The proliferation of social media has practically made the phenomenon its own language, complete with acceptable lexicons and gestures, with hundreds of popular personalities leading the field with thousands of followers hanging on their every word. Today, we’ll share 100 of the most influential Twitter names that you owe it to yourself to be following.
Twitter has endured cynicism and doubt about its staying power as an influential force for as long as it’s existed, yet competitors have risen around it and still can’t threaten the dominating hold that the social media platform has on the newsworthy and the relevant. If it’s breaking news, there’s a good chance it was first heard on Twitter before any other outlet, and the same goes for developing stories all over the world.
It has remained a uniting force and a place for discussion, and while there will always be volatile or toxic personalities that choose to take up residence in social media, Twitter is a place that you can go when you want to become informed, inspired, and entertained, all from one grand swath of the population.
The only caveat is, it’s up to you to find them. Simply stopping through the Twitter website isn’t going to give you a very wide selection, and while you might turn up some results with hashtag searching and browsing, your results are going to be all over the place. This is how many users’ Twitter experiences devolve into a lukewarm mass of accounts that you’re only somewhat committed to, rather than a rock-solid list of voices that you want to read every day.
We’re here to help, and since we’re organized folks, we’ll keep our list nice and organized.
Top 30 – The Most Followed on Twitter
The following are the top 30 most popular names on Twitter, each boasting millions of followers. Surely, that’s a sign that they deserve your attention, too. Right?
- Katy Perry: @katyperry
- Justin Bieber: @justinbieber
- Taylor Swift: @taylorswift13
- Barack Obama: @BarackObama
- Youtube: @YouTube
- Rihanna: @rihanna
- Ellen DeGeneres: @TheEllenShow
- Lady Gaga: @ladygaga
- Justin Timberlake: @jtimberlake
- Twitter: @twitter
- Britney Spears: @britneyspears
- Kim Kardashian West: @KimKardashian
- Selena Gomez: @selenagomez
- Cristiano Ronaldo: @Cristiano
- Instagram: @instagram
- Jimmy Fallon: @jimmyfallon
- CNN Breaking News: @cnnbrk
- Ariana Grande: @ArianaGrande
- Shakira: @Shakira
- Demi Lovato: @ddlovato
- Jennifer Lopez: @JLo
- Drizzy: @Drake
- Oprah Winfrey: @Oprah
- LeBron James: @KingJames
- Miley Ray Cyrus: @MileyCyrus
- Kevin Hart: @KevinHart4real
- Bill Gates: @BillGates
- One Direction: @onedirection
- ESPN: @espn
- SportsCenter: @SportsCenter
Of course, popularity isn’t everything, but we’re not measuring these profiles simply for their popularity. We’re measuring their popularity, in the hope that they are good at what they do and also have interesting things to Tweet about on a daily basis. It’s a pretty diverse collection of personalities, ranging all the way from
It’s a pretty diverse collection of personalities, ranging all the way from the President of the United States to sports broadcasting networks to talk show hosts.
If nothing else (and really, you should follow many of them), we can at least know that Twitter is diverse in its representation, offering a wealth of constructive and interesting voices from every walk of life.
Laughs Abound – 30 Twitter Accounts to Make You Chuckle
Enlightenment comes in many different forms, but we’re often the most open to it when we’re in a good mood. If your day needs cheering up, then you often don’t need to look any further than Twitter.
Comedians abound in the Twittersphere, and quite a few accounts are created only to Tweet a good laugh now and again. If that sounds up your alley, here are 30 Twitter profiles that you should follow, right now.
- Anti-Comedian: @jokeisntfunny
- Nathan Buckley: @duplicitron
- Fake Science: @FakeScience
- Shawn: @online_shawn
- Summer Ray: @SummerRay
- Get In the Sea: @getinthesea
- Medieval Reactions: @MedievalReacts
- Political Partridge: @PoliticalAP
- ClickHole: @ClickHhole
- Why My Cat Is Sad: @mysadcat
- Grace Spelman: @GraceSpelman
- Akilah Hughes: @AkilahObviously
- Julia: @becauseimjewish
- Gabby Bess: @seemstween
- Alexis Wilkinson: @OhGodItsAlexis
- Brands Saying Bae: @BrandsSayingBae
- Modern Seinfeld: @SeinfeldToday
- Boring Tweeter: @b0ringtweets
- Perspective Pictures: @Perspective_pic
- Grammar Police: @_grammar_
- God: @TheTweetOfGod
- Vine: @vine
- Funny Tweets: @Lmao
- Lord Voldemort: @Lord_Voldemort7
- Someecards: @someecards
- First World Pains: @FirstWorldPains
- Condescending Wonka: @OhWonka
- DeathStarPR: @DeathStarPR
- Drunk Hulk: @DrunkHulk
- Sixth Form Poet: @sixthformpoet
Of course, this is just a sampling. A creme of the crop, if you will, that will have you in stitches throughout the day if you follow even half of them.
