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The 14 Types of Twitter Personalities

Tweet ItTwitter. It’s all the rage with news sources, celebrities, politicians, and millions of everyday folks getting in and playing around with it. The premise was simple: in 140 characters or less, answer a simple question that your followers and anyone who visits your page can see: “What are you doing?”

Since its creation, Twitter has both stayed the same and experienced evolutionary changes. The premise hasn’t changed, but what it means to people and how they use it have changed dramatically up until now. While more uses will certainly pop up, for now, everyone can be classified as having one or more of the following Twitter personalities.

These personalities and how we present them to the world define our uses and intentions on the Twittersphere. Whether we know it or not, these snippets of life that we cram into 140 characters say more about us as Tweeple than they say about us as people. For many, the distinction between the two is very thin.
The Purist

The site asks, “What are you doing?” and that’s exactly what The Purist delivers. This is the point where many new users start. Many of them continue indefinitely, following the lines of the original intent of the site to truly microblog every aspect of their life, whether exciting or mundane.
Tweeting Style:

* Good morning Twitter.
* I am doing ____ now
* I am at ___ now
* I _____ed just now
* I’m _____ing right now.
* Good night Twitter.

The Clever Purist

The Clever Purist will answer the question just as stated. The difference between them and The Purist is that they put a spin on their tweets to make their actions more entertaining or interesting than they really are. These users can accumulate a strong following once they are noticed as other users see them as adding value a notch above others in their stream.

Any time you can take the mundane and throw a spin into it that makes people think, smile, laugh, or a combination of the three, you’re sure to be followed and retweeted often. The funny ones employ a Seinfeld-esque style of looking at nothing and making something out of it.
Tweeting Style:

* I’m ____ing (something mundane) while I’m ____ing (something interesting)
* Watching ____ on TV begs the (interesting) question ______?
* Have you ever noticed that ____ would be better with bacon on it?

The Journalist

There are live journalists tweeting their findings to the world. There are citizen journalists breaking the news happening in front of them. There are bloggers posting more than just their posts; they post their thoughts on other issues and websites as well.

The Journalist is the Twitter personality that is getting almost as much attention as the celebrities joining twitter. It is as a collective more than as individuals that they are turning Twitter into the place to find and share what is happening in the world as it’s happening. Hundreds of stories have been written about the Twitter army being on the scene first at major events, tweeting pictures before camera crews at local television stations can find the keys to their van.
Tweeting Style:

Unlike traditional journalism, the rulebook is thrown out the window with Twitter Journalism. Time is everything - breaking news breaks fast on Twitter, opinions can go stale and must be concise, and links fall to obscurity if nobody with a lot of followers tweets or retweets it. Twitter is changing the face of journalism more than any website in history.
The Celeb Who Keeps it Real

Twitter is a doorway through which many celebrities are able to interact with fans, foes, and everyone in between in a direct yet safe manner. Most use it to thank their fans, promote their upcoming shows, and generally establish a constant public relations facade that humanizes them carefully and in a calculated way.

Others just don’t give a damn and they tweet whatever they want to tweet because they like to tweet.

One celebrity in particular does a tremendous job of being himself. Shaquille O’Neal, @the_real_shaq, is about as real as it gets, and thankfully for his fans and followers he’s a very entertaining guy, even when he “keeps it real”.
Tweeting Style:

Instead of singling out other celebrities who tend to use Twitter as a PR/Marketing tool, we’ll take a peek at what makes Shaq real. He pleads with nobody in particular (possibly even himself) “Can I plaese cheat on my diet and got to dairy Queen pls pls pls”. A few minutes later, you see this image linked through a tweet:

Classic Shaq.
The Link Mogul/Retweeter

There are those who enjoy what they find on Twitter more than what they have to say themselves. The Link Mogul/Retweeter uses Twitter as a resource and they’re happy to share what they find with their own followers regardless of where they find it.

They retweet what they find on Twitter and tweet what they find off of Twitter.

In many ways, this personality type includes the people who keep the streams churning. They bring interesting finds to light, whether it’s a link or simply something interesting that someone else has said.

They retweet like crazy, selflessly bringing attention to other people’s content and other users accounts, not because they have ulterior motives or selfish goals but because they find good stuff and they want others to see it as well.

Without these users, many wonderful things on Twitter would never reach more than a few people.
Tweeting Style:

Find links, find interesting tweets that others make, find interesting links that others tweet, and get it out to their portion of the Twittersphere. It’s that easy.

New users who do no longer want to be The Purist often migrate to a variation of this personality.
The Tastemaker

What is happening today? What will be happening tomorrow? What articles should we read? What videos should we watch? Who should we be following? What’s the next big thing?

For better or for worse, there are trendsetters and tastemakers in just about every aspect of Web 2.0. Twitter is no exception, and to accomodate the 140 characters or less aspect, the Tastemakers on Twitter have found 3 major avenues of using their influence to make changes, send traffic, and often even make the news.
Tweeting Style:

* Tweeting links to the coolest, most interesting or entertaining links on the web (hopefully before anyone else does)
* Asking questions of their tremendous following to find out what’s ticking in the world (or at least a microcosm of the world)
* Discuss issues publicly with other powerful users, getting both batch of followers interested in the conversation and subsequently whatever topic they are discussing.

