Influencers
by apple tree communications
THE MOST FOLLOWED
Who are the most influential people
on social media?
With usage increasing exponentially, a
handful of users have accumulated millions
of loyal followers from around the world who
keep an eye on their every post. However,
only a chosen few have real influence over
global audiences, reaching followers far
beyond their profession or area of expertise.
Who are these select few?
We have analysed the users with the most
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followers to
reveal the Top 20 social media influencers
from around the world.
1
4
3
2
5
246M
238M
219M
205M
190M
Taylor Swift
Cristiano Ronaldo
Katy Perry
Selena Gomez
Rihanna
FOLLOWERS
0M
1
Taylor
Swift
2
Cristiano
Ronaldo
3
Katy
Perry
4
Selena
Gomez
5
Rihanna
6
Shakira
7
Justin
Bieber
8
Beyoncé
9
Kim
Kardashian
10M
30M
50M
70M
90M
110M
130M
150M
170M
190M
210M
230M
250M
246.391.948
238.765.171
219.176.469
205.052.285
190.890.058
168.298.657
164.943.105
163.185.985
158.678.275
155.547.664
10
Ariana
Grande
11
Barack
Obama
12
Lady
Gaga
13
Neymar Jr.
14
Leo
Messi
15
Jennifer
López
16
Justin
Timberlake
130.748.918
17
Nicki
Minaj
128.654.767
18
Miley Cyrus
19
Vin Diesel
126.460.196
20
Eminem
121.770.236
148.562.370
143.038.051
142.219.550
140.178.080
133.715.371
128.354.125
Font: apple tree communications – prepared
ANATOMY OF AN INFLUENCER
INFLUENCE HAS RHYTHM
Taylor Swift a young, American female singer is
the world’s biggest influencer across all social
media platforms and 13 of the top 20 are fellow
music stars. Sports personalities come in second
with 3 representatives, 2 are film stars whilst
politics and TV stars have just 1 representative
each.
“Born in the USA!”
Amongst celebrities with the most followers, a
high percentage are women, were born in the
U.S.A (65%) and are on average aged 33 yrs.
65% ARE FROM
THE U.S.
KEY INFLUENCERS
ARE VERY ACTIVE
posting 5 tweets
per day and 5
images per week
on Instagram
65% ARE
MUSICIANS
Getting into the Top 20 is certainly not an
over-night process with the the average lifetime
of their accounts being about 7 years. And
clearly social media is also not a place for idle
thumbs with the top influencers posting at least
once a day on average. Brazilian footballer
Neymar is the most active, with up to 18 tweets
per day whilst the singer Miley Cyrus is also one
of the most active influencers with an average
of 2.9 images shared on Instagram per day.
Beyoncé is, however, the exception to the rule,
with 14 million Twitter followers and only 9 tweets
in total.
60% ARE WOMEN
MOST HAVE 7 YEARS
OF SOCIAL MEDIA
EXPERIENCE
ON AVERAGE THEY
ARE 33 YEARS OLD
DID YOU KNOW…
India and the US have the most Shakira
fans in the world AND, in both countries the
singer has 4 times the amount of followers
she has in her home country of Colombia.
India has the second highest amount of
Obama followers in the world
More people follow Cristiano Ronaldo on
Facebook than anyone else in the world.
The majority of his fans are from Indonesia,
where the number of fans he has is double
the amount of fans he has in Spain and
Portugal combined.
If it weren’t for Instagram, Selena
Gomez would be out of the Top 20.
THE MOST FOLLOWED BRITS
Who are the most influential UK
celebrities?
Each country has its local influencers,
celebrities who might not be known
internationally, but still have a large
following in their home country.
Who are the top British influencers?
Are singers as dominant as they are in
the global ranking? Who’s the most
important Brit online?
1
3
2
5
4
111M
83,7M
70,2M
62,9M
62,8M
Adele
David Beckham
Emma Watson
Jason Statham
Harry Styles
FOLLOWERS
1
Adele
2
David
Beckham
3
Emma
Watson
4
Jason
Statham
5
Harry
Styles
6
Gareth
Bale
7
Zayn
8
Niall
Horan
9
Wayne
Rooney
0M
10
Cara
Delevingne
11
Liam
Payne
12
Louis
Tomlinson
13
Ed
Sheeran
14
Jessie J
15
Ellie
Goulding
16
Calvin
Harris
17
Victoria
Beckham
18
Rita
Ora
19
Sam
Smith
20
Cher
Lloyd
2M
4M
6M
10M
15M
20M
30M
40M
50M
60M
70M
90M
110M
111.053.712
83.761.716
70.272.922
62.936.104
62.811.955
60.476.507
54.481.055
54.301.960
47.175.415
46.144.038
45.035.195
44.722.920
37.398.696
33.564.452
32.403.392
29.513.049
25.906.489
21.752.372
17.152.203
16.909.768
Font: apple tree communications – prepared
ANATOMY OF A BRITISH INFLUENCER
BRITISH STYLE
You might be wondering if singers are as popular
in the UK as they were in the global ranking. Yes,
once again music dominates the ranking with
Adele as the most important UK celebrity on
social media even though she was 10 million
followers short of making the global Top 20.
