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!
Allison In Allure 