Types of Facebook audience
Many studies have already been done on the types of Facebook users. But all those studies had focused on only one side of the user behavior — that is, when the users post something on Facebook.
What about the behavior of the users who read (or not read) and react (or not react) to their friends’ posts? I mean, isn’t it equally important to study that audience behavior as well?
So, I decided to take upon this massive responsibility and study the behavior of Facebook users as audience. How do users react to their friends’ posts when they are reading/browsing through the feed and what does that tell you about them?
This is not a scientific study, and the results have been collated in such a way that I hope it will stir some curiosity and amusement, and bring out a laughter or two.
Before I start presenting my results, it’s important to set some background. I decided to use the below analogy because it seems to work really well for how I wanted the results to be presented.
A Facebook post is like an invite to a house party.
The person who is posting on a particular topic is the host. Be it a personal update, a meme, a political statement, a trivia, a joke, a photo, a musical piece, etc. — Think of it as an invitation the host is sharing with his/her friends for a themed party.
Reacting to that post is the equivalent of RSVPing to the invitation and attending the party very quietly.
Commenting directly under the post is the equivalent of attending the party and conversing/engaging with the host.
Assumption:
This study applies to active Facebook users only, by which I am referring to those users who log into Facebook somewhat regularly.
With that background, I hereby present the types of users.
The etiquette followers
These users will RSVP i.e. react to your post. Then they will leave a short comment to engage with you letting you know that they appreciated your invitation and they actually enjoyed the party.
Too lazy to RSVP
These folks don’t like reacting to the posts. They think RSVPing is not for them or they find RSVPing a silly protocol.
They just show up for the party and chat with you (comment), engage with other guests if they are in a mood for or if they find the theme of the party interesting, and then leave.
The not-so-respectful
These users will not only not RSVP but also not talk to the host directly. They will attend the party but will engage in a conversation with other guests directly.
They will not react to your post but will react to another friend’s comment under the post and/or comment under someone else’s comment, thereby ignoring you — the host, and then leave.
The reciprocators
These folks will decide to RSVP/quietly attend your parties depending on how you generally have been reacting to their party invitations. If you have been ignoring their posts, they too will do the same.
The generous guests
These folks are nice to all party hosts. They will RSVP to all invitations and make quick & quiet appearances in all parties. Time is never a constraint for them.
The tempermentals
These users do not approve of your party theme. Since they are angry that you are even hosting a party with that theme, they can’t RSVP in their right minds. But they will make an appearance at the party and share their displeasure with you. They may or may not engage with other guests depending on how angry they are with you for hosting a party with that theme.
The lost
These users often lose the context and generally have no idea what’s going on. They may randomly RSVP to some invitations and make quiet appearances without knowing whose party they are attending. They are absolutely harmless if you just them be. And when you engage with them, you will find out that they are really nice people who will never get used to the party scene.
The clumsy and the unfocused
These guests somehow find genuine ways to lose the invitations. They never read your posts either because they are technically challenged or they accidentally throw your invitations into trash (browse their newsfeed too fast and skip your posts).
The over-analyzers
They over-analyze reacting to and commenting on posts because they are very cautious of blog posts like this studying their behavior.
They are not necessarily very conscious of how hosts perceive them but they are very conscious of how other guests perceive them if they attended a particular party.
So, they tend to choose very carefully what posts to react to and comment on.
The snobs
These users will receive all invitations, as in, they will read all your posts but think they are too good for you. Or they think they are too cool to be caught attending your themed parties.
So, they simply ignore your posts and move on to reacting to & commenting on posts that are from those whom they consider are worthy of their social status.
—
PS: If I have missed any other types, do leave a comment, and I will update this post after suitable analysis.
