Most popular brands on Twitter - why?

This list is both a little shocking but very understandable. With the big names that are featured, I can recognize all of them and realize what they are and what they represent. These accounts are so popular because they can reach a wide audience and provide informaiton and topics that they are all interested in. The reason that you are not seeing smaller companies or brands on here is because they don't have the capital or the reach to gain a wide enough following. The combination between social, sports and news accounts is all inlcuded in this list because those are the main topics in which people are interested on a daily basis. These accounts are so succesful because they are reaching out to these audiences that get their news and updates from twitter, therefore are able to connect with them on a daily basis and expand their account following. I know that I follow about 5 of these accounts and usually connect with them either everyday or every other day. The reason that they can maintain my information, is because they are providing the information that I want without filling it with nonsense content in which I do not want to read about. We can learn from these big brands because they have a constant twitter feed and are consistent with their content. In order to gain and maintain followers you will need to provide them with the correct information and twitter content to keep their attention.

I follow two of these accounts listed and I feel like this list is pretty odd. Youtube has its own website so I do not see why Twitterites would follow this company if their content can be viewed on their actual website. I follow CNN and CNN breaking news because I spend most of my TV time watching CNN (nerdy? probably yes). Same with Instagram being the #2 most followed company. I can see all of the pictures of my selected people that I follow and I can even look at the 'discover' page and see the pictures around the globe with the most likes and views. 

I follow mainly celebrities and retail companies next to people I know. I can get a glimpse into the lives of celebrities and I like the ability. I also follow my favorite retail companies for exclusive offers, new products, and overall information about some of my favorite stores. 

I looked up and skimmed through the twitters ofthe top 3 listed. Youtube provided some funny videos, a music video by Beck and a cultural video. Instagram, naturallly posted different genres of pictures. And as for Twitter, it has some interested article reads and just about a mix of everything.

All of these accounts that gave a Twitter are kind of ironic because they have their own social media site, yet they are connecting with another. Similar to how facebook has a 'like' page for all of these social media sites. I beliebve that these companies do this to maximize their SEO, too, and to keep people connected even when they are not used by their own app. If I were to see a tweet from CNN breaking news stating something rather important has happened, I would immediately go to CNN and read more details of the event. This keeps keep in the know even when they may not know. It reminds users that they have these accounts and can easily access them through Twitter, not just their personal app or website. 

They are defintely doing right by making more than one social media account. By linking all these they can ensure everyone sees literally everything. Nobody wants to be left in the dark of the newest update with fun filters, whats going on in the Middle East, and who the Spartans drafted for the upcoming football season. From this, we can learn to link our accounts together and to not be afraid to post on more than one account; by doing this, we are maximizing our reach. People may see our tweet from somebody else retweeting, and thus we could gain a follower from that. 

I think these accounts have gained so much popularity just because of their names. All of those companies on the list- we have known about for years. They have gained credibility and are very successful companies. People just follow them just because of their name. I wont follow an account unless I know them. Maybe some of their followers just follow them because they tweet relevant, reliable and credible information. There are so many news parody accounts and spam accounts that are disguised as the real things and that leads people to become skeptical. In most cases, people cannot tell the difference at a glace when they see a tweet. You have to go to their actual profile and look for the blue check mark. 

I found this post very interesting. I was not surprised by the sports teams on the list, particularly soccer, as it has such a strong fan base. I was also expecting to see the news sites on the list. A lot of people of our generation turn first to social media to gain information and insight on breaking news and world events. Accounts like CNN, NYT and BBC share good, helpful content on their accounts, and their tweets often contain photographs and links to articles supporting their information.

What surprised me about this post was that YouTube, Instagram and Twitter have so many followers. For the most part, I find the accounts of large companies to be useless. I get enough of the promoted content for those platforms on my repective profiles, and feel no need to follow them on Twitter. However,  these companies do specialize in social media, and know what they are doing in terms of getting followers. They often have promoted content that is relevant to users, partiularly those interested in social media marketing. They also appeal world wide- a global target audience never hurts!

I am really surprised of these 20 most popular brande on twitter. I can only understand the first 8 brands because it all are world well known brand and people did really discussed those a lots in nowadays. However, I am really shocked that Apple Inc. did not get in the list. People are always addicted on the Apple product and always keep an eye on the latest one, there is no reason that it did not even be on the list. WHich really stated out not all big organizations have widely popular Twitter accounts. However, there are several brands that I was never heard it before such as the Ramalan Indonesia. Since I do no tweet, I really wondering what makes these account so unique? I think they might probably have a high reputation and always post important but easy enough for people to catch up and understand. Furthermore, when people saw their friends or the accounts have lots of people were talking about, this will leads more people to get invovled into the account because they do not want to be outdated and cannot catched up the latest topic in the conversation.

