If you use Twitter for business-related purposes, an article on Rain Today has some advice for you. Written by marketer and blogger Eric Rudolf, the article highlights five rules that no business should break when using Twitter. Many businesses, trying to spread awareness and gain prospects, dive headfirst into social media and don’t realize they may be alienating readers, rather than attracting them. This list of rules clearly states what businesses should avoid doing and why. I’ve included the first three rules below, and you can read the rest here.

Rule #1: Don’t Bombard Your Followers
Anyone who has been on Twitter for more than a week has at least one follower who sends six tweets in rapid succession multiple times per day or sends one tweet every 20 minutes like clockwork. Here’s a tip: unless you work for a national news organization, your company is NOT important enough to justify this volume of communication. As a small company, sending one relevant piece of news to your followers per day is plenty.

Rule #2: Tweet Only When You Have Something Interesting to Say
If the extent of your tweet is going to be a rehash of an inspirational thought from your new desk calendar, don’t bother. Tweeting famous quotes, personal observations, and headlines from ESPN’s breaking news section are also off limits. Listen to mom on this one: if you don’t have something relevant to say, don’t open your mouth—or in this case, don’t type.

Rule #3: Don’t Follow People Indiscriminately
When it comes to using Twitter for business purposes, the belief that there are no “bad” followers is absolutely spot on. Regardless of what your company does, someone voluntarily electing to hear from you might not always be good, but it is NEVER bad. The reverse, however, is not true. Making a poor decision about whom your company follows on Twitter could cost you a significant amount of fans over time… In the case of selecting Twitter followers, the rules of cocktail party conversation always apply: avoid politics, religion, and polarizing celebrities.