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Diehard Justin Bieber fans are hoping to make the singer's 18th birthday extra special by attempting to send a record-breaking amount of birthday messages to the star via social media.

Beliebers are being directed to www.happybirthdayjustinbieber.com, a site where fans can tweet or post on Facebook the official message as well as keep an eye on the progress of the record attempt.

The record for the most widespread social networking message was #beatcancer, created by social media marketing firm Everywhere and posted 209,771 times on Twitter by different individuals within 24 hours of its first appearance on 17 October 2009.

Bieber, who celebrates the landmark birthday today, already holds Guinness World Records titles for the most viewed video online, most followers on Twitter, most "disliked" video online and the first solo artist to have three No.1 albums before the age of 18 in the US.

The star owes much to social media for his success, having been discovered by Usher after the R'n'B star saw a video of Bieber performing at home that had been uploaded to YouTube by his mum in 2007.

He has since gone on to take social media world by storm, having accumulated 17.8 million Twitter followers and 40.8 million Facebook likes.