In a first, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the 18th National e-Governance Conference via Twitter. Yes, via Twitter! The live Twitter address revolved around the Prime Minister’s vision of a Digital India and going to the next level as far as e-Governance and mobile governance is concerned. He also expressed hope that the conference would emerge as a focal point for innovation ideas that will help the Nation.
This was yet another innovative approach that has become characteristic of the Prime Minister. Such innovations were seen before, during and after the visit of the President of the United States too. Infact, the US President’s visit for the Republic Day started and culminated on the virtual world of twitter! It was on social media that the PM broke the news of the visit and it was on social media that he bid farewell.
This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over…invited President Obama to be the 1st US President to grace the occasion as Chief Guest.— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 21, 2014
.@narendramodi: President Obama looks forward to celebrating Republic Day in New Delhi with you: https://t.co/70cQ7rpppf— The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 21, 2014
Like his earlier foreign visits and visits by foreign leaders, the Prime Minister kept the nation updated about the visit through social media.
POTUS: I want to express my profound gratitude to @NarendraModi & the people of #India for the incredible hospitality shown to me & Michelle— WH National Security (@NSCPress) January 25, 2015
Thank you @NarendraModi for a memorable visit, and to the Indian people for their warm welcome. #India -bo— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 27, 2015
Prime Minister even took to twitter and replied back to @WhiteHouse.
Farewell @WhiteHouse! Your visit has taken India-USA ties to a new level & opened a new chapter. Wish you a safe journey.— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 27, 2015
This gesture of Shri Modi replying back was appreciated across social media.The farewell tweet to @WhiteHouse got incredible response on the twitter world.
It did not stop there. Shri Narendra Modi joined SoundCloud just before the Republic Day. He shared special edition of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ between him and the US President Barack Obama via SoundCloud. Within a couple of days of becoming active on Sound Cloud, Shri Modi was followed by more than 1500 fans on SoundCloud, which is an impressive number. The number of plays is over 300,000!.
There were thousands of downloads and ‘Mann Ki Baat’ was played on by lakhs of people on SoundCloud alone. There were millions who listened to the special edition of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on various online media. Shri Modi became the world's first leader to send out an audio-video tweet, when he shared an excerpt from his speech at the NCC parade. The excerpt from his NCC speech was also shared on Facebook as a native video, which became an instant hit.
@TwitterIndia too recognised the innovation done by Prime Minister, Shri Modi.
Another @narendramodi #TwitterFirst Audio & Video Tweets from the PM https://t.co/7rmVW6BWmJ https://t.co/gd0CoG9HfO pic.twitter.com/Xq7yx3yYxi— Twitter India (@TwitterIndia) January 28, 2015
Last November, the Prime Minister, came up on Instagram as well. He received a wonderful welcome over there too. He has been posting a few photos over there for quite some time. The Instagram post that was made by him on January 26th was a fabulous hit. The post saw more than 37,000 likes and about 800 comments.
Also, with just ten updates in the recent week, the PM’s Facebook page noticed a substantial rise in traffic. Shri Modi’s photo of welcoming the US President and First Lady created ripples across social media platforms and received highest number of likes, shares and comments on Facebook. The reach of the photo stands at over 28, 400,000. The moment was such that even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ‘liked’ it. Apart from this, Shri Modi’s photo with US President Obama at Hyderabad House was another pleasant moment for all his admirers. The picture received more than a million likes. Shri Modi’s album, ‘A cup of tea with President Obama’ was a great hit too. The album was most clicked post and received about 15 lakh likes and a reach of 11,000,000.
The record numbers were seen on other digital properties as well. On Shri Narendra Modi’s YouTube channel, the total number of subscribers on Shri Modi’s channel rose significantly. Shri Modi receiving the US President and Shri Modi holding the joint press conference with President Obama turned out to be the most appreciated videos of the lot.
The website of Shri Narendra Modi- www.narendramodi.in too witnessed a surge in numbers. The special Mann Ki Baat page on the website: www.narendramodi.in/mannkibaat noted over 1, 70,000 visits.
The Prime Minister is truly a believer in the power of social media and technology to communicate with people across the globe. With that kind of reach Shri Narendra Modi has taken a giant leap in the domain.
