Debrief of 1st Twitter Segmentation Study

I have just completed an exhaustive segmentation study on the emerging user groups in the 'twittersphere'.

On a flight from Melbourne to Sydney I clustered the attitudes and deep seeded motivations behind the use of twitter into common segments. And this is what I came up with...

1. The Replacements

Those twitterers who have replaced a more traditional form of communication called talking with 140 characters or less of every thought, comment or announcement that enters their mind. These twitterers tend to skew towards the @reply functionality.

2. The Giver's

Those that are so fast to tweet a link to the latest piece of industry information published, that they can practically claim it as their own. Lots of tinyurl's are seen in their tweets. Those that just miss being first to announce often use the RT function.

3. The Takers

Those that selfishly take more than they give from Twitter. These people (me included in this group!) like to follow the random thoughts of random people and send minimal & uninteresting tweets (usually after a few drinks!)

4. The Profilers

Twitter has become both a replacement and a nightmare for publicists amongst those that have a public profile. And we all now feel closer to the ones we look up to and know more about what's going on in their heads. And if their tweets are missed online, you can usually catch them in the glossies or sunday gossip sections.

5. The robots

The segment we all hate, but in the end they dont care because they are machines! I also put the fakes in this segment as they tend to be disliked aswell

6. The WTF's

This segment skews to those who have no followers and only 1 update. They are not sure what the hell twitter is and why people think it's great. And they are proud to publicly announce it.

If anyone has any other segments that you think I have missed or got wrong then I am happy to revise and publish.