With every new phenomenon in social networking, researchers are always trying to figure out, or categorize the users and dynamics of why and how it works. The latest internet craze, Twitter is no exception. Friends, who are not users, are always asking me, “What is the point?” or “How does it work?” and I always find it hard to explain. Twitter is something you have to use to understand and see why people like it. This study, done by Professors Naaman and Boase of Rutgers University (RU Rah Rah!!) did a study that revealed their are 2 types of Twitter users: Meformers or Informers.
It’s obvious what an Informer is: They use their tweets to post messages that contain information, like news links. Meformers post what they call “me now” messages. These messages update a users followers about what their thoughts, location, or immediate situation. Sometimes these random thoughts are hilarious. I in fact, love a good random thought!
Meformers typically have less followers than informers. And Informers tend to be active in social awareness streams, and interact more than Meformers. Not all Informers though, sometimes you get news networks or companies that don’t respond (ahem *cough*) But some places are great, l ike @Zappos!
Other info I found interesting in the article:
# Informers have more friends and followers on Twitter than meformers (Informers had a median 131 friends and 112 followers compare to meformers median figures of 61 friends and 43 followers.)
# Females were more likely to post “me now” messages than males. (Forty-five percent of females’ messages were “me now” compared to 37 percent of males’.)
# Posts from mobile devices were more likely to be “me now” messages than posts from non-mobile applications. (Fifty-one percent of mobile-posted messages were “me now” compared to 37 percent of non-mobile messages.)
# Informers mention others in their messages more often.
What am I?
I think I’m a combination of both. I don’t typically share things that I find are already being spread by others, people hate redundancy. I do share info I find new, exciting, or just plain strange! I do go a bit personal sometimes, but I don’t want to seem like a drone while tweeting.
What are you?
Read more HERE!
MEFORMER!!!! Definately!!! I try every now and then to inform on interesting topics that pop up on the internet but most times, the links are too big for the 140 character limitation. 🙁
Twitter automatically shrinks links, to give you more characters!!! lol