The First Tweets of the 10 Most Followed People on Twitter
As a wise philosopher once said, every Twitter journey starts with a single Twitter step.
For these 10 folks — who are now the 10 most followed people on Twitter, with more than 420 million followers between them — those first Twitter steps proved especially fruitful.
Here are the first tweets of the 10 most followed tweeters in the world. (We have excluded the accounts of YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter itself, as those are companies, not people.) Read below to see how 10 of the world’s most famous tweeters — who are also, coincidentally, 10 of the world’s most famous people — started their Twitter careers.
10. Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano; 28.9 million followers)
The hunky Portuguese soccer player announced his Twitter presence with a bilingual tweet, punctuated with a rather ominous ellipsis …. What is going to happen on your Twitter page, Cristiano???
9. Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow; 30.3 million followers)
Like Ronaldo, Ellen DeGeneres drew attention to the fact that her first tweet was, in fact, her first tweet. Her final question, “Is this anything?” is one that I ask myself each and every time I use Twitter.
8. Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake; 33.7 million followers)
Of the top 10 most followed Twitter users, Timberlake’s first tweet received the fewest retweets and favorites. JT was promoting his record label’s first act, a Dutch pop singer named Esmee Denters. The song was a very minor hit in Europe; Timberlake would be responsible for much larger ones in the years following April 2009.
7. Rihanna (@Rihanna; 36.7 million followers)
This tweet refers to the release date of the Rihanna album “Rated R,” which featured the single “Rude Boy” and which sold over a million copies. Rihanna would continue to misspell words on Twitter long after “ova.”
6. Britney Spears (@britneyspears; 38.4 million followers)
The only third-person tweet on this list. The @BritneySpears feed has since gotten more personal: It’s dominated by photos of her children and, alternatively, her forthcoming collection of lingerie.
5. Lady Gaga (@ladygaga; 41.7 million followers)
Probably the most incoherent of the first tweets. The WMC is the Winter Music Conference, an annual Miami-based music festival, while Nervous Records specializes in “underground house music and hip-hop.”
4. Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13; 42.5 million followers)
Oh, Taylor! And BY THE WAY, did you know that you can catch an exclusive Taylor Swift concert LIVE on Yahoo Screen on August 18? More information here!
(Disclosure: Yahoo Tech is owned by Yahoo, which also owns Yahoo Screen.)
3. Barack Obama (@BarackObama; 44.9 million followers)
Obama’s first tweet: a plea to help the then-senator end the war in Iraq.
2. Justin Bieber (@justinbieber; 53.4 million followers)
Bieber’s first tweet is easily the most retweeted and the most favorited. I am guessing that JB spends a lot less time instructing fans to visit his Myspace page nowadays.
Oh, and for those who aren’t familiar, the music video for the song “One Time” has over 373 MILLION views on YouTube.
1. Katy Perry (@katyperry; 55.3 million followers)
Katy Perry surpassed Justin Bieber’s follower count in November 2013. Her first tweet, four years earlier, featured Germany, a chest cold, and sporadic capital letters and exclamation marks. Here’s hoping it is adapted into a feature-length film by Werner Herzog.
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And there you have it! Now, if you’re looking to amass 50 million Twitter followers from scratch, and you are yet to send out your first tweet — maybe try something like the above?
