Facebook vs. Twitter: What’s On Your Mind, What Are You Doing?
I just went to update my Facebook Status Update as I’ve done gazillions of times. However, on the newly designed Home Page, the Question “What’s on your mind?” often stops me in my tracks.
I find myself chuckling, thinking “gee, if I *really* shared what was on my mind…” LOL.
So, I decided to pose this question as my update:
I’m wondering if you like this “What’s on your mind?” question any better than Twitter’s “What are you doing?” … or is there a better question?
And then I added a wee bit more content as a comment on my own Status Update:
Tony Robbins says we can tell the quality of our life by the quality of the questions we ask ourselves. When tweeting or updating Facebook, I like to ask myself:
- “What has my attention right now that would bring value to my peeps?”
- “What can I share that would uplift someone’s spirits?”
- “How can I make someone smile today?”
- “What’s a valuable resource I can share?”
- “What’s a stimulating (positive) question I could ask?”
Your thoughts?
Within a minute or two, my bud George Williams Skyped me saying I’d just posted a great question on Facebook and how could he tweet it, retweet it, share with friends? (Alas, the frustration of Facebook being a closed system!)
I pasted the same content onto my Twitwall - which goes out as a tweet with a link to the remainder of the content. Meantime, my friends were adding great comments over on Facebook:
Richard Atkinson at 9:23pm March 18
“What’s going on in your world?”
Michelle Ulrich at 9:23pm March 18
I like it. I like the fact that the home page asks, What’s on Your Mind” and the Profile page suggests, “Write Something” and the Friends page asks, “What are you doing right now?”
Lani Muelrath at 9:25pm March 18
fabulous Mari, I’m pasting this to my notes! Thanks
Michelle Dryjanski at 9:32pm March 18
I like the “What’s on your mind?” question. I think that it opens up all kinds of possibilities for discussion. It gets people thinking….no pun intended!
George Williams at 9:33pm March 18
Right on Mari. Precisely the thinking required to succeed in social networking! But of course, you already knew that 
Excellent post!
Diana Long at 9:35pm March 18
Hi Mari - I love what you just shared! I’ll pass it on!
Ankya Klay at 9:35pm March 18
I do too Mari. Thank You…
Mary Jo Tate at 9:39pm March 18
“What’s on your mind?” is a much better question. What people are doing is often downright boring and shouldn’t be posted. I love the list of questions you ask yourself before posting!
Ann Rusnak at 9:44pm March 18
It depends on the time day… you might not want to know what’s on my mind… but I do like that much better. I copied your questions on an index card to use a checklist,
Valarie Cooper at 10:39pm March 18
Mari, I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts! Thanks for sharing … once again showing why we LOVE you! xoxox
Jackie Nees at 10:55pm March 18
I think a better question would be “What’s new with you?” since we are keeping peeps “updated”.
Maurice Castle at 11:10pm March 18
I was with Tony at his UPW event this past weekend, I think if he had to respond to this he might say something like…
“How can my tweet serve others and provide outstanding value”
For me, I just like to think “What can I share that can be of value and service”
Either way, it’s all about us supporting each other right?
[By the way, these comments are all copied from my Facebook profile; I've essentially pulled data from the closed system of Facebook and opened up to the world on my blog. Ack!! If you're listed above and prefer not to be, I'm happy to remove your content from this post. 
Of course, this brings up a whole other topic of how to easily share your own content created inside Facebook outside of Facebook!]
What are your thoughts on the subject of update questions? Do you think the right questions stimulate the right answers? Do you have your own set of Twitter/Facebook questions? I’d love to hear your input - post your comments below and feel free to tweet me also.
Make A Comment: ( 14 so far )
14 Responses to “Facebook vs. Twitter: What’s On Your Mind, What Are You Doing?”
Amy Harrison
March 19th, 2009
I think Facebook are at risk from competitors like Twitter at the moment. They’re current business model is poor as their only source of profit is from their advertisements which could be greatly improved. This blog highlights 4-ways that Facebook can make big money!
Kirsty Parker
March 19th, 2009
I don’t mean to get all up in your grill, but…
Why do you use terms like “Peeps?”
It makes you seem like you are trying WAY to hard to be cool and relevant.
Now, if you wore baggy jeans below your hips, lots of gold jewelry and a sideways baseball hat, it might be more believable.
Just Curious
March 19th, 2009
I think its a combination of asking a question that makes people think a bit and also it needs to catch peoples attention, so it stops them in their track.
tom
March 19th, 2009
Very thought provoking for sure. I would have missed this information if I didn’t see it here. I’m generally asking myself similar questions as you…
o Will this thing I’m reading help people who are interested in extending their online presence?
o Would I be glad if someone said this to me?
Thanks Mari!
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Travis Campbell
March 19th, 2009
Mari — Love your thought process here. When I hit my blog pages I generally wonder what I can share that will make someone else stop and think positively for a few moments. I find the questions on Facebook, TWITTER and Linked-In a bit confrontational for my liking and tend to avoid those questions altogether. “What’s on your mind” is an interesting twist which is useful and opens a discussion — always useful.
Karalyn Eckerle
March 19th, 2009
I think they should both just say, “What?” with a Vinnie Barbarino accent.
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Tom Wood
March 19th, 2009
As 4 the below poster said about the “peeps” comment, when it comes 2 writing in “internet lingo” a lot of urban slang is adapted for shorthand style writing for updates and tweets since we have a limited character length. Its been like this for awhile since IM.
As for facebook, I agree with the public vs private assessment when it comes to our RSS feeds. This same argument is told by teachers who are establishing rules of netiquette to students looking 4 a job, and believe that if the make their profiles private, they don’t have to worry about employers examining the profiles. However, since facebook is based on sharing, you can’t prevent them from looking at activity on someones profile if they decide to go public with their activity info , hence ur disclaimer.
philena
March 19th, 2009
the question what are you doing always stopped me, because the only answer to the question was always “updating my status”
phoebe James’s last blog post.. Another Day at ROC
phoebe James
March 19th, 2009
The old question always left me with the answer, “updating my status.” What is on your mind feels a bit cumbersome, but better.
phoebe James’s last blog post.. Another Day at ROC
phoebe James
March 19th, 2009
How about, “What were you thinking?”
That would be the most provocative question for some of us. LOL
Cheers,
Scot McKay
@scotmckay
Scot McKay
March 25th, 2009
Follow Me On Twitter!
Judging from some of the tweets I’ve seen, I think the appropriate question should have been, “Are You SURE You Want To Tweet That?” LOL
However; I do think something along the line of “What would you like to share?” would work better than Twitter’s current, “What are you doing?”
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Sharon McPherson
March 30th, 2009
Now twitter is in Facebook as an application. Thanks for your thoughs
Marketing Manager Freelance
April 13th, 2009
for me it’s the most fitted question we could imagine…because it offer an opportunity to tell anything freely…it’s a general question which required no right and wrong answer..so very good..^^
Julius
November 11th, 2009
I think “what’s on your mind” is a lot more open than “what are you doing”. For me I like to think about something I’ve seen that livens me up that I think my followers would enjoy. I also like to use it to get back creative answers on things I am musing so perhaps “what are you pondering” might be an interesting question!
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