Music rules, but singers in the UK don’t have it as
easy as internationally famous Hollywood stars
and footballers such as Emma Watson, Jason
Statham and David Beckham, Wayne Rooney
and Gareth Bale all making the top 10.
THE BOY BAND BOOM
Looking further into the UK top 20, we see the
steady rise of boy bands. All five members of
One Direction feature in the list, which means
25% of the celebrities on the list are from one
single boy band.
And their popularity continues to grow despite the
break up in January with Harry Styles having the
most amount of followers on Twittter. It begs the
question, ‘if social media networks existed in the
90’s, would the Spice Girls or Take That be on the
list?
Becoming an influencer takes time and dedication
with all of the highest ranking influencers having
official accounts on Facebook, Twitter and
Instagram with the exception of Jason Statham
and David Beckham (who are not on Twitter).
However, it’s not only about “being there”, the
amount of interactions is also important. Ed
Sheeran was the most active influencer on Twitter,
with an average of 12 tweets per day (though
he seems to have lost interest in all social media
channels since his tour finished in December 2015).
Others, like Jessie J, are totally committed, posting
on average 18 images a week on Instagram to
please her fans!
65% ARE SINGERS
HIGH ACTIVITY RATES
Key influencers post 3-4
tweets a day and 4 images
per week on Instagram
60% ARE MEN
6+ YEARS AVERAGE
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
IN SOCIAL MEDIA
28 ½ IS THE
AVERAGE AGE
DID YOU KNOW…
Over half of the celebrities in the UK top 20
were unknown 10 years ago
If we add up the number of followers of the 5
members of One Direction the total would be
higher than the combined populations of UK,
Germany, France and Spain.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling is more
popular on social media than Hillary Clinton
Adele has 94 million more followers than Cher
Lloyd (in 20th position) and almost 6 times
more Twitter fans.
The only country in the United Kingdom
with no representation in the Top 20 is
Northern Ireland
The “old hands” of the Top 50 (Sting, Eric
Clapton, Slash, Phil Collins and Elton John)
wouldn’t get into the Top 10 now even if you
added up all of their followers.
THE LAST 5 YEARS OF TWITTER
TWITTER GLOBALLY
apple tree communications released its first
SocialScene (Twitterscopio) in 2011. The study
analysed the accounts with the most followers
on Twitter, and even, then celebrities were
topping the charts.
Who was ranked highest at that time? How
has the ‘follower base’ changed in the last
5 years?
Our analysis shows that little by little, women
are increasing their influence, with 60% of the
top celebrities on Twitter being female (up 5%
since 2011). It’s clear that social media has
helped Katy Perry boost her fame with her
following increasing by 427% over these past
five years. Meanwhile Lady Gaga has suffered
a decline and now sits in sixth place. We will
have to see what happens however when she
releases her new album… game on!
TOP 20 TWITTER
2011
The topics that interest people most in social
media haven’t changed significantly in the past
five years, with the exception of the rise of certain
sports. For example Basketball is finally starting to
have an international online presence. Five years
ago, there were only two sports professionals in
the Top 20 (both football players). Now however,
Lebron James, the Cleveland Cavalier’s player is
leading the charge. Five years ago he was in the
78th position, now he’s in the top 20.
TOP 20 TWITTER
2016
1
Lady Gaga (@ladygaga)
22.218.294
1
Katy Perry (@katyperry)
90.659.452
2
Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)
19.515.796
2
Barack Obama (@BarackObama)
87.289.544
3
Katy Perry (@katyperry)
17.200.267
3
Justin Bieber (@justinbieber)
84.738.261
4
Rihanna (@rihanna)
16.262.044
4
Taylorswift13 (@taylorswift13)
79.594.596
5
Shakira (@shakira)
15.290.655
5
Rihanna (@rihanna)
62.962.668
6
Britney Spears (@britneyspears)
15.106.344
6
Lady Gaga (@ladygaga)
61.431.775
7
Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian)
14.308.686
7
Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow)
60.869.606
8
Barack Obama (@BarackObama)
13.756.766
8
Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake)
55.835.347
9
taylorswift13 (@taylorswift13)
12.439.975
9
Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian)
46.770.449
10
Selena Gomez (@selenagomez)
11.254.668
10
Britney Spears (@britneyspears)
46.414.700
11
Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ)
10.806.281
11
Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano)
44.439.607
12
YouTube (@YouTube)
10.722.415
12
Selena Gomez (@selenagomez)
44.142.154
13
Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah)
10.437.125
13
Jimmy fallon (@jimmyfallon)
41.746.571
14
Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow)
10.347.143
14
Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande)
40.081.125
15
Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake)
10.111.784
15
Shakira (@shakira)
38.826.892
16
ashton kutcher (@aplusk)
10.094.587
16
Demi Lovato (@ddlovato)
37.092.257
17
Marshall Mathers (@Eminem)
10.058.292
17
Jennifer Lopez (@JLo)
36.309.254
18
Kaka (@KAKA)
9.524.058
18
Drake Drizzy (@Drake)
33.291.979
19
Chris Brown (@chrisbrown)
9.314.673
19
Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah)
33.114.559
20
Twitter (@twitter)
9.139.715
20
LeBron James (@KingJames)
31.689.556
Font: apple tree communications – prepared
Staying active is a must if you want to remain
popular on Twitter. People will only follow or talk
about you if you’re actually sharing interesting
content. What’s up with Ashton Kutcher? When
will Eminem release another album? Becoming
famous can happen over night, staying famous
is a different matter all together.
