Digital
Diplomacy
Index

About this website

The Index

The Digital Diplomacy Index was created to get a clear and consistent picture of the world of digital diplomacy through measurable data on online conversations. Its primary goal is to provide the means to accurately and objectively measure the performance of world powers on the emerging stage of online international affairs.

The Index helps countries and diplomatic entities better grasp the new online environment they face, identify the challenges at stake, compare their performance relative to other actors, and capture the trends that shape online diplomacy as they unfold. It is based on data from the diplomatic Twitter accounts of G20 countries, refreshed every twenty-four hours.

Method

Data used in the construction of the Digital Diplomacy Index and its various indicators are based on the Twitter presence and activity of G20 countries through the following accounts:

• personal account of the country’s leader if existent (20 accounts),
• account of the country’s Ministry of foreign affairs or equivalent (45 accounts),
• account of the country’s Minister of foreign affairs or equivalent (20 accounts),
• accounts of the country’s embassies in other G20 countries, in local language when several accounts using different languages exist (206 accounts).

Taken together for each country, these different accounts form what is called the “diplomatic network” of said country on Twitter.

All data presented on this website is based on the last 30 days of Twitter activity on the selected accounts. Data is refreshed every 24 hours, therefore constantly giving an up-to-date picture of what happened in the last 30 days on Twitter.

The main country ranking, the Digital Diplomacy Index, is designed to measure the overall impact and efficiency of a country’s diplomatic voice online. It is calculated based on a weight-adjusted combination of the nine following indicators:
Diplomatic network reach + Diplomatic weight + Vocality + Message efficiency + Global country visibility + Format proficiency + Momentum + Diplomatic centrality + Leader traction + Language diversification

The three subindexes presented on the main page are also based on weight-adjusted combinations of indicators as follows:

• Visibility Index: Diplomatic network reach + Vocality + Global country visibility + Language diversification
• Engagement Index: Message efficiency + Format proficiency
• Diplomatic Traction Index: Diplomatic weight + Momentum + Diplomatic centrality

What is digital diplomacy?

As traditional closed-door diplomacy faces increasing pressure from the rise of online media and the additional exposure it entails for every diplomatic entity, social media platforms and the worldwide conversation they generate are rapidly gaining in importance in the way world affairs are perceived and conducted.

Countries and their representatives are not mere bystanders of this change: in recent years, they have embraced it and modernized their approach to diplomacy by setting up their own digital channels of communication and seeking to enhance the visibility of some of their main leaders online.

This phenomenon is behind the rise of what is called “digital diplomacy”: the efforts deployed by countries and their representatives to take advantage of new possibilities offered by online communication tools in order advance their strategic aims and strengthen their reputation among foreign countries.

• first, Twitter is more closely connected to the traditional media system as tweets tend to be cited in the traditional press much more often than posts from other platforms;
• second, the volume of conversations and numbers of followers tend to be higher on Twitter than on other platforms for diplomatic accounts;
• third, Twitter tends to draw more international attention when compared to platforms such as Facebook, the latter being used more often for officials to communicate with their own population;
• fourth, countries often have a more developed set of diplomatic accounts on Twitter than on other platforms.