To drive the long-term health of your business, you need the foundational tech stack to set you up for success. The right social media management platform and its actionable intelligence will help you drive more revenue, boost team efficiency, enable strategic focus and outperform your competition.

In this guide, you’ll learn:

• What a sophisticated social media management platform does for your business
• Exactly where social can make an impact in your organization—from marketing and customer care to sales and product development
• What you need to know before investing, including a checklist and essential questions to guide your evaluation
• How Sprout Social can be your partner in unlocking the full value of social

Download this guide to receive expert guidance on how to conduct a social media management platform evaluation that prioritizes ROI, efficiency and the needs that matter most to your business.

The post Social Media Management Buyer’s Guide appeared first on Sprout Social.

According to the Sprout Social Index, Instagram is among the “big three” social media platforms. With 49% of consumers and 59% of marketers planning to use it in the next 12 months, you can’t afford to not pay attention to the platform’s key statistics.

So let’s find out some of the vital Instagram statistics that will shape your strategy in 2023.

Table of contents

• Instagram stats to pay attention to moving into 2023
• Instagram user statistics
• Instagram usage statistics
• Instagram audience and demographics statistics
• Instagram advertising and marketing statistics
• Instagram Stories and Reels statistics
• Instagram for Business stats

Instagram stats to pay attention in 2023

• Instagram currently boasts 2 billion monthly active users. This makes it the fourth most used social media platform. And if you make use of the latest Instagram trends, you have the potential to exponentially grow your reach.
• It’s now the fifth most visited website worldwide. Although this puts it behind other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, it’s still one of the most popular social media sites.
• According to Insider Intelligence, Instagram generated $43.2 billion in ad revenue in 2022. This is a slight increase from 2021 when the platform’s ad revenue amounted to $42.1 billion.

Instagram user statistics

Understanding how people perceive and use the platform will help you devise best practices for Instagram to connect with them. These Instagram user statistics can give you a better look:

1. Almost every Instagram user uses it alongside other platforms

According to data from We Are Social, only 0.1% of Instagram users are unique to the platform. A large number of users use it alongside other social media platforms such as Facebook (82.9%), YouTube (75.5%) and TikTok (52.2%). That means having a solid cross-platform marketing strategy is crucial for your brand to succeed.

2. Only 25% of American users feel that Instagram protects their data and privacy

A study by Insider Intelligence found that trust in social media platforms dropped significantly in 2022. When it comes to Instagram, only 25% of American users feel that the platform protects their data and privacy. This makes it one of the lesser trusted social media platforms. But it’s still ahead of Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

3. Posting/sharing photos and videos is the top activity

According to DataReportal, 69.7% of users use Instagram to post or share photos and videos. This makes it the top activity on the platform, indicating the desire for users to be creative and express themselves.

4. It’s the second most preferred platform for customer service

As more and more people turn to social media for customer support, Instagram is a popular channel choice. The 2022 Sprout Social Index reports that 35% of U.S. consumers use Instagram for customer service. This makes it the second most popular platform for customer service after Facebook.

Reviewing your brand’s customer service strategy on the platform could help you get ahead of the race and enhance the user experience.

Instagram usage statistics

How popular is Instagram in terms of usage? Let’s take a look at these Instagram usage statistics to find out:

5. There are 2 billion monthly active users on Instagram

Latest reports show that Instagram has 2 billion monthly active users. While not at the Facebook level, this is still huge for brands. It means there are billions of people you could potentially reach. With the right strategies to get more Instagram followers, these users could turn into loyal fans of your brand.

6. U.S adults spend 30 minutes per day on the platform

Over the past couple of years, video-based platforms like YouTube and TikTok have become a huge hit among social media users. At the same time, people are still spending a significant amount of time on Instagram. American adults spend about 30.1 minutes a day using the platform.

Instagram audience and demographics statistics

Looking at social media demographics helps you gauge which platforms your target audience is using. Let’s look at these Instagram demographic statistics to get a better idea:

7. Instagram is most popular among younger audiences

The platform sees the highest usage among people aged between 18 and 34. People within these age groups make up over 60% of Instagram’s user base. As such, the platform is ideal if your target audience consists of young adults and Millennials.

8. There are more male than female users

Instagram limits its gender-based reporting to male and female. And based on this data, there are more male users (51.8%) than female users (48.2%). However, the difference isn’t too drastic, meaning the platform isn’t inherently better for reaching a male audience.

9. India and the United States have the greatest number of users

Much like other platforms, India leads the way even when it comes to Instagram. The country has 229.5 million Instagram users. The United States comes next with 149.35 million users.

Instagram advertising and marketing statistics

Are you getting the most out of your Instagram advertising efforts? Is it even worth it to market your brand on Instagram? Here are a few Instagram stats to give you the answers you need.

10. Seeing an ad on Instagram gets people interested in a brand

According to internal Instagram data, 50% of users become more interested in a brand after they see an ad for it on Instagram. This speaks volumes about the power that advertising on Instagram has for your brand.

11. Feed ads have a higher click-through rate (CTR) than Stories ads

Brafton reports that the CTR for feed ads on Instagram range between 0.22% and 0.88%. Meanwhile, Stories ads have a CTR between 0.33% and 0.54%. These numbers suggest that in-feed ads have a higher potential to drive clicks than Stories ads. However, consider experimenting with different ad placements to see which one works best with your audience.

12. Instagram has the highest cost per click (CPC)

Instagram may have a competitive advantage over other social platforms when it comes to engagement. But that comes with a higher cost, especially when it comes to advertising. The average CPC for Instagram ads is a whopping $3.56 while platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest manage to keep it under $2.

13. Conversion rates range between 0.30% and 2.6% depending on reach

Brands with a higher reach on Instagram tend to see a higher conversion rate. Interestingly, the study found that reach rate is higher for brands with a smaller following size.

In fact, brands with fewer than 10,000 followers saw the highest conversion rate (2.6%). Meanwhile, some of the top-performing brands had an average conversion rate of 1%.

Instagram Stories and Reels statistics

Instagram offers a wide range of content types to choose from, with Stories and Reels being popular options. Check out these Stories and Reels statistics to see how these formats are performing:

14. Story reach rate is on the decline

According to a Rival IQ study, Instagram story reach rate declined between 2021 and 2022. This decline is consistent across all following sizes. However, smaller brands with fewer than 10,000 followers saw the least decline. Their Story reach rate dropped from 5.4% in 2021 to 4.8% in 2022.

Meanwhile, mid-size brands having 50,000-200,000 followers felt the biggest impact as their reach rate dropped to 1.6% from 2.4%.