The list is pretty surprising to me. I noticed as did everyone else that twitter is number 3 on their own list. I never thought about following other social media accounts on twitter. I don’t understand the point of following like YouTube or Instagram on twitter since both of those websites are fine just on their own. I think it is just another way for them to market and get attention to more people. I would never follow them since I use both and know a lot about those accounts. I do however follow ESPN and CNN on twitter for news information since those are not really social media accounts and their twitter accounts give you the top news without having to go and open new apps.

After looking at the list the common themes are sports, news, and social media. What all the news and sports have in common that I think make them high on twitters list is that people want a fast and easy way to get the news they want and to stay informed. I think it is great to be able to read what my friends are doing and also see that someone just got traded or that there is some conflict overseas. It makes getting information easy and I think it helps this generation stay informed since we know many of us do not read newspapers or even watch the news anymore. I’m still confused about the social media accounts being so high on the list since I think people should just use them on their websites but it is obviously a great advertising and marketing technique since it is working.

I think what they are doing to be so popular is to cut everything down and they make most of the content on twitter into shorter messages then they would have on their original accounts. We have learned in other classes that people dont have long attention spans anymore and the faster you can give them the information the more likely they will retain and be interested in it. 

Well now I feel like a social media dweeb because I officially follow 0 of these accounts. I'm surprised by a lot of them excluding the news resources. I do the same with with different news organizations, which makes sense because that's how a majority of people get their daily news.

The first three are the ones that don't make much sense for me. I'm sure they most post accounts that are worth following and keep people informed of big news, but it doesn't seem like a worthwhile follow. The ones that make the most sense are followed because they're letting you know of breaking news related to anything from politics to sports. Even MTV makes sense because they're letting you know what's going on in pop culture. 

I guess if we can learn anything it's that people love constant information. They like knowing things. They need to know what's happening in the world, for whatever reason that is. 

I am not a twitter user and I follow no one on the twitter account I have made, so this list is very surprising to me. The most shocking fact is that other forms of social media are among the most followed brands, which is especially strange since everyone who has a twitter most likely has easy access to those other accounts - so why follow them on twitter? 

The brands that made this list are most likely due to large PR teams who dole out frequent updates on the things that people are most intrigued by, such as news updates, sports teams, and pop culture. The brands obvioulsy know how to engage and satisfy their followers curiosity, and post frequently enough to be a valid source of up-to-date information. 

Entertainment and current events are a common theme of being a well known brand on twitter. People love to be in the know, and that is what these accounts provide.

 

Honestly I am not a Social Media person but I am aware of many people tweet or follow. I was not very surprised. However, there are some accounts that I don’t understand. I thought Facebook would be the highest. And I never heard Ramalan Indonesia before. Since I don’t tweet, I don’t follow any of those accounts. From the list, it shows that more popular organization stays at the top. In my opinion, organization that covers variety subjects attracts more people. Also, broadcasting updates broad subjects and often. I think that is the reason why CNN and ESPN stay at the top. What they are doing great is that they are advertising them without any costs. Therefore, we can learn that those organizations are using Social Media with free of cost. Also, organizations using mouth strategy.

This list surprises me a lot because it is Twitter accounts of brands that don't sell products. When I follow a company on Twitter, I do it to be updated on sales or any news that could potentally benefit me and save me money. The accounts for Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook surprise me the most because they have apps that you can download on your smart phone to go right to those websites; I wouldn't think to follow their Twitter accounts. The only account on this list that I follow is The New York Times because it's about breaking news and I like to see it on my Twitter timeline because Twitter is the app I use the most. 

What makes these accounts unique is that people can scroll through their Twitter timeline and see news on all of these accounts they may have apps for (like Instagram, Youtube, ESPN) and see all the news the brands share without having to open all the different apps. Everything is on one social network and people can just open their Twitter account to stay updated. The brands on this list know that people like to get their news in one consolidated place to save time, and they are so successful because they are consistent and active with the Twitter accounts for their brand. Other brands/apps can learn from the ones on this list that it's important to be build audiences on other platforms other than just a company website or the company's app.

This list is half surprising, and half understandable. I follow almost all news sources on Twitter, and I also think that social media platforms such as YouTube and Vine are worth following because their content is often shared among strangers, rather than friends. Following social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter seem odd, because it seems as if the content on those Twitter accounts would be mostly promoted material. Following them seems uninteresting to me. 

Contrary to my belief, they must be doing something right. I decided to check them out, and I'm still slightly baffled that they have so many followers. Facebook barely posts anything on Twitter. 

I think that the reason behind their large volume of followers is due to the fact that they are suggested as one of the first accounts to follow when you first make your Twitter. After recognizing Facebook, newcomers will follow them and eventually forget that it ever happened. Due to their lack of frequency in posts, forgetting that you followed them is easy. 

