F.Y.R.O.M.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov has only sent three tweets on his personal Twitter account. “Preparing for the upcoming campaign” reads the first tweet of Gjorge Ivanov on 29 January 2009, two months before the presidential elections, which he eventually won. The Macedonian President did not tweet himself and the two other tweets on his account link to his campaign blog. He has not tweeted since.

Nikola Gruevski has linked his Twitter feed to his Facebook page, automatically posting news and photos of his activities to his followers. Prime Minister Gruevski tweets in Macedonian, but important messages are send in English such as the news that “Standard & Poor's affirms Macedonia's stable credit rating”. His most popular tweet is his “Thanks to over 60,000 supporters!” by which he probable meant his Facebook fans and not his 1,200 Twitter followers.

The row with Greece over the country’s official name is dominating the government’s Twitter stream. The government in Skopje tweets in Macedonian and sometimes in English with links to news items on the government’s website. In December the account screamed victory: #MACEDONIA WINS MAJOR RULING AGAINST #GREECE AT THE HAGUE COURT”. However the Greek government has refused to budge on the name issue, even sticking F.Y.R.O.M. stickers on Macedonian cars with the new MK license plates. The account does not engage with its followers and tweets on average more than 11 times per day and uses at least two hashtags per tweet.