The wonders of Incredible India are now available on the popular video sharing website Youtube. The public diplomacy division of the external affairs ministry's Youtube channel called 'Indiandiplomacy', will now feature films from the ministry's archives to showcase India's cultural diversity.

“New media and connective technologies enhance our ability to listen…Social media provides new ways for us to keep our ear to the ground,” said McHale. “Of course, we are not interested in developing social media platforms for the sake of having them. We are interested in applying social media to promote our strategic objectives in the Americas.”

Officials at Sweden's tourism board agreed to hand over control of their @sweden Twitter feed in December to a different Swedish citizen each week. The project -- billed as "the world's most democratic Twitter account" -- has so far been hugely popular, featuring a female priest, an advertising executive and an organic sheep farmer.

Terrorist organizations have found a dual use for Facebook: recruitment of new members and an intelligence gathering platform. The social media is enabling the terror organizations to take initiatives by making ‘friend’ requests, uploading video clips. By using these tools, the organizations are able to be active in recruiting new friends without geographical limitations.

Mass media, in its different forms, has been used by the State to manufacture consent or create dissent in other countries. The former involves media management, the latter is more in the nature of psychological warfare used in peace time, indeed at all times, as an exercise of soft power.

If you could tweet on behalf of your country -- what would you say? In Sweden, one citizen per week is getting the chance to tweet from the nation's official @Sweden Twitter account. The goal of the campaign initiated by Curators of Sweden is to promote the "democratisation of the country's brand".

Note: While this product can be used by every human being on the face of the earth, it can be especially useful for diplomats, including those involved in public diplomacy.

We Americans tend to take our presidential campaigns lightly. We see them as fodder for Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, and we become so enamored with the incessant polling that we watch the candidates as if they were race horses approaching the finish line.