The biggest social media celebrities

The internet has completely revolutionised the way audiences around the world consume media, introducing faster and more connected ways of entertaining ourselves. But as social media has grown, celebrities have jumped on board, getting us up close and personal with their everyday lives. So who are the hottest internet celebrities that we just can’t get enough of on social media?
To find out, we’ve taken an in-depth look at each social media platform to find out whether these internet celebs are the future of mobile entertainment. So if you’ve ever been interested in how many followers or how much cash you could get by taking on the world of social media stardom – this should help!
Who are the biggest internet celebrities?
Internet fame has hit a surprisingly diverse collection of people – varying from stars of old to youngsters who have almost fallen into the spotlight. Popularity tends to spread amongst different networks as well, so if you’re popular on Vine or Snapchat, this will likely transfer to Twitter and Facebook given the chance.
Facebook fame
Biggest celeb? Cristiano Ronaldo
How many followers? 104.2m likes
**What does he do? **One of the most famous professional footballers on the planet, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the world’s greatest ever players, and plays for Real Madrid.
Cristiano Ronaldo has over 100m Facebook Likes…
By far the biggest social network on the web right now with over 1.39bn monthly active users, Facebook has five new users sign up to the service every second. Basically, Facebook is simply too big to ignore if you’re aiming to help your internet fame thrive.
Typically, a personal profile is much less popular than a dedicated Facebook page – mainly because people (even fame hungry celebs) like to keep their business to themselves and a select group of friends. However, Facebook pages dedicated to a celebrity or entertainer can be managed without having you bare all of your thoughts and problems. The largest Facebook page is currently that of Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, who struts his stuff on the football field. Racking up a ridiculous 102.4m likes, he’s ahead of Shakira and Eminem.
However, we are more interested in those ordinary folk who have made it big directly through their Facebook pages. Check out Jack Jones TV (though there are also many more great examples), with over 1.5 million followers and every video getting up to 60,000 likes, you could even argue that his influence reaches further than those you would see on TV programmes. Although, we wouldnt recommend annoying strangers and recording it, like Jack does, his videos obviously strike a funny cord with his audience.
The internet is a completely different medium to TV, allowing fans to directly interact with celebrities in real time. There’s no waiting for viewing figures to judge popularity or paying massive budgets to get your content out there. Smartphones have made it possible for ordinary folk to record snippets of their life and get it out to massive audiences on the web in an easy and affordable way. Anybody can do it, and that’s why it’s so relatable.
Biggest celeb? Katy Perry
How many followers? 68.7m
**What does she do? **Like we really need to explain? Katy Perry is currently one of the world’s biggest selling pop stars, with hits such as Roar and Dark Horse topping numerous charts globally!
Fresher than Facebook, Twitter has a comparatively small number of users totalling just under 300 million. However, it does offer a much more personal way of following a celebrity thanks to its conversational style structure.
The average Twitter user boasts a follower count of 208, but American singing sensation Katy Perry leads the network with a whopping 68.7m followers. But if you thought that Katy’s appeal was limited strictly to Twitter, you’d be wrong, with her Facebook page boasting over 71 million likes!
In second and third place on the Twitter front are Justin Beiber with over 62 million followers and surprisingly Barack Obama with an impressive 58 million. With roughly 69 million votes in the 2012 presidential election, it looks like Obama is still more popular at the ballot box than in the world of social media!
YouTube
Biggest celeb? PewDiePie
How many followers? 36m subscribers
**What does he do? **Pewdiepie (AKA Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg) is the most subscribed YouTube member on the planet, hosting ‘Let’s Play’ gaming videos, where he comments on video games whilst playing them.
Pewdiepie has over 36m subscribers and makes up to £11m per year!
One of the biggest money makers of the bunch, YouTube offers a way for anyone to become a star if they can handle a camera properly. Legitimate celebrities have been discovered through YouTube – the biggest being Justin Bieber, who was given a recording contract after an agent spotted him showcasing his singing on the platform all those years ago.
However, in terms of subscribers, Bieber is something of a small fry with just 11.3m. The biggest name on YouTube is probably one you haven’t heard before – Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, better known as PewDiePie, boasting over 36 million subscribers.
The Swedish internet star practically came up with the ‘Let’s Play’ phenomenon sweeping video game commentary on the site, where the host plays a game and comments whilst playing it. This simple, yet immensely popular idea has helped him rack up 8.5 billion views so far in his career, a number which is always on the rise.
Thanks to YouTube’s monetisation partnership – which involves adverts being played at the start of videos, PewDiePie makes up to an estimated £11.3m each year. This number even comes after YouTube has taken its own 45% cut as well, so as you’d expect it’s big business to be a YouTube celebrity.
Vine
Biggest celeb? Nash Grier
How many followers? 11.5m
**What does he do? **Nash makes the majority of his money using his seven second vines based on comedy. His videos vary, but he often works with other well known Viners as well.
Vine, in a similar style to YouTube boasts all of its content via video – however it’s much more targeted to comedy clips due to the seven second limit to content. This enforces heavy editing and some creative ideas to come to the forefront if you want to be successful.
17 year old Nash Grier is the biggest name in the Vine video business, sporting 11.5m followers to date. Grier is hot on the advertising front, making cash from product placement in his Vine videos- he can make anything between £20,000 up to £70,000 per recording!
Snapchat
Biggest celeb? Jerome Jarre
How many followers? 1.2m
**What does he do? **Jerome Jarre is a French Snapchatter with plenty of talent. He often posts pictures and spends hours editing them to create elaborate stories…
Jerome Jarre has over 1m followers on Snapchat…
One of the latest social media platforms that has taken the world by storm is Snapchat, which became a real platform for celebrity culture after introducing its My Story service. This gives users a way of posting a series of pictures and videos over a 24 hour period to interact with fans.
Frenchman, Jerome Jarre is one of the leading Snapchat celebrities with 1.2 million followers, and is also capable of making thousands of pounds per story if he features a product from a paying manufacturer. Due to the limited time frame of posts on the service, Snapchat celebs tend to post their stories on other websites to bring in more cash, but in general it tends to drive less profit than Vine.
Ever wondered what life is like living as one of the world’s biggest internet celebrities? YouTube documentary – The Creators offers a great insight (below).
Internet celebrities on TV
The transition from internet stardom to TV fame has been a treacherous one for a number of personalities. UK based Vine celebrity Dapper Laughs faced mass criticism when questionable material from a live show surfaced online – leading to ITV cancelling his television show altogether.
The main issue most internet stars face is their audience, which is much more diverse on TV, where members can’t simply block or avoid content as easily. On an app, it isn’t hard to unfollow someone or skip past their content; however on TV you’re limited in the ways to avoid something.
For now, there have been very few internet celebrities to really crack through to build regular celebrity status from the web. However, as social media celebrities grow in number – it might not be too long before one of them makes the transition successfully.