Bieber Fans
Justin Bieber's diehard fans take up 3 percent of Twitter's traffic, have launched a campaign to score him a VMA—and sometimes even turn on each other. Brian Ries braves their world.
Evan Agostini / AP Photo,Evan Agostini
Sometimes Justin Bieber sends tweets, other times, flowers. (Except, not really.) But within the millions-strong community of Beliebers on Twitter, there exists a smaller, more exclusive club of approximately 83,426 Bieber fans who are lucky enough to count the Canadian pop singer as a follower.
Evan Agostini / AP Photo
Depending on how you look at things, the Beliebers are either an obsessive metrics-driven community, or an endless popularity contest.
Kevin Mazur / Getty Images
The Beliebers have sent over two million tweets containing the singer's username @JustinBieber in the last week.
Larry Busacca / Getty Images
Popular phrases tweeted at Bieber include "PLEASE FOLLOW," "Hey Justin," "OMGOSH," "vote," and "OMG OMG."
Bobby Bank / Getty Images
A Twitter search of fans asking Justin Bieber to follow them reveals a steady stream of tweets like, "@justinbieber follow me please, I know you're online," "@justinbieber pleease follow me! This brings me trying to follow me six months! please! would you do me the happiest girl in the world!!," or "I think if you follow me, my heart will stop one second @justinbieber."
George Pimentel / Getty Images
One Spanish user, @thaaiis_jb, is responsible for 20 percent of the top 10 most active @JustinBieber tweeters alone, spamming the singer with requests to follow her on Twitter, adding each time a "please, i love you ♥ 98," "please, i love you ♥ 99," "please, i love you ♥ 100."
Janette Pellegrini / Getty Images
Beliebers spend their days taking part in "RT if you're a real Belieber" campaigns, and tweeting at the singer himself—all hoping for the very unlikely possibility that the singer will follow back, retweet, or reply.
Graham Denholm / Getty Images
For this younger generation, being noticed by @JustinBieber brings more excitement than any real-life autograph could ever reach, and stamping that date on one’s profile is their way of displaying that moment to the masses.
Mark Von Holden / Getty Images
An overwhelming 96.41 percent of Bieber tweets are @replies directly to the singer (a number which likely includes what’s known on Twitter as "old retweets"), while 2.97 percent were official retweets. Only 0.61 percent mentioned him in passing.
Angela Weiss / Getty Images
True Beliebers mash the singer’s last name into their own usernames—such as miiskbiebs, LaurenBieber789, and sweetbiebercake—and have cheesily-customized Bieber backgrounds to match.
Evan Agostini / AP Photo
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