Since acquiring social media platform Twitter, Elon Musk has given himself titles of “Chief Twit Officer” and “Twitter Complaint Hotline Operator” instead of chief executive officer. Along with owning the social media platform after a $44 billion acquisition, Musk also has another title thanks to his large amount of followers.
What Happened: Earlier this year, Musk hit the 100-million-followers milestone on Twitter, ranking as the sixth most followed account on the social media platform.
Over the last four-plus months, Musk has grown his Twitter followers to 114.3 million, which now ranks Musk as the second most followed account on all of Twitter.
Since June, Musk has passed soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo and singers Rihanna, Katy Perry and most recently Justin Bieber. With 113.8 million followers, Bieber moves into third place for followers.
The only person that ranks ahead of Musk for followers on Twitter is former President Barack Obama. The Twitter account of Obama has 133.3 million followers.
Obama’s account is significantly ahead of the current @POTUS account used by President Joe Biden and Biden’s personal account, which have 27 million and 36 million followers respectively.
One person that could climb up the followers chart is former President Donald Trump. Before he was suspended from the platform, Trump had 88.9 million followers. Musk has indicated that Trump could be welcomed back on Twitter in the future.
Twitter had 237.8 million monetizable daily active users at the end of the second quarter.
Related Link: The Technoking Of Tesla Is Now The Chief Twit Of Twitter
Why It’s Important: Musk first tweeted from his account in June 2010 and has grown his following significantly as one of the most prominent tweeters among CEOs.
“Please ignore prior tweets, as that was someone pretending to be me :) This is actually me,” Musk tweeted on June 4, 2010.
Among the favorite topics for Musk to tweet about are Tesla Inc TSLA and SpaceX, two companies of which he's the CEO. Other favorite tweet topics include discussing meme coin Dogecoin DOGE/USD and sharing memes.
Musk started 2020 with 30.4 million followers and began 2021 with 41 million followers. Musk started 2022 with 72.1 million followers.
With his normal growth rate of followers, Musk could surpass Obama's number in the future. Obama had 132.1 million followers when Musk hit 100 million, and has seen his following rise by 1.2 million in the same time that Musk gained 14.3 million followers.
In June, Benzinga polled its Twitter followers, asking how many followers Musk would have on Twitter by the end of 2022.
The results were:
90 million to 100 million: 11.1%
100.1 million to 125 million: 48.8%
125.1 million to 150 million: 17.9%
150.1 million or more: 22.2%
One thing is for sure, Musk is one of the most widely followed people on Twitter. On other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta Platforms META, celebrities rank higher than Musk. That could be due in part to the fact that Musk doesn’t use those platforms.
Read Next: 51 Facts And Figures About Tesla And SpaceX CEO Elon Musk
Photo: Courtesy of Joe Bielawa on flickr
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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