Lady Gaga made Twitter history this month by becoming the first person to amass 20 million followers or "Tweeps" (twitter + people) on the micro-blogging juggernaut. What accounts for her unrivaled popularity? Social media analyst Stewart Townsend tells BBC News that Gaga is "active, she participates, she listens, she engages." And unlike many other celebrities, Gaga reportedly writes her own tweets. Here, a numerical breakdown of the pop superstar's Twitter dominance:
20,255,774
Followers of @ladygaga as of Wednesday morning. Gaga's most recent tweet, from March 3: "Did ANYONE see SPRINGSTEEN on Fallon last night!!! Buy his new album. It is so genius its hard to even believe. Just mind-blowing passion."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
18,172,319
Followers of @justinbieber, making the young singer the second most popular person on Twitter
15,814,599
Followers of @katyperry, Twitter's third most popular account
10
People who have more than 10 million Twitter followers. In order: Gaga, Bieber, Perry, Shakira, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, Barack Obama, Taylor Swift, and Selena Gomez.
23
Days it took Gaga to go from 19 million to 20 million followers
Less than 1
Months that MediaBistro predicts it will take Gaga to reach 21 million followers
19
Months that Lady Gaga has been the most-followed person on Twitter, surpassing Britney Spears in August 2010 and never looking back. Spears now has 13.5 million followers.
1 million
Followers Ashton Kutcher challenged CNN to accumulate before him in 2009. Kutcher won. He now has 9.6 million followers, while CNN Breaking News' Twitter account has 6.6 million.
48.8 million
Fans Lady Gaga has on Facebook
53 million
Fans Rihanna has on Facebook, making the "Umbrella" singer the most "liked" person on the site
830,000
Followers Lady Gaga has on Google+
2,232,635
Followers Britney Spears has on Google+, making her the most popular person on that dubious social network
1
Social networking sites Gaga plans to launch. Little Monsters "may resemble popular image-sharing site Pinterest," forecasts BBC News.
Sources: BBC News, Business Insider, CBS News, Cinema Blend, Mashable, Media Bistro, MSNBC, MTV, Twitter (2)
