Your Twitter Conversations Fall Into One of These Six Categories
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2014-02-22 04:00:43 UTC
The trolls, the political preachers, the over-sharers: Twitter users encompass all of these stereotypes and then some.
How do so many different personalities interact and exist on one network? That's what the Pew Research Center decided to find out.
New research from Pew Research Center looked at the way Twitter users engage in conversations on the service. The study examined Twitter content over several years from users across the U.S., and looked at how that content was dispersed and discussed among certain groups.
Researchers concluded that there are roughly six different types of conversational archetypes that take place on Twitter. In other words, most conversations take the form of one of these six general structures: Polarized Crowd, Tight Crowd, Brand Clusters, Community Clusters, Broadcast Network, Support Network.
The clusters certainly make sense, and they also look familiar. You may recognize some overlap in how you engage in conversation outside of Twitter as well. Here's how each category is described in the study.
Polarized Crowd — If you like to talk politics on Twitter, this may be your group. Polarized crowds tend to occur when the topic of conversation is something controversial and often political, such as Obamacare. The conflicting nature of the subject matter pushes users into one of two camps: a conservative group and a liberal group. There is very little interaction between the two.
"Polarized Crowds on Twitter are not arguing," the study reads. "They are ignoring one another while pointing to different web resources and using different hashtags."
Despite sharing the same general subject matter, these users are not sharing the same material. Liberals link to more mainstream news websites, while conservatives tend to share "conservative news websites and commentary sources," the study found.
Tight Crowd — If you've attended a work conference where they encourage you to tweet with a hashtag, or if you are part of a niche club or hobby group, you may identify with Tight Crowd conversations on Twitter.
These conversations are often lacking "isolated participants," aka outsiders. It's for Twitter users who are in the know, share a common interest, and are likely part of the same network on Twitter (they follow each other or similar people).
"These dense networks are often communities of people who are aware of one another and converse often," the study reads. "These networks have many people who follow one another and reply to and mention one another."
Brand Clusters — Perhaps you are a Belieber. Or maybe you love everything Apple comes out with. If you like to tweet about brands or celebrities, you'll fit in well with a Brand Cluster.
These conversations are typically isolated, meaning they don't involve a lot of back and forth messages between Twitter users. The thread that holds these groups together is a similar topic — a brand or celeb — but not necessarily the banter that we see in Polarized Crowds or Tight Groups.
According to the study: "Often times, the Twitter chatter about these institutions and their messages is not among people connecting with each other. Rather, they are relaying or passing along the message of the institution or person and there is no extra exchange of ideas."
Tweeting that you love your new iPhone 5S or that the Seattle Seahawks won the Super Bowl may put you in this group. Brand Clusters demonstrate power in numbers, but not necessarily sustained conversation.
Community Clusters — Similar to Brand Clusters, Community Clusters are formed when a number of users talk about the same topic. Unlike Brand Clusters, these groups tend to engage more with one another, and often develop a number of smaller communities that dive deeper into that shared topic.
For example, many users use the hashtag #FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) to talk about Michelle Obama. But the conversations differ by Twitter group. Some may discuss her appearance on The Tonight Show, while others may be talking about Ms. Obama in reference to larger political discussions.
Interactions in these groups aren't as strong as Tight Crowd conversations, but they tend to be stronger than the group of isolated users that make up Brand Clusters.
Broadcast Network — Do you turn to CNN or Fox News for your breaking Twitter news? If you are loyal to a few select journalists or news organizations, Broadcast Networks may be familiar to you.
These types of conversational groups form when a bunch of people are discussing the same braking news topic, but in groups that boast their own leader or central figure. For example, during the Boston Marathon Bombing last spring, the Twitter world was abuzz with news and conversations. But depending on where you live, or which news outlets you follow, you were most likely participating in a different Broadcast Network than others online.
Members of this group are not often connected — except for the shared bond of following the same news leaders.
Support Network — Unlike Broadcast Networks, where most of the information from the central source is shared outward by followers, Support Networks send content the other way.
This tends to happen in a situation where customers are complaining or providing feedback to a brand's customer service account, researchers found. The group consists of isolated users engaging with one central figure — but the content is sent inward to the company, not outward to the Twittersphere. Brands often respond to users in this way (if they have active customer support teams), creating a two-way connection that isn't as common in Broadcast Networks.
Twitter conversations are not necessarily reflective of how conversations happen on the Internet as a whole, according to the Pew researchers. After all, only 18% of U.S. Internet users are on Twitter, and some of those users don't even tweet. Still, these conversations offer a window into the way people communicate.
"Social networking maps of these conversations provide new insights because they combine analysis of the opinions people express on Twitter, the information sources they cite in their tweets, analysis of who is in the networks of the tweeters, and how big those networks are," the study says.
Which group sounds most familiar to you?
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Topics: pew research center, Social Media, Twitter, Twitter Conversations
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