15. Story retention rate declines as the number of frames increases

The same Rival IQ study found that the number of frames you post to your Instagram Stories determines how well you retain your audience. Story retention rate starts to dip below 75% after the sixth frame.

16. Short narrative-type Stories are the most popular format

When it comes to the types of Stories that people want to see, short narratives were the most popular. Thirty-five percent of consumers prefer these types of Stories with a mix of photos, videos and text. Stories with quizzes and polls were another popular option.

So if you’re running out of Instagram Story ideas, use these stats to brainstorm new ideas that engage your audience.

17. Reels have the highest reach rate

Unsurprisingly, Reels see the highest reach rate among all media types on Instagram. The Rival IQ study revealed that Reels boast a 14% reach rate while other media types see a reach rate between 9% and 10%.

In another study from Socialinsider, the average reach rate for Instagram Reels stood at 20.59%. This puts it far above other media types such as carousels, images and videos. In line with the Bazaarvoice report from earlier, accounts with the smallest following size saw the highest reach rates.

18. Instagram Reels boast an average engagement rate of 1.95%

In addition to an exceptional reach rate, Reels also see significant engagement. Based on the Socialinsider study, Instagram Reels have an average engagement rate of 1.95%. This puts it well ahead of other media types. So your brand could benefit from creating more Reels to attract and engage your target audience.

Instagram for business stats

So far, the benefits of Instagram for marketing your business are clear. Let’s further dive into these Instagram for business stats to really understand its value:

19. 70% of shoppers look to Instagram for their next purchase

Internal Instagram data reveals that 70% of shoppers look to the platform for their next purchase. Meaning this is where people go to find purchase inspiration and discover new products.

20. Following and researching brands is the second most popular activity

The DataReportal study from earlier found that many users follow and research brands and products on Instagram. It’s the second most popular activity on the platform with 62.3% of users engaging in it. So there’s a good opportunity to attract followers who want to hear what your brand has to say.

21. 90% of users follow a business

To further drive home the above point, 90% of users on the platform follow a business. This indicates that people aren’t hesitating to keep up with brands on Instagram.

Making the most of these Instagram stats

Based on these vital Instagram statistics, you can see where the platform currently stands and how people are using it. It’s clear that there’s no dearth of users who use the platform to follow and engage with brands. Plus, many consumers are also using Instagram to inspire their purchases and inform their buying decisions.

In short, there’s huge potential to tap into with the right strategy. Need help with this? Check out our guide on developing a powerful Instagram marketing strategy.

The post Instagram statistics you need to know for 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

That’s because social media management requires agility. Opportunities can come in the blink of an eye, but it isn’t easy to capitalize on them without the right tools and processes in place. Striking gold on social requires a little bit of luck and a whole lot of preparation.

Sprout offers sophisticated, intuitive fixes that result in more free time for ideation and execution. Let’s take a look at what’s possible when you streamline your social media management workflow with Sprout.

• What is a social media workflow?
• Why you need a social media management workflow
• How to streamline your social media workflow with Sprout
  • Your scheduling and publishing workflow
  • Your content approval workflow
  • Your reporting workflow
  • Your engagement workflow
• Tips for auditing your social media manager task list

What is a social media workflow?

A social media workflow is a repeatable, systematic process by which a business manages their social media presence and interactions. A standard workflow accounts for planning, creating, publishing, monitoring and analyzing social media content, as well as responding to questions and feedback across networks.

These processes are more than just checklists. Social media is a fluid space where the only constant is change. Valuable workflows center around adaptability to ensure the consistent and effective execution of a social media marketing strategy.

Why you need a social media management workflow

The right workflow can transform your online presence from the inside out. Here are the top three ways businesses benefit from adopting a scalable social media workflow:

More time for creativity

Switching between profiles and interfaces for native content creation and scheduling can take up the bulk of a workday. Add meetings to the mix and one day’s to-do list can quickly span many. That’s valuable time lost on repetitive tasks and inconsistent processes.

A workflow that incorporates both centralized profile management and automation frees up time and resources for more creative, high impact work. These are the efforts that allow your team to harness the full potential of social.

More quality control checkpoints

A few months ago, we asked our LinkedIn followers about what keeps them up at night.

The most common answers were typos, post performance and wondering whether or not a scheduled post ever made it to publish.

A consistent social media workflow backed by powerful, AI-driven technology puts these worries to rest by creating multiple quality assurance checkpoints. These security measures do more than just mitigate errors—they also play a crucial role in risk prevention and social media governance.

More opportunities for collaboration

Without the right tools and documentation, the average social media manager task list reads more like a novel. On top of that, it’s only a matter of time before a network change makes all that documentation null and void.

These inconsistent, complex processes can make it hard to train and scale a team. Eventually, the burden will fall to one or two team members with the historical process knowledge needed to run social. It’s a one-way ticket to social media burnout.

A well-crafted workflow can simplify processes and reduce reliance on any single individual. This cross-functional visibility is critical for future-proofing your team.

How to streamline your social media workflow with Sprout

At Sprout, our customers are our north star. That’s led to some pretty cool features designed to integrate social across a business. Here are a few fan-favorite workflow upgrades that our customers use every day:

Your scheduling and publishing workflow

The old way: Manually logging in and out of native platforms to publish social posts, minimizing visibility across teams.

The Sprout way: Scheduling content across multiple channels at once using a shared content calendar designed to boost collaboration.

The Sprout Social Content Calendar is feature-rich, intuitive and flexible. It centralizes once disjointed publishing workflows into a single location, equipped with smart tools that provide real-time insights into optimization opportunities.

Simply put, it supports smarter marketing decisions while still being easy to use.

There’s a ton you can do in Sprout’s Publishing section, but here are a few of our favorite social media workflow enhancements:

• Losing sleep wondering if a scheduled post actually went live? Set up tailored Post Notifications on the Sprout Social mobile app for real-time updates on the status of outgoing messages.

• Always on the hunt for third-party content to build out your social calendar? The Sprout Social Google Chrome Extension takes the Compose window with you as you browse for relevant articles to share. This is especially useful for brands that rely on industry-specific news to boost thought leadership.
• Waiting for details on an upcoming promotion before drafting and scheduling a post? Use Calendar Notes to let your team know you have the task on your radar and that you’re waiting for next steps.

Start a Free 30-Day Trial

Your content approval workflow

The old way: Tagging stakeholders in a shared document or spreadsheet for content reviews and moving things over to email if they require further discussion.

The Sprout way: An in-app content approval process that can be tailored by need, department or client—depending on your business structure.

An ironed out social media approval process prevents needless mistakes while giving time back to marketers. It’s critical to a successful social media strategy. It’s also incredibly time-consuming.

