How to Rank Celebrities

Here we put forward a formula for fame

Fame = your impact on others – others’ impact on you (1)

Here impact may simply mean knowing. Let us discuss special cases. The fame would be maximum when others’ impact on you is zero. This would mean you are isolated from the rest of the world. People know you but you know nobody which is almost impossible as at least you know your family and may be friends.

The above formula depends on a given population. It is possible to define a common person. The fame of a common person is zero. This happens in a small population or a small village in a country where everyone knows each other. Meaning

your impact on others = others’ impact on you (2)

Next, we define the social media celebrity. We may suggest

Celebrity = number of followers – number of followings (3)

But this is misleading. What if a user has millions of followers and just a few followings? One can check that those following are also celebrities, The formula can be fixed as follows:

Celebrity = the number of followings of the followers – the number of followers of the followings. (4)

This formula is in some sense iterative. Let us consider a special case. Let us consider a given celebrity has 2 million of followers and let each follower has two followings. Let the given celebrity has one following who has one million followers.

Celebrity = 4 M – 1 M =3 M.