We all know there are some things you just can’t do on Twitter – y’know, like, post Tweets above 140 characters, impersonating a major brand (I hope you already knew that!), post people’s credit card numbers, et cetera. But there are some other limitations to Twitter marketing practices you may be less aware of. Dig it!!

Watch the Automatic

Twitter likes to keep it genuine and personal, and that means they don’t want people using automated services like Following and Un-Following (see Twitter’s Rules and Best Practices). The days of “bot” following for mass audience accrual are over!

That said, they are down with automated responses if they’re of value to followers (here are some good Twitter automation examples).

Dial Down Direct Messaging

You only get 250 direct messages a day, so if you’re looking for mass market ways to communicate, Twitter’s not your bet. Consider email marketing instead.

Tone Down Tweets

Twitter has recently updated their Tweet limits to 1,000/day, which includes RTs. If you’re Tweeting near that much a day, there’s a good chance you’re spamming, anyway!

Frantic Following

This gets a little complicated, as Twitter reconfigures limitations based on how many you follow and how quickly you do it. But basically it’s a bad thing to follow/un-follow like a madman. See Twitter’s following limitations for specifics.

Hashtag Abuse

Hashtags are meant to connect users to relevant Tweets – so if you’re hashtagging all over the darn place in hopes of getting your Tweets found, you’d better cut back to the essentials!

Link-Only?

If you continually post nothing but links, Twitter may see that as spam. So fill it out with a personal touch.

Don’t Be a Chimer

If you’re looking to chime in on a trending topic or popular conversation with some irrelevant posts just for the sake of having your profile connected with it, you could be looking at an account suspension!

Don’t Duplicate

Nobody likes duplicate content, and Twitter is no different. If you’re thinking about rehashing some old posts to save some time, think again, and get to writing something fresh!

One Account at a Time, Please!

It should come as no surprise that Twitter doesn’t want people creating multiple accounts to promote a single brand. Keep it to one!

As a rule of thumb, if you think something might not work for Twitter, it probably won’t. For a more complete list, see Twitter’s rules.

What else doesn’t work for Twitter? Let me know what you’ve seen happen to some bad practices!