Question: What do Russia and China’s Twitter strategies have in common?

Answer: Nothing.

Russia and China have taken diametrically opposed approaches to Twitter (and social media more generally). They provide a wonderful set of case studies to watch this year.

Probably no government has embraced Twitter with more finesse than Russia (and that includes the US). During President Medvedev’s US visit last June, he visited Twitter headquarters in San Francisco and posted his first tweet. Since then the Kremlin has provided a constant stream of timely, informative, casual tweets posted in Russian and English. They include substance as well as a bit of whimsy (including impromptu photos). The two accounts currently have about 125,000 followers.

Meanwhile the Chinese block Twitter and officially ignore it (but not the Chinese press: China Daily shows hundreds of articles this year mentioning Twitter).

President Hu is scheduled to visit the US early next year. Will he ignore social media, or have a change of heart and also visit Twitter headquarters?