Study shows PM Imran Khan ninth most-followed leader on Twitter

KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan has become the ninth most-followed world leader on Twitter, according to a study by Twiplomacy, with his account seeing a 22% growth in the number of his followers.

Released on Tuesday, the study monitored the activity on various world leaders' Twitter accounts, as well as their followers, content, tweets during the coronavirus pandemic, and reach, among other factors. It was conducted by communications agency Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) Worldwide.

The top most-followed world leader was US President Donald Trump, followed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while Pope Francis secured the third position. The study highlighted that Trump owed his Twitter position to his "army of 'Keyboard Warriors', liking, retweeting, and amplifying his messages".

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was ranked seventh, with 16.1 million followers and 17% growth in his followers.

In terms of effectiveness, the US president again took the lead but it was Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz who bagged the second position, with 23,573 retweets on average.

Erdogan was on the fifth position, with 4,879 retweets on average.

In terms of reach, on the other hand, PM Imran managed to secure the fourth position, with the true reach estimated to be 7.5 million people or 64% of his 12.1 million followers.

Trump's was on second place at 20.3 million people or 25% of his 83.8 million followers, while Erdogan's was on eighth at 5.2 million people or 33% of his 16.4 million followers.

Qureshi second most-followed FM

Separately, the second most-followed foreign minister from across the world is Pakistan's Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

His Twitter account registered a 23% growth in followers, which now total 3.1 million.