Angela Merkel saw growth in her Facebook fanbase over 2015, gaining over 700,000 new fans. Her most engaging posts were holiday greetings and comments on welcoming refugees to Germany. A social media analysis found that Merkel's posts covered a range of topics from current news to campaigns and the EU. Her Twitter network related to terrorism centered around discussions of terrorism, ISIS, and refugees. An analysis of online conversations found Merkel discussed as a strong leader, especially around her stance on welcoming refugees to Germany.

1. Rome,
March 2016
PRIME “SOCIAL” MINISTERS
A SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYSIS OF 6 EUROPEAN LEADERS
ANGELA MERKEL FOCUS

2. What is a social media analysis?
• The collection and analysis of datas coming from the official social media profiles of the politicians considered.
Subjects of analysis
• Profiles considered: Facebook, Twitter and Youtube (benchmark only) official profiles of 6 european politicians: Matteo Renzi,
Alexis Tsipras (for twitter @tsipras_eu had been considered among the two profiles), Angela Merkel, Mariano Rajoy, François
Hollande, David Cameron.
• Popularity: analysis of fan/follower base: trend evolution, days with main growth, demographics and geolocalisation
characteristics and fanbase interests;
• Content Analysis: qualitative and quantitative analysis of the posting made by the politicians;
• Engagement: analysis of the interactions received by the politician’s posts/accounts;
• Twitter network: connections network around the leaders’ twitter profiles;
• Reach Twitter: potential reach of the twitter profiles.
• Online Reputation Monitoring: a quali-quantitative analysis on the conversations on the 6 politicians outside their official social
media profiles.
Period taken into consideration.
• January - December 2015
INTRODUCTION
2

3. The Twitter and Facebook profiles of the political leaders have been analysed mainly focusing on three different perspectives.
Popularity: the size of the fan/follower base had been measured on the the first day of each month from January to December 2015.
Two different focuses have then been analyzed on social media channels: the interests of the most active Facebook fans are shown in
a map of the other pages they have been active on whereas Twitter followers gave us insights on demographic data (sex ratio
calculated on a 5k sample for each profile) and on geolocalisation of the users that did interact with the political leader in the month
of January 2016.
Analysis of the entirety of content published online by political leaders provides qualitative and quantitative insights on their social
media behavior. Besides the mere quantitative metrics, the different posting styles, main topics dealt with and different kind of posts
have been analyzed.
Engagement: to retrieve data on how engaging the contents published by political leaders are and compare it in spite of the fan/
follower bases size differences, the index that has been chosen is the engagement rate per 1000 fans/followers. On Facebook the
engagement is calculated from Likes, Comments and Shares, whereas on Twitter it’s the Retweets, Replies and Likes that have been
included. Furthermore, the Twitter Reach has been calculated to figure how many users each political leaders can actually reach with
their tweets (the reach has been analyzed on a week-long time sample).
METHODOLOGY
3

4. Furthermore, a social network connections analysis on the politicians’ twitter handles, has been carried out taking into
consideration the total number of mentions received by every profile during 2015 in the five languages: italian, english, spanish,
german, french.*
An additional analysis of this kind has been made on every politician considering the terrorism-related mentions received: that
means tweets both containing a mention to the leader (#merkel for Angela Merkel that doesn’t have an official twitter profile) and
almost one terrorism-related keyword in the five language of analysis (terrorismo, terrorism, terrorisme, terrorismus…).
The analysis is enriched by a focus on the leaders’ online reputation (results outside the social media owned profiles) that, along with
a quantitative/trend analysis on the online conversations, presents a qualitative part on the most discussed topics and on the
sentiment of every politician on the whole 2015 year as a result of a manual analysis of over 10.000 in topic tweets.
Among the different tools used to carry out the analysis for the different “chapters”: Radian6, Talkwalker, SocialBakers,
FanpageKarma, Gephi…
METHODOLOGY/2
4
*sample: 10.000 contents per every week ordering the users per follower number

