Who follows Volodymyr Zelenskyy?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the virtual meeting of G7 leaders on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s attack against Ukraine pleading for continued support in the fight for his country.
While all G7 leaders pledged support for Ukraine, not all are giving him their full digital support: only five of the nine G7 members follow Zelensky on Instagram, namely @EmmanuelMacron, @GiorgiaMeloni, @RishiSunakMP, @CharlesMichel, and @UrsulaVonDerLeyen.
Canada’s @JustinpjTrudeau – although an outspoken supporter of Ukraine, German @Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz and most surprisingly – @POTUS @JoeBiden do not follow the Ukrainian President despite being unilaterally followed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy who has 17 million followers on the platform. Zelenskyy does not yet have any digital relation with Japanese Prime Minister @Fumio_Kishida who holds the G7 presidency. The two men are not yet mutually connected on Instagram.
On Twitter the Ukrainian President is giving all other leaders the cold shoulder, only following his wife Olena @ZelenskaUA. However, six G7 members are among his 7.7 million followers including German @Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz, @EmmanuelMacron, @GiorgiaMeloni, @RishiSunak, @CharlesMichel, and Ursula @vonderLeyen. Again Canadian Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau, Japanese Prime Minister @Kishida230 and the US President’s accounts @POTUS @JoeBiden do not follow Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On Facebook the Ukrainian President follows 36 other pages including @JustinPJTrudeau who hasn’t returned the favour yet. Good digital relations on social are a sign of respect and close cooperation. While Zelenskyy is consistenly mentioning other world leaders in tweets, he would be well advised to follow his peers on social media to show the close digital cooperation.