In the wake of globalization and swift evolution of social media, reaching out to the masses is easier than ever before for world leaders. But do Pakistani politicians, especially those at the helm of affairs, use this advantage? Not really.

It has become the order of the day to communicate with and expand one’s audience using social media, Twitter in particular. But Pakistani leaders are still lagging behind.

The recent Burson-Marsteller’s Twiplomacy study, detailing an annual global survey of world leaders on Twitter, does not feature a single Pakistani politician on its list.

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan appears to be well versed with the significance of social media and is making the most of it. Khan often hits headlines with his tweets. He has a following of over 2.5 million (2,513,757) on Twitter.

Scion of the Sharif family Maryam Nawaz, has almost two million (1,194,839) followers on Twitter. PTI’s Asad Umar also has a fast growing presence with over a million followers (1,060,811). Sheikh Rasheed is also in the contest with a huge public following of over a million (1,058,559).

PPP patron-in-chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari follows close behind with his audience numbering 9,54,000.

The second tier of politicans with an impressive following on Twitter include PTI’s Arif Alvi at 4,57,000 followers. Then there is PPP’s Sharmila Faruqui with 3,84,000 followers. Sherry Rehman also  has 3,43,000 following her. Imran Ismail of PTI has 1,26,000 followers. Syed Ali Raza Abidi of MQM has 46,000 followers and Irum Azeem Farooqui also of the MQM has 11,000 followers.

In contrast, the sitting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif does not own a Twitter account nor does the incumbent President Mr. Mamnoon Hussain. In fact, all of the old guard, like former president and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, MQM chief Altaf Hussain and l others have kept away from the Twitter phenomenon. It appears that while they all pay lip service to the concept of change, this older generation is not in the vanguard of any significant change in this context at least.

Meanwhile, Director General ISPR Major General Asim Bajwa, has over one million followers on the social media website which he uses to make key institutional announcements. In fact, his tweets make headlines before the ISPR’s official release makes the news.

Coming to international leaders, the Twiplomacy study citing data as of 24 March 2015, explains that the “five most followed world leaders are U.S. President Barack Obama with 57 million followers of the U.S. president’s campaign account. Pope Francis has 20 million followers on his nine accounts in different languages. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan and the White House Twitter account follow behind.

The report explains that while Barack Obama is the most followed world leader, he is  dwarfed in terms of retweets per tweet by Pope Francis who averages almost 10,000 retweets for each tweet sent on his Spanish account. This is against 1,210 for each tweet sent by Barack Obama.

Coming back to Pakistani politicians, they not only need to enhance their Twitter presence and participation, but their tone could be perhaps be more conversational when engaging with the general public. Imran Khan may be the most active Pakistani politician on Twitter, but he too maintains an official tone. He often tweets about political announcements or statements with regard to party affairs.

Overall, with regard to social media PTI seems to have the edge over its rival parties. However, it’s a common feature that our politicians generally reply to tweets   praising them or those castigating their opponents. They tend to ignore critical messages directed towards them (even those offferring constructive criticism).

What was the significance of the #sign before Twitter turned the world upside down with the hashtag (#) revolution? It may be noted here that US President Barack Obama had hired a team of social media professionals ahead of his re-election to analyse tweets and other trends spiraling on the social media. It was undoubtedly a key tool during the US elections and instrumental in President Obama’s win.

Obviously, social media penetration in Pakistan is much lower as compared to the other countries mentioned. Still, it could certainly be a useful source of communicating with and educating the public. And our leaders participation and interaction with the public can be viewed as a barometer to assess their level of  social responsibility and popularity.