Twitter answers “what are you thinking”, not “what are you doing”

When you log-in to your Twitter account, you are boldly asked the question “What are you doing?”. To answer this apparently innocent question is announcing your response to tens of millions of possible listeners around the world. But no pressure – it’s not like bad judgment could get you sued or get you fired.

However, be it the intentions of the Twitter team or not, the service has evolved to answer a much different question: “What are you thinking?”

As exciting as it was to get constant updates of your friends drinking coffee or boarding a plane, the boom in Twitter popularity and usage as a business tool stemmed from it naturally becoming a thought aggregator. Watching anyone’s Twitter stream is a candid look at a person’s thought process – probably the most cohesive method to do so in history: A worldwide, trending funnel of voluntary thoughts in a public, harvestable, qualitative environment.

What does this mean?

From a business standpoint, it means the ability to have our finger on the pulse of enormous amounts of important brand data we would never see normally. We have an unparalleled opportunity to monitor discussions, follow brand adoption, get a holistic view on the competitive space, test audience responsiveness, measure sentiment, and more.

What does this mean for YOU?

It means your social media needs to work harder. If you are currently using Twitter or any engine in the social space to push advertisements or notify the world you are drinking coffee – take a step back and think about ways to catch that great data that is currently passing you by.

You can start by looking at some Twitter business apps, read about how some top companies are utilizing micro-blogging or, of course, call your interactive agency and tell them your social media needs to work harder.