East African Community (EAC) secretary general, Richard Sezibera, is the most interactive leader of any global political organisation on popular social network Twitter, reveals a study.

The EAC is a regional intergovernmental organisation for Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. It is headquartered in Arusha, Tanzania.

Meanwhile, the study titled "Twiplomacy" was conducted by international public relations and communications firm, Burson-Marsteller, and it found that more than 65% Sezibera’s tweets are @replies to other users.

Sezibera currently has more than 8,000 Twitter followers on his @rsezibera account.

According to the study all leading international organisations have a Twitter account, and half of their leaders have active personal accounts on the social network.

Using data taken in November 2013 from 223 accounts of 101 international organisations and their leaders, the study looked at over 50 variables using a tool dubbed ‘Twitonomy’.

The study was also able to identify to what extent world leaders, governments and international organisations use Twitter.

Overall, international organisations are less conversational than their leaders with the notable exception of @Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation, which has been answering questions about flight delays since the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland disrupted air travel across Europe in 2010, reveals Burson-Marsteller in a press statement.

Burson-Marsteller’s worldwide chair and chief executive officer Don Baer said, “Understanding the use and application of social media is now essential to effective strategic communications efforts.”

Jeremy Galbraith, chief executive officer of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa explained, “This study illustrates how organisations can use Twitter in a novel way with the innovative use of hashtags, Twitter Q&As and direct message campaigns that have can make a big impact regardless of the number of their followers.”

“It is interesting to see that while half of the heads of international organisations have personal Twitter accounts, few tweet themselves,” he added.

Other findings indicate that the United Nations Children's Fund (@UNICEF) is the most followed international organisation with more than two million followers.

The @UNICEF account is also the second most effective organisation after the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (@CERN). Both organisations’ tweets are retweeted on average more than 100 times.

50 heads of international organisations have personal Twitter accounts that are either managed personally or with their teams, it was stated in the press release.