Social Media, Politicians and Diplomacy Congratulations to all of us for we got our 14th President a few days back. Something historical about it is that a stereotype called a caste-ceiling has been broken since he became the 2nd Dalit President of the country. Another historical thing happened as well that nobody noticed or talked about- Within seconds of taking the oath, the new First Citizen of India made his riveting cyber-debut through his new Twitter account. He has gotten 3.3 million followers until the writing of this blog. Pre-script: It is purely an apolitical post. Nothing is going to be politically-oriented now onwards. Strictly hail all! After this clarification, to move further I have to ask one question:- What do you think has become “the significant other” of the diplomats and the world leaders? Social-media. Encore! Social media has become that one fixture of communication that is no more just an after-thought rather the very first thought of the world leaders. I am saying it not because it is all over the internet instead I have done a statistic-grafting from the most reliable resources while investing some time and effort. This piece of the blog will leave you with: 1) Awe, owing to the unimaginable truths scattered ahead. 2) A solid idea about how to run the social-media race, personal or business. Digital media came, it saw and it disrupted. Nothing it did that was clichéd and hence it ruled by becoming the ultimate one NEED of one, all and everything in the internet age! Why is it so dire a need in nature and readily embraced by all, specifically by the world leaders? 3 Undeniable-Reasons for world leaders to weather the social-media-storm 1) It is a powerful tool for any communicator as there is no point of communicating when and where no one is listening. So, you wouldn’t nod in negation that audience of all kinds is listening the most frequently on social-media than any other channel or anywhere elsewhere. Importantly, the audience is listening there almost 24X7. 2) Transparency and openness are the most wanted companions of any communication. And your audience, their audience, my audience, in fact, everybody at the receiving end of any sort of communication wants an open and transparent messaging. Example: Uber came under fire when a video of Travis Kalanick berating a driver was posted on social media by the driver. This was an emphatic implication of the power of common man’s communication on social-media to such a transparent extent that it could not be done in any other way for such an impactful outcome. 3) Round the clock communication on social-media is required as the audience is flocking to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook for any news update that happens to tickle the waves near their ears, which of course, is again circulated from social-media wave itself.(This virtuous-cycle already exists, fortunately!) And to overcome the final bit of skepticism: Here’s something straight from the showstopper: In an interview with the Financial Times in April 2017, President Trump stated: “Without the tweets, I wouldn’t be here… I have over 100m [followers] on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Over 100m, I don’t have to go to the fake media. “ The political class’ transition into the social-media-field political class is an exemplary adaptation case on a massive scale. Here’s a peek into the stats that justify it. Not-so-known facts of the Banter- to-Bytes transition Do not be surprised once you know them! Governments and leaders of 92% of 193 UN member countries have Twitter accounts, 87% have Facebook accounts, 76% have YouTube interactions and 73 % have Instagram accounts. Unless you assume that the time has gone stagnant and won’t be clocked any longer, the above stats will keep bulging. Because Twitter by-the-minute statistics of the tweets is 3,47,222 and by the minute you finish reading this sentence, another set of around 4-lakh tweets will have heaped up. After some concrete idea of the social media’s invasion in the political air, let’s sense the spill of the social-media heavyweights in the leadership landscape. Social media Political-Elites Indian PM, Narendra Modi has used social media for several activities such as the announcement of new policies, responding to public complaints and disseminating press releases. Angela Merkel uses Instagram to share her activities with images. British Royal family is active on Instagram with several instances of the closer look into the royal family comprising Price Williams, Kate Middleton, Queen Elizabeth 2. Donald trump is an avid twitter user and known for his controversial tweets that often invite quips by other popular personalities’. Mauricio Macri, the Argentinian president is also active on Snapchat to reach a younger audience and potential future voters. The king of Jordan @KingAbdullahll, Saudi Arabia’s @KingSalman and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan @RT_Erdogan), have all made a significant impact in terms of in terms of interactions on Twitter over the past year “Periscope is used by many governments to live to stream their press conferences or conduct video summits digitally.” Who were the firsts among them? Barack Obama was the first leader to have made a Facebook account in 2007. Barack Obama was again the first leader to set up an Instagram account in 2012. Our very own legendary countryman, Shashi Tharoor was a pioneer in Twitterscape in India. Snapchat Live Story was used first by Canadian PM Justin Trudeau among other leaders. And as I had saved the best for the last…… How did it all help these leaders? They set the stage through social-media very tactfully while playing the dice of diplomacy. For example: * Modi had stopped giving interviews to the reporters and started tweeting his photos on his twitter account. He is embedded in the Twitter sphere like no other and this has created another level of social-media goals for his rivals and contemporaries alike. * President Barack Obama is an uncontested leader in the digital world. When he left his office on Jan 2017, he had a total audience of 137 million followers, fans and subscribers. This is a social-media footprint that won’t be hard to monetize. * Already, Donald Trump has admitted the contribution of Twitter in his election campaigns. * Even Barack Obama had used his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube accounts in 2008 and 2012 election campaigns. What’s more? The leaders and the governments are very conversational through their social media profiles. This all, in turn, keeps them in good books. Takeaway Those who are communicating on social media are receiving umpteen times of public attention of the right kind. Others either need to do similar or else find another way on the earth that can beat this means of communication. The ball is totally in your court now 🙂 Hitesh Kothari Has played some key Digital Marketing roles when at IBM-Australia and New Zealand, Infosys, Sonata Software. Also worked with the world's best Digital marketer, Neil Patel as Internet marketing consultant helping startups to billion $ companies with their Digital Marketing. Has worked on 100+ marketing campaigns and a few of them are IBM Australian Open, SAPPHIRE, Oracle Open World, etc. He's currently leading Marketo Labz and giving digital marketing strategies to various companies and individuals alike.