Conversations on Twitter, on any topic, can be difficult to wrap your head around. One way to make it easier to follow and understand Twitter conversations within or about your community is to understand the different types of conversations that happen on Twitter. New research from Pew has identified six basic types of Twitter conversations, and explores how they each function.

In Mapping Twitter Topic Networks: From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters, Pew identified these general types of Twitter conversations:

• Polarized crowd. Common with political discussions, "two big and dense groups that have little connection between them." (i.e., liberal vs. conservative.)
• Tight crowd. Conversations involving "highly interconnected people with few isolated participants." Typical of Twitter conversations focused on conferences, professional topics, hobby groups, etc.
• Brand clusters. Well-known celebrities, brands and other popular subjects "can attract large fragmented Twitter populations who tweet about it but not to each other. The larger the population talking about a brand, the less likely it is that participants are connected to one another."
• Community clusters. Some popular topics, such as your city or town, "may develop multiple smaller groups, which often form around a few hubs each with its own audience, influencers, and sources of information. These community clusters conversations look like bazaars with multiple centers of activity."
• Broadcast network. "Many people repeat what prominent news and media organizations tweet. The members of the broadcast network audience are often connected only to the hub news source, without connecting to one another. In some cases there are smaller subgroups of densely connected people. Think of them as 'subject groupies' who discuss the news with one another."
• Support network. Common with companies or agencies responding to public questions or complaints. "The hub account replies to many otherwise disconnected users, creating outward spokes. In contrast, in the broadcast pattern, the hub gets replied to or retweeted by many disconnected people, creating inward spokes."