As Twitter Celebrates Its 10th Birthday, Musicians Dominate the Follower Tables

On March 21, 2006, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sent the first tweet: “just setting up my twtter.” Since that moment, Twitter has become a habit of millions of social media users–including me. I joined up in February 2008 but didn’t send my first tweet until January 1, 2009. Cameron at Twitter HQ tells me this was my first tweet.

Since then, I’ve sent out 62,000 tweets and attracted about 50,000 followers, most of which are real.

In the race to have the most followers, the Top 10 is dominated by musicians.

1. Katy Perry (85 million)
2. Justin Bieber (77 million)
3. Taylor Swift (73 million)
4. Barack Obama (71 million)
5. YouTube (61 million)
6. Rihanna (57.4 million)
7. Lady Gaga (57.3 million)
8. Ellen DeGeneres (56 million)
9. Twitter (54 million)
10. Justin Timberlake (52 million)

Rock bands don’t do so well on Twitter. The highest ranking act is Coldplay (#69, 16.7 million followers). I searched through the rest of the Top 500 and found…nothing. Interesting.

For a current tally of people with the most followers, go here. Meanwhile, here are some Twitter highlights.