This list is surprising to me.  I never would have thought to follow other social media channels, such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, on Twitter.  Not only is Twitter third on their own account, but number one, Youtube, and number 2, Instagram, are separated by over ten million followers.  Many of these, with the exception of the news outlet accounts, are not accounts/ brands that I would go to Twitter to search for information about.

After looking at the list, it seems that there are three major categories widely represented in the list: News, Sports, and Social.  These accounts have common, popular factors for Twitter users worldwide which makes them more interesting for a larger population.  These accounts are pulling followers from a greater pool of people. This can be seen by the article posted on SocialTimes that recently announced that 78% of Twitter users are international.

The accounts that made the cut must have a strong social media team that is focused on interaction and giving people relevant, up to date information they are looking for. 

For the most part, this list does not surprise me.  It does confuse me, however, how Twitter and Twitter en español are among the top 20 brands on Twitter.  I would never think to follow Twitter on Twitter, and can't actually imagine what their content looks like. 

What I find interesting about these accounts is that none of them are the kinds of "brands" that most people think of, because none of them sell products or a more tangible service.  When I think about big brands, I think about those that are advertised during the Super Bowl; ie. the Budweiser, Pepsi, Ford, and Verizon brands of the world.  That being said, I think that what these brands do that make them so popular on Twitter is provide great content.  This, for the most part, is probably due to the fact that they're almost all in the internet/television content business.  CNN's content is the news - people want to read the news.  SportsCenter's content is the news of the sports world - people want to know what is going on with their favorite teams.  These brands don't have to work too hard to come up with good content, but they do a good job of sharing good content.  This is likely what makes them so popular on Twitter!

I believe these companies are popular on Twitter because of the clever content they frequently update. Especially for companies like Youtube and Instagram, they make their followers aware of pictures or videos they would not have otherwise found on their own. These accounts are an easy way for people to be connected through a shared media source. 

However, an increasing issue for sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest is the "free" advertising their sites provide to companies like Youtube, Instagram, CNN, and others. Youtube and Instagram have the largest followings on Twitter without purchasing an advertisement through Twitter.  

Even if Twitter appreciates the huge audience companies like Youtube, Instagram, and CNN can attract, they have no way of directly benefiting financially from it. Twitter advertising will have to adapt to provide a noticeable benefit to companies with large followings that cannot otherwise be achieved by having an account. 

After going through the list, I am partially surprised by the order of a few. I definitely thought Facebook would be higher up on the list, but I also understand Instagram being up high because people like to view images while they scroll on their timeline. I am very intrigued as to what makes brands associated with countries, like FC Barcelona, Ramalan Indonesia, and Real Madrid F.C., are so popular. I am not following any of these brands on Twitter, but I am following some accounts that are associated with what the brands have to offer. Examples are Funny_Vines, or Earth Pics of Instagram. There are some brands on this list that I am not familiar with, but I also follow some other brands that I would think would make the list, like famous celebrities, or at least more brands not associated with phone apps. I do use many of these social networks or things these brands have to offer though, just not through the Twittersphere. Facebook, Vine, Twitter, Uber, Instagram stand out to me most on this list. They are probably so popular because people have these apps on their phone and are used to constantly interacting with these brands on their phone. Adding them to their timelines is one more place to stay up to date.

This list doesn’t surprise me at all. The first few are social medias in themselves but it is interesting to see how other social medias cross between each other. I know that each of them advertise one or the other. I just think each of these popular media devices are becoming more and more useful for us to use. We use them as a resource for our news, weather, all kinds of aspects of our lives and they find themselves becoming more and more popular to us through all of our different social medias. If you were YouTube, why wouldn’t you advertise on twitter?

I am unsure how I feel about this list, these are all very big brands but why would you want to follow them on twitter. For instance, instagram, why would I want to follow instagram on twitter, personally use instagram to follow my friends not just random accounts, the @Instagram account on twitter is an account just posting random pictures and accounts. On the other hand, the @Youtube account is completely different. When I think about the most recent big events, The Superbowl for instance, many people, including myself, I go straight to youtube to see the best commericials. If I was a big twitter user I would have just followed the youtube account hoping that they would post some of the more popular commericals right there on their twitter page and that is exactly what @Youtube did. After reading this blog post I went to the youtube page and it is much more impressive then I imagined when starting this blog comment. They post all of the popular videos on Youtube that day, what else would you need? I am much more open to following random people and random accounds on Youtube then I am on Instagram. Making this twitter page can almost completetly illiminate my need for actually going to Youtube unless I wanted to watch a specific video. 