Obama is just a couple of months away from
leaving the White House, but has still managed to
maintain his popularity worldwide. In the past five
years he has rocketed into the top 3 of the global
ranking. No other politician has even come close
to reaching this amount of followers. And looking
at the current presidential candidates, if the
election was based on Twitter followers, Donald
Trump would be the next to move into the White
House, beating Hillary Clinton by over 2,750,000
followers. (Yikes!)
TOP 10 YOUTUBERS
Job title: Influencer
Of all the networks, YouTube is by far the most
influential. With audience ratings even higher
than on TV, it’s the place where anyone can
become famous. Some channels have millions
of subscribers with updates and videos
achieving billions of views. Yeah, we’ll say it
again: billions of views! Here’s the list of the
Top 10 YouTubers with the most subscribers
worldwide: an exclusive club were Spanish
speakers dominate and where videogames
and humour are the most engaging topics. If
you haven’t heard of them, you better check
out their channels… even though you might
not understand anything at the beginning.
COUNTRY
CATEGORY
PewDiePie
Sweden
Videogames
COUNTRY
CATEGORY
2 CHANELS
HolaSoyGerman
Chile
COUNTRY
COUNTRY
52M
nigahiga
CATEGORY
2 CHANNELS
VanossGaming
Canada
Videogames
COUNTRY
CATEGORY
2 CHANNELS
Videogames
CATEGORY
JennaMarbles
U.S.A.
Vlog
COUNTRY
CATEGORY
Yuya
México
Beauty
COUNTRY
CATEGORY
VEGETTA777
Spain
Videogames
COUNTRY
CATEGORY
Fernanfloo
Source:
SUBSCRIBERS
20,3M
SUSCRIPTORES
CATEGORY
El Salvador
43,6M
CATEGORY
COUNTRY
COUNTRY
SUBSCRIBERS
4.247M Video views
Humor
Spain
13.189M - Video views
Videogames
U.S.A.
TheWillyrex
47,5M
Vlog / Videogames 6.168M Video views
elRubius
Spain
SUBSCRIBERS
Videogames
22,5M
3.433M Video views
SUBSCRIBERS
18,4M
5.657M Video views
SUBSCRIBERS
17,6M
4,717M Video views
SUBSCRIBERS
16,4M
2.090M Video views
SUBSCRIBERS
15,7M
1.611M Video views
SUBSCRIBERS
15,1M
5.375M Video views
SUBSCRIBERS
15M
3.489M Video views
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_YouTube_Diamond_Play_Button_recipients
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_subscribed_users_on_YouTube
“Lemonade” tweet
Last month elRubius posted a message on his
Twitter account that included just a word and
an emoji. The term was “Lemonade” and, as he
later explained in one of his videos, it was part
of a contest in which users just had to retweet.
In 48 hours the post reached 1.3 million RT’s and
became the third most retweeted post in the
world. Only Ellen DeGeneres celebrity selfie at
the Oscars and a message from one of the
band members of One Direction recieved
more shares. “Lemonade” even got more
retweets than the famous images of
Barack Obama hugging his wife under
the title “Four more years”.
The popularity and impact of online influencers has increased
relentlessly due to the inexorable rise of social media. That’s
why at apple tree communication we have been analysing
the statistics and the trends behind the different social media
platforms out there over the last 5 years. This ongoing study has
given us an expertise in understanding who the real influencers
are, based not only on the number of followers, but also on
the capacity they have to generate high impact, highly
shareable content.
Their influence is increasing exponentially and as such they are
AT THE HEART OF BRAND CONVERSATIONS
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a key element in the development of digital or integrated
communication campaigns.
WHAT’S THE SOCIAL SCENE?
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[email protected]
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