Should You Protect Your Tweets?

I recently set my Twitter profile to "protected," meaning my tweets are no longer available publicly, won't show up in search engine results, and won't be included in archives of public Tweets, such as the archive being created by the Library of Congress. The downside, of course, is that my tweets aren't available publicly, don't show up in Google results, and won't be included in archives of public Tweets! If you joined Twitter in part to build a personal brand and gain exposure, does it make sense to protect your Tweets?

My reasons for making my Twitter profile private are as follows:

1. Privacy. If someone wants to see what I'm talking about on Twitter, they'll have to send me a request and follow me. My Tweets of course can still be copied and pasted, retweeted, screenshotted or shared in other ways by my followers; nothing is truly private once it's online in any form. But, for the most part, a casual observer won't be able to see most of my Tweets. I'm more comfortable knowing at least a little bit about the people reading my Twitter stream.

2. Permanence. Again, once it's online, nothing is really private and everything is essentially permanent. However, a private Twitter profile is at least a little less permanent than a public Twitter. Deleting a public Tweet doesn't always remove it from search engines or Twitter's internal search. Private Tweets don't go into those search engines in the first place, so they don't have to be deleted from them in order to be removed.

3. Engagement. This is a big one, and the real reason my experiment with private Tweets has become a semi-permanent decision. Now, when people follow me, I'm obligated to take a look at their profiles myself and decide whether or not to follow. I have to approve each follower individually, which leads me to look at their pages and engage with them. I also get fewer spambots following me, by far.

But there's a downside, of course. My tweets about trending topics won't show up when people search for those topics. I won't be able to take advantage of the real-time search results recently added to Google in order to gain followers and exposure, nor will I show up in real time search engines like OneRiot. If I were to start a business or major website at some time in the future, I'd probably have to make my Tweets public again in order to connect with customers or viewers. As a writer, I might miss out on connections with people who've read my work and want to ask a question.

So, should you protect your Tweets? That depends on your own priorities and how much personal information you share on Twitter, as well as circumstances in your own life. For example, I've heard from people who once escaped domestic violence and choose not to use Twitter for fear of being discovered by a batterer with a grudge. Parents, too, sometimes shy away from social media in order to avoid inadvertently sharing identifying information about their children that could expose kids to cyberbullying or predators.

A protected Twitter stream requires more intentional, thoughtful curation than does a public one, particularly if you hope to gain followers and build your own brand online. You won't get many random followers who found you through searches. Instead, you'll be primarily responsible for finding people to follow and engaging with them so they can decide whether or not to request to follow you back. That's a Twitter best practice anyway, but it's mandatory once your Tweets are private.

Protecting your Tweets is a smart decision for some, but defeats the purpose of Twitter for others. Ultimately, it's best to experiment with public and private Tweeting, then decide which privacy setting you prefer.

What do you do to protect your privacy on Twitter and elsewhere? Leave a comment!