It seems so simple. Type 140characters, post, and your message is in front of a potentialaudience in the hundreds of millions on Twitter.

Yet many – probably most – credit unions and other financialinstitutions continue to stumble, fumble and make fools ofthemselves on Twitter and other social media, many experts say.

That's because getting Twitter right – especially in a regulatedindustry – is harder than it looks.

And then, of course, it's because often credit unions and banksdo things that simply are dumb. Even giant Bank of America recentlydid likewise, so size is not immunity.

Following are five of the best ways to get Twitter absolutelywrong.

Next Page: Followed by Fakes

Followed by Fakes

The Financial Brand highlighted this misstep in itsrecent look at credit unions and Twitter when itreported that many institutions have large numbers of followers whoare inactive or simply fake, a Twitter condition easily checkedwith a free utility via @StatusPeople.

When The Financial Brand checked 1st United Services – an $815million credit union in Pleasanton, Calif. – a stunning 51% of itsfollowers were fakes and 8% were inactive accounts, meaning six in10 followers were worthless.

1st United Services is not doing much better today. Forty-eightpercent of its followers are fakes and 10% are inactive, perStatusPeople.

Does this in fact hurt a financial institution, as the FinancialBrand suggested?

Steven Page, online marketing manager at 1st United Services,shrugged. He indicated that the credit union has made “many verygood relationships on Twitter. If some of our followers arepresently inactive, so what?”

Call this a tossup. Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn't. But,suggest the experts, at least check the status of followers, thenmake an informed decision about pruning or deciding to ignorefollowers who don't bring value.

Next: Go Inactive

Go Inactive

So many start, then stop but the inactive Twitter accountremains alive and “what does that say about you,” asked socialmedia expert AprilRudin.

The Coconut Grove Bank in Florida is a Hall of Famer in thiscategory, posting a single tweet when the accountopened in February 2012, then promptly going silent.

There has been no activity since.

Worse, when users search for the bank by name, a high result inGoogle search is, you guessed it, the dormant Twitter account —and what impression does that give, asked Rudin?

Dormant business accounts, said experts, are shockingly common,even though Twitter offers a quick, simple formula for accountdeactivation.

Next: B of A's Bots

BoA's Bot Disaster

Bots – automated computer scriptsor “robots” – are exceptionally useful in simplifying high techdrudgery but they also can make a financial institution lookdownright dumb, a fact recently discovered by giant Bank ofAmerica.

Finextra has the storywhich started when an Occupy Wall Street activist put up a tweet pertaining to a protest and resulting police activityin front of the Bank of America New York headquarters.

A re-tweet by a sympathizer included the BoA Twitter handle –@BankofAmerica – which promptly won a tweet from the officialBoA account, “@stevetimmis Hi Mr. Timmis, Iwork for Bank of America. What happened? Anything I can do tohelp?”

Then it all went very bad, very fast, with many Occupyprotesters and sympathizers hurling tweets at BoA and a bot –it is assumed – lamely responded with polite tweets that borelittle relationship to the tweet that opened theconversation.

The result was an avalanche of mocking laughter aimed at Bank ofAmerica.

Bottom Line: don't use bots, not even on long weekends. Itsimply is too easy to become the butt of bad jokes.

Next: Avoid Spammy'Favorited-isms'

Beware the 'Favorited' Tweet

Many businesses – and alsoindividual users – use a simple flattery strategy to boost theirTwitter follower account. See a tweet, especially one about you,favorite it and, bingo, many users will be so chuffed, they willreciprocate by following you.

So the theory goes.

And bots make it simpler still. Set a bot to find and favoritetweets that mention you and, suddenly, you can be awash with newfollowers.

Or maybe not, as SocialTimes reports (beware: adult language in this Twitter stream) whereit found cases where Twitter had suspended users for doing this, ineffect accusing them of spamming the unwary.

Again, go light with bots and, whatever you do, don'tpromiscuously “favorite” tweets that cross your path.

Next: Tweeting is Not CustomerService

Mistake Twitter For CustomerService

Twitter is many things – a greatplace to listen to customers, to find out what's up withcompetitors and peers, to chat about current events. And one thingit isn't is a customer service channel and, said Peter Shankman, an Internetentrepreneur, that is exactly where many businesses go verywrong.

In an email, he wrote, they “NEED TO STOP USING SOCIAL INREPLACE OF ACTUAL CUSTOMER SERVICE. Responding to a problem onTwitter isn't that great when basic customer service would haveprevented the problem in the first place!,”

Call this the number one mistake made by financial institutionson Twitter.

Mike Hennessy, chief marketing officer at Intelliresponse, saidthat many financial institutions, including large ones, have latelybeen downgrading established customer service channels in favor ofshifting the traffic to social media.

Hennessy of course has an oar in this water – his company sellsthe traditional tools – but he also has a point. Twitter was neverdesigned for dealing with sensitive customer relations problems.Telephones and one-to-one Internet chat are.

Many tweeters with angry tweets are posting purely tovent, or in an act of vengeance, according to research by TNS NIPO, a Dutch consumer survey company.

Maybe they want a bribe to silence their anger but by the timethey take to Twitter, many are far past the point wherereconciliation will come quickly or cheaply, said Hennessy.

The Shankman-Hennessy point: Use other, well-known channels toresolve complaints before they explode on social media.

Next: Be Real, Man

Bonus Round: Don't Be A FakeYourself

Australia National Bank'sInternet arm U Bank had a good idea – it started a blog atmyfuturebank.org – this was back in 2008 when such things werepioneering – and then it made it awful.

U Bank employees, pretending to be regular customers, stuffedthe comments with glowing praise.

Then they were outed by technically slick readers and a Twitter storm brokeout.

On the Internet indeed anyone can be a dog –but getting called out for sailing under false flags is just plainpainful.