The #buildinpublic hashtag on Twitter is fascinating. Founders of companies doing all sorts of things are sharing their big idea, their next move, and their profit and losses in gory detail.

Founders on LinkedIn are doing the same. Telling the world what they’re building, who they’re meeting and what they have planned.

If you’ve considered building in public, but aren’t sure it’s for you, here are the pros and cons of doing it:

The pros of building in public

Document: Building in public means you keep a regular log of what you’re doing that is posted somewhere, that you can go back and look through. This log has the potential to help or inspire someone else. One day it might become the movie of your life.

Share your story: People buy into stories. They are shareable, notable and memorable. They humanise your brand. It’s in our DNA to retell stories. If you make it big, people will talk about you. You may as well give them the information.

Superfans: Building in public can amass superfans. People feel like they know you. Sharing your work and progress builds familiarity with more people. They become your customers and they recommend you to others.

Inspire: You get the chance to inspire others to greatness. They see what you’re doing, they learn your methods, they emulate your attitude and they try things out in their own business. You help their journey too.

The cons of building in public

Copycats: If you build in public in real time, or too soon, it’s easier for someone to copy what you’re doing and launch a competitor that you might rather not have around. They skip your mistakes and get straight to the finale.

Share next move: Your next move is ideally not shared. Plans should be secret until they’ve happened. Loose lips sink ships and sharing too much too soon can cost a deal. If you build in public, retrospective sharing is best.

Security: Disclosing your tech stack, your mistakes and where you do what you do can lead to security issues you didn’t know were there. Decide what you will and won’t share before you do it, because information in the wrong hands is dangerous.

Fail in public: If you build in public, it’s expected that you fail in public too. Sharing revenue numbers and team size is easy when they’re on the way up. Admitting you shrank in size or made lots of layoffs might be painful to tweet.

Go all in with #buildinpublic or beaver away in peace and let your results speak for themselves?

Only you can decide what sits well with you and is ultimately best for your company.