 

Now that I have written this post I thought about all of the other accounts I could find on instagram to follow other than just my friends. I found a website about the best accounts to follow on instagram, Best Instagram Accounts To Follow and it opened my mind to people to follow. This site gives you different celebrities to follow or accounts that just have a lot of views but it helped me see that I could follow different recipe accounts (Instagram Recipe Accounts) or fitness acconts instead of always going to pinterest. 

 

I think the @Youtube account is doing very well and deserves the number one spot, but, like I said, I dont think that @Instagram should be second and I also dont think there is a need for Twitter to have a @Twitter account. 

 

Carly 

I'm going to break the trend and say that I'm actually a little surprised by this list. Obviously all these companies are all big brands, but it doesn't ever occur to me to follow social media accounts on social media. I've never even considered that Twitter might have its own account on its own site. Same goes for Instagram, Facebook, and the others. That being said, I'm following many of the news accounts (five total, I believe) on this list. I suppose this isn't unique in my generation, but I use Twitter for news all the time. It's faster than looking elsewhere and news is often available as it's happening. I suppose that's why there are so many news organizations in the top 20 accounts. Clearly, many more people than me use Twitter for news. As far as the reasons for their success, I think it's really a matter of knowing your platforms and interacting with followers. Reporters and news organizations are constantly posting about current events and promoting articles, interacting with readers and engaging with other tweeters. It just makes sense that other social media platforms would be the experts in their industry, meaning they probably know exactly how to use Twitter (and other platforms) to their own advantage. Twitter makes people feel engaged with the news and the sites that are publishing it, which can't be said for other "wildly popular brands." These others may post irregularly, not at all, or engage in a sort of disconnected communication with followers. I think the secret (although maybe not such a secret afterall) is to publish good content, share it, and then engage with followers. I'm definitely going to go check out some of these other accounts. I don't want to be out of the loop! 

I am very surprised at the presence of so many non-news brands being present. I know that I am beginning to view twitter, and I know this is something they are working to increase within their portfolio, as a source of extremely quick information and news. So for instance CNN and BBC are there which would be expected, but Ubersocial, Samsung, Youtube and Instagram? They don't seem to be very twitter centric accounts persay. They're not quick and quippy. They don't have information that could affect sometones day to day routine and many are just promoting themselves which is something I really don't like filling up my twitter. I think though that they are extremely good at providing either, extremely current information (CNN, BBC etc.) or spending lots of money to achieve premium placement in the "you should follow" tab on twitter. Although annoying, placement there could be key to attaining this type of brand status. ADditionally many of these brand may be marketing their social media sites within their own product lines, in effect using their voice to draw more people to its other avenue and form. 

I am not surprised at all by these 20 accounts being the most popular. I follow 8 of these accounts on twitter myself, but a lot of the ones I don't follow I still see frequently on my newsfeed as they are retweeted by someone else I do follow. I think these accounts are so popular because they engage people with millions of other people and they educate people on what is going on in the world whether that is with sports, celebrity gossip, or current events. By engaging with people through twitter accounts they are reaching a wider target audience seeing as how popular twitter has become in recent years. Therefore, they are doing everything right.

This is an interesting concept; to see how social media platforms perform on different social media. For me, I think that the amount of news accounts that are on this list definitely makes sense. Twitter is all about recieving quick updates, and it is important for these news channels to stay connected to their audiences 24/7. Being on twitter allows them to do that while delivering the most important headlines as content. It also works as a way to link to their own websites to read the full article, which benefits them. 

In all honesty, I am not surprised that these accounts are the most popular for Twitter users. Although, the Spanish accounts somewhat do surprise me, for being amongst the top followed. It's interesting knowing that, considering that the Hispanic population in the U.S. is growing. For that reason, I'm sure companies plan to target that demographic, and Twitter is just one way to. I follow about half of these accounts/pages, and the interesting thing is that I don't follow any of the the Spanish or other culturally targeted accounts. I didn't even know that those specific accounts existed. For example, I follow Twitter's account, but not Twitter en español. What I think make them unique, is that they are able to market themselves to consumers by tweeting and retweeting content that attracts their target audience(s). For example, CNN Breakng News most likely tweets about national and international headlings as the become available. That gives them the edge over other national news networks, because they are better able to get news out faster to their target audience(s), than if they waited to air the news at regular news times and/or interrupt a TV broadcast show. Also, we can learn from these popular/trending accounts by tweeting specific and concise content to users.

