Sprout Social features are designed to help you move at the speed of social. We release over a hundred updates per year that span across publishing, engagement, analytics, social listening and customer care. That’s a lot of social media tools at our customers’ disposal. Of course, there are a few fan favorites. The Smart Inbox, Approval Workflows, Tagging and more all get a lot of love on social and on review sites like G2, but there are some lesser known Sprout features that deserve some hype as well. In this article, we’re highlighting Sprout Social features you might not know about. These ..read more

It’s time for another edition of the Post Performance Report (PPR), a series where we showcase social media posts and campaigns inspiring us, and explore what makes them so genius. We unpack how your brand can use these examples to spark your own scroll-stopping ideas—while maximizing your budget and doing more with less. This month, we’re fascinated by brands using AI to enhance their social presence. Candidly, social media users are still largely split on how they feel about brands dabbling in AI content creation. According to a Q1 2024 Sprout Pulse Survey, 38% of consumers would be more int ..read more

Chatbots are strategic assets that enhance your customer care and marketing strategies. The technology has come a long way from being simply rules-based to offering features like artificial intelligence (AI) enabled automation and personalized interaction. Integrating chatbots can transform your customer relations by automating responses to common queries and collecting feedback, freeing your team to focus on more complex issues. These bots boost engagement by providing 24/7 support, making businesses constantly accessible. They also streamline the customer journey with personalized assistance ..read more

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be a data analyst to craft social listening queries that drive results. Social listening has always been a powerful tool for brands that know how to wield it effectively. Even just one solid query can give a brand a rich, unbiased view of consumer sentiment. These insights build stronger messaging, campaigns, product lines—the opportunities are endless. In a bygone era, tapping into this data couldn’t be done without countless training sessions on everything from advanced analytics to structured query language (SQL). Today, listening tools are more ..read more

Traditional methods like star ratings and net promoter scores (NPS) are familiar ways we quantify customer satisfaction. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to customer sentiment. Advanced technologies like sentiment analysis help you go beyond numerical metrics by analyzing qualitative data such as social media comments, survey responses and reviews. This approach to calculating a sentiment score gives you a more nuanced understanding of customer opinion and a north star for improving your offerings and brand strategies. Read on to explore what a sentiment score is, the ..read more

It’s the scenario no business wants to face. A cybersecurity attack or reputational crisis that can turn a normal working day into a sink or swim scenario.  A good number of companies aren’t prepared for a crisis like this. However, an effective crisis communication strategy can help your company plan for a worst case scenario and emerge with your reputation intact.  While we hope any crisis management plan will remain in storage and never used—preparation is key. This comprehensive guide to crisis management will provide you with actionable tips on how to build a strategy to respond ..read more

Everybody loves to win prizes—especially from their favorite brands. Create a social media giveaway or contest to feed this desire while improving your social media engagement and supercharging the buzz around your brand. Giveaways and contests boost your follower count, convert leads, amplify brand awareness and increase loyalty. In this article, we take you through how to launch a social media giveaway or contest and share 12 ideas that will help you connect with your audience and convert customers. What are social media giveaways and contests? Before we jump into examples, let’s review what ..read more

In October 2023, I interviewed for a VP of Social and Content Strategy role for a very well-known and established brand. I met with the executive recruiter and had a pleasant and positive conversation that made me initially excited for the role. As we were wrapping up, they asked if I had any questions for them. I replied, “Can you give me an idea of how involved the C-suite is with the social team?” The recruiter paused to collect their thoughts and replied, “The CMO is very passionate about social media so I think you’ll find they’ll be actively involved in your day-to-day.” To me this was a ..read more

Delivering successful campaigns hinges on understanding your target customers. When you know how they feel about your brand, products and industry, you can reasonably predict what it takes to build a campaign that resonates. Today’s customers are sharing feedback in new ways. Often, that feedback isn’t given directly to the company. Gathering as much insight as possible from the feedback you have is crucial. Without sentiment analysis, you only capture a small part of the big picture. Sentiment analysis marketing is an AI-powered technique that decodes the nuanced emotions and opinions your cu ..read more

When Threads, Meta’s text-first social platform, came onto the scene in July 2023, social marketers everywhere let out a collective gasp. No one was sure what to expect. Soon, both social teams and users were quick to comment on Threads’ “good vibes” reminiscent of the early days of social media—a testament to organic, community-oriented conversations on the platform. As Threads continues to roll out new product features and expand API capabilities, the platform has become an engagement generator for brands, pushing more of them to create a presence. According to a Q3 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey ..read more