Twitter thoughts… to be private or not.

For quite some time now I have been debating whether or not I should set my twitter profile as public. Since I have created one it’s been set on private. The reason? Some tweets I create are about my personal life and/or keeping in touch with friends. Also, some pictures I tweet are of friends and what if they didn’t want that picture being posted publicly?

However, as a PR professional I am finding that most have their profiles set to public. This doesn’t surprise me since public relations is all about building relationships, gaining a large audience and maintaining that status.

Here are some facts I researched about protecting your tweets from a social media blog:

1) People can’t see your tweets.

It won’t appear on your timeline and it won’t appear on the Twitter search engine. Literally, you don’t exist at all unless someone requested to follow you.

2) People can send you a tweet, BUT…..

If they have not requested to follow and you have not approved it, they wouldn’t be able to receive your tweets, see your tweets, or reply.

3. Protected tweets aren’t real time.

The reason why I say so is because it takes time to request to follow, wait to get approved and then I am able to received tweets. Twitter was built to be in real time, so don’t make it troublesome for someone who wants to get in touch with you.

As a senior PR major, I am slowly warming up to the idea of making my profile public. That way I can easily get in contact with other PR students or even professionals in the industry. But for right now? I think I am going to stay private since I tweet personal things. As twitter puts it, “If the idea of strangers reading your Twitter updates makes you feel a little weird, try protecting your Tweets. You can always change your mind later.” Could be!

Blogging… a way to challenge myself.

As a public relations student I am finding more and more that blogging is becoming important in the industry. I’ve debated whether or not to create one. Do I have the time? Is it even worth while? Am I up for the challenge? The more I researched I found that blogging is a great way to showcase your portfolio. Not only that but I recently found that you can follow other blogs. After reading some other blogs about the PR industry and job searching I decided that it’s time that I should start one.

This article was the driving factor that lead me to create a blog. 7 reasons every job seeker should blog.

In the article, 2 tips stood out the most.

1. Show them what you are made of. When applying for jobs I always thought that resumes were enough. After completing my second internship I was made aware of how important a portfolio is. It’s instant proof of what you are capable of when it comes to writing. I’m happy to say that I have a binder put together of all my work in a neat fashion. With this blog, I am using it to not only put my portfolio online, but to also develop my blogging skills which leads into the second tip.

2. Sharpen your professional skills. The whole reason of creating this blog. As I am starting off my job search, I find that a lot of PR professionals are blogging. As a PR student this is of obvious importance. The closest experience I have to blogging is when I used to post on Xanga back when I was 15. Blogging has transformed over the years and with it’s popularity in the work force I want to gain insight and skills over time for it.

With that being said, I aspire to continue blogging, develop new skills and become a standout PR professional in the near future. Best of luck to all students graduating soon and starting the job search!