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"Ryan Deal is a social media and creative advertising lover who's got an eye for good design and a passion that won't quit. He authors a blog at ryanyeah.com.\nTwitter is undoubtedly becoming one of the fastest growing social media tools in existence. As it continues to expand, so too does the diversity of its user base. \nWhether you\u2019re new to Twitter, a veteran user, or someone that is just interested, here\u2019s a list of the 10 people you meet on Twitter. There may be more, but this is a great place to start. \nFeel free to suggest more types of accounts you may encounter in the comments section.\n1. Memes, games, and activities\n\n\n\n\nFrom Twitter accounts that claim to be God (way_truth_life, god, holygod) to accounts that provide fun games to kill time (tweetbomb, secrettweet, etc.), memes, which are defined on Wikipedia as intangible elements of our culture, are constantly popping up on Twitter. They don\u2019t always have many followers, but they\u2019re there. \n2. A company, product, or brand\nSome brands really get it, and those are the ones that should be on Twitter. They make a great product and they understand the importance of engaging their consumers. Companies like Comcast, Zappos, Starbucks, and Mimoco interact with their consumers every day, and for that deserve some sort of recognition.\nThen, there are brands that use Twitter to spam. These accounts are only on Twitter to let people know about new deals, new products, or anything else about their product. They usually follow way more people than are following them and they obviously don\u2019t get it. I\u2019m not going to point any out here; I\u2019m sure you can recognize them when you see \u2018em.\n3. Suspended accounts\n\n\n\n\nA lot of accounts are being suspended these days because they violate the Twitter TOS in some way. These accounts are usually spam accounts that follow tons of people in hopes that many will follow back so that they can spam them with sales messages and links. For this reason, I make it a point to check out every person that follows me before I follow them back. \nIf you\u2019ve followed an account like this or you know of one, you can report them to @spam by sending them an @reply with the suspected account\u2019s username.\n4.  Guy in a suit, corporate background, with more following than followers\nThese people are the realtors of Twitter. They might not be overpriced home dealers, but they feel the same. Their avatar and bio serve as a generic business card from which they hope to achieve your business or your loyalty and trust.\nThese are the people that do everything for a living; and I mean EVERYTHING. They are self-proclaimed social media experts and they are usually a CEO or founder of something. Their bio usually includes words like this: startup, expert, artist, visionary, social media, enthusiast, specialist, marketing, PR, sales, properties, and maven. \nMany of them are full of you-know-what, but they aren\u2019t all bad. You can usually point out the legit ones by looking at their followers to following ratio and by taking a look at their recent updates. Here are some that do it right: JimConnolly, madmain, and KikiValdez.\n5. Default avatar: means 3 things... spam, n00b, or something else\nThen there are the accounts with the default avatar. To me this means one of three things. Either they are a n00b, a spam account, or they don\u2019t know how to use a camera, and if that\u2019s the case, how did they ever make it onto the Internet?\nAdditionally these may be people that can\u2019t decide on one picture they want to represent themselves, or they just don\u2019t have time. If that\u2019s the case, they should really spend the minute it takes to find a picture and upload it. A lot of Twitter users won\u2019t even consider accounts without avatars. Sorry @bad_decisions, this means you. \n6. Scobleizer... and others like him\n\n\n\n\nThis list wouldn\u2019t be complete without mentioning the Twitterati. Chances are they aren\u2019t going to just follow you, but if you\u2019ve been on Twitter more than a week or two, you\u2019ve definitely heard of them. Whether they should be or not, they have become the idols of social media. With tens of thousands of followers and just as many updates between them, there\u2019s no doubt you have or will come into contact with them.\nI suggest checking them out before you follow them. And don\u2019t be discouraged if you send them a message and they don\u2019t reply; chances are they\u2019re getting tons every day. \nHere\u2019s a short list of people who have achieved this rank. This is in no way a full list, just a few to get you started: Scobleizer, kevinrose, guykawasaki, alexalbrecht, JasonCalacanis, chrisbrogan, garyvee, and ijustine, and of course, Pete Cashmore (we recommend you follow him).\n7. Entertainers, athletes, and otherwise famous people\nThese are the people you know from various other media channels. They are famous elsewhere, and have become top Twitter users by amassing a large number of followers. Just be careful, while it would make sense that @ShaquilleONeal would be the Shaq we know and love, it is an imposter and there could be any number of these imposters on twitter.\nHere are a few (real) ones to get you started: THE_REAL_SHAQ, BarackObama, StephenColbert, MCHammer, britneyspears and many more\u2026 \n8. News sources\n\n\n\n\nThese are the information sources that often push all types of breaking news across Twitter before traditional media sources have a chance to report it. They are a good follow if you want to be as in the know as possible. \nSome of those accounts to check out include: cnnbrk, BreakingNewsOn, weirdnews, and fark to name a few.\n9. Characters, personalities, and unusual entities\n\nThese are the famous personalities that aren\u2019t real, and I know what you are thinking (Darth Vader is 100% real, dude), but bear with me here. They are characters from movies, TV shows, and other sources that have a presence on Twitter, but don\u2019t necessarily breathe or bleed. \nHowever, that doesn\u2019t mean that they aren\u2019t worth following. Check out some of these and decide for yourself: DarthVader, Borat, VincentDooly, kickbee and MarsPhoenix.\n10. The rest of us\n\n\n\n\nThen there\u2019s the rest of us that use Twitter for many different reasons. I have met a lot of cool people worth forming relationships with that aren\u2019t famous, aren\u2019t social media mavens, and don\u2019t represent a brand or product. \nFeel free to follow me on Twitter and say hi whenever. Here are a few people just like me that you may enjoy following: swannny, GarretOhm, and mattmcegg to name a few. Point us to your profile in the comments.\nRyan Deal is a social media and creative advertising lover who's got an eye for good design and a passion that won't quit. He's really into robots and loves meeting new people. He can be found all around the Internet and his most recent project is the online promotion of Vincent Dooly and the film, The Mother of Invention.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, askhamdesigns\nInterested in more resources? Check these out\n- \"HOW TO: Build Community on Twitter\"\n- \"HOW NOT TO: Build Your Twitter Community\"\n- \"HOW TO: Win Friends and Twinfluence People\"\n- \"Tweets to Go: 35+ More Twitter Resources for Your Phone\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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