Social Media Savvy with @CyFairJoel: Protecting your tweets? Probably don’t.

I follow some accounts on Twitter who have private accounts; in other words, they checked “Protect My Tweets” when they signed up for their accounts. These users would need to approve you to be a follower if you request it from them, and if you’re not following, none of their tweets are visible.

But there are a couple drawbacks to choosing this option:

1. People can’t retweet you. Even approved followers can’t do this, because it would make your tweets visible on another timeline. This is a problem if educators are showcasing something positive and none of us can share it.
2. People can’t tag you. As you probably know, even with photos no longer counting against your total, 140 characters can go pretty fast. So what I usually recommend to teachers is tagging up to 10 users in an accompanying photo. But if someone is protecting their tweets, I am unable to tag them and make sure they receive an alert on the tweet.

I understand the initial hesitation to want to make your account public to the world, but in our education community it’s quite beneficial to have an open forum of positivity that all can access (#TweetsForAll).

Or, you may have even toggled this setting by accident. To make your account public:

On Twitter mobile app:

1. Go to “Me” menu.
2. Tap the gear icon at the top near your username.
3. Choose “Settings.”
4. Choose “Privacy and safety.”
5. Toggle “Protect my Tweets” – it should be the first option.

 On Twitter desktop:

1. Click your profile photo at the top right and scroll down to “Settings”
2. Choose “Security and privacy” from the menu on the left.
3. Under “Privacy” and “Tweet privacy,” un-check “Protect my tweets.”

 That should do it!

Have a suggestion for this section? Hit me up!

~ @CyFairJoel