It does not surprise me that the majority of these brands make up this list.  I follow none of these on Twitter, but I am also very inactive on Twitter, using it only when I get fed up with Facebook.  It does not surprise me whatsoever that YouTube is at the top of this list.  YouTube has become a huge resource recently and I would expect its dominance to do nothing but continue to grow.  I'm glad to see that there are some news outlets on this list and that this is not made up entirely of celebrities.  I suppose that, in a sense, it does surprise me that there are no celebrities on this list.  I think we can look at each of these accounts in their own right and see what tweets are garnering the most response from their followers and adapting those posts or developing something similar for our own brands.  The most popular ones may also be posting topics that are either relevant or of interest to our own followers.  For example, YouTube simply posts videos that are either popular on its website, big news because of who posted the video, or just generally entertaining.

This list dose not surprised me at all. I followed about 6 of them, because I am not a social media person. But I know most of the brand. Those brands are all big social media brand. Social media is really necessary for our daily life as the news. I think they have common in have lots of information and update really soon. If people follow these accounts they will know what happened in the world. I believe those accounts also have new posts everyday, and have interaction with followers. My last inter was to operate the social media for the company. I made new post daily and have some interaction with the follow, like answer their questions or comment. In the end, the followers of our account increased 40 followers. I think it’s important to have actions on the social media account.

I am not surprised that these are the top 20 accounts.  I am a little surprise that @Youtube is above @Twitter on twitter.  Another thing that surprised me was seeing a couple soccer clubs in the top 20.  I played soccer so I am always surprised to see it on a popular level, but then I remember its the most popular sport in the world, just not in the United States.  I do not follow many accounts on twitter and I only follow one of these accounts.  I follow @SportsCenter, I follow this account to get updates about the sporting world around me.  When I am at work or just bored rather than going to ESPN on the televison I can just open up twitter and find the big news stories of the day.

These accounts are very popular and they have to post things that people want to see.  For example, CNN and CNN Breaking News are both in the top 20.  They will post very infomational new articles and news facts.  As a whole these are all accounts that people want to hear updates fast and twitter is a good spot to get those updates.  I have heared of every account but the Ramalan Indonesia account and for the others they have a large footprint in the twitter world.

I am not surprised by the list of the 20 most popular brands on Twitter. I don’t have a twitter anymore, but I did follow a few of the accounts when I did. There are a few on the list that I don’t know much about such as @FCBarcelona, @TweetRAMALAN, and @realmadrid, but that is probably because they are more popular in other countries. I think what makes these Twitter accounts so popular is the content that they post and how often they publish that content. Their followers are constantly seeing them on their timeline with fresh and relevant tweets. Another important thing that I think helps these companies succeed on social media is that they create tweets that people want to read, and ones that will encourage them to click on the link. For accounts like CNN, The New York Times, and CNN Breaking News it’s really important that they give enough info for people to be interested, but not enough for people not to click on the article and read it. One thing that we can learn from these accounts is the importance of producing content that audiences want to read and delivering them in a ways that their followers respond well to. Each account has a different vibe on Twitter and I think that the brands do a great job of keeping that vibe consistent with all of their tweets and other social media accounts.

Most of the accounts on this list are not a surprise me at all. I only follow two of these accounts but many of them i browse through every once and awhile and often see them retweeted by many of my friends. The ones that come to a surprise to me are @ubersoc, @TweetRAMALAN and @realmadrid because I have never seen these accounts in my feed. I dont even know what UberSoc is and for it to have 12.1 million followers makes me feel like I am out of the loop. I think most of these accounts are so popular because they are good at delivering main stream media to mass audiences. Many of these things (sites) are easily navigatable and dont have new things to replace them just yet (like youtube for example, there is no better site to look and find videos). What these sites are doing right is knowing how to target many different types of audiences at once. 

This list is not that surprising to me. I only follow two on this list but a lot of the are huge names with a lot to offer. I understand why all of the news and sports names are up there because people do want information but they may not always want to have to go look for it. I think what seperates then from the big organizations that are not in the top 20 is their presence on social media and content. It really does down to content, and they all post what people want to see on their feed. If they didn't, people would unfollow them, as simple as that. It also helps how popular a lot of these were before social media was big. They already had a huge following.

I currently follow 5 of these accounts on Twitter.  This list does not surprise me at all, actually.  I believe that these accounts are unique because they are based off of what people are interested and want to follow. For me,  I love seeing updates on SportsCenter. I can always rely on them to tweet during big games. As far as the New York Times Twitter account, people are constantly being updated with news.  I follow them to see things that are going on in the world.  People follow accounts that interest them and to know what is going on at all times.  I believe these accounts are doing the right thing by constantly tweeting and posting articles. Being active on Twitter is key. I believe we can all take that away from these accounts--to always post and keep your followers updated. 