I’d estimate that Sprout’s Message Approval Workflow is single-handedly responsible for preventing millions of lengthy email threads and shared document requests. This tool creates a shared space for feedback by allowing teams to create multi-step, multi-user workflows that meet the needs of their specific organization.

Here’s what it looks like in action, depending on your role:

• Director of Social Media: Tailored notification settings help you review content in a way that works with your schedule. Choose between hourly or daily approval request notifications to keep your day running smoothly.
• Legal Compliance Specialist: Let your social team set you up with External Approver access so you can review sensitive content for legal risk.

• Account Manager: Strengthen agency-client relationships by setting up a customized approval workflow for each of your individual accounts.

Your reporting workflow

The old way: Hours spent pulling metrics from native analytics solutions, making sense of them in a spreadsheet and creating data visualizations to explain your team’s impact across the business.

The Sprout way: Automated, presentation-ready reports that directly tie social activity to business objectives.

Sprout’s social media automation tools make quick work out of cumbersome reporting tasks. Our sophisticated yet intuitive solution combines templated reports with user-friendly customization options.

Of all our reporting features, Tagging has the most potential to revolutionize your workflows. Tags allow our customers to group inbound and outbound messages for more flexible reporting on content, creative and campaigns. Use Tags to automate data collection processes and say goodbye to cherry-picking specific post-level metrics for strategic insights.

Tagging is available to all Sprout customers, but for Advanced Plan users, it’s one of many automated reporting tools. Those include:

• Automated Rules: Automatically Tag inbound and outbound messages that include specific keywords or hashtags to ensure every post is recorded and reported on.

• Scheduled Reports: Schedule weekly or monthly PDF reports to keep stakeholders informed on campaign progress.
• Report Builder: Create custom reports with metrics that matter most to your executives, with text widgets that provide the context needed to capture social’s impact.*
• Link Sharing: Share real-time, interactive report links that provide all the necessary context and data visualizations needed to increase transparency with external stakeholders.*

*These features are available with the Sprout Social Premium Analytics add-on.

Your engagement workflow

The old way: Checking all your social inboxes first thing in the morning and at the top of every work hour to respond to messages in a timely manner.

The Sprout way: Centralizing inbound messages in a single stream, while automating the process of message prioritization, off-hours support and FAQs assistance.

The Smart Inbox is the key to unlocking relationship-building experiences on social. This tool tightens your social media workflow by unifying all your brand accounts across social networks to monitor incoming messages in one manageable location.

From there, you can triage response needs, assign tasks and work with your team to create a more customer-centric social media presence.

Brands managing a high volume of inbound messages can also benefit from the following Sprout tools:

• Bot Builder (Advanced Plan): Use social chatbots designed on rule-based logic to assure customers seeking support on nights and weekends that you’ll be back online and ready to help shortly.
• Integrations: Sprout offers social media management integrations with leading CRMs like Salesforce, Marketo and more. Use these connections to provide more tailored support to key accounts and prospects.
• Social Listening: Countless potential conversations are happening around your brand and industry every day. Use the Sprout Social Listening add-on to keep tabs on the market insights that can drive your business forward.

Tips for auditing your social media manager task list

The average social media manager schedule is jam-packed. Between content creation, campaign meetings and engagement opportunities, there’s always something to do.

According to a Q1 2023 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 81% of marketers say that a regular posting cadence on social positively impacts their business goals. To reap those benefits, you’ve got to know what to prioritize, what to delegate and what to automate.

The best time to audit your to-do list is now. Review your daily work routine using the following criteria to figure out where you can win back more time.

Automate your social media management workflow with Sprout

Social media is fast paced and always on. It’s where brand-making conversations take place and consumer sentiments are forged. If you want to keep up, you need the right toolkit.

Sprout’s unified social management platform provides powerful data, flexible tools and an intuitive user-experience that helps you harness the full power of social data. Simplify your approach to social and try Sprout for free today.

The post How to optimize your social media workflow appeared first on Sprout Social.

The same goes for the omnichannel approach. Every touchpoint must work together in a coordinated effort to provide a consistent brand experience. It might not be as moving as a concerto, but it certainly can be memorable.

Social media plays an increasingly important role in creating these memorable experiences. It’s a center point of consumers’ daily lives and the brands integrating social data beyond their marketing efforts are reaping major benefits.

This article will dig into the “why” and “how” behind omnichannel strategies that power sales, service and marketing efforts. Plus, we’ll also explain how social can help your symphony stay in tune.

• What is an omnichannel strategy?
• What’s the difference between multichannel and omnichannel?
• What are the benefits of an omnichannel strategy?
• How social media impacts more than just omnichannel marketing
• An example of a successful omnichannel strategy
• How to craft an omnichannel strategy that supports marketing, sales and service

What is an omnichannel strategy?

An omnichannel strategy is a sales and marketing method designed to deliver a seamless and consistent customer experience across all touchpoints. That might include brick-and-mortar shops, websites, email, social and mobile—anywhere a brand is present.  

With the right tools, omnichannel strategies create a data feedback loop that helps you refine brand messaging and target consumers in a personalized and relevant way. Over time, this cohesion builds trust, strengthens brand loyalty and drives customer retention. All it takes is consistency. 

What’s the difference between multichannel and omnichannel?

“Omnichannel” and “multichannel” sound like they could be synonyms, but there are differences that separate the two strategies.

A multichannel marketing strategy also focuses on marketing to an audience across multiple channels, but each channel operates as a silo.

An omnichannel strategy, on the other hand, integrates each channel to break those silos down. That way, no matter what channel a customer prefers, they can always expect the same level of service and care. The goal of an omnichannel strategy is to create a customer journey that’s so seamless, it becomes a source of differentiation and a driver of customer loyalty.

What are the benefits of an omnichannel strategy?

Now that we’ve covered all the necessary definitions, let’s get into some benefits. Here are the top three benefits of adopting an omnichannel approach.

Creates better brand experiences

Delivering relevant content consistently across channels can drive emotional bonds that keep customers coming back, even when faced with alternatives. To put it simply, it can make or break customer connections.

A successful omnichannel strategy helps brands build trust as customers come to expect a high level of quality from your brand. That trust encourages customers to return and spread the word, bolstering your brand reputation.

Gives you a competitive advantage

Maintaining a consistent, customer-centric brand presence across all channels—IRL and online—translates to deeper customer relationships over time. These relationships can help you win and retain customers in a crowded market.

From there, beating the competition is simply a matter of informing your approach with the right data.

