Spanish Government's Twitter account (@desdelamoncloa) now has more than 200,000 followers

News - 2012.7.16

@desdelamoncloa passes 200,000 user milestone, putting it among the top institutional accounts in Spain and Europe. The Government of Spain's @desdelamoncloa Twitter profile now has more than 200,000 followers. This number means the Government's account is among the most popular Twitter accounts set up by Spanish institutions, second only to that of the Spanish National Police Force.

@desdelamoncloa also has more followers than other major institutional accounts set up around the world, clearly demonstrating the interest in the Government of Spain that exists on the social networks.

The Government of Spain has been on Twitter since July 2009 and amassed 145,000 followers between then and December 2011. That number has risen to 200,000 since the start of this new legislature, an increase of 55,000 new followers in less than seven months (37.93%).

200,000 followers on Twitter (@desdelamoncloa), more than 60,000 YouTube video viewings (youtube.com/user/lamoncloa), an average 18,000 daily hits on the Moncloa Palace website (www.lamoncloa.gob.es) and more than 14 million pages visited.

These figures represent the Government's commitment to promoting communication, knowledge and the transparency of public decisions via the Internet.

Influence on the social networks

The @desdelamoncloa profile has not only increased its number of followers but has also been gaining influence on the social networks.

A comparative study between the Internet 2.0 tools used by various European governments shows that @desdelamoncloa is one of the top-ranking profiles based on the number of followers and influence on the Internet, ahead of such other profiles as @Elysee (the official Twitter account of the French Government) and @KremlinRussia (the official Twitter account of the Russian Government).

Various measurement tools indicate that the Moncloa Palace account is the third most influential on a list of other western governments, only behind those of the White House and Downing Street.

Klout, one of the most well-known tools to measure influence on social networks, gives the Twitter account of Moncloa Palace an influence rating of 72%.

Furthermore, according to the "Twitter Transparency Report" by Klout, the Government of Spain is one of those that make the least demands on Twitter to hand over information about its users. The company states that a total of 849 governmental requests for information were made, of which 679 came from the US Government, 98 from Japan, 11 from Canada and 11 from the United Kingdom. Countries such as Mexico, Spain and Peru made fewer than 10 such requests.

The 2012 report from the United Nations on the development of online presence by governmental institutions around the world indicates that, in terms of Internet presence, the Government of Spain continues to lead the group of southern European countries. The report also highlights the ease with which the website can be browsed and the fact it is offered in other languages.