---
title: "Which Of These 3 Social Media Profiles Are You?"
date: 2012-06-05
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2012"
    url: "/tag/2012.md"
---

# Which Of These 3 Social Media Profiles Are You?

![](https://web.archive.org/web/20120620033353im_/http://www.readwriteweb.com/files/styles/610_0/public/fields/3social_media_types.jpg)

You’ve got a new piece of content you want to share, but where do you put it? Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Pinterest, your WordPress blog… all of the above?! With these and many other options to choose from, posting on the Web can be confusing – even a little stressful. But never fear, ReadWriteWeb is here to help. We’ve identified three main social media profiles, based on the Big 3 networks: Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

We’re not suggesting to choose one of the Big 3 and ignore the other two. Many people use each of the three for different purposes. What we’re saying is: why not choose one as **your main account**. It will make it easier for you to manage your social media life.

Here are the three types of social media users we’ve identified:

## The Google+ Pundit

This person favors Google+ because of its **topic-focused discussions**. They enjoy writing their thoughts on topical issues of the day and (unlike Twitter) Google+ doesn’t restrict them.

[Tim O’Reilly](https://web.archive.org/web/20120620033353/https://plus.google.com/107033731246200681024/posts), the founder of O’Reilly Media and father of Web 2.0, is a Google+ fan. In [a recent post there](https://web.archive.org/web/20120620033353/https://plus.google.com/107033731246200681024/posts/TcgPBAVpWy8), he explained that he uses Google+ because it has “meaningful groups that are growing organically out of my various communications.” In other words, he finds like-minded people to talk with on Google+.

He uses Twitter and Facebook too, but Google+ is his preferred network. Here’s an example of Tim posting his thoughts onto Google+ first, then following up with a tweet that points to Google+:

## The Talkative Tweeter

This person is very good at thinking out loud and tends to post to Twitter regularly throughout the day. Twitter is ideal for people **who love real-time discussions**. These conversations can be topical or just everyday social, but either way it all happens fast and in the moment.

ReadWriteWeb’s own [Jon Mitchell](https://web.archive.org/web/20120620033353/https://twitter.com/#!/ablaze) is a great example of this profile. He posts once or twice a day to Google+ and Facebook, but about every 5 minutes to Twitter. Well, maybe not that much, but as I’ve been writing this very sentence there have been 2 updates to his Twitter stream! I really enjoy following his tweets, even though I am not a heavy tweeter myself.

## The Facebook Socializer

Facebook is the most difficult of the three big social media sites to figure out. It’s mainly a social network, for keeping up-to-date with your friends and family. But you can also subscribe to people you don’t know, or “like” their “Page”. Or you can subscribe to their public profile *and* like their Page. In a nutshell, Facebook is trying to be all things to all people – which has created a whole lot of confusion for content producers and consumers alike.

Despite all this, the most effective Facebook users are ones who **regularly post for social purposes**. Often they pipe in their Twitter updates, too. My friend [Chris Saad](https://web.archive.org/web/20120620033353/http://www.facebook.com/chrissaad) is a great example. Chris is a successful Web strategist who lives in San Francisco; and he also has a social life that many of his friends are politely envious of. So his Facebook profile is a mix of savvy technical commentary (much of it syndicated from his Twitter profile) and photos of him living it up in San Francisco.

So there you have it: three types of social media users to model yourself on. There are of course a plethora of specialist services, too: Tumblr for curation, Pinterest for images, WordPress for blogging, and so on. If what you do is a good fit for a specialist service, then use it as one of your primary services alongside one of the Big 3. For example, if you’re a visual person and love to post images, then Pinterest should be one of your main social media sites.

**Which of the Big 3 social media profiles do you fit?**

p.s. You don’t need to be a white male with a beard to answer. Sorry about that, occupational hazard!

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/which-of-these-3-social-media-profiles-are-you.php))*