W Power 2024

India's Social Media Stars

Social media is just an extension of star power for these celebs

Published: Dec 18, 2013 06:53:11 AM IST
Updated: Dec 18, 2013 01:45:14 PM IST

In a recent interview to Esquire magazine, George Clooney said that celebs who use Twitter are “morons” and the social networking site is  “just stupid”. But Indian celebrities would beg to differ. From leading Bollywood personalities to top cricketers, social media—primarily Twitter and Facebook—is an extension of their star power and mass appeal. Here are the ones who’re leading the pack.

India's Social Media Stars


1. AR Rahman
With a staggering 15.1 million fans on Facebook and 3.3 million followers on Twitter, the music maestro leads actors and sportstars in social media influence. He’s also the top-ranking Indian on the global list of social media stars.



India's Social Media Stars
2. Salman Khan
He may not be as prolific a tweeter as his arch-rival Shah Rukh Khan but with 5.6 million followers, Salman’s is one of the most popular handles. Add to that 11.1 million Facebook fans and he’s hot on social media too!


India's Social Media Stars




3. Sachin Tendulkar
His tweet acknowledging #ThankYouSachin messages was retweeted 17,300 times. With 4 million Twitter followers and 12.5 million Facebook fans, he’s setting benchmarks on social media as well.


India's Social Media Stars


4. Amitabh Bachchan
India’s most followed celebrity on Twitter, putting out five to seven tweets each day (night) to his 7.4 million followers. Posts elaborate status messages with pictures on Facebook where he has 7.3 million fans.

India's Social Media Stars


5. Shreya Ghoshal
With 12 million Facebook fans and 2.6 million Twitter followers, she’s the most popular singer on cyberspace. Her social media feeds are highly interactive, and filled with food and music updates.


India's Social Media Stars


6.  Aamir Khan

The numbers—9 million Facebook fans and 5.1 million Twitter followers—are high but interactions almost negligible.With only a 100-odd tweets in four years, he needs to play catch up. (Doesn’t have an official FB page yet.)India's Social Media Stars




7. Sonu Nigam
Widely followed on Facebook with 11.7 million fans, he reposts fan messages and notifies them about his musical pursuits. Has 1.3 million followers on Twitter; mostly retweets praise that comes his way.

India's Social Media Stars


8. Deepika Padukone
The reigning queen of B-town retweets more than she tweets. Thus, her 4.8 million Twitter followers (and 8 million Facebook fans) lap up every little update (mostly film promotions) from her.

 

India's Social Media Stars
9. Hrithik Roshan
While his 4.6 million Twitter followers are fed box-office numbers and reviews of his films, and retweets of fan messages, his 7.5 million Facebook fans get to see a more profound side of him.

India's Social Media Stars

10. Priyanka Chopra
One of the first A-list stars to be bitten by the Twitter bug, PC has over 10,000 tweets and 5 million followers. And her 7 million Facebook fans are served pictorial updates daily.



Special Mention
Shah Rukh Khan: The happy-go-lucky superstar transforms into a poet-philosopher on social media. His 6 million Twitter followers and 5.5 million Facebook fans surely don’t mind that avatar!

(This story appears in the 27 December, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)

Post Your Comment
Required
Required, will not be published
All comments are moderated
  • Vivek Khanduri

    I just want to add that Salman\'s one tweet was retweeted more than 50k times and other latest one around 19k times. That\'s the power of Salman Khan.

    on Mar 20, 2014
  • Poonthamizh Selvan

    A.R.Rahman always rock

    on Dec 24, 2013
  • Raihana

    a r rahman super star of music

    on Dec 22, 2013
  • Raihana

    a r rahman music super star

    on Dec 22, 2013
  • Arindam

    Why special mention for shahrukh ? Interestng writeup otherwise.

    on Dec 21, 2013
    • Sohini

      That is because SRK doesn\'t feature in the top 10 [which we considered for this list] by virtue of numbers... yet he is very close and stands at No. 11. And considering how prolific he is on social media, he is too big a name to be ignored. Hence the honorary mention.

      on Dec 21, 2013
  • Dr. Afshan Hashmi

    It's so nice to see the Social Media stars of India. As a consultant specializing in India consulting its very important to know about this list. Social media is very important in today's world. It is one of the ways to demonstrate which stars are popular. Congratulations to all the stars on the list!!!

    on Dec 18, 2013