Photo from gulfport-ms.gov
Are there more than four types of Twitter accounts? Yes, sure there are. These are just four of the more common ones that I have seen.
Broadcaster
What it looks like… Auto posts or tweets that are nothing more than press releases or CAD information. The posts can even include code or symbols that mean nothing to the average person.
What it means… We are here only because someone told us that we should be using Twitter but we have no actual interest in knowing you, our community. We may even be attempting to drive you to our website, that is designed to be even less interactive than our Twitter Feed.
Narcissist
What it looks like… All posts including ReTweets and Quoted Tweets say something along the lines of, “Hey look at us. We’re great and people love us. You should too.”
What it means… We are here only to make sure you know how great we are, or how great others think we are. We are a purely using Twitter as a propaganda manner of self promotion. If you say something nice about us, we’ll ReTweet your thoughts so everyone else can feel the same about us too!! Look at us!! This gets really ugly when there are multiple accounts for the organization and they all ReTweet each other all day long.
Over Lord
What it looks like… You will bow to us and listen to what we say. We will entertain you by indulging you and your questions, but we won’t actually listen to you.
What it means… The organization may actually be making an attempt to engage with its audience, but has no real interest in changing or hearing what the community has to say. Another great thing this account will do is make boxed and stiff posts that no one other than lawyers can understand or that use big words and ideals that try to show their knowledge of key words.
Partner
What it looks like… Posts of all kinds. Tweets, retweets, positive, negative interactions. Lots of @ replies and conversations taking place.
What it means… The organization os committed to their Twitter presence and more importantly to their community. They don’t shy away from criticism and don’t trumpet compliments. They ask for help in becoming better through conversation of their faults and simply say thank you to the compliments. Their whole purpose of being on Twitter is to serve their community.
What does your organizations account look like? Are you proud of it? Concerned for it? What would you suggest to help accounts change to the one you think they should look like?
