At the moment I’m a ‘dude’ but I have to confess that having a ’secret diarist’ account does appeal. I don’t like having to censor myself, (but from time to time it is necessary) and as such having a locked account really appeals.

As such it’s not so much public v private persona thing; just a matter of personal preference.

Is it the best way to go if you’re looking to build a following? Probably not. However if I was trying to get a foothold in a new community I think I’d look to get social via commenting on blogs / forums in that niche etc, and then look to take the connections I had made over to twitter – rather than just trying to network via twitter.

I’d also recommend a balance of tweeting ‘on topic’ (i.e. about the niche you’re targeting), plus some more personal stuff. No one cares when I share SEO links, but when I say that I love Don’t Stop Believing by Journey people respond.

Journey pwns SEO

I would just add though, that already being known, and having the following as you do, puts you in a very different position to someone who is trying to build a following in any area. As this post was prompted by a friend who is struggling to get a foothold in an area she would like to be more involved in, I think it’s an important distiction to make, and one I probably should have made in the post itself, but I forgot about it and you only just reminded me Jane (thank you)

So we can agree to disagree? I maintain a private account because it pleases me to use Twitter’s brilliantly-structured, easy to use forum and know that what I say won’t be available to anyone I don’t know about, including a search engine. The four or five people I know of who do the same thing would likely say they do so for similar reasons. You believe this could sabotage our successes due to how other people will see us as a result, and we don’t.

http://everything2.com/?node_id=702927

It was on Malcolm in the Middle aaaaages ago, we used to play it at school (usually in lessons)