Brian Solis: “What are you doing?” is the wrong question…

Brian Solis was the first speaker today at Next09 in Hamburg (Germany) which we are attending and partly moderating (and moderately partying at!).

Brian asks the audience “Who do you want to be online?” in a presentation titled “Social Economy”. What you do, say and post online defines who you are and broadcasts this image ahead of you wherever you go. Some people might find that disconcerting but it seems to be the new reality.

So what and who do you want to be? How do you design your online public image? The decisions you make will influence your chances finding a job, a relationship and happiness in general. You could say that this might be one of the most important question you should ask yourself.

Having said that Brian also offers a simple improvement to Twitter. Fortunately you don’t have to wait until Twitter implements it.

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The question Twitter asks is wrong. Nobody cares “What you are doing” right now. Drinking a cup of coffee? Going to bed? Getting up?

Keep it to yourself!

The question you should answer is “What inspires you?” or “What did you learn today?”.

And when you answer that question make sure you use no more than 120 characters. In fact, Brian says “120 is the new 140”.

If you can inspire or teach your followers with your tiny bits of knowledge sticking to 120 characters will give your followers a chance to retweet you and spread that knowledge.