For example, say a competitive analysis reveals that your competitors are consistently underperforming when it comes to customer care. That single insight can inform an entire roadmap to a major competitive differentiator. You might:

• Revamp your own customer care approach to create an experience that goes above and beyond consumer expectations.
• Emphasize customer testimonials about your service across marketing efforts.
• Reduce sales friction by making the shopping experience as convenient and trustworthy as possible.

Impacts sales growth

What do you get when you combine a superior brand experience with a clear competitive advantage? A healthy sales funnel, that’s what.

An omnichannel approach to marketing, sales and customer success sets the foundation for building connections at scale. According to a Q1 ‘23 Sprout pulse survey, more than two-thirds (77%) of customers are more likely to increase their spending with brands they feel connected to.

How social media impacts more than just omnichannel marketing

According to The Sprout Social Index™ 2022, 44% of brands use social data to inform customer experience strategies. More than half (66%) also use it to inform sales strategies.

Most recent memorable brand moments involve social conversations to some degree. These moments aren’t just driving brand awareness. They’re driving sales and creating customers.

For example, when a creator’s NSFW shout-out to skincare brand Eos went viral on TikTok, the product sold out at Target locations across the country. Their website also received a boost in engagement, with online orders increasing by 25 times and visits to their shave category increasing by 450 times.

Eos could have simply enjoyed their moment in the spotlight, but their marketing team had bigger plans. They worked with their merchandising colleagues to create a limited edition version of their viral shave cream, renamed in honor of the review.

This social-first omnichannel sales strategy helped Eos establish relevance with new audiences to make the most out of their virality. Their omnichannel customer service strategy relies on social to build trust and loyalty with that same audience.

You never know when your brand’s moment is going to strike. To be ready when it happens, you need an omnichannel digital strategy that prioritizes social at every stage of the funnel.

An example of a successful omnichannel strategy

The best omnichannel strategies create an identical, recognizable vibe across several channels. Let’s look at an example of the omnichannel approach in action with Barnes & Noble to break down what we mean.

In recent years, the former mall-favorite has undergone a perception transformation powered by the rise of reading influencers on “BookStagram” and “BookTok.” Now, they’ve revamped their digital approach to build on their in-store experience and vice versa, creating a customer experience worth reading about.

Here’s a high-level look at their approach by channel:

• In store, they’re the classic Barnes & Noble you know and love, complete with a coffee counter, cozy reading nooks and staff recommendations. If you pop into any location, you’ll likely notice an entire section dedicated to BookTok picks. The emphasized placement makes it easy to find the internet’s most popular reads.
• They also dedicate an entire page of their website to BookTok so people who prefer to order online can quickly find what they need and check out.
• On social media, they let their staff’s expertise shine. They feature their booksellers on their primary brand account and on accounts specific to local stores. Their content mimics the recommendation experience one might have in store, complete with an easy path to purchase.
• They also host a podcast called “Poured Over” where a career bookseller talks to guests about their favorite books. The title of their podcast is a clever reference to the coffee shops they have in store.

These combined efforts bolster the Barnes & Noble brand across every stage of the funnel. Their social presence and podcast builds brand awareness and expand reach for marketing, the BookTok sections of their website and app create easy paths to purchase, and the tailored recommendations support better customer service.

No matter where you’re interacting with the Barnes & Noble brand, it’s sure to evoke the same feeling of coziness, curiosity and peace. You can always count on Barnes & Noble for a good book recommendation, whether you’re a new customer buying online or an existing customer buying in-store.

How to craft an omnichannel strategy that supports marketing, sales and service

There are plenty of frameworks out there that can help you create an omnichannel strategy. However, it’s difficult to tailor broad advice to the complex needs of an individual organization. The following tips will help tailor your strategy to your brand and market.

1. Align to company goals

Monthly performance reports keep marketing goals top of mind, but what about sales and service goals? To create a strategy that supports all three functions, you’ll also need to know cross-departmental objectives.

Before crafting your strategy, take a moment to review any available documentation on business goals for the year. This will provide a clearer picture of each department’s priorities, so you can identify opportunities to align your efforts toward better customer outcomes.

A clear understanding of company goals can help you identify which channels are best suited to reach and engage with your customers at every stage of the funnel. This knowledge will help you act as a better strategic partner to other collaborators across your business.

2. Update your customer journey map

Consumer preferences are constantly changing, meaning the customer journey is, too.

Set yourself up for omnichannel success by researching customer behavior. Use that information to refresh your understanding of your target audience. How have their preferences, pain points and needs evolved? Combine information from multiple sources to accurately understand who they are today.

These sources might include surveys, questionnaires, analytics tools, focus groups, CRM data. Use whatever you have at your disposal.

We’re biased, but social listening insights are a must-have for this step. A social listening tool (like Sprout’s) can help you detect customer pain points before your competitors catch on. It can also illuminate new opportunities for personalization or superior customer care. The timeliness of these insights are crucial to keeping your strategy effective and up-to-date.

3. Identify key collaborators

An omnichannel strategy is made up of several moving parts. It’s not something that can be implemented with the flip of a switch. There’s an adoption period, where you’ll figure out who you should work with to make your vision a reality.

Once you’ve assessed company goals and identified optimization opportunities, you’ll need to connect with the stakeholders who can help you develop a plan of action.

For example, say your company wants to increase repeat purchase rate among customers who made a purchase over the holiday season. Coming up with a strategy to make this a reality would require input from stakeholders across marketing and customer service.

These are must-have conversations. You need input and buy-in from all relevant teams to ensure everyone is working toward a shared objective. Embracing collaboration can help ensure that your omnichannel strategy is well-designed, sustainable, and adaptable to market and customer behavior changes.

4. Tailor your approach by channel

Sharing a consistent message doesn’t mean sharing the same message. You should adapt your content by channel and network to get the most return on an omnichannel communications strategy.

Meryoli Arias, Senior Social and Community Manager at Chili Piper, considers each individual channel and network as a piece of a greater puzzle.

“Individual channels can help you meet different goals. They’re all tied to the bigger strategy, but how you develop your brand personality will require different timelines, tactics and formats depending on the channels you’re using.”

Arias relies on shared content pillars to tailor an overarching brand message to specific channels. “That way, the message remains the same, even when the formats change. For example, you can create a text post about the benefits of your product on LinkedIn, a video to explain those same benefits on TikTok.”

5. Prioritize an integrated tech stack

Consistency doesn’t happen by chance. Showing up for your customers at the right time and place calls for a tech stack that can support backend data sharing and collaboration across teams. This automation is what makes the omnichannel vision a reality.

