PM Modi twice as popular on Facebook as President Donald Trump: Study

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most followed world leader on Facebook with 43.2 million followers on his personal page, almost twice as many as U.S. President Donald J. Trump who is in second place with 23.1 million followers on his personal page, according to the newly released 2018 "World Leaders on Facebook" study by Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW).

As of March 15, 2018, Queen Rania of Jordan is in third place with 16 million followers. Cambodia's prime minister Hun Sen shot into the fifth position after his following swelled nearly 50 percent to 9.6 million people, the study found.

The study, which analysed the activity of 650 personal and institutional Facebook pages of heads of state and government and foreign ministers since January 1, 2017, meanwhile showed that Mr Trump easily counted most interactions on the platform.

The US president counted a total of 204.9 million comments, likes and shares over the past 14 months -- nearly twice as many as PM Modi, who counted 113.6 million, the study said.

It also found that Trump on average posts five times a day on Facebook, which is more than double the number of posts from PM Modi.

The Facebook page of the government of Botswana is the busiest, with an average of 35 posts per day since January 1, 2017. The governments of Ethiopia and the presidency of Ghana are not far behind, with 28 and 21 posts per day, respectively.

The White House is the page most followed by peers, with 28 peer connections. It is followed by the European Commission with 24 peer connections and the U.S. State Department with 20.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has made the most diplomatic overtures on Facebook, liking 97 other peer pages including the personal page of Donald Trump which is also only liked by one other leader, Roosevelt Skerrit, the Prime Minister of Dominica.

The governments of only 18 countries have not yet set up a presence on Facebook, including China, North Korea and Turkmenistan, however, a Facebook page was set up for the Chinese State Council Information Office @ChinaSCIO which has only 175 likes.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)