According to a new study done by PR firm Burson-Marsteller, two-thirds of the world’s leaders have joined Twitter, including 16 members of the G-20. But while Twitter is a powerful tool, it has its limits and will never replace traditional diplomacy.

In embassies and chancelleries the world over, ediplomacy seems to be the new rock & roll. Perhaps we have even reached the point, to bastardise Aneurin Bevan's classic quote about unilateral nuclear disarmament, where to deprive a foreign secretary or ambassador of a Twitter account is to send him naked into the conference chamber. Last week, DFAT finally lifted its ambassadorial tweeting embargo, signaling an end to a culture of online reticence that was starting to cop some flak.

A new study finds almost two-thirds of world leaders now have a Twitter account, but many don't bother to follow each other. The "Twiplomacy" study Thursday by PR firm Burson-Marsteller says President Barack Obama is the most-followed world leader, including by 76 of his peers and other governments.

Bodies like the Sahitya Akademi, the Lalit Kala Akademi and the National Gallery of Modern Art opened their accounts on popular social media site Facebook some nine months ago. And while their pages are not very exciting, to get them moving in this direction was a feat in itself, accomplished largely due to the efforts of Abhay Kumar, former Deputy Secretary, Public Diplomacy, in the External Affairs Ministry, whose personal interest motivates him to keep nudging a sluggish bureaucracy.

The symposium's two panels discussed the ways the United States could use technology to find and respond to atrocities. But in the high-profile use of social media during the Arab Spring, individuals in volatile political situations used their cellphones, the Internet and social media to highlight violence in their countries.

The London Olympics have been dubbed the first "social media Games" with sports fans and athletes heavy users of Facebook, Twitter and the video-sharing site YouTube to talk about events as they happen and show them immediately.

One of the main weaknesses of the European Union's projects in the field of relations with its eastern neighbourhood is the lack of a specific offer that would help the ordinary citizen of a neighbouring state understand and feel the benefits of European integration. This is especially evident in the case of Ukraine, the biggest and the most significant country in the EU's Eastern Partnership initiative.

How to win hearts and minds in the international political arena? Use social media. From Facebook to Twitter, social media extends the shelf life of government-funded appearances by U.S. artists deployed to such diplomatically sensitive areas as Libya, Iraq and Pakistan.