Twitter is one of those social media feeds that is so easy it is hard. In other words, Twitter’s ease of use is deceptive when your goal is effective online marketing of your brand, product or service. The good news is, if you are not yet quite up to speed on how to use Twitter most effectively for marketing, you are definitely not alone!

In this post, learn the most common Twitter marketing errors and find out how to correct them, starting today

Twitter knows its own bread is buttered on the side of effective Twitter marketing campaigns. To this end, Twitter makes a number of online help guides available, such as this strategy guide for business-to-business marketers.Here are some suggestions straight from the little blue birdie’s mouth:

Twitter places strong emphasis on presenting yourself (or your brand) with authenticity. Because of the character count limitations (140 characters max), Twitter challenges you to make each character count….in your own unique and recognizable online “voice.”

Twitter also recommends developing a weekly schedule, complete with different types of posts for each day. Structure is great for trust-building – for example, if your followers know you always do contests on Mondays and coupons on Tuesdays, they will be sure to check in with you on those days to nab the goodies.

Developing targeted, clear, simple tweets will automatically set you apart from the rest on Twitter. Twitter is best used for urgent, real-time promotions and breaking news with a crystal clear call to action (CTA). (In other words, save the long blog posts for another platform.)

Since Twitter is a real-time soundbyte-centric social platform, consistency is key to building and maintaining relationships. If you post like a mad dog for a week and then disappear for 2 weeks, you will have to work twice as hard to recapture your followers’ attention when you return.

A Quick Fix:Aim to issue tweets at least a few times each day. Consider your audience when timing your tweets. A local audience will be best served by following the local clock. A global audience may require 2 a.m. tweets to reach your customers halfway around the world.

Listening is a great skill to have in any forum and on any platform. But Twitter is like an online party for extroverts, so you will need to exert your presence (in a socially polite manner of course) if you want to get noticed.

A Quick Fix:Using the 80/20 rule allows you to tweet consistently and frequently without digging your own Twitter grave by over-self-promotion. The 80/20 rule is a guide that suggests you focus approximately 80 percent of your tweets on re-tweeting and promoting the content of others and 20 percent sharing your own content. Using hashtags is another great way to be sure you are joining in the most advantageous conversations about topics you want to be a part of.

While it is easy to share great content generated by others, the most powerful way to do this on Twitter in particular is through the re-tweet. Here, you directly share another person’s tweet with your follower group. The “@” symbol alerts the original Twitterer that you have re-tweeted their content. Unless you use re-tweeting regularly, you may fail to build the kind of influential connections on Twitter that can help you be heard about the crowd.

A Quick Fix:Make a list of Twitter influencers (people in your industry or in complimentary fields with large, active follower groups) and make it a point to re-tweet their content regularly.

It is all too easy to assume that if you make an oops with those 140 characters, they will be gone and as quickly forgotten. Unfortunately, the opposite tends to more often be the case. This means steering clear of vulgarity, profanity and other tools that may get you attention but likely the wrong kind.

A Quick Fix:By staying current with trending topics, you can avoid inadvertently sending out an inappropriate or insensitive tweet. By using hashtags, you can ensure you connect with those who are truly interested in the same topics you are. Finally, if you do make an error, an honest admission and authentic apology is the best medicine.

There are so many social media scheduling and reporting tools available today that it can feel tempting to relegate posting to an automated calendar. This can be great for consistency but it will soon prove an impossible challenge for building relationships. If you have ever had a conversation where the other person was constantly looking at their watch or mobile device, this is about the effect an automated series of posts will achieve for you on Twitter – a definite no-no!

A Quick Fix:Rather, schedule a manageable number of tweets and designate a point person inside your organization to monitor responses, handle real-time retweets and interact with customers and prospects. Less tweets with more interaction is far preferable to an ongoing automated but lifeless monologue.