Image Credit: Олександр

You wouldn’t go to a party with duct tape on your mouth, so why would you make your Twitter account private?

Twitter is a social media network. Granted, social can mean a private social club, but that isn’t what Twitter is all about. Twitter is about connecting with the world, whether that’s people in your local neighborhood, or people across the planet.

It’s about being approachable, not snobbish

That’s right, I said snobbish. I think people that have private Twitter accounts are snobs. They think that the conversations they have with their “friends” on Twitter are too exclusive to share with the world.

If you’re on Twitter, you’re theoretically there to take part in the community Twitter has created. The concept of sharing information, resources, and bits of life is the foundation of Twitter’s success. If everyone suddenly decided to make their accounts private, the success of Twitter would come to a screeching halt.

For work groups, private accounts do make sense

Okay, so there is one good reason I can come up with for people to have a private Twitter account – if they are using Twitter to communicate within a work group. If your private account falls into this category, then apologies for calling you a snob.

If your organization is using Twitter in a work group, I would actually be intrigued to see what impact it is having on productivity. Is it helping with productivity, or is it hurting? Do your employees like using it, or do they simply revert back to traditional “get up and go talk to the person” actions?

What do you think?

Do you use Twitter with a private account? If so, tell me why, maybe I’m completely off-base with this snob-thing. Do you agree with me? Do you think people with private Twitter accounts come off as snobbish? Let me know in the comments below.