Latin America sees massive growth in use of social media

Описание: (21 Aug 2013) Twitter has become a crucial communications tool for many presidents in Latin America.
The region has experienced a double-digit growth in the use of social media and is now the second largest user, worldwide, behind only the United States, according to study by George Washington University.
From the release of a new political plan, to discussions with other leaders, Twitter helps Latin American leaders get their message accross to their country's citizens and the international community much faster.
The Twitter queen of Latin America, President Cristina Fernandez, who almost never gives interviews or takes questions from reporters, often uses Twitter account.
Her official account claims 2,254,383 followers.
One time she sent more than 60 tweets in a single day after a large protest by thousands of Argentines critical of her government.
She has attacked her political opponents and media outlets through Twitter, accusing them of twisting the truth and defaming her.
But then, there are lighter Tweets: pictures with Pope Francis, boxing champion Sergio Martinez, and her hugging a crying woman.
She's even tweeted her musings over a favourite TV show.
"I'm a fan of the series Games of Thrones. I love it," Fernandez tweeted on April 28.
In a long departure from Fidel Castro's four-hour speeches, Twitter's 140 characters or less have become one of the main communication tools for presidents throughout Latin America.
An example of this was seen when Bolivia's Evo Morales' plane was grounded in Vienna, Austria.
"I call Evo. On the other side of the line, his calm voice answers: "Hello partner, how are you? He's asking me how I am!" Tweeted Fernandez after the incident.
The move not only caused uproar among many of the region's leaders, but they used the platform to immediately express their disapproval.
"I'm in contact with Evo," tweeted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. "All international immunities that protect heads of state have been violated for the empire's obsession."
Although Latin Americans leaders only started to tweet recently they have, in short time, outperformed most of their European counterparts in popularity.
According to 'Twiplomacy', a study prepared by the PR Firm Burson-Marsteller ranking the 50 leaders with the most twitter followers in the world, Latin American heads of State were comfortably among the top 20.
President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos was ranked in 12th place with 1,975,183 followers, with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff just behind in 14th with 1,865,242, and Maduro trailing in 20th position with 1.208.349.
Fernandez with her 2,113,418 followers just crept into the top 10.
Now, think tanks, political parties, media organisations, among others, have to monitor closely the dozens of Twitter handles the government uses.
Just as his predecessor the late Hugo Chavez, whose Twitter handle still has more than 4 (m) million followers, Maduro uses Twitter more than any other media to communicate with the people.
Venezuelan officials "don't communicate first by television, radio or a speech, but through Twitter," said Javier Pereira, Venezuela's El Nacional newspaper website coordinator. "That has caused us to be alert, monitoring constantly."
In a highly divided country like Venezuela, being able to influence the social media space is key.
Almost one out of four Venezuelans living in the country use Twitter regularly, according to comScore.
The South American nation, along with Brazil and Argentina, ranks among the world's top ten in the use of the social network.

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