Bieber reaches 40 million Twitter followers… kind of

In recent years, social media has become the fuel to boost celebrity popularity. Whether it’s Amanda Bynes tweeting about whom she’s going to sue, or even Bieber himself tweeting his feelings towards Anne Frank, celebrities have made social media into the ultimate popularity tool.

Justin Bieber is quite an impressive young man. He started his music career at a very young age and built one of the biggest fan bases in history. Bieber was originally discovered via social media by Usher, who discovered the teenager on YouTube. Since then, Bieber and his people have maintained excellent social media marketing skills, which has helped catapult him to the top. But is he really on top?

According to Twitter Counter, an online service that tracks Twitter followers, Justin Bieber has reached 40 million followers. The young pop star is the first person to reach this milestone, which was expected to be achieved by Lady Gaga, who was the first to reach 10 million, 20 million and 30 million followers. The nation of little monsters slowed down as the Bieber express shot past it, catapulting Bieber ahead of the exotic singer. However, a lot of those seats on the Bieber express are empty, according to several sources who claim that more than half of Bieber’s followers are fake. According to Statista, 27% of Bieber’s followers are fake and 31% are inactive. When these numbers are taken into account, Biebers number of followers is cut more than in half.

#40MillionBeliebers – thank u. i love u. #grateful

— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) June 4, 2013

While half of Bieber’s Twitter followers may be fake or inactive, he is not the worst perpetrator when it comes to this. He is actually number seven. Katy Perry, who ranks third with regard to Twitter followers at around 37.5 million, is the worst offender. 49% of the California girl’s followers are fake and 29% are inactive! As a matter of fact, out of the 10 Twitter accounts with the most followers, all but one is also on the top 10 list of fake and inactive users. Only Instagram, which ranks tenth in followers avoided the list of fakers, being replaced by Shakira to round out the top 10.

While Bieber still may have the most followers that does not make him the person with the strongest influence. Klout, a website that measures users’ influence based on an algorithm connected to their social media accounts, assigned Beiber a score of 93. This is still a very high score, showing that the Biebs has plenty of influence. However, a Klout score goes up to 100. Bieber was once thing King of Klout, being the only person with a score of 100 just a year ago, but Klout has since adjusted their algorithm, knocking Bieber down a few spots. News organizations such as the Huffington Post and CNN outrank Bieber with scores of 99. These organizations are not the only ones who outrank the Biebs. Sports teams including the San Francisco Giants, who have a Klout score of 99, as well as the New York Yankees, who have a score of 95, also prove to be more influential than him as well.

Nobody can deny that Justin Bieber is incredibly popular. He still has more real followers than anybody not in the top 11 – and that’s including their fake ones. So why does he need another 20 million fakes? Everybody knows his name, and if they are interested in the young star, they will follow him. The extra 20 million fake followers don’t do anything for Bieber, other than boost a number that is beginning to mean less and less. In reality it has no real effect on his image.

How do you feel about Bieber having a follower base primarily made up of fake accounts? Comment below.