What tickles your funny bone doesn’t matter when you have such a rich library of humor to draw on as Twitter offers. Even if none of the above Twitter accounts trip your trigger (seriously, do you even laugh?), seeing some of the comedic brilliance that they’re retweeting is going to point you in the right direction.
Get Inspired – 30 Influential Twitter Users
Sometimes, we all need reminders that there are good people in the world; people who make a difference, who affect change for the betterment of the world, who have created and innovated in ways that are changing all of our lives.
- George Takei: @GeorgeTakei
- Jeff Weiner: @jeffweiner
- Alexia Tsotsis: @alexia
- Dan Primack: @danprimack
- Marissa Mayer: @marissamayer
- Kim Dotcom: @KimDotcom
- Arianna Huffington: @ariannahuff
- PewDiePie: @pewdiepie
- Vani Hari: @thefoodbabe
- Beyoncé: @Beyonce
- The White House: @WhiteHouse
- Barack Obama: @BarackObama
- Pope Francis: @Pontifex
- J.K. Rowling: @jk_rowling
- Lorde: @lorde
- Michelle Obama: @MichelleObama
- Melissa Stewart: @MelissaOnline
- Steve Forbes: @SteveForbesCEO
- Sir Richard Branson: @RichardBranson
- Steve Case: @SteveCase
- Bill Gates: @BillGates
- Anne-Marie Slaughter: @SlaughterAM
- Elizabeth Warren: @SenWarren
- Debora Spar: @deboraspar
- Padmasree Warrior: @padmasree
- Anna Maria Chávez: @AnnaMariaChavez
- Gloria Steinem: @gloriasteinem
- Aileen Lee: @aileenlee
- Dwayne Johnson: @TheRock
- Brianna Wu: @Spacekatgal
- Serena William: @serenawilliams
To limit this list to 30 Twitter accounts was, honestly, a bit difficult! The Twitterverse is so full of influential voices that we could easily have dedicated all 100 of our entries to this topic alone, but instead, I’ve tried to give you an honest sampling; a good spread from a variety of different experiences and expertise that will keep your Twitter feed fresh and exciting.
We could all use a little reminder that everyone has the potential for success in their lives, and the above voices–no matter where they’ve each landed professionally–might be what you need in your day-to-day life to kindle that spark of inspiration, and keep the flame lit. Additionally, it can be awfully helpful
Information Station – 10 Top Sources for News on Twitters
Of course, one of the huge reasons that people prefer Twitter as a service is the fact that it delivers new information in seconds from it happening or being discovered, which tends to break every precedent of speed previously established by major news outlets.
While getting your news online has practically become the “new normal” (seriously, it’s better than your TV), there’s nothing much that modern media outlets can do that will ever keep up with Twitter. Hence, the only way to get around that fact is to report the news on Twitter. This has become a commonplace practice for hundreds of public and private news agencies, each of which is constantly striving to break important news to the Tweeting public faster than their competitors.
Following all of them is only going to clog up your Twitter feed, turning it into a jumbled mess of scattered information. Instead, take a look at our top 10 news and information Twitter accounts; feel free to be picky and choosy when it comes to determining how you’d like to receive your information.
- Breaking News: @BreakingNews
- Fox News: @FoxNews
- ABC News: @abcnews
- HuffingtonPost: @HuffingtonPost
- Raw Story: @RawStory
- The Onion: @TheOnion
- TMZ: @TMZ
- BBC Breaking News: @BBCBreaking
- New York Times: @NYTimes
- Washington Post: @washingtonpost
Are these the end-all, be-all of news reporting on Twitter? Absolutely not. There are dozens of options that might be better suited to you as an individual, but if you’re looking for news organizations that top the ratings in regard to Twitter interaction with their followers, these are the places to take a peek.
If you’re getting sick of ad culture and only tuning into daily events at certain, televised hours, then getting your news via Twitter is the choice for you.
The above list of 100 top Twitter accounts to follow could always change; you can bet that we’ll be back to update it, but in the meantime, if there are any accounts or names that you think should be on the list, but arent…you know what to do. Leave us with your own recommendations for who everyone should be following on Twitter in 2016!
Thus far, no other contender on the social media map has been able to come anywhere close to dethroning the Zeitgeist that is Twitter. We have Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and others that are certainly each doing their own thing, but none of them have the snappiness and instantly-readable attraction that has drawn people into the Twitterverse for years. Hence, we’ve now arrived in “Twitter 2016,” where some of the most influential voices in the world (and the funniest, and the most important) can be readily found and read on a daily basis. It’s from that massive wealth of important voices that we’ve drawn our top 100 Twitter names of all time.
