(From the Janesville Messenger, 5-11-2015)
You
might be impressed that 274 people are following me on Twitter. Until
you know that 265 of them think I am someone else.
Of
course, the first question you may ask is why on Earth I am on
Twitter in the first place. And in all honesty, there is really no
good reason, at least not from a personal standpoint.
It
all dates back to 2009, the year of my great social media awakening,
when I officially became part of the generation that stole Facebook
from America's youth. Facebook was fun and even addicting, but
Twitter? I didn't see the point.
Then
my employer added a new feature to its digital billboards which
allowed us to use Twitter to instantly update information on the
displays. The primary demonstrator needed to create an account that
tied into the billboards, and that fell to me.
In
doing so, I unwittingly erred in two ways. One, it was set up like my
own account, using my real name. Second, the profile identified me as
an actor with a photo in costume as Cogsworth the clock from
“Disney's Beauty and the Beast.”
The
account served its purpose. The first 100 or so tweets were almost
exclusively from trade shows in Janesville and Rockford. At some
point in mid-2011, however, I noticed that I actually had followers –
a lot of them. Most were women from the African continent, especially
Nigeria. Assuming it was a scam of some sort, I ignored them. But
similar friend requests, messages and followers started showing up on
Facebook, too. After comparing notes with my friends, it appeared
that no one else was receiving these African contacts.
Finally,
a comment in one of the uninvited messages gave me a clue. A Google
search revealed the answer – a Nigerian actor named Jim Iyke. He is
a Nollywood (Nigerian Hollywood) sex symbol and bad boy. The
confusion with me was obvious.
Apparently,
the lower case L in my Twitter name, plus the reference to being an
actor, led to my large group of admirers. The profile photo of a
dorky white guy dressed as a clock did nothing to dissuade them.
Amused by this discovery, I briefly changed my Facebook profile photo
to one of Mr. Iyke.
Boy,
was THAT a mistake.
A
tsunami of messages and friend requests from overseas engulfed my
account. It was like the movie “Monty Python's Life of Brian”
when poor Brian gets mistaken for the Messiah and can't convince
anyone otherwise.
Three
times in six months, I tweeted my followers to alert them they had
the wrong guy. It didn't work; the fans kept coming. It was time for
a new approach.
@jimlyke7
– 7 Jan 2012: I quit movies. I hate Nollywood. Moving to Turkey.
That
didn't work. Therefore, another tweet.
@jimlyke7
– 25 Jan 2012: Nollywood is the worst. I am quitting movies. I hate
my fans. I am moving to America because I hate Africa.
In
retrospect, maybe that wasn't the most mature way to go about it,
though it was kind of fun. Subsequent solutions included the hashtag
#NotNigerian, highlighting my non-African heritage on my Twitter
profile, and adding a big cover photo that practically screamed “I
am a goofy Caucasian!” I even went so far as to change my Facebook
name to Jim NotTheNigerianActor Lyke.
The
message finally seemed to register. Though it doesn't appear that
many of my foreign friends have actually un-followed me, the Facebook
messages have trickled down to almost none except an occasional “hi
plz frnd me.”
The
recent Twitter activity to establish my true identity actually led to
some real followers. This is turn encouraged me to send a few tweets;
just for the novelty of it, I guess. But I'm still not seeing a real
need or purpose for a guy like me to use Twitter, other than perhaps
as a source of news, sports and weather information.
Or...maybe
to promote a certain monthly newspaper column. What do you think, Mr.
Editor?
