Receiving the notification “John Cena followed you,” on your Twitter account might not be as far-fetched as you think, and, no, I'm not talking about a bot.
John Cena, 16-time WWE world champion and actor with a global following, follows more people on social media than one might expect of a global superstar — roughly, 427,900. It’s not a far cry from the 13.8 million who follow him (relative to other celebrities’ follower/follow ratio).
Cena’s official Twitter account follows a slew of Southwest Missouri residents (and even media accounts, like the Hauxeda). Among other locals he follows are:
- Cora Scott, the director of public information and civic engagement for the city of Springfield
- Justin Burnett, a community activist and former Springfield councilman
- Janet Dankert, President of the Community Partnership of the Ozarks
- Brandy Harris, CEO of Springfield’s Boys and Girls Club
- Randy Berger, CoxHealth’s system director of corporate communications
Scott tweeted she was ecstatic when she found out “the champ is here” among her followers:
You may be asking yourself how to get Cena to follow you. In an interview with Sports Illustrated from 2019, Cena sort of revealed why, but not how, someone who may not seem of interest to someone so interesting is worth clicking that little black oval.
“I know that social media is most times a difficult, argumentative and negative place, Twitter especially, because of the ability to hide behind the text,” Cena said in the SI interview. “So what can I do? Send out good stuff, be honest with everybody, and then follow people that relate to the good stuff.
“If I follow someone who is a ‘negative’ person on Twitter — their profile reads sarcastic, skeptic — and they like my tweets? They’re not who they say they are, or they have a chance to change. If the experiment fails, so be it, but it’s just me trying to use my presence to tip the balance.”
Two years later, Cena tweeted some advice that could be interpreted as relating to his tendency of following people, and the excitement one might feel when a celebrity follows them:
Perhaps we’re overthinking it, his Twitter page is, after all, FILLED with advice. Every tweet is like reading the card inside of a fortune cookie.
Dear @JohnCena, even if you’re just a social media manager playing with people’s feelings, please follow me back.
