President Nana Akufo-Addo Tops List Of Most Followed Africa Leaders On Instagram

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Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo is Sub-Saharan Africa’s most followed leader on Instagram with 431,000 followers, ahead of Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, with more than 165,000 followers each,  according to a study by Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW).

Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta and Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa are also some of the African leaders that are also on Instagram.

In fact, Instagram is the fastest growing social network among world leaders, according to the newly released 2018 World Leaders on Instagram study by leading global communications agency Burson Cohn & Wolfe (BCW).

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be the most followed world leader on Instagram with 14.8 million followers.

U.S. President Donald Trump leads the rankings in terms of total interactions (comments and likes). Over the past 12 months, @realDonaldTrump has garnered more than 218 million interactions, more than three times as many as  Modi.

Pope Francis is in the fourth position with 5.7 million followers, just ahead of Queen Rania of Jordan, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the White House account, each with more than 4 million followers.

The UK Royal Family has almost tripled its followers over the past 12 months in large part thanks to the pictures of the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle which increased the account’s followers by 570,000 on May 19, 2018.

The study analyses the activity of the 426 Instagram accounts of heads of state and government and foreign ministers, 100 more than in the 2017 study, using aggregate data from Facebook’s CrowdTangle tool.

As of October 1, 2018, the accounts have a combined total of 98.3 million followers and published 98,372 posts in the past 12 months which have garnered a total of 860.4 million interactions (comments and shares).

US President Donald Trump leads the rankings in terms of total interactions (comments and likes). Over the past 12 months, @realDonaldTrump has garnered more than 218 million interactions, more than three times as many as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has more followers, but only 69 million interactions on his 80 photos and videos over the past year.

Jordan’s Queen Rania is the most followed Arab leader with more than 4.8 million followers, surpassing Sheikh Mohammed, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, with more than 3.3 million followers. Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri is the most followed Latin American leader on Instagram with 880,000 followers ahead of outgoing Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Paraguay’s Mario Abdo Benítez who each boast more than half a million followers.

The British Royal Family tops the Instagram ranking in the European Union with 3.5 million followers, far ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron, with 1.1 million followers, and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel with 684,000 followers.

The Information Department of the Government of Brunei is the most active government account, with more than 17 posts per day on average. Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, is in the second position with more than 10 posts per day and the Foreign Ministry of Kuwait is the third most prolific with more than eight posts per day.

Since June 2018, 15% of the 426 accounts have created Instagram TV (IGTV) channels which allow users to upload up to 60-minute-long videos in vertical format.

World Leaders on Instagram is BCW’s latest research into how world leaders, governments and international organisations communicate via social media. The research builds on BCW’s highly acclaimed annual Twiplomacy study, which is now in its sixth year. In 2016, the Twiplomacy study was expanded to cover all key social media platforms and has massively enhanced BCW’s digital reputation worldwide.