Three Types of Twitterers

Yesterday I wrote about Twitter and the Art of Accidental Discovery. In that post I identified two types of Twitter user:

• The Self-Publicist
• The Conversationalist

I was wrong. I think there is a third type of user. Just like at a cocktail party there is also "The Voyeur" or "Wall Flower". This is someone who is following lots of people, listening in on the conversations but not adding to the conversation. So the three types of Twitter user are:

1. The Self-Publicist
2. The Voyeur
3. The Conversationalist

What is fascinating is that the Voyeur is still a valuable member of the Twitter community. Their harvesting of people to follow provides value - if you stumble across their Twitter flow - because they will have a rich source of connections and you get a sense of what they are interested in by the type of tweets appearing in their flow. 

What do you think? How many different types of Twitterer are there? Have I missed another category of user? Let me know! 

As for me, I am going to do my best to be a conversationalist. That does raise an interesting question. If I create a TinyURL of this page and put it in a Twitter post am I being a Self-Publicist? What a conundrum!