It’s unlikely that piloting a new strategy will come with the budget clearance to revamp your tech stack. That’s why it’s so important to keep the principles of the omnichannel approach top of mind when evaluating new platforms.

Integrations are far from one size fits all. It’s not uncommon for some to require connectors or additional resources for configuration and maintenance. It may seem simple at the start, but it creates opportunities for data flow deterioration in the long run.

To avoid this fate, prioritize tools that offer in-house support on pre-built integrations. That means they’re already programmed and tested, with minimal work required on the user’s end.

You probably won’t be involved in every purchasing decision that takes place at your company but if you evangelize this approach, others will champion the cause in your absence.

Put social at the center of your omnichannel strategy

You’ll find a world of potential waiting in sales and customer service when you look beyond your omnichannel marketing strategy. Unifying the three will help you own your market with a stronger, more cohesive brand experience.

Pulling it off may seem like quite the feat but with the right tech stack, it’s simply a matter of improving your processes over time. Sprout Social President Ryan Barretto has great tips on using tools to optimize customer relationships that will help you along the way.

The post How the best omnichannel strategies combine sales, service and marketing appeared first on Sprout Social.

When taking an employee advocacy program up the chain, employee advocacy stats should be the backbone of your pitch. Decision makers want to see proof of success and the measurable benefits your company will gain by launching a brand amplification program.

Keep reading for statistics on employee brand advocacy that will grab the attention of multiple leaders across your C-suite.

The employee advocacy statistics your boss needs to see

According to The Sprout Social Index™, more than two-thirds (68%) of marketers report their organization already has an advocacy program.

While many advocacy programs are informal side projects, sophisticated brands will find ways to formalize and evolve them through dedicated staff, tools, processes and employee training.

Of the 1,000+ marketers we asked, those that had an advocacy program stated their top three objectives were increasing brand awareness, attracting qualified job applicants and having more control over brand messaging. Other reasons included driving more qualified leads, establishing thought leadership and creating new networking opportunities.

And employees want to post about their companies. According to Sprout’s Employee Advocacy Report, 72% of engaged users would post about their company if content was written for them.

Your C-suite pitch: Traditional social media tactics are becoming less reliable. Organizations leading the advocacy charge have an edge over their competitors. In the face of limited resources, changing algorithms and congested feeds, an advocacy program is a company’s greatest asset to amplify content, increase ROI and recruit top talent.

Using Sprout’s Employee Advocacy platform is the easiest way to launch a brand advocacy program. In the platform, you provide pre-approved messaging that your team can share from one centralized hub. And your internal team can curate the articles directly in Sprout. Employees are empowered to post authentically, while feeling confident they’re staying on-brand.

Stats that prove the impact of advocacy on brand amplification

Advocacy supercharges your brand awareness efforts and enables you to amplify your reach beyond what you could achieve with organic tactics alone.

Take IT software company Ivanti. After creating a brand ambassador program with the help of Sprout’s Advocacy platform, the organization reached 16 million people on social media in the first month.

We had similar results at Sprout. In 2022, content shared through our Advocacy platform earned more impressions than all our social networks combined. In fact, 95% of the 740,000 impressions earned from our recent Salesforce global partnership announcement were driven by posts our employees shared.

Your C-suite pitch: Across industries, organic social performance has taken a hit. Tapping into employee networks is the most impactful way to amplify your best performing content and spike impressions—without stretching your bandwidth or ad budget.

Sprout’s Advocacy platform automatically measures shares, engagements and reach, so you can see your amplification impacts in real-time.

Stats that prove the impact of advocacy on revenue

Enlisting your employees as brand advocates isn’t just key to increasing awareness, it has serious effects on your bottom line and sales targets.

First, advocacy enables you to scale and amplify your best performing content so you can generate qualified leads without straining your ad budget. For example, at Sprout, we reached almost $450,000 in earned media value in 2022, while Ivanti achieved more than $500,000.

Second, according to Sprout’s Employee Advocacy Report, posting company content helps employees accomplish their day-to-day tasks and long-term goals—including social selling. About 72% of engaged social media users and 62% of casual users say sharing company posts helps their social selling efforts.

Empowering your employees to share meaningful content positions them as thought leaders in your industry, helping them generate new business opportunities. As LinkedIn reports, salespeople who regularly share about their company on social media are 45% more likely to exceed their quota.

Your C-suite pitch: Advocacy unlocks revenue gains by complementing your demand generation efforts. From achieving earned media value to empowering your team members to do their best work, investing in an employee brand amplification strategy pays in dividends.

Sprout’s Employee Advocacy reporting tools give you the data needed to quantify your advocacy program, and to connect results to leads, event registrations and more.

Stats that prove the impact of advocacy on hiring (and keeping) top talent

Potential new hires will research your company on social, keeping an eye out for what your current employees think about it. Afterall, your employees’ perspectives matter three times more to prospective candidates than your CEO’s. When employees celebrate your company culture, they elevate your employer brand and increase interest in your company.

In a recent Sprout survey of 1,000 consumers, 87% of Millennial respondents indicated that they feel more connected to brands when they see employees sharing information online, and 81% think it’s important for employees to post about their company (up from 72% in our previous survey).

Advocacy also invites your current employees to be stewards of your brand, fostering a sense of ownership, loyalty and belonging. When employees have a stake in your company, it improves their long-term morale, engagement and retention.

Your C-suite pitch: Creating employee advocates strengthens your recruitment and retention strategies. Advocacy expands your candidate pool and generates positive social sentiment and buzz that increases your application volume.

From Sprout’s platform, you can draft and send custom internal newsletters. Broadcast curated stories about open roles, company achievements and employer brand content so your employees can share the posts from their inbox with one click.

Why Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social is worth the investment

Employee Advocacy by Sprout Social is the easiest way to extend your social reach, increase brand awareness, drive sales and attract talent—while satisfying your employees with an easy-to-use platform.

Like one Sprout customer in the healthcare industry who increased their engagements by 200% in six months after launching their advocacy program. Their employees also reported 98% satisfaction with the platform.

Calculate how your business can benefit from using the Employee Advocacy platform with our ROI calculator.

The post Employee advocacy stats to secure C-level buy-in appeared first on Sprout Social.

What makes it even better? No exorbitant textbook costs, of course. There are tons of free and inexpensive marketing resources available online to help you prepare for the year ahead. Whether you’re looking to advance your skills for a particular project or simply for professional development, the information you need is right at your fingertips. You just need to know where to look.

To help start your search, we rounded up some of the best marketing resources that helped us make an impact in 2022. Share them with your team to help them elevate their skills, hone their expertise and set them up for career growth.

