), almost twice as many as PM Modi with 113.6 million interactions, the study said. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has 46 million interactions and Cambodia's Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen and Argentina's President Mauricio Macri follow with 36 and 33.4 million interactions, respectively.

Indian PM @NarendraModi is the most 'liked' world leader on #Facebook ahead of @realDonaldTrump and @QueenRania.

See who else stands out:
https://t.co/8a3vyYlawd #DigitalDiplomacy #FacebookDiplomacy pic.twitter.com/hcRwqIPlVR — Twiplomacy (@Twiplomacy) May 2, 2018

Who is the most effective world leader on Facebook?

Find out why @realDonaldTrump receives the most comments, likes & shares on his #Facebook page
https://t.co/8a3vyYlawd #DigitalDiplomacy #FacebookDiplomacy pic.twitter.com/DpJQr0aGAG

— Twiplomacy (@Twiplomacy) May 2, 2018

Following are the excerpts from the study:

As of March 15, 2018, the governments and leaders of 175 countries had an official presence on the social network, representing 91 percent of the 193 UN member states. The 650 Facebook personal and institutional pages of world leaders, governments and foreign ministries analysed in this study have a combined total of 309.4 million page likes as of March 15, 2018. Since January 1, 2017, they have published a total of 536,644 posts which have garnered close to 900 million interactions.

Barack Obama was the first world leader to set up his own Facebook page, in March 2007, when he was still Governor of Illinois... Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the biggest audience on Facebook, with more than 43.2 million page likes, almost double as many as US President Donald Trump who has 23.1 million page likes on his personal Facebook page. Donald Trump posts an average of five times per day, more than twice as much as PM Modi and since January 1, 2017, his page has accrued 204.9 million interactions (comments, likes and shares), almost twice as many as PM Modi with 113.6 million interactions...

...Only a handful of world leaders manage their pages on their own, or post on their timeline themselves. This is generally done by their social media teams. However, there are notable exceptions. New Zealand’s new Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, often posts impromptu Facebook live broadcasts from her home at Premier House and even from her car, updating her followers about the latest government decisions and answering questions as they come in live. The 37-year-old politician has become the “most loved” world leader since 14 percent of her Facebook interactions are love hearts sent by her followers, which is all part of what has become known Down Under as #JacindaMania. In addition, her videos are now consistently subtitled for the hearing impaired.

Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen occasionally takes the smartphone into his own hands and posts live videos, including a live New Year’s message at two minutes past midnight as fireworks illuminated the night sky of Copenhagen, or a good night message while eating pizza after a long day at work... Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong entertains his 1.1 million followers with occasional personal snapshots, often using the hashtag #GuessWhere and encouraging his followers to guess the location where the photo was taken.

Facebook photos

The picture of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi praying at the 11th century Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, East India has become the most popular photo shared by a world leader in 2017 with a total of 1.2 million interactions, including 1.1 million likes. The five most liked pictures in 2017 were all posted by the Indian Prime Minister, including a picture of Modi receiving a bicycle from Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

The re-post of an Instagram picture from Donald Trump Jr on President Trump’s Facebook page has become the most liked and shared ‘link post’ of any world leader in 2017. The picture showing the US President wishing a happy birthday to his grandson has garnered 522,381 interactions, including 448,890 likes...

The second most popular link post is a re-post by Donald Trump of a tweet from his son Eric Trump announcing the birth of his first child, Eric Luke Trump. The Donald Trump page often republishes Donald Trump’s most salient tweets and Instagram posts.