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with the public, and the citizens respond in the same way. Thus, more dynamic and bilateral political communication and participation can be deduced from this situation, as expressed by Cardoso (2008). This issue must be monitored with special attention, as the status of this country as a world power might result in other governments emulating the practice, and the same thing might occur with citizens of other countries. Judging by the content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004), we see a clear use of social networks by the U.S. government in informing its audiences almost immediately when an action takes place, and not waiting for other media, or in other words a third party, to make the information available; it is clear that content is created to inform and generate interaction with the public without any intervention.

In the case of Colombia and the United Kingdom, what has been stated by Cull (2009) in relation to the attention and care of public opinion and the interaction with citizens through the explanation of the factors that make up the ideology of the actor, in this case the government, is confirmed. In nearly every post, direct or indirect reference was made to the peace processes in Colombia and to the Brexit situation in the United Kingdom. The posts were not received from the public in an isolated manner, but rather the reactions to it were related to the setting or context of the country or region; it is therefore considered necessary to review other research studies to see the connection that citizens make between internal and external policy actions in a broader framework, because it seems indicated that thanks to the information provided by social networks, citizens have a greater understanding of the interconnection of conflicts, as pointed out by Araya (2001).

In the Spanish case, it should be noted that despite the change of government from Rajoy to Sanchez, which is the reason why posts of both administrations have been reviewed, there is a strategy of explaining and advocating diplomatic objectives using digital public diplomacy, and in particular, doing so through social networks. Furthermore, this conclusion is strengthened by the revised documentation that demonstrates that the digital dimension is now an integral part of Spain’s foreign action strategy, and that the Spanish model of digital diplomacy seeks greater closeness and interlocution (Manfredi, Herranz and Calvo, 2017). Thus, we can speak of a state strategy rather than the practice of a particular government.

In relation to the concept of the global citizen, it has been concluded that what was stated by Colombo (2005) is still valid, when he pointed out that communication and information technologies are facilitating and advancing new forms of policy-making with more extensive and direct information and greater communication between representatives and those represented. Furthermore, Internet promotes the dissemination of information and upholds causes and seeks to exercise counter-power for the achievement of collective objectives (Castells, 1997), although it is necessary to go further, as suggested by Baack’s work (2015), in order to know whether the feature that social networks favour is greater information, greater political participation, or a greater number of means to carry out self-expression.

In relation to future studies, the dynamics of technological advances in communications that the Internet will undoubtedly continue to promote cannot be ignored. It seems very likely that advances in Artificial Intelligence and Big data will enable politicians and citizens to create their own algorithms for analyzing these issues and suggesting actions and decisions in the field of international politics that will clearly affect decisions taken in diplomatic matters; therefore, the study of these issues will continue to be relevant. However, while this is happening, and taking into account what Lidén (2016) contends regarding the small amount of attention that has been paid to the supply side, or in other words, the online presence of political actors and the structures created by them, there is still much to study; social networks, while rich in providing us