NEW YORK — Narendra Modi has been dubbed the most effective world leader on Instagram, according to new research from Burson-Marsteller.

The second annual edition of the World Leaders on Instagram study analyzes the activity of 325 Instagram accounts over the past 12 months, finding that 73 heads of state, 38 heads of government and 28 foreign ministers have personal Instagram pages. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi replaces former US President Barack Obama in top spot with 6.8m followers, followed by President Trump with 6.3m followers. However, the Trump administration has only posted 33 times, and since the transition the account has lost more than 100k followers as Obama supporters have unfollowed the Trump White House Instagram account.

Regardless, President Trump tops the most interactive world leaders ranking with 114,554,016 total interactions. He is followed by Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in second place, with 89,090,894 interactions and Pope Francis with 45,408,641 interactions

Indeed, Pope Francis is in third place overall with 3.7m followers, ahead of the White House account with 3.4m followers. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has seen a 673% growth in his followers over the past 12 months, putting him in fifth position with 3.4m followers.

"Burson-Marsteller's second installment of the World Leaders on Instagram study demonstrates the popularity and effectiveness of visual communications in the public sector," said Don Baer, worldwide chair and CEO of the firm. "Leaders around the world are creating online communications that convey global social and political context while also sharing a sense of personality and creativity. Leaders of business and all other sectors can learn from governments' use of Instagram."

The number of world leaders utilizing the social media platform has increased since 2016, although many could learn from Modi's engagement on the platform. Each of the Indian PM's 53 posts received an average of 223k comments and likes. The Government of Brunei has the most active account, posting an average of 16 times a day. In total, 140 of the 193 United Nation member states have official Instagram accounts, four more than in 2016. 

The 325 accounts had a combined total of 48m followers and published 61,281 posts that generated a total of 371.7m comments, likes and shares. 

Burson-Marsteller used aggregate data from CrowdTangle, a five-year-old tool recently acquired by Facebook that tracks how content spreads and monitors social media.