I am by no means an expert, but I believe Twitter has potential and am working it. I don’t always get feedback from my posts. But when I post something where I can see how many people viewed the outside link to an article, video or pic, I know there is some interest. It’s very important to engage the community socially. It was difficult for me to do this at first, but it comes along. There are many others just like you that want interaction. Post about things things in addition Bricolage Theatre Group – your interests, things that happen to you during the day, etc. Let people get to know you first, then Bricolage. Take pics with your camera phone. Put a few videos on Youtube. Retweet for others. Comment on their tweets. Brag about Pittsburgh. Ask questions. And follow the followers of organizations like yours. Chances are they will follow you back. ;)

Most importantly, maintain your presence.

Bob

Also never presume that everyone reads all of your tweets all the time, Justin! I tend to read Twitter on the fly on my phone, skimming many of your link-posts and reading some of them later, linking through when at a CPU.

Although you may create your stream-of-consciousness in real-time, other Twitter users are reading them in any number of ways – on your twitter profile page, on their client, or as blips in the public stream. As someone who works with ‘normal’ end-users in their variety of weird ways of using the internet, its a total rarety for the audience to experience the stuff we are producing in same way we do when we are producing it … That’s part of the wonder of it, I suppose.

* Twitter, at its root, is about people being social with each other; the information is secondary. If your primary reason for being on Twitter is to promote a business — in your case, your theatre company — the question is: how do you present your information in a way that other people will care about it personally? (Because if they don’t care, they won’t engage.)

* Pittsburgh, unfortunately, isn’t a town where the art scene and the tech scene overlap. I don’t know if it’s different in other cities, but in Pittsburgh, it seems like those groups purposely erect walls to separate themselves, for fear that the other side won’t understand them.

* Pittsburgh is also a city where everyone knows everyone, so if you’re part of “the group,” you’re in. If not, it can be hard to work your way in. It sometimes takes a few face-to-face meetings at several events for people to finally “admit” a newbie to their online clique — and since you’re justifiably busy running your theatre company, you don’t have time (or a non-fiscal need) to overlap your social efforts with theirs.

In the end, not every business will find Twitter useful. I always enjoyed what your Bricolage Theatre Group created, but I may be in the minority of arts-appreciative techies in Pittsburgh. If that’s the case, don’t feel obliged to stress yourself out on Twitter; invest your time and effort in attracting other audiences who *do* listen to what you have to say.

Or… outsource your Twitter efforts to a bright-eyed intern who has the time and interest in navigating Twitter via trial-and-error. You may not stumble upon a winning formula yourself, but that doesn’t mean someone who approaches it differently (but on your behalf) won’t.

Maybe it’s that I don’t have enough things to say to the world (I can’t imagine Twittering 100 times in one day, yikes.) Or maybe it’s the lack of response turns me off (I’m an actor for Streeps sake and I have to have that immediate attention.) Or maybe it’s that I don’t really care what other people have to say (I guess that would be a problem in this fast paced social media outlet.)

I just don’t find any satisfaction in posting the upcoming events for my company on Twitter because nobody seems to care. Most of my time is spent trying to keep the company alive and talking to a void pisses me off to no end. I tried being mean to Twitter but nobody seems to care about that either. Maybe this is a click that I’m not welcome in (hello mean girls…)

I need to engage with other people when I communicate and Twitter doesn’t make that easy for me. I’ve tried connecting to people directly, no luck. I’ve tried posting comments about other people’s comments, no response. Why does Twitter seem so unavailable? I just don’t get it.

Yes, I found out about Michael Jackson, people being hit by buses and stolen statues by following Twitterers, but that stuff isn’t going to change my life one way or another. Is this a news outlet and I just don’t have enough “news” in my life? You have tons of followers and even more posts, If you say you’re doing it wrong, I should just throw in the Twitter towel.