Just about every article on marketing urges you to use as many social media platforms as possible to get the word out about your company and engage with your audience. But depending on your audience and how you communicate with them, some social media platforms are a bad fit.

After more than 9,000 tweets, I've learned a few things, including that brands are making mistakes that are destroying their image online. Here are a few signs that Twitter is not for you or your business:

You rarely tweet: Don't have a social media account if you are not going to use it. Your audience may discover you and then wonder why you are not providing any information on your Twitter feed.

You're in an industry where your audience doesn't follow Twitter: Depending on the industry you're in, some business segments have audiences that don't even use Twitter. They may use another social media platform or prefer traditional media.

You don't deliver relevant content for your audience: Your focus needs to be on helping your audience by giving them content that's tasty so they come back for more. It should be related to what you do and offer relevant information so they can make the connection that you're the expert and that they should buy from your company.

You never respond to comments: Twitter is an engagement tool. If you don't respond to comments on your feed, your audience will go elsewhere to seek out a conversation — most likely with your competition.

You don't collect or analyze data about your audience: Twitter provides a wealth of data about your audience, including what tweets get the most attention, who your followers are and who else they are following. If you are not using this market intelligence, you shouldn't even be on Twitter.

You're only trying to sell something: No one wants to know that you're selling something. Offer useful content that they can learn from, use or share with others. If you're only going to unleash a sales pitch or gimmicks, you shouldn't be using Twitter.

You don't link it to your website or don't have one: The point of a social platform like Twitter is to drive traffic to your website. So if you don't link back to your website or your website doesn't work correctly or is not functional, you shouldn't be tweeting up a storm.

You don't know how to separate business from personal: Keep personal drama off your business Twitter page. It's not the place to complain, and it shouldn't serve as your soapbox to discuss political issues. Have a separate account for that if you must gripe about something.

You're a local business: Twitter tends to be ideal for companies that have a national and international presence. If you're using Twitter but are local in scope, you might not be connecting to your target audience. Other social media like Facebook might be best.

You don't get how it works: If a hashtag completely confuses you or you're not quite sure how you add people or follow others, it might be a sign that you just don't get Twitter. It's probably safer if you just avoid it and focus on another social media platform.

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Cynthia Johnson is the director of brand development at American Addiction Centers.