Australia PM Tony Abbott's Facebook following leaps: Was it the Modi selfie that did it?

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a signed selfie with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on his official Facebook page. The photo has garnered over 700,000 likes so far. However, it has also launched rumours down under that the Australian PM might just be buying his social media likes. [caption id=“attachment_1821057” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI Image[/caption] Surprisingly, Tony Abbott’s Facebook page has gained over 64,000 likes ever since Narendra Modi posted the selfie on his page. According to rudimentary Facebook analytics from SocialBakers in a BuzzFeed article, the popular majority of Abbott’s total fan base reside in New Delhi and are aged within the 18-34 year old demographic.

Post by Bondi Hipsters.

However PM Tony Abbott’s new India audience accounts for only 15.5% of his total audience. [caption id=“attachment_1821031” align=“alignnone” width=“620”]  Image: Social Bakers[/caption] When asked about the speculation, a spokesman for the Prime Minister told news.com.au the reason for the high number of offshore likes was not true. “No ‘likes’ or advertising have been purchased for the Prime Minister’s Facebook page. It is no secret that the Prime Minister hosted a number of world leaders in recent times, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These visits attracted large international audiences to the Prime Minister’s social media channels, thus generating a spike in organic engagement with the page.” However, it has been suggested by various media groups that it’s PM Modi’s 25 million Facebook fans and eight million Twitter followers who are to thank for this sudden spike. Modi was considered one of the most mentioned leader on social media during the G20 summit earlier this month. The selfie with Mr Abbott posted to Facebook with a link to the latter’s official page was also shared more than 11,600 times. Abbott and Modi also exchanged pleasantries on Twitter with several pictures of them hugging each other providing proof of the friendship between the leaders.

I feel my friendship with @TonyAbbottMHR will further strengthen India-Australia ties in the years to come. pic.twitter.com/3NJAiBSqtg

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 17, 2014