Note: The majority of these are free online marketing resources but some paid options did make the cut. To help you quickly differentiate between the two, we’ve marked all paid resources with an asterisk (*).

• Social media marketing resources
• Digital marketing resources
• Copywriting resources
• Search engine optimization (SEO) resources
• Design and creative resources
• Email marketing resources
• Reporting and analytics resources
• Market research tools
• AI and marketing automation resources
• Marketing leadership development resources

Social media marketing resources

Social media marketing is an enormous and ever-changing field. Platforms are constantly making updates, meaning best practices can shift overnight. Luckily, there are tons of free tools available so you can make the most of these changes as they happen. Use this collection of blogs, newsletters and podcasts to keep up with the industry while keeping your sanity.

1. Social Media Today

Social Media Today is an Industry Dive publication providing original analysis on what’s happening in the social media world. They offer content in a variety of formats, including articles, webinars and full-on marketing playbooks. Plus, they have a daily email newsletter that delivers the day’s top stories straight to your inbox.

2. Rachel Karten’s Link in Bio Newsletter

Rachel Karten’s Link in Bio is a must-follow for anyone looking for on-the-ground dispatches on what’s working in social media marketing today.

Karten has more than eight years of experience in social with brands like Bon Appetit and Plated, providing her with a critical point of view on network trends and updates. On top of that, she also publishes feature interviews with social media managers finding unpaved paths to success. You’ll love seeing this in your inbox each week.

What to read first: Why Do I Follow a Sewer District on Twitter?

3. Sprout Social’s Insights Blog

You didn’t think we’d leave ourselves out, did you? Sprout’s Insights blog is home to tactical how-to articles, interviews with fellow social media marketers, original research and more.

What to read first: 32 social media training resources and courses every marketer needs

4. Workweek’s Social Files Newsletter

If Tommy Clark’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve seen one of his many bookmark-worthy Twitter threads on social media marketing. When he’s not managing social at Triple Whale, he’s working on a weekly newsletter, Social Files. Subscribe if you like tactic-focused advice that’s digestible and fun to read.

5. The Best Times to Post on Social Tool

If you’re not using Sprout’s ViralPost® technology, this is the next best thing. Our Best Times to Post Tool is a can’t-miss marketing resource for professionals looking to maximize their engagement across specific networks, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

This tool helps businesses optimize their social media posting schedule by identifying the best days and hours to post on social, based on audience activity. Segment the data by your industry or check out network-specific activity trends—the choice is yours.

Digital marketing resources

Digital marketing is an umbrella category for all of the various promotional efforts that take place on the internet or through other digital means. While that’s definitely a wide net, there are tons of publications that can help you stay up to date on trending news and advice. Here are some of our favorites.

6. HubSpot Academy’s Digital Marketing Course

No marketing resource round-up would be complete without a nod to HubSpot Academy. Their course on digital marketing gives a great primer on content creation, social, paid search and more. Plus, if you pass their certification exam, you’ll also receive a certification badge you can add to your LinkedIn profile.

7. Today in Digital Marketing Podcast

Today in Digital Marketing is a daily eight-minute breakdown of what’s happening in the world of social, search and beyond. Fans of audio content will love host Tod Maffin’s quick and simple approach to news delivery.

8. The Contentfolks Newsletter

Contentfolks is a bi-weekly Substack newsletter that uses sticky notes and IRL examples to share a wide-range of content marketing advice. Subscribing is an easy way to commit to improving your marketing skills over time.

What to read first: Sparking Joy as a Marketing KPI

Copywriting resources

Strong, concise writing is a foundational skill for marketers of all stripes, especially social media marketers. These copywriting and content marketing resources will strengthen your editorial skills so you can create punchier content in 2023.

9. Grammarly

Grammarly goes way beyond your standard spell check. Their digital writing assistant will evaluate your writing on correctness, clarity, engagement and delivery so your message always comes across crystal clear.

10. VeryGoodCopy

Eddie Shleyner’s micro-articles, courses and interviews can punch up your writing in less than five minutes each. VeryGoodCopy teaches a single persuasion principle or technique at a time, so you can start your day with a fun and informative copywriting exercise that can be completed in the time it takes to finish a cup of coffee.

What to read first: A process for writing short, but thorough, content

11. Everybody Writes by Ann Handley*

Everybody Writes is the go-to handbook for developing your copywriting skills. Packed with insightful lessons on grammar, storytelling and crafting compelling copy, this book is an essential addition to any marketer’s bookshelf.

Bonus resource: If you want to read some of Ann’s expertise for free, we’re big fans of her newsletter, too.

Search engine optimization (SEO) resources

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential to any digital marketing strategy. With the right tools and resources in place, it can be a cost-effective way to reach potential customers at critical moments in their journey. These online marketing resources will help you brush up on SEO staples, from on-page optimizations to more technical and advanced tactics.

12. Google’s SEO Starter Guide

It’s only natural that Google, the world’s largest search engine, would have a comprehensive, easy-to-read guide to SEO. This resource is broken up into several chapters to help you level up your understanding of search, whether you’re new to the topic or a seasoned pro. It’s a must-read for anyone looking to drive more traffic to their site.

13. Backlinko’s SEO Marketing Hub

Backlinko’s exhaustive collection of SEO marketing resources will elevate your search engine optimization knowledge no matter your current skill level. Read through the hub in full or skip around to find out what you need to know. Either way, you’re guaranteed to find what you’re looking for.

What to read first: What is SEO? Search engine optimization in plain english

14. AhrefsTV

Ahrefs excels at breaking down complex SEO topics into simple, easy reads. Their YouTube channel, AhrefsTV, takes this skill and translates it into video. Ahrefs TV is home to both 101-level fundamentals and more advanced content. It’s perfect for anyone looking to brush up on their SEO skills over time.

15. Google Search Console Training

Google Search Console helps users improve their site performance on Google search through a collection of tools and reports that measure site traffic and any issues that may be deterring it. If you haven’t used it before, Google offers a video training course that explains how to use the platform.

The full library contains twenty videos, some of which cater to specific industries and professions—a must-watch for anyone looking to improve their familiarity with Search Console.

Design and creative resources

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again: “social media manager” and “designer” are two separate roles. Still, if you’re in a pinch and find yourself needing to make your own creative, these tools can help you create something polished and Like-worthy.

16. Sprout’s Social Media Image Size Guide

Visual content is integral to your social media marketing strategy. Keep our always-up-to-date social media image size guide handy as a reference when optimizing content by platform.

17. Landscape by Sprout Social

Once you figure out what image sizes you need, use Landscape to create the picture-perfect crop.