5. 2015 INTERNATIONAL KEY EVENTS
5
January February March April May June July August September October
7th:
Charlie
Hebdo
Attack
18th:
Bardo
National
Museum
Attack
2nd:
Garissa
University
Attack
7th:
General
Elections
14th:
Local
Elections
5th:
Grexit
Referendum
14th:
Agreement
for a Third
Greek
Bailout
3rd:
Syrian Child
Aylan
Drowns
31st:
Russian
Plane Crash
in Sina
November December
13th:
Paris Terror
Attacks
20th:
General
Elections
24th:
German
wings
Plane
Crash
25th:
Earthquake
19th:
Mediter-
ranean
Migrant
Shipwreck
23rd:
Special EU
Council on
Migrant
Crisis
31st:
Local
Elections
26th:
Sousse
Attack
12th:
Agreement
at EU
Summit on
Greece Debt
14th:
Iran
Nuclear
Deal
23rd:
Special
EU Council
on Immigration
18th:
Volkswagen
Emissions
Scandal
24th:
Mecca Haji’s
Stampede
24th:
Russian
Warplane
Shot down
by Turkish
Army
12th:
Climate
Change
Agreement
at COP21
Conference
28th:
EU
Referendum
Act
Introduced in
the House of
Commons
28th:
EU
Referendum
Act
Introduced in
the House of
Commons
20th:
General
Elections

6. 6
POPULARITY

7. FACEBOOK ANALYSIS
POPULARITY
7

8. ANGELA MERKEL - POPULARITY
8
+2.032,95
Average Change of Fans per Day
+742.025
Total Change of fans
in the period
1.681.381
Jan. -> Dec. 2015
900.000
1.100.000
1.300.000
1.500.000
1.700.000
1 Jan 1 Feb 1 Mar 1 Apr 1 May 1 Jun 1 Jul 1 Aug 1 Sep 1 Oct 1 Nov 1 Dec 1 Jan
Fanbase on 31st of December
There’s a peak in September, after Mrs. Merkel statements about welcoming refugees running away from conflicts. The second country of origin of new
likes is Iraq, the third Egypt. In particular, the fans coming from these 2 countries liked the page during Q4 of 2015.
N. of Likers

9. 9
3rd Sep. 2015
+ 42,1k
Fans change in the day
Jan. -> Dec. 2015
ANGELA MERKEL - DAILY MAX. GROWTH IN FANS
Image Source

10. ANGELA MERKEL - FANBASE INTERESTS
10
Jan. -> Dec. 2015
Strong links with both european/US
politicians and institutions (US
Department of State, David Cameron,
EU parliament)
The most active fans of the page are also active fans on the linked pages in the graph.

11. 11
CONTENT

12. QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
CONTENT
12

13. ANGELA MERKEL - PUBLISHED POSTS ON FACEBOOK
13
Status Photo Link Video Album
0
7
6
19
10
0,8
42
Published posts
Average published posts
per week
Jan. -> Dec. 2015
25
of the total were
promoted posts
Promoted posts were over the 50% of the total post in the period. They seem to have been used mainly for fan acquisition purposes

14. TOPICS AND POSTING STYLE QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
CONTENT
14

15. ANGELA MERKEL - TOPICS
15
Campaigning
Immigration
European Union
Other (10%)
37%
12%
8%
• Innovation
• Foreign politics
Jan. -> Dec. 2015
Current news/Comments32%
• The leader is present on Facebook but not on
Twitter, posting is sporadic;
• Slight focus on migrant crisis but the choice
of topics appears to be random,and it’s
uneasy to identify a strategy;
• Soft political campaigning and visibility
given on the leader’s party conventions.

