Creative, Less-Than-Obvious Ideas To Promote Your Whitepaper On Twitter

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Twitter uses micro-blogging to engage with an audience, and it should not be ignored when considering smart options for your business. It could be an ideal platform to promote your white paper.

The number of people who advertise on Twitter is much lower than those who advertise on platforms such as Facebook. You can use this to your advantage, because competition is far less. You have a golden opportunity to capture the attention of a large user base - currently more than 300 million people.

1.     Harness The Power of Twitter

Almost half of all decision-makers use Twitter to research new products, and keep an eye on what’s happening within an industry. Promoting your white paper on Twitter might seem a little complicated at first, but it’s not as daunting as you might think -  provided you take time to learn the different ways the platform can be used to your advantage.

Make sure you schedule your Twitter activity, and be consistent. If you Tweet haphazardly, you risk coming across as unprofessional to your audience. Find the hours when Twitter traffic is highest, and schedule your activity for those time slots. This is a practical way to ensure that your Twitter activity is consistent.

Keep tweets short, no more than 100 characters, to hold the attention of your target audience - if you can keep it to under 50, so much the better. Provide a link for those who want access to the information on your whitepaper. Also, if your whitepaper contains images, use images in your tweets. People are more likely to retweet images and videos than text.

2.     Give People Value

No one likes to see a page filled with advertisements. People are more receptive to education than receiving a sales pitch, so be sure to impart interesting information rather than just trying to sell. Avoid mistakes in engaging your audience by carefully reading this detailed research on micro-moments by Google.

Ensure the information you share is accurate, up-to-date, and relevant. Think with Google can help you learn how to create the right content that appeals to your target audience.

Present yourself as a real person. Use your photo as your profile picture, not your company’s logo. If you need to clarify something on your business’s official Twitter account, tweet using your personal account. This makes followers of your brand feel they are interacting with a real person. They feel noticed and valued that someone of your stature is addressing their issues, not just a faceless assistant.

Ensure that images in your whitepaper - and anything else you share about your company - are sharp, and not crowded with information.

3.     The Power of Relationships

Follow your competitors and their followers. If you’re lucky, they will follow you too. If they talk about your brand and share your content, your whitepaper will reach a much larger audience.

Twitter is a conversation starter. Focus on actively connecting with people, not just dumping your whitepaper on them and walking away. Talk less and listen more. Be observant, with the aim of learning about people. Respond to tweets, and remember to ask questions. Request retweets to increase the amount of retweets you get. Encouraging your followers to share your whitepaper will do wonders for reaching new users.

The key to successful marketing on Twitter is not to focus on the number of those following you, but the quality of your followers. You want followers who read what you post, talk about it, and share your content. These are far more valuable than the faceless lurkers who do nothing for your business.

So, pay attention to others. Follow those of quality, and connect with them. Listen to their conversations so that you get to know what is important to them. Your time on Twitter can serve as part of your market research, as you will be able to learn a lot about your target market.

4.     The Power of Influencers

Take time to identify influencers in your niche. Google Updates is an excellent way to do this. Follow them, interact with them, favorite them, or retweet their tweets. If you get them to notice you, there is a high chance they will check out your tweets, and hopefully share them with their followers too. 

Twitter has rules about following people, and it is important to familiarize yourself with them if you want your efforts to bear fruit. Do not follow people randomly. Have a clear strategy about how you are going to grow your following.

Identify the big names in your niche and select a few on which to focus your attention. Concentrate your efforts on one of them per day. Watch what they post and the conversations around their tweets. Identify quality followers of such people and follow them. Ensure they notice you by liking, responding to, or retweeting their tweets.

Always answer questions about your whitepaper promptly, even if you do not have the actual information someone is requesting. Show you care by letting those who ask questions know you’ve have heard, and will furnish them with the information soon.

Be courteous as you interact with people. Respond to compliments as well as criticisms. Be alert when responding to complaints, and identify cases that should not be handled publicly. It should always be clear that your company cares and will not ignore anyone, so let that be evident even when you need to engage with someone privately.

Respond publicly by letting the person know that you have sent them the information, or that you are looking into the issue, and someone will respond to them as soon as possible.  

Be courteous when responding to complaints, and always do your best to ensure that conversations end well. Word of mouth is very powerful and can make or break your brand, so avoid negative publicity as much as possible.

Identify your target audience and speak to them. Address their needs. Don’t try to be everything to everyone, but focus on a specific audience.

5.     Master The Use of The Hashtag

Hashtags are a great way to ensure that your tweets get exposure, but for them to be effective, they need to be relevant. Use hashtags that are relevant to the content in your whitepaper. For instance, if it is about laptops, use #laptops, and if it is about health care, use #healthcare.

Use of hashtags and keywords makes it easier for people looking for specific information to find your tweets. Some people will discover your brand by chance, simply because the hashtag is relevant to what they are trying to find.

Twitter is a powerful platform for growing your brand. Keep in mind that anything worthwhile takes time, so be patient. Do not expect to master the use of Twitter immediately, but commit to continuous learning as you spend more time on the platform. Success takes time, so commit to the long term in order to see results.

Do you use any other Twitter marketing strategy to increase your reach? Let us know in the comments section below.

 

Posted 13 July, 2017

Ruchi Bhargava

Content Writing | Designing | Web Development

Hi! Are you looking for content that gets all the birds (read: customers) in one proverbial stone? Then I'm the person you need to talk to. After millions of words written for my clients, I can guarantee one thing: quality. When you're working with me, you'll get nothing short of perfect, well-researched, and enticing content. But that's not all I'm about. Along with creating custom cont...

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