With Landscape, you can upload any image you’d like to post on social media and have it resized to work for all your priority social media networks. This image resizer is a simple but powerful tool designed to help marketers, content creators and business owners stand out in an increasingly visual world.

18. Canva Design School

Anyone can make beautiful visual designs using Canva, the online graphic design platform. Their educational hub, Canva Design School, is home to a series of recorded and live workshops that can help you bring your creative vision to life.

 19. Unsplash

Unsplash hosts over two million free-to-use high-resolution images. Their collection is sorted by a number of categories, including current events, nature, people and more, so you can find the perfect photo faster.

20. Free Social Media Templates Gallery

Sprout’s free template gallery is home to striking social media templates designed specifically for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube. Customize them with your own images and text, and you’ll get a unique graphic that makes your account pop.

21. CloudApp

Is your download folder filled to the brim with time-stamped screenshots? With CloudApp, you can take, label and store screenshots for future use. If you need to add more context to your image, their platform also supports GIF creation, video demonstrations and image annotation.

Video editing resources

More than half (65%) of consumers agree that short-form video is the most engaging type of in-feed social content. If you’re looking to build out your video editing toolkit in 2023, here are our top picks.

22. CapCut

You can create some pretty impressive video content using network tools, but if you want a better user experience and advanced features, turn to CapCut. It’s available as both a mobile and desktop app so you can create a stand-out social media video without all the squinting.

23. Adobe Premiere Pro*

Adobe Premiere Pro is a subscription-based video editing application used by brands and creators alike. Use it to create stunning videos that look custom-made for every social channel—including YouTube.

24. Teleprompter App

The Teleprompter app is the perfect tool to have in your back pocket for when your teammates are feeling a bit camera shy. Even the presence of a teleprompter is enough to make people feel more comfortable in front of a camera.. Just remind them not to use it to read their script word-for-word. It’s meant to be a helping hand, not a read-along.

25. Frame.io*

If you’ve ever sent a list of time-stamped video edits to your creative team, consider Frame.io. This tool provides a central hub that supports collaboration across the video editing process through comments and tracked changes. You can also tag specific team members in requests so everyone stays aligned on action items.

Email marketing resources

Email marketing has been around for decades, yet brands are still pushing the standards of what the channel can do. Whether through stunning interactive design or creative campaign strategy, there’s always something to learn from the ol’ inbox.

26. Really Good Emails

Really Good Emails is just that—an ever-growing curated collection of really good emails. This constant stream of marketing design and copy examples is the perfect tool for building your inspiration swipe file.

27. Litmus Blog

The Litmus blog is an indispensable resource for keeping up with best practices in email marketing. Whether you’re concerned with content, deliverability or even changing privacy laws, you’ll find a must-read article as soon as you hit their resources page.

What to read first: Email Marketing Design Trends We’re Expecting in 2023

28. Omnisend’s Email Subject Line Tester

This tool from Omnisend gives marketers a chance to analyze and improve subject lines before they press send. Find optimized recommendations based on several factors including length, word count and scannability.

Reporting and analytics resources

Reporting skills are essential to proving the value of your marketing and social strategy. Show your leadership team how your work fuels your marketing goals using these resources.

29. Google Analytics Academy

Google Analytics Academy will help you build up your data skills with interactive lessons taught in a staged Google Analytics environment. It’s a great way to get hands-on experience on the platform, especially if your own instance isn’t optimized for social reporting yet.

30. Orbit Media Studios YouTube Channel

The Orbit Media Studios YouTube channel is a great video complement to their famous blog. Their succinct videos answer a range of analytics questions for people of all experience levels.

What to watch first: How do I track social media in Google Analytics?

31. Sprout’s Paid and Organic Reporting Template

Winning social strategies rely on a solid mix of paid and organic efforts. This reporting template will help you track the performance of a two-fold strategy. It’s an essential tool for tying social performance back to top-line business goals.

Market research tools

How do you pressure-test ideas on a budget? Market research, of course. In the past, market research has seemed too expensive or involved for anyone working outside of enterprise businesses. However, thanks to the wealth of social data that exists at your fingertips, you can now quickly and accurately identify actionable insights on what matters to your audience.

32. ThinkWithGoogle

Here’s a two for one. ThinkWithGoogle gathers fresh perspectives on industry trends and consumer behavior sourced from the Google marketing team as well as other leading marketers across the globe. Their research is informed by search trends and expanded upon to include actionable insights so you can apply the data in a way that makes sense for your brand.

33. Exploding Topics

If you want to find out about the next big thing before it’s a trending topic, you need to subscribe to the Exploding Topics newsletter. Every Tuesday, their team shares expert analysis on search topics that are about to take off. Plus, they also include valuable context on why a trend may be gaining popularity and what marketers can expect from it next.

34. Pinterest Trends

Pinterest Trends forecasts what’s next in fashion, food, beauty and more using data from Pinterest users across the US, UK and Canada. If you have a hunch on what’s making waves in your industry, you can also use the Trends tool to check its search volume, related trends and top Pins.

35. Answer The Public

Answer the Public’s website claims it’s a “goldmine of consumer insight” and we will gladly second that assessment. The tool gathers autocomplete data from search engines so you can find all the questions and terms people are searching around your product, brand or even a general topic.

36. Sprout Social’s Listening Tool

Social data can answer a brand’s most important questions about how to manage, expand and grow its business. Sprout’s Social Listening tool is a premium add-on that helps brands distill global social conversations into actionable insights on brand health, content opportunities, product decisions and more.

Start a Free Trial Today

AI and marketing automation resources

This year’s hot topic comes with a learning curve. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are revolutionizing how people are thinking about marketing as we speak, so the time to get up to speed on the topic is now. Here are some of our favorite recommendations.

37. MIT Sloan’s Machine Learning Explained

Shout out to the folks at MIT Sloan School of Management for gifting us all with this free, in-depth primer on machine learning. This article is a long read but it’s more than worth it. Read it for insights from MIT professors who have been working in the AI/ML field for years and for a vocab lesson on some key terms you’ll be hearing throughout 2023 and beyond.

38. ChatGPT

If you were on Twitter in December 2022, you’re probably at least familiar with the ChatGPT interface.

Use case examples flooded feeds, with pros from nearly every industry discovering ways the tool could streamline their day-to-day work. If you haven’t tested out ChatGPT yet, try it today. Here’s a helpful Twitter thread on how to create a workable prompt. Once you get acquainted with the tool’s limitations, your only limit is your imagination.

Marketing leadership development resources

Remote and hybrid work has turned office communication standards on their head. Whether you currently lead a team or you simply like to be seen as a leader, these resources can help you step up in a changing work environment.

