Sushma Swaraj most followed foreign minister on Twitter

New Delhi: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the third most-followed world leader on Twitter, Sushma Swaraj had grabbed the top slot among all foreign ministers active on the micro-blogging platform.

"India's @SushmaSwaraj is the most followed foreign minister with 1,737,804 followers, ahead of Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates @ABZayed (1,380,574 followers) and Venezuela’s @JauaMiranda (758,198 followers)," Twitter said.

While the ranking is based on numbers till November-end, Sushma Swaraj, who joined the social platform in November 2010, now has about 19 lakh followers.

Modi ranks third in the most followed world leaders globally with 83.9 lakh followers, after US President Barack Obama and the Pope. "Modi still has a way to go to best US President @BarackObama, who tops the world-leader list with a colossal 49.1 million followers and Pope Francis (@Pontifex) with 16 million followers on his nine different language accounts," Twitter said.

The popular social networking site added that Modi's meteoric rise shows that leaders of the most populous countries have a clear advantage in garnering a large army of dedicated followers.

"The number of followers of a country's leader has even become a question of national pride," it added. Twitter said more than half of the world's foreign ministers and their institutions are active on the social networking site.

"Twitter has become an indispensable diplomatic networking and communication tool. As of November 4, 2014, the vast majority (83 per cent) of the 193 UN member countries have a presence on Twitter," it said.

The Twiplomacy Study 2014 found that the vast majority (83 per cent) of the 193 UN member countries have a presence on Twitter. "More than two-thirds (67 per cent) of all heads of state and heads of government in have personal accounts on the social network. However, the Twitter craze is not evenly spread around the globe," it said. As of November 4, all world leaders combined have sent 2,201,823 tweets posting on average four tweets each day and Spanish emerged as the most tweeted language.

Conducted by global communications firm Burson-Marsteller, the report identified 651 Twitter accounts of heads of state and government, foreign ministers and their institutions in 161 countries worldwide.