Here’s an Angie’s List recommendation you’ll never see:
I’d just like to post a recommendation here for my painting business. My crew are all great workers, they never come in late, and they are very careful. They’ve all worked for me for over 3 years. Call me today and we will provide you with a competitive price, excellent service, and timely completion! Free estimates!
Self-promotion on a 3rd-party review site like Angie’s List is taboo, if not altogether impossible to do without blatantly cheating the system. The very system is set up to allow a potential customer to receive unbiased recommendations from a party that does not have a vested interest in the transaction.
But here’s a Twitter update you do sometimes see!
Well, I just finished up a bowl of [my own product] down at [my own store]… It was sure delicious! And healthy and affordable, too! Stop on by [my store] to get out of the cold and try some!
Twitter as a tool is both more powerful and more diverse a tool than a simple third-party review site. Figuring out how to use it in a business promotional context it can also be a little more confusing. There’s no instruction manual, no standard best practices or limitations. If we are accustomed to promoting a business through traditional advertising channels, it is only natural to want to use similar principles when promoting through Twitter. Just tell people what makes us awesome, right?
Wrong. People need to find out how awesome you are, but if it comes from you it is rendered invalid. Unless you’re giving away a specific benefit, you’re not allowed to recommend or promote yourself!!! It has to come from other people. There are many ways you can engage your customers on Twitter… Advertisement-style self-promotion is not one of them. This flavor of promotion is the equivalent of coming to a football game with your baseball gear … You may be doing a great job hitting that ball all over the place, but you’re playing the wrong game.