In the past few years, we have witnessed a massive growth in the use of Social Media, primarily thanks to websites like Facebook and Twitter. Almost all Internet users now interact with Social Media in some way. Some of us contribute new content while others prefer to simply browse it and occasionally post comments, reviews or bookmark their favorite content for later. Whatever the case, Social Media has had a huge impact on the way we use the Internet to socialize, educate ourselves, do business, and so much more.

According to research carried out by Forrester Research, there are 6 different types of online social media users: Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives.

Here’s a quick summary of what each one does, or doesn’t:

The Creator

This is the person who creates social media for the world to see. This type of user will publish blog posts or web pages, upload videos/images/audio and share content online.

The Critic

The person who responds to content posted by others. Posts ratings and reviews of products and services, comments on blogs and forums and contributes to articles in a wiki.

The Collector

The person who organizes content for themselves or others using RSS feeds, social bookmarking (ex: Digg) and photo or page tagging.

The Joiner

The type of person who joins social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter and maintains multiple profiles.

The Spectator

This type is probably the most common – The person who reads blogs, views user-generated videos (ex: YouTube), reads online forums, listens to podcasts and frequently searches for user reviews and ratings.

The Inactive

The person who is online but in no way participates in any form of social media. Doesn’t post anything or read anything which is user-generated content. This type is becoming rarer as more websites integrate elements of social media into their website.

Below is an infographic released by Forrester Research which shows which US age groups are most common for each of the types mentioned above.

Click here to see the full version.

I would consider myself a creator (as I write on this blog), a joiner (since I maintain multiple social network accounts) as well as a spectator (I watch lots of YouTube videos, but hardly ever comment).

So my question is, what type (or types) of social media user are you?