If you are looking for a way to set up a private communication network (e.g. a twitter thing) for your organization, but don’t want the accounts/tweets to be public? Here is a recipe to do that.
Read Time: 5 minutes
Before we begin, I should also mention that there are many webtools to do this, however I have not personally used them. Some examples including Yammer, Indenti.ca, or Present.ly. Since most people have caught on to twitter, it makes sense to use the tool that others have adopted. The setup is easy, and please feel free to share this set-by-set if you plan to implement it.
Step 1: Create a new alias. For each member that will be in the private network, create a new private alias. If Joe Smith at EGM inc. has a twitter account already at @joesmith, then he’ll still need to create a new private account like, @Joe_EGM. Other people from that organization would follow suit, @Jane_EGM. Note, the usernames don’t need to be uniform, but it helps for identity, especially for larger organizations.
Step 2: Set profile to “protect my tweets.” This setting is available under “settings” and then under “account.” This will make sure you tweets are hidden from the public timeline and will only be available to people that you allow to subscribe.
Step 3: Follow other people in the organization. You’ll need to have a list somewhere where people can view and access the various usernames, then each member will need to “send request” to access that persons updates. This could be a wiki, an email, a list in the office, or another way people know where to add others.
Optional Step 4: Setup an appropriate monitoring system. This step is for those people that might be adding a second account for the first time. Numerous web applications exist that allow you to manage multiple Twitter accounts. Check out Tweetie, Twirl, Tweetdeck, and Seesmic. This way you can monitor your private account and your public account at the same time.
As a best practice setup guidelines for using the private network, and remember that even though you tweets will be private this probably isn’t the place to be sharing trade secrets and sensitive material, but great for office type of interaction!
