The Ten Types of Twitter Users

Brendan Tompkins — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:10:00 GMT

I've been really into Twitter lately. It's one of those things that at first glance is hard to understand excatly why it's so engaging, but once you get to use it, it becomes your lifeline. It's an immediate, real-time information flow, and if you setup your account to follow the right folks, you can really have your finger on the pulse of whatever it is you're interested in. The funny thing is, once you get enough folks in your following list, you start to see a pattern developing of the types of twitter users. I've recently noticed that there are at least ten types of twitter users... Which one are you?

The Detailer

The Detailer's tweets fare more detail than they should about the mundane aspects of life. They should, however, be awarded points for effort. "Brushing Teeth" and "Making Coffee" are common tweets. This person has constantly fight the urge to tweet stuff like "Flushing for the second time" and "Fore playing."

The Image Builder

If you met the Image Builder in real life, you'd meet a completely different person than their Twitter alter ego.

The Complainer

Overly negative tweets make up the majority of the Complainer's posts. In fact, a recent study concluded that over 50% of the Complainer's tweets are about Twitter.Com's APIs sucking.

The Lurker

An obvious persona, the Lurker is too nervous to actually post any of the mundane details of their life, should they not be as exciting as the Detailer's "Making Coffee" posts.

The Pioneer

The Pioneer experiments with twitter, pushing it's limits and forging new ways to use the media. @sellware's up-all-night-twitter-for-charity event of last year puts him squarely in this category, even if the event itself may have fallen on deaf ears.

The Commenter

The Commenter will not post unless they have at least one @user in their tweet. Often there will be multiple @users' making the conversation entirely impossible to follow.

The Popular

The Popular collects followers like they are some kind of strange social currency to be hoarded. Chances are this person never really reads any of their follower's tweets.

The Snob

The Snob will only follow a select few worthy twitterers, although hundreds follow them. A dangerous persona threatening the very foundation of the media.

The Spammer

The spammer is characterized by posting multiple rapid-fire tweets. You know a spammer when your twitter client's ui is flooded with this person's face.

The Braggart

Only posts when they've happened to do something extra ordinary. "Eating Escolar with Truffeled Risotto and Baby farm Greens at Ellie's" is a common post for the Braggart. Often the braggart is dual persona, being an Image Builder as well.

I hate to say it, but I'm such a Braggart. See for yourself @btompkins

So which one are you?

Brendan Tompkins : twitter

The Ten Types of Twitter Users