React: How Twitter is Celebrating World Book Day

World Book Day: A time for celebrating literature, sharing books and dressing up as our favorite characters.

#WorldBookDay has so far made 1,372,241,865 impressions worldwide and thousands are taking to Twitter to share their favorite books and the ways they’re celebrating.

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Zoella: Queen of World Book Day?

Zoella started the day well as Queen of World Book Day on Twitter, generating more impressions and retweets surrounding the #WorldBookDay hashtag than any other author.

Her book ‘Girl Online’, despite a fair amount of ghostwriting related controversy, has been a hit with her young fans and some are honoring the YouTuber by dressing up as her for school this morning.

#WBDschool run has been another popular hashtag as parents tweeted proud pictures of their children’s new costumes.

Nothing confuses commuters on the bus more than a bunch of kids dressed as Matilda, the Gruffalo and Hermione Granger.

@Zoella My daughter went to school as Girl Online for #WorldBookDaypic.twitter.com/XTMBDNIxVU

— Just _ me _ rambling (@KerryF_says) March 3, 2016

Zoella’s reign didn’t last long, however as Coraline writer Neil Gaiman stole the title, generating the most impressions and retweets surrounding the hashtag a little later in the day.

Happy #WorldBookDay. I hope everyone who goes to school dressed as Coraline, Professor Steg, Bod, or anyone else from my books enjoys it.

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) March 3, 2016

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Booky data

We tracked tweets in a variety of ways over the month leading up to World Book Day to see if we could determine which author people were raving about most.

While Zoella might be best at gaining World Book Day retweets, she wasn’t queen of the author list when it came to people tweeting about their favorite book.

In fact, it was Stephen King who was the most mentioned author in our “best book” search, followed closely by Jojo Moyes (author of Me Before You which is being adapted into an upcoming movie).

Meanwhile, #albumsasbookcovers generated over two million impressions as people got involved this week.

#WorldBookDay #AlbumsAsBookCovers pic.twitter.com/yMbLhTSX3J

— The Vaccines (@thevaccines) March 3, 2016

#AlbumsAsBookCovers love this! pic.twitter.com/HtM71DuRyh

— wolf alice (@wolfalicemusic) March 1, 2016

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Influential authors

Social data on World Book Day wouldn’t be complete without giving an up to date ranking of the most influential authors on Twitter right now. We used Audiences to identify tweeters identifying with the term “author” in their bio, who are then ranked according to a variety of criteria that add up to an overall influence score.

Some of the names in the top twenty may surprise you, although number one certainly won’t.

20. Rachel Zoe (@RachelZoe)

19. Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep)

18. Shilpa Shetty Kundra (@TheShilpaShetty)

17. Glen Greenwald (@ggreenwald)

16. Tim Ferriss (@tferriss)

15. Guy Kawasaki (@GuyKawasaki)

14. Michael Moore (@MMflint)

13. Arianna Huffington (@ariannahuff)

12. Tony Robbins (@TonyRobbins)

11. Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor)

10. Chelsea Handler (@Chelseahandler)

9. Real Marsha Wright (@MarshaWright)

8. Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof)

7. Felicia Day (@feliciaday)

6. Steve Harvey (@IAmSteveHarvey)

5. John Green (@johngreen)

4. Bella Thorne (@bellathorne)

3. Lea Michele (@msleamichele)

2. Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher)

1. J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling)

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Has your favorite author ever tweeted you? Were you surprised by some of the authors in our list? Let us know @BW_React

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