New Research Identifies Social Personality But Is It Right

As a subscriber to The Drum and their daily enewsletters, I often find myself absorbed in the successes and failures of our industry, working to spark my own creativity and measure my own results. Reading an article about the 12 social media personalities, I began to think about my own online behaviour and the 'category' into which I fit...

The article, based on recent research by First Direct, and supported by Dr Giles of Winchester University, identifies 12 personas, based on the social media activity of participants over a month; 'types' include 'The Ultras'; 'The Deniers'; 'The Dippers'; 'The Virgins'; 'The Lurkers'; 'The Peacocks'; 'The Ranters'; 'The Ghosts'; 'The Changelings'; 'The Quizzers'; 'The Informers'; and the 'The Approval-Seekers'. Each has its own definition and each is based on the activities of social media users online.

Dr Giles goes on to say that people can exhibit a combination of these personalities on one platform, or can adopt different personalities for each different platform; ultimately, their behaviour can change the way they interact with people and the way they feel about them in the real world!

Having read and digested the definitions, I honestly identify myself as a 'dipper' - someone who accesses their page infrequently, and potentially when I am online, I'm more of a lurker anyway! This has changed over the years as I've got older, become less absorbed in the online world and generally just become more wary of my online profile and personality. Interestingly, what I feel the research lacks is a comparison of these 12 'personalities' to the growing trend of the 'deserters' we're seeing, that leave social media altogether or even, those who never joined in the first place! Granted, it gives an overview of a sample group of social media users over a month, but it would be an interesting comparison to consider how and why people move away from these platforms and even, whether this change is preceeded by a change in personality through a number of the different traits. What's more, it doesn't consider how or why we adopt these personalities, or even whether the behaviour of our peers affects or changes our own interactions; if we submersed ourselves in a world of lurkers, would we automatically become a lurker ourselves, or would we make a stand? If we were in a world  of ranters, would we rant too, or would we cower away and watch the scene unfold?

Ultimately, what it comes down to is I love research like this and the trigger it provides to really get thinking! I would be interested to know how each person categorises themselves, and even if they think this research has relevance?