What Are You Doing?
In 2006, Twitter prompted its users to tweet by answering a simple question.
“What are you doing?”
My initial impression thought was “It’s none of your business!”
My second thought was “I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing.”
Intimidated by the blatant invasive nature of the question, I realized “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
My earliest tweets reflected this utter cluelessness.
But things have changed since that time.
Since 2009, Twitter has been asking “What’s happening?” Perhaps this is a nod to the seventies sitcom. Perhaps it is a gently couched rephrasing of the previous question.
Regardless (not irregardless, because that’s not a word), hundreds of millions of tweets are broadcast each day, sharing what each respective Twitter member is doing, thinking or feeling.
And therein lies one of the keys to success on Twitter.
You see, it’s not enough to tell people WHAT we are doing. In order to truly engage, we must move beyond the “what” to the “why”
The real point of connection comes when we share how we think or feel about what we are doing. Any robot can do stuff. It takes a human being to bring passion and emotion to the forefront.
When you use Twitter and other social sites, please tell us what you are doing and what’s happening in your world. But be sure to share your thoughts and feelings with us as well. This will allow us, your followers, to connect with you. And isn’t that the point of social media?
What do you think about this? Please express your feelings in the comment section below!
Cool – never thought of making tweets into a short story – “What and Why”.
Gonna start tonight because it’s a good idea.
“Regardless (not irregardless, because that’s not a word)” I think I love you. LOL! Great post. 🙂
I prefer the WTF model of tweeting because I do a lot of government work.
Thank you for this post. I agree with what you say, however, I still find myself hesitating at times to share what I am doing and what’s happening in my world. I think there is an art to this and that it’s different for everyone. With that being said, it is interesting to know what’s going on in people’s lives, especially those that I admire from a business perspective. Appreciate the references to “What’s Happening?” and “irregardless” 🙂
So true. Funny how we have all gone from none of your business to complete tell all. Guess at the end of the day we are all sheep. But at least we are fun sheep!
Irregardless of what others say about you, I love your posts. Always “informational”. 🙂
Hi Joel – Loved the image – Just ‘had’ to give it the Pinterest treatment 🙂
Hope you don’t mind, I put on my ‘Inspirational’ board.
Cheers ….. Pete.
Great Stuff Joel. But my question to you is are we spending too much time dwelling on social media?
We tweet, like, stumbleupon, pin it etc… Does this not take us away from what most marketers want?
Is there a way for the average “Joel” to do all of this but still give my visitors what they want?
Maybe I need a big team of experts helping me out with all that is necessary to forge ahead? Maybe not?
Paul
To think I was at an IM seminar in London when Twitter was launched. I bet no-one saw that coming, the talk back then was about “getting a presence on Myspace”. How things change!
I must be honest my initial thoughts about Twitter were very much like yours, what’s the point of messages even shorter than an SMS? I don’t think many people could have forecast it’s success. The question now is, what will replace Twitter? 🙂
Wishing Joe Comm and our dad , mom , son , daughter planet a good future ! Carrying the rainbow in our hearts and doing what we can is our human journey ! We hold our neighborhood planet with our eyes and hearts and long for the place to be healthy and stabalized !
I am going to use these forms for segment building subscribers into meaningful lists instead of just names and email addresses to throw offers at and hope someone buys something.