Social Media Royalty 18 Celebs Who Upped Their 'Viral-Pic' Game In 2018
If you take a brief scroll down your Instagram or Twitter feed, you're likely to see a mix of two types of post. Firstly, you're going to see pictures of your cousin's new baby, or what Jane from Accounting had for dinner. Then, you're going to see the latest viral photos that your favorite celebrities have posted! Social media gives us an insight not just into the everyday lives of our friends and family, but those of the world's most famous faces. To become a megastar these days, it's basically a given that you have to have a strong online following!
Of course, not every celebrity out there manages to make their photos go viral. In fact, the majority of the most popular social media posts of all time come from the same few famous users! For a celeb to stand out these days, they've got to update their fans in the most inventive, hilarious, or simply shocking way possible. So-called "influencers" and social media savvy stars constantly have to up their game to make sure their photos remain as popular as ever. Here are just a few celebs who've managed to build on their strong Instagram or Twitter followings to make 2018 their most viral year yet…
18 The Arrival Of Baby Stormi Has Made Kylie Jenner's Snaps Even More Popular
Let's be real here: even before we reached 2018, Kylie Jenner was an expert at crafting a viral social media presence. How many times have her Snapchats or Instagrams hit the headlines? Well, there was the infamous mesh bra photo, the Barbie Girl Realness shot, her numerous selfies… And that's just scratching the surface! Oh, and by the way, all of the aforementioned posts got staggering amounts of likes. While we "ordinary" folk might rejoice at getting a hundred, Jenner's 2017 posts were regularly liked by 2.5 million people.
However, 2018 has seen the true confirmation of Kylie's social media royalty status - and it's all thanks to baby Stormi. When Jenner ended months of speculation and announced her daughter's birth back in February, she well and truly broke the Internet. According to Time, the photo of Stormi clutching her mom's thumb broke Beyoncé's record to become the most liked picture ever to be shared on the site. When you've surpassed Beyoncé, you know you've made it!
17 Chrissy Teigen Will Forever Be The Viral Queen Of Social Media
When it comes to her social media antics, does Chrissy Teigen even need an introduction? She's well known for having one of the most honest, hilarious, and high-profile online presences out there. Chrissy isn't afraid to reply to her haters - as Daily Edge reports, just last month she totally roasted a Twitter user who accused her of "spending other people's money". Don't mess with Ms. Teigen!
It's not just Chrissy's comments that go viral, however. Her cute family photos and dazzling selfies break Instagram on the regular. In 2018, she's especially stepped her game up! Last month, E! Online reported that an unusual snap featuring Teigen wearing nothing but salad emojis had become a viral sensation. Her beautiful baby bump was fully on show, and Chrissy's classic sense of humor shone through. Instagram goals!
16 Olivia Munn Likes To Share All On Instagram - And Her Fans Love It
For actress and model Olivia Munn, social media is both a place to share gorgeous pictures of herself and dispell any pesky rumors that crop up. Her Instagram page has been popular for a while now: in fact, FHM ran a full article dedicated to it back in 2017! To be honest, we can see why. Who doesn't love a feed full of OOTD posts, dog photos, and selfies? It's the perfect combination!
While the world isn't new to loving Munn's social media presence by any stretch of the imagination, it seems to have gone particularly viral in 2018 so far. Firstly, there was THAT Instagram story - handily screenshotted by Cosmopolitan - that featured Munn dispelling rumors she was dating Chris Pratt. She did so in a spectacular fashion: by sharing her text conversation with Pratt's ex-wife Anna Faris! More recently, Us Magazine reported that Munn had once again used her Instagram to deny dating rumors, this time involving Jennifer Aniston's ex, Justin Theroux. Munn made it very clear that she's not one to date her friends' former flames. Fair play to her!
15 Kim Kardashian Continues To Have One Of The Most Prominent Social Media Presences In The World
You can't talk about social media royalty without bringing Kim Kardashian West into the mix. Like, she posted the original "breaking the Internet" shot back in 2014! As The Guardian noted, that particular snap of Kim's bare behind remained in the headlines for weeks after it first went viral. After that, the floodgates were opened: raunchy shot after raunchy shot appeared on Kim's Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.
