This Twitter conversation discusses a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland on February 2nd, 2011 related to an event called #Lift11. The participant Matthias Luefkens thanks another participant for the discussion and references several Twitter accounts and websites related to discussions between world leaders on topics of global economic cooperation.
Who has seen this tweet? Only 10 of you have re-tweeted it…This could have been one of the most historic tweets. A one word tweet, the perfect tweet in one word: “Humbled”It was the reaction of BarackObama after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.Well, it turned out he didn’t tweet it himself. [The @BarackObama account isn’t even run by the WhiteHouse but is the 5th most popular account with 6.5 million followers just after Ashton Kutcher]
Someone who does occasionally tweet himself is the Russian president.At least he pressed the button to send his first tweet last June from the Twitter headquarters in San Francisco with Ev Williams and Biz Stone looking on.“Hello everyone! I am on Twitter, and this is my first tweet.”DmitryMedvedev tweets in Russian and in English and, believe it or not, his account is actually worth reading.
In December 2010 the Kremlin created a personal account for DmitryAnatolyevich.Why personalize the account?Remember the next presidential elections in Russia are coming up in March 2012 A personal Twitter account can come in quite handy as BarackObama has shown.
He might not have much time to write his tweets but Dima definitely has time to take pictures on all his trips. Medvedev is an avid amateur photographer and his pictures now end up on TwitPic as this shot taken during the Toronto G8 summit.
In November 2010 the president visited the disputed Kurile islands on the far eastern end of Russia. You can imagine that this picture from Kunashir didn’t go down well with the Japanese authorities who called in the Russian ambassador.
The presidential pictures give an interesting insight into the daily life of the Russian president.Dime seems to like new gadgets. Two weeks ago he tested the new Samsung Galaxy Tablet. The presidential verdict: “It's convenient, but the quality isn't great :-( “Who said official tweets are always boring?[Notice the emoticon]
The arrival of DimitryMedvedev on Twitter was immediately greeted by his peers. “Welcome to Twitter President Medvedev!” tweeted BarackObama and the White House.A day later London welcomed President Medvedev to Twitter. Since then the White House, the Kremlin and Number 10 established bilateral Twitter relations and are all mutually following each other.
These three could actually conduct a direct and secret Twitter diplomacy in 140 characters.Literally spelling ‘the end of those red phones that have been sitting around for so long’ as BarackObama recently joked.Welcome to the DM diplomacy!
13 of the G20 leaders are officially on Twitter. What is really interesting is who follows who.Moscow and London are mutually following Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.The White House doesn’t follow the Canadian Prime Minister nor Mexican President Felipe Calderon or any of the other G20 leaders.
After the Franco-British summit in Londonin November, Number10 has made a diplomatic overture and started to follow the French President as well as all other G20 leaders - unilaterally. Marked in red on this map.So far only Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard has responded positively to the diplomatic overture…
Last week the French president has reciprocated and is now folowing Number, 10, the Kremlin and the White House. The French Presidency is also following all the French ministries on Twitter.
The French President who is heading the G20 this year also created an English language account @FranceG20 for the occasion.On both accounts they live tweeted Nicolas Sarkozy’s press conference to launch the G20.
Incidentally it is in Latin America that the heads of state and government are the most active.And not only since the miraculous rescue of the “The miners of Chile and the miners of God”, saluted here by Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
In Latin America 9 Presidentshave signed up to TwitterThe most connected are the presidents of Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela.
Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez is actually one of the most chatty leadersVia Twitter he addresses his condolences to Argentinean president Cristina Fernandez after the death of her husband Nestor Kirchner, He congratulates DilmaRousseff Brazil’s new president elect;And he declares his solidarity with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon after the devastating mudslide in which hundreds were feared dead.This is the new heartfelt Twitter diplomacy.
Why does it matter if world leaders are on Twitter?It is the first time in history that we can directly contact our leaders.Anyone of us can send an @mention to the world leaders.They might not read the message personally but I assure you, their staff will.
Quite a few leaders have understood that they can now directly reach their audience.The former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has understood how he can now go directly to talk to his followers:„I’m going to take questions live from my Twitter followers.“ tweets Arnold Schwarzenegger.This is not a PR stunt, this is the new way we will connect with our leaders.
Twitter is even used by the most secretive state on the planet.@uriminzok is North Korea’s attempt at public diplomacy.Kim JongIl’s staff is also using Twitpic.The only problem with Twitpic is that you cannot moderate comments.Hence Franks comment: “our glorious leader looking radiant as usual”