The Everyman’s Friend

The first question that gets asked at least a few times a week of people who are following tens, even hundreds of thousands of people is “how can you possibly keep up with all of those people?”

If asked under truth the influence of Sodium Pentothal, most would simply answer, “I don’t. I can’t. I try, but it’s too much.”

Still, there are a select few who DO try to keep up with their tremendous stream of tweets.

They DO reply to every @reply sent to them, every direct message thrown at them, and still somehow find the time to answer questions and offer help to those who don’t ask them directly.

They read their stream, find interesting points of conversation, and act upon them in some way.

They are Everyman’s friend.

They keep Twitter friendly and help new users get better.
Tweeting Style:

* Lots of @replies
* Lots of responses to questions posed to the community
* Lots of time spent on the site
* LOTS OF TWEETS!

Continue Reading Twitter Personalities 8-14

The Twitter personalities above were positive, important aspects of the community that help to keep the stream moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, with great power comes gre… actually, it should be said that with increased popularity comes those who will do what they can to ruin it.

Below, you will find the users who are, to some degree, not the kind of user that most would want to be. It isn’t that they’re bad people or even bad users. People are allowed to tweet just about any darn way they want to tweet. It’s a free Twitter (for now) and nobody wants to have their Twitter personality type classified as negative.

With that said, we’ll classify the following personality types as ones that are (to be politically correct) “community challenged”. No examples will be given. We aren’t here to call anyone out or to spend too much time talking about the, but they do exist and need to be on this list.
The Spammer

It’s the most unavoidable negative aspect of the Internet. If there are people gathering at any site, spammers will surely follow. An entire post or two could be written about the different types of spammers out there, but if you’re a spammer you know who you are and most users know how to recognize you as well.
The Stalker

Twitter can be a wonderful community that allows people to connect with others that they never would have known existed otherwise. Unfortunately, some users are the types that you wish you never knew existed. More importantly, you wish they never knew you existed.

The Twitter Stalker comes in many forms. They can send @replies and DMs all day, every day, and get upset if you don’t reply to every single one of them.

They can have a name or avatar similar to yours. They can even start requesting to call you on the phone or (gulp!) meet you in person.

Communication is one of the best parts of Twitter, but let’s keep it to Twitter, shall we?

I know I said that I wouldn’t use examples, but this one was too funny to pass up. The user’s name: “Kevin’s Nose”.
The Self-Promoter

Some would classify The Self-Promoter as a spammer, but there is a distinction. The self-promoter normally tries to get involved. They try to be a good friend, say interesting things, retweet others, and other aspects of the good personalities listed before.

The difference is that they don’t really care about any of it. They are simply trying to show that they are good and active on Twitter so they can get their own message out. It could be just the link in their profile. It could be an innocent DM here or there. It might be the occasional tweet mentioning that “If anyone needs help with social media marketing, I’m a guru.”

Many are, and there’s nothing wrong with being a guru and pointing it out to prospective customers. Still, I have to ask, “When did they leave facebook and migrate to Twitter?”
The Blog/Site Bot

This is not a condemnation of Blogs! I love blogs. I don’t mind following blogs. The only problem I have is when blogs install a plugin and don’t configure it right. What ends up happening is that every follow’s stream is clogged with dozens, even hundreds of blog posts as the new plugin posts everything that has ever been written on the blog.

Other sites use a feed and site bot to post every new happening on the site. When a site is updated dozens of times a day, these bots can be exceptionally annoying.
The Clueless

There’s nothing wrong with a new person having no clue how to use the site. We were all there at one point or another. The users that still seem clueless 6 months and 400 updates later - they’re a problem. With so many guides available and so many users willing to lend a helping hand with tips and advice, there’s no reason why anyone should not understand the site after a certain point of usage.
The Real Person Who Tries to be a Celeb

Some may draw parallels to the Self-Promoter, but again, there is a distinction. Having 10k followers does not make someone a celebrity. It may be the most exposure that they get, and they may be able to add and remove new friends as well as the next user, but there is no reason to get high and mighty because a lot of people followed you back.

Humility is a quality. Be thankful that you have the eyes of so many. Don’t gloat or boast about your followers until your name starts getting circulated on more than just a few thousand people’s Twitter stream.
The Troll and the Meta-Twitter Troll

If humans are allowed to post their thoughts, some of those humans will actually be trolls. It’s part of a troll’s nature to flame others regardless of the venue or circumstance. That’s what being a troll is all about.

The Meta-Twitter Troll is a relatively new breed that has hopped onto Twitter because of it’s tremendous growth and the buzz surrounding it and their trolling involves making others feel bad about being on Twitter in the first place. They go beyond ripping on people because of what they Tweet. They flame them because of their very Twitter existence. These are dangerous users capable of driving other users away through shame and intimidation. Block them whenever one enters your stream.
Which Personalities Do You Have?

The vast majority of users do not fall into any one Twitter personality type. Most are a combination of two or three. Users evolve as quickly as the site itself grows. Did we miss any types? Which personality type(s) do you consider yourself?

Tweet ItRemember, you can lead a horse to Twitter but you can’t make him Tweet.