16. ANGELA MERKEL - MONTH BY MONTH PUBLISHED POSTS TOPICS
16
0
5
10
15
20
25
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Campaigning (57%)
Current news (43%)
Campaigning (100%)
Current news (100%)
Current news (67%)
Campaigning (33%)
Current news (100%)
Current news (33%)
Foreign politics (33%)
Digital (17%)
EU (100%)
Campaigning (50%)
Digital (50%)
Immigration (80%)
EU (20%) Campaigning (67%)
Current news (33%)
Campaigning (50%)
Current news (25%)
EU (13%)
Green light for Syrian Refugees to claim
asylum in Germany
Most Recurring topic: Current News
Monthly
Post %
The monthly percentage is calculated on the total of the 12 months of analysis (100%).

17. ANGELA MERKEL - POSTING STYLE
17
• Despite the small amount of posts published on
Angela Merkel’s Facebook page some trends can
be noticed: almost half of the posts include a
picture.
• There are some text-only posts, mainly official
statements pasted on the Chancellor’s profile,
and few links of her interviews with media
outlets.
• The quality of images and visual elements made
for anniversaries or recurring events, such as
the Mother's Day, show however a poor visual
strategy.
Jan. -> Dec. 2015

18. 18
ENGAGEMENT

19. FACEBOOK ENGAGEMENT
ENGAGEMENT
19

20. ANGELA MERKEL - ENGAGEMENT
20
Jan. -> Dec. 2015
Average post engagement:
9.983 Comments
17.708 Like
1.312 Shares
5%
34%
61%
Like
Comments
Shares
1.215.210
Total interactions
42
published posts
23,57Engagement Rate
Average tweet interactions
per 1.000 fans*
*Considering the average post interaction per 1.000 fans allows to compare pages with very different fanbase numbers.

21. ANGELA MERKEL - TOP 3 POST PER ENGAGEMENT
21
Liebe Facebook-Fans, ich wünsche Ihnen
und Ihren Familien ein frohes Osterfest und
schöne Feiertage. /am
78.494Like
5th April 2015
https://www.facebook.com/matteorenziufficiale/posts/
Comments
Share
14.097
4.683
55.834Like
10th May 2015
https://www.facebook.com/matteorenziufficiale/posts/
Comments
Share
14.313
5.431
Angela Merkel wünscht Ihnen und Ihren
Familien ein gesegnetes Weihnachtsfest. /
redaktion
61.468Like
23rd December 2015
https://www.facebook.com/matteorenziufficiale/posts/
Comments
Share
20.406
10.633
Jan. -> Dec. 2015

22. 22
TWITTER NETWORKS

23. METHODOLOGY - TWITTER NETWORKS
23
Social network analysis allows us to map a twitter network starting from a list of nodes (the points visualised on the net show a
single user or hashtag) and a list of relations (any connection shown with an arrow is a mention) through the use of different
softwares that give the possibility to choose within different representation procedures (layout algorithm) in order to organize the
network and nodes distances according to various criteria.
Nodes, labels and arrows dimensions reflect the number of entry connections (mentions), and give an idea of the relevant user/
hashtag related with the analysed topic.
Sample: Every leader’s network have been realised by extracting a sample of tweets (during 2015) containing a direct mention to the
leader’s account adding the total of the tweets published by the leader. Sampling procedure extracted a max of 10.000 tweet per
week ordered by user’s followers. After the sampling procedure retweets have been excluded.

