Miley Cyrus may be a lot of things, but chief among them should be the title of social media queen, after Cyrus managed to set her 13.7 Twitter followers a collective goal – beat the Vevo record for first day views with her new, Terry Richardson-shot video for Wrecking Ball. Lo and behold, the record was smashed, with the video racking up 19.3 million views in its first 24 hours and the smilers (creepiest name for an online following?) not even slowing down.

Miley Cyrus, VMA Red Carpet
Miley has a lot of reasons to smile today.

It’s great that Cyrus knows her way around a hashtag, because she’ll certainly need all the buzz she can gather around the upcoming October 8 release of her new album, Bangerz. If you’re curious about Miley’s uber-successful social media strategy, it basically involves having a huge following and employing some subtle bribery. The pop star promised her fans that if Wrecking Ball broke the Vevo record, she would reveal the full Bangerz tracklist.

Check out the video in question below.

The strategy worked better than expected. Wrecking Ball beat out the previous record-holder – One Direction’s Best Song Ever, which set the record in July – by about seven million hits, according to USA Today. Even if some of the views on the racy Wrecking Ball video, which is essentially four minutes of Cyrus licking a sledge hammer and writhing an little to no clothing on a swinging wrecking ball, are repeat hits from enthusiastic fans, you have to admire the determination of Miley’s following. So congratulations on the new record, Ms Cyrus and good luck in October. Although with such a dedicated following, we doubt she’ll need it.


The singer does know how to mobilise her fans.