It's nothing new that governments and politicians around the world are using social media as a means of communication with the public.

US president Barack Obama is probably the politician who is most adept at them. During his presidential campaign, it is said that Obama generated three million donors from his website www.barackobama.com, and that two million people were passionate enough to create profiles on a customized section on the website, on which they received direct messages from the then presidential hopeful and were involved in a series of interactive events. Obama lists no fewer than 16 social media sites upon he has a presence, including MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. He used sites like Flickr and YouTube to distribute his "message of hope" during all rounds of his campaigns and even friended people on Facebook. It is reported that he could connect with specific ethnic groups through MiGente (Latinos), BlackPlanet (African-Americans), Glee ("gay, lesbian and everyone else") and others.

Known as a Blackberry addict, President Obama and his team update various social media pages several times a day. His Facebook page has more than 18 million fans. He is following some 700 thousand people on Twitter while more than 6.7 million people are following him.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, United Kingdoms Queen Elizabeth II and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez all have Facebook pages on which they directly interact with people.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev maintains a video blog where he speaks about political issues. While his predecessor, current Russian Prime Minister Vladmir Putin, is famous for posting personal pictures to his official website now and then. People have seen him practicing judo which is his favorite sport, piloting an aircraft, or even shooting a tiger during a hunting trip.

Hong Kong officials are quite keen on using social media. Apart from Chief Executive Donald Tsang, who uses more social media outlets than anyone else, Financial Secretary John Tsang, Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing and Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury's K. C. Chan update their blogs regularly, while several under secretaries and political assistants have Facebook pages.

"All the officials carry Blackberries or other smart phones 24/7," Ronald Chan says. "Everybody is attached to the Internet all the time."

(HK Edition 02/25/2011 page4)