As the years have gone by, Kardashian-West's viral pic game has gone from strength to strength. Her "forgetting to wear clothes" aesthetic continues to make headlines - especially in 2018! As Page Six reported, Kim dropped no less than three scandalous sets of photos in January alone! Just as we'd expect from Mrs. Kardashian-West, very few items of clothing appeared in any of them. Where will the rest of the year take her Instagram page? We'll just have to wait and see!
14 Bella Thorne Just Keeps Surprising Us All With Her Insta-Feed
Bella Thorne is one of those celebrities whose social media posts tend to go viral for all the wrong reasons. This is something that's by no means been limited to this year: back in October last year, one of Thorne's Instagram captions came under serious fire. As Insider reported, many people interpreted the star's comments on a rather raunchy picture to be discriminatory against Mexican individuals. It referenced haters "hopping over the fence" and actually tagged GQ Mexico, a move that some saw as an endorsement of Donald Trump's controversial Mexican border wall. Oh dear…
Fast forward to this year, and things haven't got much better for Thorne. Her Twitter account blew up back in January following a post that allegedly made light of the tragic California mudslides. As People reported, actor Rob Lowe slammed Thorne after she complained about bad traffic on a basically underwater and actually pretty deadly highway. It was insensitive, to say the least! Maybe Bella needs to think before she posts in future…
13 Millie Bobby Brown Is A Teen Queen Of Social Media
Millie Bobby Brown may be just 14 years old, but she has a social media presence to rival even the most successful celebrity adults. The Stranger Things star has been a hit online ever since the first season of the Netflix sensation dropped. However, she's really come into her own since the start of 2018. Last months, The Hollywood Reporter clocked that Brown had taken the number one spot in their Top Actors chart for the second week in a row - a ranking based solely on the prominence of actors' social media presences. Not bad!
But what's behind Brown's meteoric 2018 rise to the top of the Twitter and Instagram charts. Two words: Jacob Sartorius. According to Babe.net, Millie has been dating her fellow online star Jacob for some months now. Who doesn't enjoy seeing two people enjoy the first flushes of young love? While Brown and Sartorius continue to post adorable photos and statuses about each other, we imagine that Millie will keep on ruling the viral social media post charts.
12 Rihanna's Fenty Beauty Pics Break The Internet Whenever They Drop
Rihanna's relationship with Instagram has been a somewhat fraught one, to say the least! While fans have been loving the singer's posts ever since she joined the site, Instagram actually deleted her account back in 2014! As Glamour reported at the time, some slightly raunchy shots of RiRi without her clothes led to her temporary ban from the app. This didn't last long, of course: six months later, Rihanna was back on the site. Ever since her return, her viral photo game has only been getting stronger.
2018 so far has seen a number of RiRi's pics take the media by storm. For one, there was the cute throwback shot to celebrate her 30th birthday back in February that gave us a glimpse of the star as a baby. Then there are her numerous Fenty Beauty related pics, all of which go viral within hours of being shared on Instagram. It's a marketing strategy that's clearly working: in January, Glamour reported that Fenty products are on track to start outselling Kylie Jenner's smash hit cosmetics range. Now that's an achievement!
11 Selena Gomez' Recent Pics Have Gone Viral In A Bad Way
Selena Gomez has been official social media royalty for quite some time now. In particular, her Instagram posts have had a habit of going viral - some to an incredible degree! As Elle reported, the emotional pic Gomez shared to reveal her kidney transplant became the second most-liked photo of 2017, after Beyoncé's pregnancy announcement. She was also 2017's most followed account, and her pictures made up half of the top ten posts of that year. The evidence is pretty conclusive!
However, 2018 has seen Selena's Instagram blow up in a far less positive manner. Her divisive "March For Your Life" photos led to some fans branding her a hypocrite. Selena shared a few pictures in support of the huge rally, using #notjustahashtag in the process. However, as Teen Vogue noted, she'd previously claimed that she didn't publically support the #BlackLivesMatter movement because hashtags can't save lives. In the end, the furor reached such heights that Selena turned off comments on the post. Still, it didn't stop many eyebrows from being raised…
10 Taylor Swift Shares Photos So Rarely Now That Every Single One Goes Viral
Remember the golden era of 2015 when Taylor Swift posted an adorable Instagram shot on a practically weekly basis? They featured her numerous famous friends, her cats, and her then-boyfriend Calvin Harris. Fast forward two years, however, and her social media presence became markedly different. Everyone was shocked when Swift suddenly deleted all of her social media posts. As Harper's Bazaar reported, all of her pages went dark on August 18th.
