The 3 types of Followers you will meet in Twitter

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Twitter started off with a simple purpose. To keep friends and acquaintances updated on your life; within 140 characters each time.

Well, with evolution comes different species of the same kind. Followers who once came with one reason have gone separate ways with their own motivations.

The Real Fans

There seem to be some survivors left but not many. These are the people who sincerely want to know how your life is going. They are usually friends or fans that want to keep in touch and know more about you. Most of the time, they are the only people who are truly interested in your updates.

The Reciprocators

There are two breeds of the Reciprocators. One has sympathy while the other has the forethought. One thing they have in common is that they only followed you because you followed them first.
The one who sympathizes followed you back to avoid feeling bad for not reciprocating.
The one who has the forethought either followed you because he/she is afraid of losing a new follower or has already promised to follow you back if you follow them first. The goal is the get more “loyal” followers through reciprocal following.
If your followers are mostly made up of the Reciprocators, you really do not have much to be proud of. Their motives are solely extrinsic and they most probably do not care what you have eaten in the afternoon.

The incentive motivated

These people are typically the spammers or people who joined Twitter for a living. If you have no money, a small following, uninterested in news and networking and have no regards to how to grow your following in 10 days, they have followed the wrong person. Otherwise, you can count on these people to interact with you. But often with a price, or a benefit for them.

It is all up to you

Very often, which categories your followers fall under have a lot to do with whom you follow. Reciprocators invite reciprocators while the incentive motivated would un-follow you once they know you are not worth it. As much as whom you follow defines who you are, which types of followers you draw most also explains a lot about your motive on Twitter.

So which type(s) are you?