Brand clusters to tight crowds: Check out six basic types of Twitter conversations

Washington: Scientists have identified sixbasic types of Twitter conversations and explained how theyare shaped by the topic being discussed.

A new report from the Pew Research Centre, in associationwith the Social Media Research Foundation, provides an aerialview of the social media network, showing the Twitterconversations have distinct shapes.

By analysing many thousands of Twitter conversations,researchers identified six different conversationalarchetypes.
“Our infographic describes each type of conversationnetwork and an explanation of how it is shaped by the topicbeing discussed and the people driving the conversation,“researchers said.

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The six recurring shapes are: ‘Polarised crowd’, ’tightcrowd’, ‘brand clusters’, ‘community clusters’, ‘broadcastnetwork’ and ‘support network’. Conversations on Twitter create networks withidentifiable contours as people reply to and mention oneanother in their tweets, according to the Pew research.

These conversational structures differ, depending on thesubject and the people driving the conversation.Polarised Crowd discussions feature two big and densegroups that have little connection between them. The topicsbeing discussed are often highly divisive and heated politicalsubjects. In fact, there is usually little conversation betweenthese groups despite the fact that they are focused on thesame topic, researchers said.

Tight Crowd discussions are characterised by highlyinterconnected people with few isolated participants. Manyconferences, professional topics, hobby groups, and othersubjects that attract communities take this Tight Crowd form.Brand Clusters take place when well-known products or services or popular subjects like celebrities are discussed inTwitter, there is often commentary from many disconnectedparticipants.

Well-known brands and other popular subjects can attractlarge fragmented Twitter populations who tweet about it butnot to each other.

Community Clusters happen as some popular topics maydevelop multiple smaller groups, which often form around a fewhubs each with its own audience, influencers, and sources ofinformation.These conversations look like bazaars with multiplecentres of activity.

Broadcast Network involves Twitter commentary aroundbreaking news stories and the output of well-known mediaoutlets and pundits has a distinctive hub and spoke structurein which many people repeat what prominent news and mediaorganisations tweet.

Support Network conversation includes Customer complaintsfor a major business are often handled by a Twitter serviceaccount that attempts to resolve and manage customer issuesaround their products and services.

PTI