This list does not surprise me. What does surprise me are that some aren't on there that I would expect to be. Accounts such as Apple and Microsoft I would expect to be on there over Samsung or Real Madrid FC but are not. I created a Twitter for this class and I still don't really use it but I did follow CNN Breaking News and The New York Times because if and when I do look at Twitter I think those would be two accounts that would post news that would be useful to see. I think Twitters such as the news sites like I followed have a large following is because just as I mentioned, it's useful information for everyone. In this day and age people are changing how they get their news. Everyone doesn't watch the evening news anymore because you can get that information any time you want at the click of a button. A lot of people check Twitter fairly often so following these organizations makes it easy to keep up on current news. The same kind of goes for the ones such as YouTube and Instagram. If they update their website, app, or post something new they're going to tweet about it thus their followers go and check it out, it's a great marketing tool for them. As consumers, we're interested in when things are new so we follow them to also stay up to date on that kind of stuff.

This list does not surprise me that much. The only thing that does surprise me is that Facebook is not higher up on the list. I thought for sure that Facebook would be in the top 5. I follow 7 of the 20 accounts. The fact that I only follow 7 of these accounts doesn't mean I don't know about the other accounts. To be honest, I have never heard of Ramalan Indonesia before or what that even is. They are all big brands or widely known organizations. In my opinion, what makes these accounts unique and thrive, is updating people and updating them as fast as possible. That is why the CNN and ESPN are close to the top, because they are giving people news and giving it to them quickly. A lot of these accounts have their own website or app that people use. People are always on Twitter so I think it is easier for them to just use one app and get all their information there by following different accounts. Its easier than opening a bunch of different apps to get their news and updates. These accounts on Twitter are optimizing how many people see their accounts and how many people follow them. It brings in a bigger crowd and increases their popularity even more. I can definitely see why some of these accounts are at the top of the list. Getting their name out there is what we can learn from these accounts. Making themselves well known and out there is why some of these accounts are doing so well. They are using their resources and reaching out to more people and people that love Twitter.

This list does not suprise me at all. As you said, most of these twitter accounts respresent brands that are widely recognized. For me specifically, I follow 4 of these accounts. I think they are so popular because they are obviously so widely used by people around the globe. Not only that, but most of these accounts are geared towards all different audiences, making their target market widespread leads to more followers. For instance, Vine became popular about 2 years ago, but is still used often. Its an entertaining 6 second video that causes people to go viral if you get enough shares and revines. I think what Vine is doing right is the fact that the video can only be 6 seconds long. This then makes a person curious as to what else a certain "viner" has to offer, which leads to folllowing  them and checking out more of their 6 seconds of fame. What we can learn is that to become one of these top 20 twitter handles, you have to be a company that interests a variety of viewers.

Surprisingly enough, I do not follow a single account listed above. Although I am not very active on Twitter, I still follow over 300 accounts. I watch MTV, I use Facebook, Vine and Instagram, yet I do not follow them on Twitter. I am surprised with some of the accounts listed such as Samsung Mobile. I searched their account to see if I could determine why everyone follows them. What I found was that they tend to live tweet some main events and are relatable to their target market. I probably will not follow them but I can see why they do have a large following. The majority of the accounts listed do not surprise me because they are used by millions of people every day. I am sure that their websites have links to their Twitter or special offers or updates that are exclusive to Twitter, which could be why many people follow them.

From the list above, I follow 7 of these Twitter accounts. It does not surprise me at all that both CNN and CNN Breaking News are near the top. These accounts provide a quick and easy way to keep up-to-date on current events. I personally follow both of these, along with the New York Times, to get a majority of my daily news. Every person needs to keep up with what is happening in the world, and the CNN accounts are not solely aimed at one single target audience. They cater to everyone who wants to know the news. This plays a large factor in their accounts being so popular.

One thing about this list that surprises me is that, even though these are the top 20 most popular brands on Twitter, they range from about 10 million followers to nearly 50 million followers. That is a huge difference, and it tells me that even some brands on this list still have a long way to go to get on par with the best.

I have a lot of these apps, and use a lot of these sites but I do not follow a lot of these company's on twitter which is what kind of surprises me.  I wouldn't really think to follow them on twitter because I use their sites everyday.  I use the sites, so what more could their twitter tell me?  To me it's a lot of repeated information.  Lower down the list though makes sense to me why they made it in the top 20.  MTV, Vine, SportsCenter, people want the top news and latest information about what's going on in each category. I have the SportsCenter app but following them on Twitter is an easy retweet to share an article or quick video of the highlights from the game.  It's easier to share things on twitter FROM Twitter.  I find it annoying to have to share things from different apps becasue then you have to deal with connecting your accounts.  The top of the list still surprises me a little but after looking at their Twitter pages, I can see why people follow these accounts. It might be people who don't have personal accounts from these sites but still want the news stories and top articles.  It is great advertising and promotion for these sites to be so popular on Twitter, even for Twitter itself!

