Harper lags behind other world leaders online
Posted Jun 29, 2011 7:55 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper could use a little extra help from his online friends.
Canada’s political leader is in the middle of a new list from globalpost.com that rates world leaders in terms of their social networking presence.
Harper has around 153,000 Twitter followers and more than 63,000 friends on Facebook, ranking him 16th out of the 25 politicians on the list.
U.S. President Barack Obama leads the list with more than 30-million people following his Facebook and Twitter pages, compared to Kenya’s president, who is 25th.
Instructor and social media expert with the Rotman School of Business in Toronto, Tom Vassos, says he’s not surprised with the findings.
“Canada itself and Canadians are leaders in the use of social media and it’s not surprising that they’ve picked up on it as a way to communicate with political leaders and politicians,” says Vassos.
In terms of Harper’s standing, he explains there were politicians ahead of him that were far more controversial and able to gain more online clout, such as Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi who placed 14th.
Vassos says there appears to be a changing tide and public figures are embracing tools like Facebook and Twitter.
“Politicians can’t really afford to avoid social media anymore because it’s one of the key ways that people want to communicate and understand,” he says. “And not just communicate with politicians, but communicate with each other.”
He warns anyone in public office should be careful; an embarrassing or damaging comment can be harmful to a long and fruitful career.
“There are risks involved with this communication because if you’re getting this direct line into somebody, sometimes they’ll post things that are risky and can get them into trouble,” he adds.
