Indian celebrities who slayed it on social media in 2017

The year 2017 was an eventful one, to say the least. The stock of memes made us laugh and hashtags gave a voice to our outrage. To term it in a contemporary way, social  mediawas 'Lit'. Things such as the rise of Bitcoin value and the Virushka marriage among other trending topics kept us invested with our hearts and minds. 

Famous developments: From Hrithik Roshan shredding his body with hardcore gyming to woman celebrities standing up against harassment, a major part of our digital existence included people who entertained us, gave us #goals, and became our aspiration. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's engagement also generated a lot of social media interest and heavy sharing of the couple's photos. 

Unfortunately, 2017 made a lot of talentless people famous. The likes of Dhichak Pooja and Omprakash, who made vulgar and soulless rap songs got publicity. 

US President Donald Trump left his Twitter followers baffled when he tweeted “Despite the constant negative press covfefe.” That was it. No more. Just that word “covfefe” left hanging there". The typo "covfefe" instantly became a social media sensation.

2017 and Cricket: Virat Kohli ruled the social media platform as well with over 37 million followers on Facebook, a highly successful season of home cricket and his dream wedding with Anushka Sharma as per the data collected and analyzed by CBScore.

The former Captain Cool MS Dhoni is on his way to achieving cult status with a 20 million strong Facebook fan base. Even with just 63 posts in 2017 compared to Virat Kohli’s 276 posts, his like score is not that far behind than the current Indian captain’s. In fact, Dhoni’s comment score is a bit higher than Kohli’s, which means people simply love to voice out their love for Dhoni. Dhoni's candid pictures with his daughter Jiva became an instant Instagram success and Instagrammers were all in awe of his daughter. 

Politics of things: On the political front, CBScore statistics indicate that our Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to demonstrate how to leverage social media to the best advantage. With 43 million followers and 682 posts in 2017, our social media savvy PM garnered a total of 86,295,424 likes, 1,914,929 comments and 3,149,848 shares. His close aide and BJP President Amit Shah did fairly well with 11 million followers, a total of 753 posts, an average of 24,634 likes, 475 comments and 1,389 shares per post.

Meanwhile, the newly elected Indian National Congress President Rahul Gandhi became highly active towards the end of the year during Gujarat elections, engaging his 15.6 lakh plus followers with 657 posts, with an average like number of 5,327 per post. Clearly, he needs to step up his game in 2018.

Just before the Gujarat elections, Rahul Gandhi started the trend of asking one question everyday to Modi, which was applauded by the critics. Rahul Gandhi's peripeteia, reversal of fortune can be hugely attributed to his social media exploits.

However, the star performer was Mr Shashi Tharoor. Tharoor wasn’t about to take Republic TV's accusations about misconduct in connection with the mysterious death of his wife lightly. In a strongly worded, and impressively verbose, response on Twitter and Facebook, the Congress politician rubbished Goswami’s allegations, by tweeting "Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations&outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalst"

Bollywood: When it comes to social media, how can our Bollywood celebrities be left behind? As expected from them, they continued keeping their fans engaged. CBScore analysis show that Ranveer Singh flaunted his royal look and his love for Deepika time and again, generating an impressive Like Score of 0.659. His account was highly active with 287 posts during 2017 and a massive total of 17,897,407 likes. His bae and our sweetheart Deepika Padukone sizzled as usual with 34 million followers, an average of 83,768 likes, 1,444 comments and 1,111 shares per post.

Priyanka Chopra kept her 36 million fans and followers busy with 667 posts in 2017 with a total of 45,621,276 likes. Following her dream wedding in Italy, Anushka Sharma garnered a lot of love and admiration with an average of 39,228 likes and 1,380 comments per post.

King Khan made sure his 24 million plus fans always had something to look forward to with 306 posts and an average of 122,094 likes per post. Clearly, 2017 was owned by these celebrities, with many other noteworthy mentions like Sonam Kapoor, Twinkle Khanna, Kalki Koechlin, and many others. 

The issue of Padmavati, now Padmavat also stirred a lot of interest on social media. Pahlaj Nihalani, former Chairman of Central Board of Film Certification received a lot of flake on social media following his 'sanskari' stand on Arnab's Republic show. 

Here’s looking forward to bigger and better numbers and more interesting stuff to look forward to in 2018!