10 reasons why you should NOT protect your Tweets:

     Out of curiosity, I recently tried an experiment.  protects tweet or not, good or bad. I’ve never had an opinion about protected Tweets However, I understand that some feel the need for privacy. So I decided to lock ‘er up and see what would happen if I made my personal Twitter account only available to select followers while there are some advantages, I fear that the disadvantages way outnumber the advantages and this is the reason

1.    Twitter isn’t Facebook/Following isn’t Friending. Facebook is for your friends. Twitter is for the friends you don’t know yet. On Facebook you can require that only your friends can view your profile. People have to ask permission to see more details which is entirely appropriate, because you probably have details that you likely want to keep private. On Twitter, your entire bio is 160 characters.

2.     Protecting your Tweets is a barrier to connections. If you are like me, looking to increase your visibility, you want people to find out about you and connect with you, which will lead to more engagement and interaction/More business. Protected tweets will keep others from finding you.

3.     You can block the bad actors. If an unsavory character starts following you on Twitter, and it really creeps you out, you can block him

4.     No retweets: Locked Tweets mean fewer retweets. And everyone knows that more retweet may bring more followers. If your tweets are protected the only way you’re likely to make new connections is by initiating “follows

5.     Protected tweets mean fewer followers. This makes sense, that if people have to ask permission to follow you, fewer will.

6.     Twitter is for Socializing The default for Twitter is to not protect, and if everyone else is interacting freely you are not going to be as fully connected, which will put you at a disadvantage.

7.     No Google love: Locked Tweets aren’t picked up by Google. Though for those wishing to lock their Tweets this is probably a non-issue. If you’re looking to receive traffic to links or get your name out there, this is worth a consideration.

8.     Outsiders are Outsiders: Have you ever jumped into a Twitter conversation with someone you don’t follow simply because it looked interesting? You can’t do that with a locked Tweet. There’s no responding to friends of friends with uninterested parties.

So if you are looking to increase your Visibility and expand your reach protecting your tweets is not the way, except you are looking for privacy