A question often raised in digital diplomacy literature is whether it is an effective tool in advancing a nation’s foreign policy agendas. Studies exploring this aspect have either taken a theoretical approach or analyzed only government-generated content. Very little attention has been paid to the content receivers. To address this literature gap, this study considers the digital diplomacy of India toward South Asia. Based on the agenda-building perspective, the study examines the following: (i) the agendas the Indian government builds on social media and (ii) the rank-order of these agendas with the agendas of its South Asian followers. Quantitative content analyses of 6000 tweets and status updates published on the 15 Indian diplomatic accounts along with a survey of 387 followers were conducted. Content metrics were also considered to assess prominent agendas. Results showed that a few prominent Indian policy agendas on social media correlated with the agendas of their ‘foreign’ South Asian followers—indicating an agenda-building function. The prominent agendas on social media also aligned with India’s foreign policy priorities in South Asia—indicating effective digital diplomacy at work. A few prominent agendas in terms of content metrics aligned with the foreign followers’ agendas, but none matched with the priority agendas of the Indian government on social media.

在数字外交文献中经常提出的一个问题是，它是否是推进一个国家外交政策议程的有效工具。探索这一方面的研究要么采取了理论方法，要么仅分析了政府产生的内容。对内容接收者的关注很少。为了解决这一文学差距，本研究考虑了印度对南亚的数字外交。基于议程构建的角度，该研究检查了以下内容：（i）印度政府建立在社交媒体上的议程，以及（ii）这些议程与南亚追随者议程的排名。对印度15个外交帐户中发布的6000条推文和状态更新进行了定量内容分析，并对387位追随者进行了调查。还考虑了内容指标来评估重要的议程。结果表明，印度在社交媒体上的一些突出的政策议程与其“外国”南亚追随者的议程相关联，表明其具有议程建设功能。社交媒体上的重要议程也与印度在南亚的外交政策优先事项保持一致，表明工作中的有效数字外交。在内容指标方面，一些突出的议程与外国追随者的议程保持一致，但没有一个与印度政府在社交媒体上的优先议程相匹配。社交媒体上的重要议程也与印度在南亚的外交政策优先事项保持一致，表明有效的数字外交正在发挥作用。在内容指标方面，一些突出的议程与外国追随者的议程保持一致，但没有一个与印度政府在社交媒体上的优先议程相匹配。社交媒体上的重要议程也与印度在南亚的外交政策优先事项保持一致，表明有效的数字外交正在发挥作用。在内容指标方面，一些突出的议程与外国追随者的议程保持一致，但没有一个与印度政府在社交媒体上的优先议程相匹配。