As I read through this list I realized that I barely follow any of these accounts, except for ESPN, CNN, and Sports center. I am surprised that these three along with CNN Breaking News aren't the Top 4 most followed accounts. These organizations are so popular for bringing you the latest and greatest news in sports, politics, and current events I would think people would follow their twitter accounts where you can get these updates anytime and anywhere rather than Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter. However these huge names have done something to make themselves so popular and followed by such great numbers. Their accounts are engaging, entertaining, and each have their own unique way of reaching out to those who care about their organizations. Twitter has become a main source of news for so many reasons, and the most recognizable is how easy it is to get updates about what is valuable to you.. and the numbers prove it, what's valuable to majority is what Youtube, Instagram, and Twitter is saying. So is that a good thing or a bad thing? I think looking at the big picture is exactly this; Generational Differences. The people using Twitter are following twitter.. and the people who care about politics & world-issues are catching it bright and early on TV before their commute. So even if it surprises me, it makes 100% sense how these names are ranked. 

In my opinion, the only surprising factor about this list is the popularity of some foreign organizations. I expected other social media and news sites to have a high ranking in popularity. Unfortunately, I do not follow any of the accounts that are listed. However, I will be adding them in the near future.

I think these accounts are popular because of their ability to optimize the search engine. Additionally, people often times tag these account names or use their hashtags when sharing digital media with friends. So, the key to search engine optimization is to create opportunity for other people or sites to want to share your digital media by increasing interest and visibility.

This list makes sense, these brands are some of the top, influential companies and groups in the world. As a quick, crowd-sourced, microblogging platform, Twitter has garnered a reputation as people's first source for up-to-date news. With the simple retweeting and sharing capabilities on Twitter, word travels fast. Large brands like the ones on this list would definitely want to make the most of this platform, enabling them to reach a wide audience quickly.

The only account that I follow on this list is the New York Times because I wanted to pretend that I knew what was going on in the news. I never understood the benefits of following accounts like Google or YouTube or even Twitter on its own platform - all the updates or news I would need to know about these companies is sent immediately to my email or pops up in my newsfeed because I follow so many social media savvy and technology accounts. However, after looking at their tweets, Google provides relevant, interesting, and helpful information to their followers and YouTube showcases popular videos of the day/week. Every account on the list is a source for information that Twitter users would want updates on regularly and each account attempts to engage with and provide content for their users, which is why these brands are so large on Twitter. 

This list does not surprise me because all of these brands provide followers with valuable information and updates about what they’re interested in. I personally follow ESPN, The New York Times, YouTube and Twitter for the exact reason that these accounts provide me with information that I value, especially because I use Twitter as my main source for news. One thing that helps these brands gain so many followers is that they’re already established. Most of them existed and had a large, loyal audience before Twitter was such a popular social media platform – they brought their audience with them. Their strengths lie in engaging with their followers as well as posting about what is currently trending. Companies, like these, that post up-to-date content, consistently are usually the ones that become the most popular and are the most successful. 

 

This list really doesn't suprise me. The thing I would find interesting is a list of the top people with the most followers. Organizations are obviously really good at making themselves marketable but they have a whole hired team to do that for them, to make the YouTube "brand" but celebrities can be extremely marketable as well. Obviously some of them have PR teams that help them too but the ones that are truly interesting are self made YouTube senesations for example. Is it possible that they're better at marketing themselves than some other companies? The comparison could be really interesting.

I, personally, do not follow any of these twitter accounts. I'm not an avid tweeter any more. But I think the brand itself like YouTube, has to be popular before it can get so many followers on Twitter. Then they have to put it out there that they do have a twitter account and to top it off actually post interesting things on the account to keep their followers happy. Other companies without as many followers I think are probably lacking in the post department, keeping up with tweets and making them interesting are an important part to having a twitter account. 

I think companies, and us can learn that in order to make yourself marketable you do have to start some where, and sometimes that's the bottom, but what's most important is it's not a one time and your done sort of thing it's a constant up keep or you'll be forgotten. 

I actually don't follow any of these accounts, but I still see their tweets frequently enough that I am familiar with their accounts. I can think of a few reasons why these accounts are popular. One being that they're all full of information, another because they're social media accounts for other social media platforms and sometimes your accounts just follow them when you link them all together. I don't think these accounts do anything special to have their popularity. I think the pure convenience of following them, like following Youtube to stay updated on new videos, is what helps these accounts keep their high follower count as well as the fact that, for the most part, they're international. 

I am surprised that some of the "funnier" accounts are not listed. A few of my favorite accounts are the Taco Bell, Burger King, and Hamburger Helper accounts. These accounts are HILARIOUS. The Hamburger Helper account is by far my favorite! Complex Mag wrote an article about how funny it is. They will mock things in popular culture, tweet each other and reply to all kinds of mentions. I love these accounts because I feel like they connect with their audience and it's great to think someone "like me" could be behind the keyboard in their corporate office. 

