5 Types of X (Formerly Twitter) Users – Which Are You?

5 Types of Twitter Users

When Twitter (now “X”) was created in 2006, people didn’t get it. Small business owners didn’t understand how to use it for marketing. Many still don’t. It’s OK if you don’t get it. X/Twitter users come in all forms. Many have been on since its inception. When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he made many changes. Mostly, to make the company profitable. He also cleaned it up and reinstated many people who were banned for just being who they are.

X is where people go to find out what’s going on right now. It’s where people get information, and breaking news. X / Twitter users have varying reasons for being on X.

The Difference between the 5 Main X / Twitter Users…

One thing hasn’t changed — that’s how it works. I’ve categorized its users based on the follower-to-following ratio –- how many people are following them compared to how many people they are following.

The Newsmakers

These X / Twitter users have way more followers than the number of people they follow. They are organizations like news media, magazines, TV shows, celebrities, and influencers. They make the news and people follow them to get the news.

Donald Trump one of the most popular and active Twitter Users

Information Gatherers

These folks are following more people than they have followers, they post very few original posts. These could be researchers or reporters. If they’ve been on Twitter for a while, they aren’t Newbies.

News researcher on Twitter

Relationship Builders

These are on Twitter to make friends. They have a fairly even number of followers and following. They tweet often and people follow them because they like what they are tweeting about. These folks also care about their followers – thanking them for retweeting and mentioning them. Like me on my personal account. Keep business and personal separate! Building relationships is what the “social” part of social media is about!

Newbies

Everyone has to start somewhere! To grow a following you need to tweet good content and follow the people you want following you. Take a look at who’s following your competition or related businesses and follow them. When you follow someone, they are notified and they can then choose if they want to follow you back or not. Your first benchmark goal is 100 followers in 30 days. Once you pass the 100 mark, people will see that you’re credible and tweeting regularly and your following will grow as long as you keep feeding them what they want.

Cafe Flutes on X (formerly Twitter)

To grow your following, your profile page has to be set up correctly with:

  • Good, quality graphics – it’s your online image – make it look good.
    • Your logo in 400 x 400 pixels – a square – do not upload a rectangular logo into the square – it will get cut off!
    • Your cover graphic – 1500 x 500 pixels. Create a graphic that size. Remember, quality counts!
  • A complete, keyword-centric bio. You have 160 characters to describe what you do – take advantage of this. It gives you credibility. Use hashtags on the major keywords.
  • Your website link – this helps with SEO (search engine optimization)
  • Your name or your company name – however you wish to be known.
  • Analytics — Unfortunately, analytics, which every account used to be able to have, is only for subscribers and advertisers.
Social Media 1:1 coaching & training

Eventually, a Newbie will become a Relationship Builder and may eventually graduate to a Newsmaker.

Spammers, Jerks, Trolls, and Fake Accounts

Unfortunately, like in every community, there are nasty, stupid people. X tries hard to eliminate these, but it’s up to the real users to police them, report them as spammers, and/or block them.

How can you tell if it’s a fake account? Look at the follower-to-following ratio as compared to the number of tweets. Is it off? Another way is their username/handle – it’s a bunch of random letters, numbers, or words that make no sense. If you see a name followed by a bunch of numbers, that’s probably a robot-generated account and fake. These folks are cunning. They’ll put a person’s picture and fill out a nice, friendly-sounding bio to gain followers. What they post is automated.

Spammers will follow you to get noticed and to get you to buy something — or even SCAM you. Some try to sell you the “magic pill” that will grow your following into the thousands. Hint: those are fake followers and are NOT your target market!

The way to build a following is organically. It takes time and sweat equity, but it’s worth it.

So which X user are you? Tweet me your response or comment below…

If you’re still confused about being on X or any of the other social media networks, click here to schedule a free 15-minute Zoom consult and I’ll review your current website and marketing efforts.


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