Two very lovely tweets from @RCArmitage today: one thanking the high bidder of his doodle, and the other to Anna Friel, which also lauds one of the songs used for the Urban and the Shed Crew sound track.
But the best news is . . . and some of us have been wondering about it, whether @RCArmitage knew about the function of, and would begin to use, the dot (.@) in his tweets. Without that dot, his tweets don’t necessarily appear on his followers’ timelines. And today, he did it – twice. As a special bonus, he attached a tweet from RichardArmitageNet @RANetdotcom which only had his name as hashtag, and not as recipient.
Here’s hoping he keep dotting the twitter landscape when he tweets interesting stuff.
I think we’re gonna need a bigger cake, was a riff on the iconic line in Jaws, I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat, which quickly passed into our lexicon, usually to indicate unpreparedness to accommodate the size of something or things. (Just google “bigger boat” and see what happens).@RCArmitage was expressing something positive, like surprise or wonderment, or even satisfaction, at gaining a giant 9,000 Twitter followers almost immediately.
I was a bit uncomfortable with the rest of the tweet – Will you sing to me? – maybe because this was the first Twitter message directly to us, or because I was scrambling to post a Happy Birthday Richard Armitage greeting on this blog, or perhaps because it was an indication of how he would use Twitter: directions; requests; contact; communication – not sure, but it unsettled me. It was all so new.
The tweet also showed us that he, or someone for him, was counting. This is universal. Now and then, if one is on Twitter, one checks the number of follows, at least occasionally, and for a celeb like @RCArmitage, watching those stats is a part of the business – nothing wrong or negative about it.
I imagine that some statistic had already forecast for him how many follows he could expect and how long it would take. Others may know more about this, but, it’s what I think.
Now, we’re coming to the 100K follower mark – it might even be published as I write this post. Another .1 has been added to the total since I posted the graphic, minutes ago)
Over time, either on this blog or on Twitter, I’ve posted @RCArmitage’s Twitter milestones. (Some examples, here and here), and undoubtedly, I’ll post when he adds those .9 followers.
Some fans are impatiently waiting to mark the milestone with an event. In case you’re interested, here, on CrystalChandlyre, is some information.
Other fans may seem sheepish about touting the goal, because they don’t think reaching 100K follows in five and half months is much of an achievement. They may think that highlighting the milestone is in some way, highlighting Richard Armitage’s failure on Twitter. Better to keep it quiet, they think.
Perry is more interested in whether or how @RCArmitage responds to the numbers and/or to the fan event. It’s a type of event that Perry, while she has no disdain for it, doesn’t usually join. Last year at about this time, Perry was second-guessing her decision to join an event, and since then, well, she’s mostly kept away.
Perry is pretty satisfied with the numbers for @RCArmitage, as she hasn’t had much experience with other actors or celebs on Twitter, and I think, whatever anyone wants to say, his numbers are respectable. And, @RCArmitage he has never solicited followers.
It’ll never be as big as the “bigger boat” line from Roy Scheider in Jaws- but to me, it’s right up there with one of the most memorable Richard Armitage lines, and it’s certainly one of the most memorable lines from the entire Hobbit trilogy.
And speaking of following me, I’m tearing a page from Jazzy’s book, and offering up a favorite song – which does remind me of how we follow @RCArmitage on Twitter.
Armitage Agonistes 