Vietnam Twiplomacy:

Target Audiences and Public Diplomacy - Behind the Tweets

Abstract

            By carrying out content analyses of three Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Twitter accounts, this study examines their messaging to the world in 2020 through Twitter (N=1,276).  In doing so, the impact and reach of specific, targeted audiences are further analysed to better understand engagement with the most-mentioned and most-followed users (N=353). The results suggest significant correlations between content category as well as the diplomatic language of the tweets versus other countries and users that Vietnam MOFA directs messages towards. In addition, it has thus far been observed that the Vietnam MOFA tends to communicate and interact with governmental/intergovernmental organizations and political users via tweets. Practical and theoretical implications of twiplomacy are discussed in terms of uses and gratifications.