A look back at the top trends, creators and influencers on social media in 2017.
800m monthly users
Most-Followed Celebrities Of 2017
Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) – 130M+ Followers
Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) – 116M+ Followers
Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) – 115M+ Followers
Beyoncé (@beyonce) – 108M+ Followers
Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) – 104M+ Followers
Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) – 104M+ Followers
Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) – 99.5M+ Followers
Dwayne Johnson (@therock) – 96M+ Followers
Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) – 93.9M+ Followers
Kendall Jenner (@kendalljenner) – 84.8M+ Followers
Instagram star (and actress and singer too!) Selena Gomez with Aussie Actor Katherine Langford after Langford was nominated for a Golden Globe this month
Celebrities Who Gained The Most Followers In 2017
Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) – 30M+ New Followers
Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) – 24M+ New Followers
Ariana Grande (@arianagrande) – 22M+ New Followers
Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) – 23M+ New Followers
Dwayne Johnson (@therock) – 22M+ New Followers
Leo Messi (@leomessi) – 21M+ New Followers
Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) – 20M+ New Followers
Beyoncé (@beyonce) – 17M+ New Followers
Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) – 16M+ New Followers
Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) – 15M+ New Followers
YouTube
1.5b monthly users
Australia’s Top Trending Videos
A mix of educational tips and eccentric talent made up YouTube’s top trending videos list for Australia. Comedians Theodore and Nathan Saidden’s channel SuperWog1 has three separate entries in the top 10. The Australian channel had more than 800,000 subscribers at the time of writing this and has clocked up more than 158.64 million views.
1. Superwog Series Pilot (superwog1)
2. If Superwog was a Teacher (superwog1)
3. “INAUGURATION DAY” – A Bad Lip Reading of Donald Trump’s Inauguration (Bad Lip Reading)
4. Celebrities Read Mean Tweets #11 (Jimmy Kimmel Live)
5. Ping Pong Trick Shots 3 Dude Perfect (Dude Perfect)
6. Border Security (Superwog1)
7. Ed Sheeran Carpool Karaoke (The Late Late Show with James Corden)
8. history of the entire world, i guess (bill wurtz)
9. Darci Lynne: 12-Year-Old Singing Ventriloquist Gets Golden Buzzer (America’s Got Talent)
10. Content Cop – Jake Paul (iDubbbzTV)
Australian YouTuber and artist Wolfychu
Top Emerging Australian Creators
Australian YouTube channel called Wolfychu has been recognised by YouTube as the fastest-growing channel in the country. Five out of 10 of the top channels are in the gaming and animation category. Beauty still remains a popular category on the video sharing and viewing platform with Beauty News ranking as the second-fastest growing Australian channel.
1. Wolfychu
2. Beauty News
3. XtremeGamez
4. Zeus
5. Freya Haley
6. But Without
7. Ollie Ritchie
8. Eystreem
9. Robot Army
10. CultureCrash
2.07 billion monthly users
MORE: Facebook’s hottest topics in 2017
The top three moments that people discussed globally on Facebook in 2017 were:
1. International Women’s Day March
This was the #1 most talked-about moment in 2017, doubling from last year, with people around the world talking, sharing and posting in celebration of women and related issues.
2. Super Bowl 51 February
Fans around the world turned to News Feed to cheer for their favourite teams, celebrate with Lady Gaga and debate the top TV ads, with more than 262 million views of Super Bowl-related videos on the platform. The Super Bowl champs were the New England Patriots.
3. Las Vegas Violence
This tragic incident drove conversation around the world, which in turn motivated more than 3,300 people to offer help to their community through the Crisis Response tools on Facebook.
Lady Gaga sent this image to fans on Instagram as she performed for 13 minutes at the Superbowl this year, which was a big magnet for Facebook users
330m monthly active users
MORE: What was hot on Twitter in 2017: #auspol, @smh, @MikeCarlton01 & more
Twitter drilled down into its data from 2017 to uncover some results you would have expected along with a few surprises.
In a ranking looking at media outlets, The Sydney Morning Herald was most tweeted about, followed by ABC News. Sky News, The Australian and The Age were also top five. News Corp’s Herald Sun was the only “tabloid” metro news source, while Seven News and The Project were also top 10. Not cracking the top 10 were Nine News or The Daily Telegraph.
The only media company to make the top 10 Most Tweeted About Brands was Foxtel. Let’s hope they were mostly happy tweets!
Perhaps the most interesting list from the social media platform was Most Tweeted About Journalists. Mike Carlton topped that ranking ahead of Chris Kenny, with Miranda Devine also top five. Peter FitzSimons also made the list as did Alan Jones. A Twitter early-adopter outside the top 10 was Sky News’ Paul Murray.