We now know that it was part of the reinvention that came with Swift's new album, reputation. She's stepped out of the media spotlight after years of constant scrutiny. Since the record dropped, Swift's social media posts have been few and far between. However, this means that we all pounce on any content she does share! Recently, this included Swift's Instagram post in support of the "March For Our Lives". To give her credit, the singer didn't just voice her praise on the app: as Variety reported, she also donated a huge sum to the campaign.
9 Emily Ratajkowski's Sultry Insta Shots Make Headlines Around The World
Over the years, actress and model Emily Ratajkowski has gained something of a reputation for quite literally baring all on Instagram. She's constantly defended her right to do so: in a famous 2016 snap featuring Kim Kardashian, she condemned those who shame her for being confident enough to share her raunchy photos. 2018 has seen Ratajkowski's viral pics reach new heights. Just last month, Elle highlighted her latest Internet-breaking snap, this time featuring an arm carefully hiding her "sensitive material".
However, Ratajkowski's Instagram presence hasn't always been rosy in 2018 so far. In January, The New York Post reported that the star had suffered a backlash over an "insensitive" caption on an advert for Kerastase. She claimed that hair was "a fundamental part of beauty", a claim that didn't sit well with those who've lost their locks for medical reasons - or by choice! Some major damage control was necessary…
8 Khloe Kardashian's Beautiful Pregnancy Pics Have Taken Social Media By Storm
Not one to be outshone by her sisters, Khloe Kardashian has seriously upped her viral pic game over the past few months. Of course, this has been massively helped by the presence of a very news-worthy feature: her growing baby bump! As MailOnline reported back in December 2017, Khloe actually announced the pregnancy via an instantly viral Instagram snap! It gained over 8 million likes in just a few days, taking the Internet by storm.
Ever since this initial photo dropped, Kardashian has taken to social media to share photo after photo of her growing bump. We should probably make the most of them while they last: E! Online has reported that Khloe is due in around two weeks! Until we get the inevitable baby photos, though, we've got pregnancy photoshoots like this one to keep us going. Those Kardashians really know how to take a viral snap…
7 Is Blac Chyna Trying To Outshine The Kardashians With Her Sizzling Insta Shots?
Speaking of the Kardashians, this former member of the clan seems to want to upstage Kim and co with her own sizzling social media presence. Rob Kardashian's ex-girlfriend Blac Chyna has really been stepping up her Instagram game in recent months! She's got a complicated history with social media, of course - as Complex has summarized, she's no stranger to controversy! But since we don't have pages and pages to cover all of these notorious moments, let's skip straight to the present!
Since the start of 2018, Chyna has been making headlines with her Instagram antics on a regular basis. In February, VH1 claimed that she'd been caught throwing shade at long-time nemesis Kylie Jenner by sneakily following her beau Travis Scott on the social media site. The following month, Celebuzz shared an Instagram video of Chyna having a total meltdown over various stressful issues in her life. Is she trying to get as much attention as the Kardashians? If so, it might be working…
6 Hailey Baldwin's Social Media Presence Has Blown Up Thanks To Those Shawn Mendes Rumors
As the daughter of actor Stephen and the niece of megastar Alec, Hailey Baldwin was always going to grow up in the limelight. However, her social media presence has catapulted her to new heights of fame in recent times. As Teen Vogue once noted, her Instagram account began to take off in 2016 due to her high-profile snaps featuring Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid, amongst others. Of course, it also helps that she's a totally gorgeous model who couldn't take a bad photo if she tried!
While Hailey has seemingly always had a good eye for a viral pic, things have seriously escalated in the past few weeks. Rumors have begun to spread that Baldwin is dating pop star Shawn Mendes, and the world has been scouring her social media for answers. Her Instagram feed has become so popular that Hollywood Life recently named Baldwin their Instagram Queen Of The Week! What a title!
