HIRE ME TO SPEAK
HIRE ME TO SPEAK

Hey Twitter: What are you doing? Wrong question!

I write about strategies to turn fans into customers and customers into fans. I also share ways to use real-time strategies to spread ideas, influence minds, and build business.

Social Media  |  Twitter  |  Worst Practices  |  Personal branding

It seems like every week, I'm explaining Twitter to people. You probably are too.

WhatareyoudoingI don't know about you, but I frequently find it challenging to describe Twitter. I was at a dinner party this weekend and there were four people who had (of course) heard of Twitter, but none had used it.

When I showed a few things on my iPhone, they seemed perplexed.

Reactions were something like: "Who cares what I'm doing for lunch?"

Well, that's true!

Unless there is something very special, nobody gives a rat's ass about what you or I are doing!

I think the problem is that damn What are you doing? question posed at the top of the Twitter Web client.

When people have been using Twitter for a few weeks, they usually have a light bulb moment as they realize that Twitter is much more than answering that stupid question in that dumb little box.

Then they begin to really make use of Twitter and gain followers.

Based on how I personally use Twitter, here are a few suggestions for better questions to answer in a tweet:

"How can you be helpful?"

"What's got your attention and why?"

"What's interesting, or funny, of valuable that you can link to?"

"What's cool?"

"What's frustrating?"

What do you think?