Don’t know if you have ever noticed, but there is almost a tribal separation in the users of Twitter. Tribal in the sense that you can clearly, as we humans tend to do, compartmentalise tweeters into a number of different profile types, by the way they tweet and their content.
Of course this isn’t an exact science – just observations, and personal thoughts, which I hope will be enriched by reader’s comments, but there are clearly patterns… so who exactly are these tribe members.
QUOTERS
These people spend all day, so it seems, lifting quotes off of some Google-searched quote site – some are ostensibly profound, some are, I’m sure genuine, some are designed to push the thought button and some are just to lend a touch of depth to the sender. Some of the quoters have clearly set up some form of script or applet to send their second-hand nuggets of wisdom on an around-the-clock basis …
LURKERS
The lurkers, are found, or not, on most of the social networking sites, hovering in forums, chats, and blogs in the shadows, shielded from the outside world by a Harry Potteresque invisibility cloak. At times they let the cloak fall and chip into the conversation in a wholly inappropriate manner – a bit like someone butting into a conversation at a party whilst riding a motorbike through your lounge.
PUSHERS
Pushers are the seedy market traders of the social networking world, peddling their fake Gucci watches and Ray Ban sunglasses to everyone who passes their stall. In the Twittersphere these people entice the unwary with promises of all sorts of things – “my $30 eBook for free”, “Build your 1,000 followers a day”, “I went from 100 to 2,000 followers in 5 days” They often have around 400 followers each so spot the inconsistency. They’ll push you to their Facebook page, LinkedIn, Just recently The Trump Network – basically they’ll try anything. Everything is free, you can give up work and earn thousand of dollars a month, they’ll give YOU the secret of how to earn millions …..
PULLERS
Now the pullers are from a tribe that usually hunts in camouflage and blend in with the background in a truly remarkable way, they may even be a friend following you. The difference between Pushers and Pullers is that instead of pushing towards their ware, they are going to take things from your stall. They’ll copy your tweets and send them as if it were their idea, they’ll copy articles from you blog and put it on theirs with no referencing nor trackbacks – it’s their work and original thought – honestly …
RETWEETERS
Retweeters come in two distinct varieties – the genuine retweeter who wants to give recognition and credit for your tweets and the others that are tweeting hot air, well tepid air. The former is a useful addition to the workings of Twitter, as it gives credit and some sort of kudos where it is deserved, thankfully there are a large number of these people around. The tepid air tweeter is just retweeting their name along with a list of others who, in turn will retweet the empty tweet – gets them noticed, I suppose, but not much use in terms of content or quality.
SCAMMERS
Scammers live in close communion with the pushers and the spammers – there isn’t much point saying more than they actually detract from the positive side of social networking.
FUNTWEEPS
The fun people are part of the social part of social networking, the bar at the pub if you like, they are seen all over Twitter giving a humourous, if not a sarcastic or even cynical tone to their tweets. Some are seen as cruel, although the intention may be far from this, some rant and vent their anger at things, people and events – which is probably a fairly healthy pressure valve for some. Most of it is good clean fun, though. The Funtweeps generally bring a smile to the face with their quick-witted-tweets that have most of us LOL or ROFL.
FEDERATORS
Federators get people together, link people up and are basically the salt of the social media earth. They will establish contacts, start and maintain conversations, “listen” to what is going on, ask questions and respond to questions asked. Federators can also have a high element of Funtweeting too, which attracts others to them, you know, a little like the witty person at a party who is good company but also can put you in touch with someone who could be of mutual benefit for both of you. Their RTs are amplification of ideas, not copying – these Tweeters are good to know…
INFORMERS
The informers take on the more positive signification of the term – giving information and not the telling tales meaning. Informers have a seemingly endless energy for feeding information to others, be it technical, cultural or just some useful tips to help others out. At times a pusher can try to disguise themselves as an informer by tweeting some ostensibly useful nuggets of information with a shortened URL that ultimately leads to some scam about making money in an almost unbelievable way or signing up for something or alternatively to some other pie-in-the-sky promises. Informers will also answer questions in a helpful way and even offer services for other tweeters – they are often bloggers who in turn send out some really useful information, informers are there to learn from and to help others.
A great proportion of the Twitter community are there in some way to make some money, although some are in it for the long-game whilst others are there as rip-off merchants and get-rich-quick scammers, the difference is clearly seen in the finesse and the subtlety of the approach.
Tweeters who aren’t in it for the money probably fall into the last three categories.
Can you add to this list with your own perceptions? Thanks for Leaving a comment for us and our readers.
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