Social Media Fame Contest: Which Celebrities, Athletes Are Most Popular?

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Rihanna may have made headlines this week for trumping Lady Gaga as the new Queen of Pop by having the most fans on Facebook, but that doesn't mean she’s the master of the social media universe.

According to social media tracking site FameCount.com — which generates stats across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube — Lady Gaga is the single most popular person in social media across all categories, from music and actors to brands and professional athletes.

Lady Gaga is holding on to the top spot ahead of Justin Bieber (No. 2), Rihanna (No. 3), Eminem (No. 4) and Shakira (No. 5), with 40.8 million Facebook fans, 11.7 million Twitter followers and 1.67 billion YouTube views.

When the data is categorized by country, Lady Gaga is the most popular person in social media in the U.S., while Justin Bieber is No. 1 in Canada, Coldplay tops in the U.K. and Sony PlayStation ranks first in Asia.

Meanwhile, the most popular politician in the global social media kingdom goes to President Barack Obama, beating out the Dalai Lama, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Al Gore, respectively.

The most popular brand in social media is Coca-Cola, whose Facebook fans and YouTube views put it far ahead of No. 2 Starbucks. However, Starbucks does have a hold on its Twitter popularity, beating Coca-Cola by more than a million followers with 1.5 million.

King of Twitter Ashton Kutcher is the most popular actor in social media, with more than 10 million Facebook fans, 4.9 million YouTube views and 7.1 million Twitter followers. Although Will Smith is light-years ahead on Facebook with 21 million fans and YouTube views (11.7 million), his lack of Twitter presence puts him in second place. Jackie Chan, Charlie Sheen and Ashton Kutcher's wife Demi Moore round out the top five, respectively.

Other No. 1s in the social media world include Harry Potter for film (beating the Twilight Saga), "Family Guy" for TV, soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo for athletes, WikiLeaks for nonprofits and Harvard University for education.

Four of the five most popular sports teams in social media are European soccer teams, such as Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Manchester United and Arsenal. The only U.S.-based team to make the top five is the Los Angeles Lakers with 9.6 million, coming in at fourth place.

This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Reach TechNewsDaily senior writer Samantha Murphy at smurphy@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @SamMurphy_TMN.