5 Chloe Moretz' Stylish Snaps Often Go Viral… Especially Those Featuring Brooklyn Beckham
Former child star Chloe Moretz has basically grown up before our eyes over the past few years. She's gone from the wide-eyed teen who blew our minds in Kick-Ass to a young woman with a burgeoning acting career - and a great social media presence. In an interview with the London Evening Standard last week, she claimed that her Twitter and Instagram accounts feel like an extension of herself.
However, the most popular photos on Moretz's Insta profile don't just feature the girl herself. They mostly involve her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brooklyn Beckham. You can use Chloe's profile to track their tumultuous relationship history! Still, we were all a bit shocked when Brooklyn was spotted kissing another girl this week. As Us Magazine noted, Chloe posted the last Instagram snap of her former beau just a month ago! Something has clearly gone down between these two since then…
4 Beyonce Shares Her Insta Posts In Sets Of Three For Triple The Impact
Why share one Internet-breaking Instagram photo at a time when you can drop three all at once?! This seems to be Beyoncé's attitude to social media, and it's worked pretty well for her. For years now, Queen B has been definite Instagram royalty. Last year, Elle confirmed that B's latest pregnancy announcement was the most liked photo of 2017. That's no mean feat!
If you thought Bey couldn't top that viral snap this year, you'd be wrong. After a quiet start to 2018, the superstar once again broke the Internet with three posts announcing her upcoming joint tour with husband Jay-Z. Fans were so ecstatic about the On The Road Tour II reveal that they liked the three pics over 12 million times in total. Stars like Kylie Jenner may be coming for her social media crown, but Bey still has plenty of fire in her yet.
3 Scott Disick's Beau Sofia Richie Can't Stay Out Of The News These Days
Sofia Richie knows all too well what the limelight feels like. Her father, Lionel, is a musical sensation. Her sister, Nicole, is reality TV royalty. It's no surprise that she'd want to carve out a high-profile image for herself! She's partially done this through social media - Instagram specifically. Of course, the fact that Richie is in a relationship with Kourtney Kardashian's ex Scott Disick has only helped to publicize her pictures. As InTouch Weekly reported at the end of 2017, Richie's Insta story in which she professed her love for Disick became huge news almost immediately.
2018 has seen the media attention on this happy couple only increase. Of course, Sofia's Instagram page has featured prominently! Just last month, a video that Richie posted on the site of her new hair extensions quickly went viral. As Business Insider noted, the new style made her look suspiciously like Kourtney Kardashian…
2 Zayn Malik's Split From Gigi Hadid Thrust His Insta Pics Further Into The Limelight… Until He Deleted Them!
Former One Direction star Zayn Malik has had a pretty eventful 2018 so far, all things considered. For one, his long-term relationship with model Gigi Hadid came to an end last month. For weeks afterward, fans scoured Zayn's Instagram and Twitter for any sign of how he was dealing with the split. As a former 1D member, his social media has always been insanely popular. However, nothing drives traffic to your page like nosy people trying to see how you're coping with a big breakup!
At the start of April, Zayn shocked us all by posting a now-viral pic of his very, er, "different" new hairstyle. As the Evening Standard reported, Zayn had dyed his locks bright green! However, this new look was nothing compared to the surprise that followed. Zayn pulled a Taylor Swift and wiped his Instagram totally clean, a move that The Daily Edge thinks is a sign he has new music coming. We'll have to wait and see if they're correct!
1 Cardi B Isn't Afraid To Court Controversy On Her Insta Page
Cardi B is the name on everyone's lips at the moment. Her big news has taken the world by storm - she's expecting her first baby with her partner, hip-hop artist Offset! While a pregnancy reveal always makes a celeb go viral, Cardi was frankly already a total social media sensation even before her big announcement.
Of course, much of this is down to her much-publicized feud with Nicki Minaj. Last month, XXL Mag spotted Cardi slamming Nicki fans in her own Instagram comments. Ever since then, fans and haters alike have been scouring Cardi's social media for more signs that drama is brewing. While the woman herself told NME last week that the beef is totally "made up", we'll have to keep an eye on her Instagram activity to see if she throws any more shade. Plus, we've now got baby pictures to look forward to! Viral potential, anyone?
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