Taye Diggs Followed Me On Twitter

On Sunday I was working on this Halloween party, and my phone made that beeping sound. I looked over and saw, “@tayediggs is following you on Twitter.”

Taye Diggs? As in that super hunky actor with a killer smile? No! It could not possibly be. Must be one of those parody accounts. Although, a parody Taye Diggs account would be hilarious. You know, like a “confessions of a hot guy” or an “it’s so hard being so sexy” type thing.

I’m not a celebrity stalker. I barely know who’s famous. I know enough to not feel left out of a conversation, but not enough to be the expert in celebrity affairs. I don’t really have any “celebrity crushes” except maybe if you count that one time I found Daniel Day Lewis in Gangs of New York to be oddly attractive. The mustache (back in 2000, handlebar mustaches were not a hipster thing… yet) the greasy hair, the one eye. I still don’t understand what that crush was all about.

When I saw that the @tayediggs account was indeed that of THE Taye Diggs, I squealed like a teenage girl.

When I saw that the @tayediggs account was indeed that of THE Taye Diggs, I squealed like a teenage girl. Of course I texted my friends who I would think would be most likely to also squeal like teenage girls about the Taye Diggs situation. We laughed. We though it was cool, or funny. Then I went on with my day.

Then, one of the ladies who I texted about the following, forwarded an email, “Taye Diggs is Following You On Twitter.”

Taye Diggs followed her too! Oh my goodness! Was he just going through a massive following day?

On Monday, ANOTHER friend posted on Facebook:

My teenage squealing subsided as reality set in.

I’m actually not so special. Here I was thinking that somehow Mr. Diggs found my raving about microwave burritos and other non sequitur  charming enough to follow me. But that is not the case.

“He followed so many people so quickly—thousands and thousands per day—that it started to feel less like a follow and more like a deranged chase.”

Back in April of this year, Diggs did a massive following of random people on his Twitter account. According to Gawker, “He followed so many people so quickly—thousands and thousands per day—that it started to feel less like a follow and more like a deranged chase. He followed a volunteer fire department. He followed a youth soccer camp. He followed the maker of a wine ice cream.”

Embarrassed by this, he confessed his actions were due to a social media consultant advising him to “build up his Twitter presence” utilizing this strategy. What he probably did not know was that this strategy that was used aggressively by online marketers in 2008. Since then, the follow-for-follow tactics had led to Twitter suspended accounts that followed and unfollowed too many people in a short amount of time.

I’m not a Twitter expert. An “early adopter” sure, but generally I just reserve Tweeting for when I find my own thoughts amusing. Sometimes that’s a lot, and sometimes, not so much. But I’m pretty sure that Mr. Diggs needs to find a new Social Media consultant.

Or maybe he just needs to heed my advice about focusing on that “hot guy” archetype and woo us on line as he does with his killer smile on screen.

And if you like, you can help him out and follow him on Twitter here.