 

 

I  personally do not follow any of those social media networks. Some items on the list suprised while others did not. The items that suprised me were Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Vine and Facebook. I never thought about following those social media networks, but maybe it allows you to learn things about the network. I am not suprised that ESPN and NBA are on the list because it could give you updates on what is going on in sports. I beleive anyone that is a big sports fan will follow one of those two. They are promoting their network on another network for free. 

Interesting post, Graham! This list doesn't surprise me much. These are brands that we look to for entertainment and information, so I see why so many users would follow them. However, I find it funny that twitter isn't number one on the list. I only follow a few of these pages because I don't really care about following social networks on twitter. I feel like I get enough information just being on their site. 

Like I said above, these accounts give readers information so I that they probably are more likely to follow them. Another thing that makes a popular page, I've noticed, is being funny or witty and a lot of interaction with followers. I'm more likely to follow a company's twitter if I know they will tweet me back if I have a problem.

Something we can learn from these accounts is that it's good to be funny and informative. Just have something good to say.

Nice post Professor Davis, but to answer your first question, this list does not surprise me. The common theme I am seeing with this list falls under three categories, social media, sports, and news. What is interesting about these three categories is that they are simply subjects I believe that sit high in public interest.

I think these accounts are so popular because people want to know what’s going on in the world and these brands cover the most current happenings. Not only is it current but the information mentioned by these brands is short and relevant. For myself I follow the Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Sports Center, and ESPN brands.  

What these brands doing correctly is targeting a large audience, but doing this by providing information relevant to their brand or account. Each brand is using real time media to keep people up to date constantly and on information their audience wants to know. From them, we can learn how to focus our own brand such as our personal blogs.

Our blogs can be looked at and related to each of these accounts in the sense that we are both providing information. By using our blogs and providing relevant information to what we are attempting to identify with, we may have more success in followers and or responses.

Also, noticing the accounts on the list from different parts of the world is important to note. For our personal accounts and blogs, we now have the capability to extend knowledge and information to people all over the world. Doing this may allow our views and knowledge to expand and connect to others quicker than ever.

This is a great list of resources we all could be using for our professional and personal lives.  By being aware of what the most popular Twitter accounts are talking about gives you a leg up in society when trying to stay relevant.  Whether it’s a business meeting or first date, knowing what is going on in the world is important and seen as a sophisticated skill.  Who has time to read 10-15 full news articles before the morning meeting though? By following even the top 7 on this list would allow you to get the snippets of information you may need to hold a valuable conversation with the boss. 

I think this is an interesting list because I think people, especially young people, forget that social media is worldwide and not just in the USA.  Seeing accounts like Real Madrid F.C., FC Barcelona, and Ramalan Indonesia in the top 20 social brands on Twitter tells people the world really is connected in a way it never has been before.

 

I am a big fan of Youtube and Instagram and I am not surprise that they are on the top of the list. I think that the reasons that make them unique may be they are always the sending some twits which are interesting and they are able to build some interacting group with the users on Twitter, so that more and more people will get involve with these popular twitter account because they can always get respond from the ig organizations immediately. The spreading of the social media is quite influential, the more interaction with the audience the more popular they will be.

When I look up the list,  I do think that the top 7 make sense to me, but quite a few really surprise me. There is no doubt that Youtube is at the top of the list because I think that peoplt like to watch video throught the internet and they can update the news easily. Also I think that Instagram and Twitter is another two important social media which I also use it daily. But Facebook really suprise me because I do think that it should be the top 7 list. One of the reason I think is that Facebook already has a huge number of users and they will somehow lack of tracking another users on Twitter. The reason that make these accounts unique on Twitter maybe they are able to updating the news as soon as possible to fullfill the need of the audience on Twitter.

I don't follow any of the accounts listed, but I am not super active on Twitter, so it doesn't surprise me that I don't.  However, I honestly expected it to have more people on it, rather than companies.  I don't know that I fully understand why people would follow social media outlets on another social media outlet.  I can understand following something like CNN to get news updates, or following famous people or sports teams, but I really don't know what benefit someone would get from following Twitter or Facebook on Twitter. They must be doing something right if people are following them.  I suppose I'll try following them and see if I can figure out why.

I was surprised to see YouTube at the top of the list. I am also surprised that the most popular twitter pages are actually social media sites. From the list I only follow CNN, and The New York Times. This makes me very curious as to what these other social media pages are tweeting and how they get people to follow them. I can understand why people would follow news/sport sources, but I find it very intriguing that brands like @SamsungMobile are able to compete in the twitter world.