This Article is From Oct 02, 2014

Modi Woos U.S. Fans On Facebook

Modi Woos U.S. Fans On Facebook

PM Modi with US Congressmen and Senators at Madison Square Garden in New York (Press Trust of India photo)

Derek Willis, The New York Times: The social media prowess of Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, isn't restricted to his home country. He has more Facebook fans in the United States than most current members of Congress, governors and other political candidates.

Modi's U.S. Facebook base of 170,529 as of Wednesday is larger than that of all but 21 U.S. elected officials and current candidates, according to Social Bakers, a site that tracks social media accounts. He even has more U.S. Facebook fans than Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey and potential presidential candidate, or Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader from Nevada.

Some of this is because Modi waged an election campaign this year. He used social media in that campaign and employed it as an important part of his communication strategy once in office. His popularity among people of Indian descent in the United States was vividly displayed by the reception he got at a sold-out Madison Square Garden event Sunday.

Members of Congress at the event received boosts on Twitter after posting pictures of themselves with him. Six of  the eight biggest gains in Twitter followers among lawmakers that day were for people at the event, including Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, the House's first Hindu, who got at least 767 new followers the day after posting a picture of herself with Modi.

Most of Modi's followers come from India, which has the second-largest number of Facebook users. He also has at least 10,000 Facebook fans from 21 countries, including Egypt, the Philippines and Pakistan, where his 94,553 Facebook fans outnumber the Americans who follow Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. About 3.3 million people in the United States claim Indian ancestry, the Census Bureau says.

There are U.S. politicians who have a bigger social media base. Barack Obama, who has more Facebook fans outside the United States (37.8 million) than inside it (15.1 million), tops the list. It also includes Rick Perry, the Republican governor of Texas, and the two candidates seeking to replace him: the Democrat Wendy Davis and the Republican Greg Abbott. Jan Brewer, the Republican governor of Arizona, who is not eligible to run for re-election this year, also outpaces Modi.
© 2014, The New York Times News Service
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