@MeaIndia in numbers: There is more to its 140 characters

or President Barack Obama’s visit to India, @MEAIndia has kept us in the loop at a time when even 24/7 news channels had their ear to the ground. Managed by the MEA spokesperson, this account has become a repository of information in 140 characters.

We take a look at the numbers behind MEA’s Twitter handle:

@MEAIndia tweet history.

According to Twitter analytics tool Twitonomy, MEAIndia has tweeted on a average of 10.03 times every day in the last one year. The most number of tweets from the handle in a single day was seen on June 21st, the International Day of Yoga. Vikas Swarup, the current MEA spokesperson, sent 72 tweets, mostly pictures of people doing yoga in different parts of the world, on that day.

Last day at work usually provides rare opportunities. In my case, a selfie with an indulgent PM @narendramodi. pic.twitter.com/4ekxE9vK2w

— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) April 18, 2015

But the honour of the most retweeted tweet came under former MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, who was succeeded by Swarup. It was a selfie taken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Akbaruddin’s last day as a MEA spokesperson. It was retweeted 3,689 times and favourited 3,298 times. Akbaruddin, who was appointed by UPA government, surprisingly lasted close to a year under PM Modi before passing on the reins.

Across 2 continents, Istanbul, Turkey celebrated the First #InternationalDayofYoga pic.twitter.com/wTdTcwoqOX

— Vikas Swarup (@MEAIndia) June 22, 2015

Ever since its Twitter debut in December, 2011, the MEA’s timeline has always remained very rich in media as it shadows the prime minister or the External Affairs minister on their foreign tours. It has a decent level of engagement as well with 2,246 user mentions and 379 replies in the last one year. During the same time period, 2,724 tweets from the handle were retweeted 441,287 times making it the most valuable source of information.