Leader of the Arab social media pack

Leader of the Arab social media pack

Mohamed ElBaradei beats out other Arab leaders in the Facebook popularity contest, but Queen Rania is not far behind.

May 17, 2010 2:20 by kippreport

For what seems like forever, citizens in the Arab world have hoped for more accessible leaders – and it seems we may finally be in luck. All the new technology through which we can reach our friends – Facebook, Twitter, et cetera – is also increasingly putting our leaders at our finger tips.

That makes it much easier for us to reach them and for them to react to our missives (or at least to pretend that they are reading them). As we all probably know, only a few powerful people take the social media platform seriously and do their own tweeting, posting, and writing.

Despite this, the impression of coming closer to ruling figures in the Middle East remains enticing for many citizens. Across the region, the penetration of Arab leaders with Facebook profiles, blogs and twitter accounts has been rapidly increasing.
And the result? Perhaps the added worry of being part of an online competition that might indicate their popularity in the real world. This week, Egyptian Nobel Peace Laureate and potential presidential candidate, Mohamed ElBaradei, overtook Jordan’s Queen Rania as the most popular Arab leader on Facebook, according to The Media Line. He’s broken the 200,000 friends barrier, while she is just below.

However, the queen still enjoys her dominant position across other global social networks, such as Twitter and Youtube. Way to go, Queen Rania.

Kipp wonders whether ElBaradei’s popularity on Facebook could translate to an election success. And if the social media sphere works for politicians and royals, could it ever work for the personalities in business?