“Firework” singer Katy Perry debuted on Billboard 200 at no. 1 with her new album Witness two days after she made social media history, by becoming the first person in the world to reach 100 million Twitter followers.
Twitter recognized the global pop star’s accomplishment by posting a video montage containing some of her tweets since she joined the microblogging in 2009. Perry has posted more than 8,500 tweets since then.
The 32-year-old singer, who is also considered one of the best-selling music artists of all time, according to Soundscan, is followed closely by Canadian pop star Justin Bieber with 96.8 million Twitter army. In third place is former U.S. President Barack Obama with 90.9 million Twitter fans. Behind them are pop stars Taylor Swift and Rihanna with 85.1 million and 74.1 million followers, respectively.
With Perry’s historical social media record, this establishes that Twitter is still very relevant and the personalities who are dominating the social media platform are the ones who have the most influence on people. And most of them use Twitter for a good cause.
In that respect, let’s have a rundown of the most influential, i.e. most followed local personalities in the ubiquitous microblogging site.
Vice Ganda
He is one of the most influential members of LGBT community online and IRL (in real life). Sexual preference aside, this also puts him the most influential male personality on Twitter with more than 8.9 million fans. He uses the microblogging site as an extension of the shows It’s Showtime and Gandang Gabi Vice and can make a topic trend even with just a single, most often witty tweet.
Angel Locsin
Still this generation’s most favorite Darna lands on the list in second place with 8.88 million virtual army. She used to be the most followed local personality until Vice Ganda edged her out just recently. Nonetheless, Locsin has a steady growing Twitter fan base now that she’s back on the boob tube and has become more visible with her efforts in Marawi.
Anne Curtis
The former Dyosa star, who introduces herself to her 8.72 million followers as a Fil-Aussie actress/host, pursuer of dreams, and UNICEF celebrity advocate for children, also used to dominate local Twitterverse, a position she held for five years since she joined the social media site. Many consider Curtis as Philippine showbiz’s ultimate It Girl and her followers await her tweets on her latest outfits, imitating her style and OOTDs.
Kathryn Bernardo
There are a little over 6.9 million people watching her every post. She caught the heart of netizens with her occasional “good morning” and “good night” greetings to her fans. Almost all of her tweets are generated via Instagram. So, if you missed any of her tweets, or if you don’t have a Twitter account at all, you can still get fresh feed from the so-called “Teen Queen” using a different platform.
Yeng Constantino
She has amassed a Twitter following of more than 6.6 million. The singer-songwriter is the most followed recording star in the country (unless you consider the three in the list who also came out with their respective albums as legitimate singers). She even got more followers than music channel MYX Philippines that missed a spot in the top 5 with 600,000 less followers compared to the Pinoy Dream Academy winner.
Rounding up the top 10 of the most followed local celebrities on Twitter are: Bianca Gonzales (6.2 million followers); Daniel Padilla (5.8 million followers); Luis Manzano (5.4 million followers); and KC Concepcion (5 million followers).
The list is based on the latest data from SocialBakers, a global social media analytics company offering a marketing software-as-a-service that delivers data analytics and social media management for thousands of companies of all sizes for marketing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, VK and Pinterest.