Michael Jackson Becomes the King of Facebook
Pop star's profile becomes the most popular on the social networking site
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Posters and books are placed by fans to pay tribute to Michael Jackson during a candle-lit vigil. On Tuesday Jackson's Facebook profile became the most popular on Facebook.
On the day he was laid to rest, the King of Pop also became the King of Facebook.
On Tuesday Michael Jackson's Facebook profile surpassed President Barack Obama's as the most popular on the social networking site.
As of Tuesday at 3:15 P.M. Pacific, Jackson had 7,164,324 fans. Since Jackson died on June 25 his profile has added more than six million fans. For the record, Obama's main page had 6,439,167 supporters as of the same time.
"There were a total of about 1 million users posting approximately 800,000 status updates on Facebook related to the live online broadcasts by CNN, E! Online, ABC and MTV of the Michael Jackson memorial service," Facebook's Director of Communications Brandee Barker said. "For context, there were 1.8 million Facebook status updates with the word 'Obama' on Inauguration Day in the U.S. – an event that was broadly publicized for months leading up to it."
Jackson's profile was adding more than 20 fans a second since his death, according to All Facebook, a resource blog about the Palo Alto-based social networking site.
Barker said Jackson's profile popularity was unique because unlike President Obama's inauguration the pop star's funeral was not advertised for months.
Posted Friday, Jul 17, 2009 - 11:38 AM PST