24. #terrorism
#europe
#pegida
#controlourborders
#islamification
#isis
#refugeecrisis
#muslims
#racism
@telegraph
@gpmonitor
#merkel
#brussels
#bankenkrises
#eurocrisis
#europeancouncil
#greferendum
@openeurope
@tsipras_eu
@terrorismus
@theeconomist
#paris
#prayforparis
#parisisburning
#parisshooting
#terrorismo
#russia
#syria
#dontbombsyria
#egypt
#war
@eunewsit
#terrorismus
#ukraine
#jesuisukraine
#leaders
#agreement
#discussed
@groehe
@swrinfo
@spdde
GREEK CRISIS
NATIONAL SECURITY
TERROR ATTACKS
UKRAINE CRISIS
#merkel
#terrorismus
#ukraine
#nsa
#usa
#paris
#terrorismo
#syria
#russia
#isis
#terrorism
#pegida
#islam
#muslims
#ue
#europe
ANGELA MERKEL - TWITTER NETWORK ON TERRORISM
24
Source: Twitter
Language: Italian, English, German, Spanish, French
Keyword: #merkel &
Terrorismo, Terrorism, Terrorisme,
Terrorismus
Period: January - December 2015
Number of tweets: 533
Top mentioned user:
@regsprecher
@wolf_schauble
@1001ptsde
Top Hashtag:
#merkel
#terrorism
#isis
Network showed above represents 38% of total network, selecting the 4 biggest clusters.
User or Hashtag
Mention
Legend:
Cluster
Most mentioned
Less mentioned

25. 25
ONLINE REPUTATION MONITORING
(ITALIAN & ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

26. METHODOLOGY - ONLINE REPUTATION MONITORING (ORM)
26
Quantitative analysis: Trend & Channel distribution
Period: January - December 2015
Source: Online news, Social Networks, Blog, Forum
Keywords: Every leaders’ Name and Surname (e.g. Matteo Renzi)
Qualitative analysis: Tag Cloud, Topics distribution & Sentiment analysis
Period: January - December 2015
Source: Twitter
Keywords: Every leaders’ Name and Surname (e.g. Matteo Renzi)
Minimum follower number: 2.000
Sample Methodology:
Twitter contents has been divided into 2 different clusters:
Tweets published by users with a follower base within 2.000 and 500.000.
Tweets published by users with over 500.000 followers.
The difference between the two clusters match the relevance of users on the twitter network, in particular, the 2nd cluster
represents mainstream news and notorious persons handles.
A total of 10.000 tweets have been analysed by extracting a random sample with the following numeric characteristics:
3.000 contents for Renzi and Cameron (2.000 from the 1st cluster and 1.000 from the 2nd cluster)
1.000 contents for Hollande, Merkel, Rajoy and Tsipras (700 from the 1st cluster 300 from the 2nd cluster).

27. ANGELA MERKEL - NUMBER OF RESULTS & TREND
27
0
50.000
100.000
150.000
January Febrary March April May June July August September October November December
Jan. -> Dec. 2015
July 2015
Greek crisis and
Debt discussion
Monthly Results
Highest month
Period
909.407Total contents
Perimeter: Online news, Social Networks, Blog, Forum content containing leaders’ name in one of this languages: EN, IT. Media Owned and Retweets excluded. Period Jan-Dec 2015

28. ANGELA MERKEL - SOURCES DISTRIBUTION & TAG CLOUD
28
Social
64%
News
21%
Blog
12%
You Tube
3%
SOURCES TAG CLOUD
Perimeter: Online news, Social Networks, Blog, Forum content containing leaders’ name in one of this languages: EN, IT. Media Owned and Retweets excluded. Period Jan-Dec 2015

29. ANGELA MERKEL - TOPICS & SENTIMENT
29
HOT TOPICS SENTIMENT
Strong Leader
Strong Woman in life5%
90%
5%
Greek crisis and debt
Foreign Politics (Ukraine crisis, EU)
Immigration and Refugees policies
Nominated TIME person of the year
Immigration/Refugees statements (every EU
nation should take a quota of refugees)
Satire on the leader (persona)
Satire on personal life
Immigration/Refugees
Greek crisis
Generic Criticism/Approval
Other (32%)
16%
14%
11%
19%
Official Meetings8%
• Official meetings
• Foreign politics
• Actuality news
• European Union
Perimeter: Sentiment and topics are on Twitter results containing leaders’ name in one of this languages: EN, IT. Media Owned and Retweets excluded. Period Jan-Dec 2015

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