The 28 categories of social media content based on my Twitter Content Classification Framework (minus references this time)

1. Social Media Content Categories (skewed for Twitter)
Category Description
1 Conversational Uses an @statement to address another user
1.1 Action Activities involving other Twitter users, or tweets which
describe the presence of other Twitter users.
1.2 Query Any statement style tweet that ends with a question mark, as it
represents an active attempt to engage responses from the
community
1.3 Referral @response which contains URLs or recommendation of other
Twitter users. (Excludes RT @user)
1.4 Response Tweets which commence with another user’s name
2 News Events Identifiable newsworthy content
2.1 Announcement Announcement of a forthcoming event including dates, venue
or location, but without links or URLs.
2.2 Hashtagged Event Any tweet which represents the live discussion of an identified
or identifiable event such as a conference, live television or
live event collected under a consistent #hashtag
2.3 Headlines Breaking news and personal eye-witness accounts of news
events. Factual or descriptive recount without overt opinion or
comment
2.4 Sport Identifiable results of sporting events. Factual or descriptive
recount without overt opinion or comment
2.5 Natural disaster Reports of catastrophic weather events, earthquakes, bush
fires, floods or related extreme weather events
2.6 Transport Traffic, transport, flight, road or rail related announcements
including delays, accidents, postponements or other details of
schedule changes
2.7 Weather Report of prevailing weather conditions
3 Pass along Tweets of endorsement of content
3.1 Automated Endorsement Status announcements triggered by third party applications
which also publish the URLs of content
3.2 Endorsement Curated links to content which the sender believes will be of
interest to their followers
3.3 Retweet Any statement reproducing another Twitter status using the
“via @” or RT protocol
3.4 Secondary Social Media Links to Facebook (fb.me) or similar social media platform
content created by the account owner
3.5 User generated content Links to own content created by the user including use of third
party photo or video hosting, or identifiable blog posts, or
content.
@stephendann Stephen.dann@anu.edu.au

2. 4 Phatic Content independent connected presence
4.1 Broadcast Statements of opinion (I think), directed action (You should) or
similar open ended commentary (Be safe).
Can include hashtags, and covers opinion broadcasts,
monologues or similar commentary.
4.2 Fourth wall Textual equivalent of comments made directly to camera in
television or cinema
4.3 Greetings Statements of greetings to the broader Twitter community,
including emotional connections with the audience, well
wishes, congratulations or thanks.
4.4 Unclassifiable Errors, cat-on-keyboard input and unclassifiable strings of text
5 Status Tweets which address the statement "What are you doing?"
and "What's happening?" in terms of an account holder's
experiences
5.1 Activity Activity statements answering “What are you doing now?”
5.2 Automated Status announcements triggered by third party applications
which do not contain a URL
5.3 Location Geographic references and location statements.. Addresses a
question of “Where are you?”
5.4 Mechanical Statements relating to any form of technology or mechanical
systems
5.5 Personal Positive or negative sentiment in the form of emotional status.
Covers the sense of “What are you feeling?” rather than “What
are you doing?”
5.6 Physical Sensory experiences of a physical nature which cover the
“What are you physically experiencing?” rather than “What are
you feeling emotionally?”
5.7 Temporal Statements of temporal nature (waiting) and temporal action
(“Time to” )
5.8 Work Reference to work related activity, particularly references to
jobs, employment or related content.
6 Spam Unsolicited content
6.1 Administered Malcontent Links to malware or related hostile websites
6.2 Keyword response Automated context free responses to keywords and brands
6.3 Mention Replies using the @ command from accounts which do not
follow the user, and which only send @ replies to other
unfollowed accounts
6.4 Trend hijacking One or more #hashtags of trending events in a tweet unrelated
to the trend
6.5 Truthiness Astroturfing message originating from an automated account.
@stephendann Stephen.dann@anu.edu.au