It wasn’t because these women are nature lovers, thoughLife as a fitness model can you make you the object of adoration for many users, and Danny Jones, a Southern California personal trainer, is no stranger to this type of fandom. The man, after all, has hundreds of thousands of followers on his Instagram. However, a couple days ago, his audience grew at an exponential rate, all thanks to one tweet.
It all started when Twitter user @vickto_willy compared Jones, who is 6’7″ and built like a Greek sculpture, to a tree. The analogy, simple as it was, proved to be quite effective.
This not a man, this a tree.
(@vickto_willy) May 29, 2017
The tweet went viral, and users flocked to Jones’ page after @vickto_willy pointed them in his direction. From there, they’ve flooded his Instagram account with adoration and thirsty comments.
Here’s his @. Go plant some seeds
(@vickto_willy) May 30, 2017
Jones, for his part, had a sense of humor about the whole incident, and seems to be having some fun with the intensified attention.
“I figured I might as well embrace it…,” he said in the post. “#treeman.”
“I think you’re more along the lines of a Redwood…,” said one commenter. “Tall, massive, and majestic!
Jones also talked to the Daily Mail about his viral moment.
“So, the last 24 hours has been absolutely crazy. I went to bed the night before last just like any other but woke up to 8k new Instagram followers. I thought it was a glitch in the system,” he told them. “I already had a fairly large following, but that rate of growth was unheard of. I had no idea where all these people came from.”
“The Tree Man was born,” he added. “It’s been super fun and hilarious to see all the memes, articles and comments this is getting!”
No doubt, that increased follower count is helping him deal with this wave of press, as well. He’s currently walking tall with a very healthy 567,000 followers.