Make Twitter Posts Private, Is This A Good Idea?
Maybe you have heard that a lot of people are starting to put more and more of their tweets on private. Well everybody will have a reason for something or another. Twitter started as a private network inside a company so that can make sense. I can totally understand if you have an organization that is in need of keeping their company information from prying eyes or just want to keep it private.
That seems to be one of the only reasons that I can find for making all of your tweets private. Otherwise I think it would be a really good idea to let them be open to the public. Here are the reasons that I believe it should all be public.
1. Following hashtags and starting conversations – There is no way to really know all of the things going on with one subject. Being able to be apart of a conversation that is public, you will get all kinds of input and answers.
2. It is hard to extend your network of friends and business contacts when they can’t see what you have tweeted in the past. People tend to look at the tweets from previous to see if they are someone that will be in their network that is just blatantly spamming or they are actually contributing to the conversation. When your tweets are hidden there is really no way of knowing that, so your chances of expanding your network shrinks drastically.
3. It is hard to spread your message and be retweeted. If you are at all trying to make what you are doing known to more than a couple of people, then it would be really wise to make your tweets public. You can’t be retweeted and your message will die within a very short ephemeral blip.
I know that there might be more reasons to not make your tweets private but this should be a good start. Again the way I see it is if you want to not say something that you will regret, then don’t tweet it. Getting what you said online…offline is like taking a piss in the pool and then trying to skim it out with a net. It’s not going to work.
Remember that saying “think before you speak”, don’t be the walking foot in the mouth either when you tweet, it is there forever! Google has the memory of an elephant….well probably way better but hopefully you are getting my shitty analogies.
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