39. Fast Company*

If you want to stay up-to-date on what the future of business has in store, you need to subscribe to Fast Company. Launched by two former Harvard Business Review editors in 1995, Fast Company chronicles how our changing world impacts business and vice versa. It’s a must-read for those looking to zoom out so they can understand their brand’s place in the bigger picture.

40. Harvard Business Review*

Harvard Business Review is on a mission to improve the practice of management in a changing world. Their content ranges from perspectives on current events to general best practice advice on leadership, organizational culture and more. If you’re new to corporate life or if you’re coaching others who are, check out Ascend, HBR’s learning companion for graduating students and Millennials in the workplace.

What to read first: 9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2023 and Beyond

41. CMO Today Newsletter

If your New Year’s resolution is to start thinking more strategically, this is the newsletter subscription for you. The Wall Street Journal’s CMO Today looks at the day’s top news through a marketing lens so you can learn from how other leaders approach today’s ever-changing marketing landscape.

42. Marketing Week

Marketing Week is home to both practical advice and feature stories on game-changing strategies and leaders. It’s a go-to resource for those seeking inspiration from brands piloting new channels and working on the cutting edge of what’s possible with martech.

Elevate your marketing skills in 2023

Think of these resources as your textbooks to help you navigate what is bound to be another great year for you and your team. You probably won’t be able to read them all in one sitting, so be sure to bookmark this page for later. That way you can refer to the list as you work through crushing your 2023 goals.

Remember to share this with your team, as well. Pair it with the social media career growth planning template to get them thinking about what’s next in their marketing journey. Happy learning!

The post The 42 best marketing resources we recommend in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

“Goally helps ease the lives of families with neurodiverse individuals,” said Kaelyn Brooks, Digital Marketing Specialist at Goally. “We help parents focus more on the fun stuff with their kids, like goodnight kisses and playing outside, rather than nagging them through routine activities.”

To better understand the complex needs of parents with neurodiverse children, Goally turned to Sprout Social for help extracting actionable insights from social conversations across various channels, including TikTok. They’ve been using Sprout’s Listening tools since the beginning of 2022, and the insights gained so far are helping the company evolve its social media strategy. Sprout has empowered Goally to build brand awareness and connect more effectively with its primary target audience: parents.

Sprout’s Listening tools validate the company’s vision and help answer tough questions

Social listening is essential for helping Goally confirm it’s providing technology that’s truly helpful. “We’re a social impact company, and we care a lot about making life easier for neurodiverse families,” said Brooks. “So, we listen to what people need, and we pride ourselves on making products and implementing features based on what we hear from our customers. We don’t always get things right at first, but we learn how to make it right. We chase that with everything we’ve got, and we just listen.”

Using Sprout for social listening helped Brooks surface a common need of parents raising neurodiverse kids: They want to see their children become independent.

“That learning has really validated our vision as a company,” said Brooks. “We know the problem we’re chasing is real, and we’re providing a solution—a really good one, too. Education is often lacking in the world of neurodiversity, and people don’t know where to get information. Social media channels like TikTok offer a unique and accessible way for people to ask authentic questions and get answers.”

Using Sprout is well worth your time, energy and investment because it’s one of the most helpful tools to build a community. Sprout validates social media strategy like no other tool that I’ve found.

Kaelyn Brooks
Digital Marketing Specialist

Sprout helps Goally connect with influencers and drive conversions

While Facebook is important for conversation, and Instagram is valuable for getting how-to information, Brooks said TikTok is “the go-to place” for Goally’s audiences to learn how the company’s technology works.

“TikTok is a place to share authentic stories and build trust,” Brooks noted, adding that Sprout’s Listening tools helped her understand the value of authenticity to Goally’s audience. “When they get on TikTok, they don’t want to see dancing,” she said. “They want to see a mom sharing a story about a really hard experience she had that day or what a therapist said that really helped her kid. It’s authentic vlogging that’s found nowhere else.”

TikTok is also a place for making valuable connections with creators and influencers. Through Sprout, Goally has identified relevant influencers who are bolstering brand awareness and raised Goally’s profile on TikTok. Without using Sprout, Brooks wouldn’t have found one particular influencer who helped her connect with other key influencers. “Social influencers are vital to helping with our conversions,” said Brooks. “The last two times we’ve done a major influencer push on TikTok, we saw the number of users on our website with intent to buy increase by about 4%.”

According to Brooks, Goally also saw its branded search rate increase 58% during its social influencer push in August 2022—compared to January 2022, when the company first started using Sprout. “Our subscriptions also increased 89% during the month of August when we were using TikTok and Instagram influencer campaigns,” said Brooks.

Goally is using Sprout to track follower trends, which has helped them confirm that TikTok is a place they need to stay active. “Since April 2022, we’ve been consistently growing at 254% month over month, every month. As of December, we have more than 3,000 followers,” Brooks said. “That’s pretty small compared with most companies, but it’s a really big deal for us.”

The increase in Goally’s follower count on TikTok has been rapid since we started using Sprout. That’s given us a reason to stay on TikTok—because we’re finding that there are people incredibly interested in what we’re posting there, and they’re really quick to hit ‘follow.

Kaelyn Brooks
Digital Marketing Specialist

Sprout’s Smart Inbox enables personalized customer care and engagement

Sprout’s Smart Inbox has been especially valuable for keeping on top of Goally’s audience engagement.

If someone comments on a TikTok that we posted two months ago, I could easily miss it if I didn’t have Sprout’s Smart Inbox. It helps us make sure people feel like they’re being heard. With Sprout, I’m certain every single person who comments on our posts, whether new or old, is replied to and cared for quickly and easily.

Kaelyn Brooks
Digital Marketing Specialist

Sprout helps Brooks decrease the amount of time she dedicates to answering questions and chasing comments on individual platforms—which gives her more time for campaign planning and data collection. “I estimate that my productivity has increased by at least 50% since I started using Sprout’s Smart Inbox,” said Brooks.

As for measurement and reporting, Goally uses Sprout to track engagement rates and impressions, both organic and paid. Most of this data is tracked monthly, but Brooks and her team run reports more often to determine the effectiveness of a particular campaign or test new ideas.

Build genuine connections with your community

Brooks harnessed Sprout’s Listening tools to connect Goally’s product development to the needs of their target audience, forge influencer partnerships and improve community engagement.

Learn how Sprout Social can help your team foster impactful relationships with your followers. Request your free demo today.

The post How Sprout Social helps Goally engage with and learn from parents of neurodiverse children appeared first on Sprout Social.

What content is our audience consuming? What current events are defining online conversations? What are competitors posting? What channels and creative seem to be really popular?

These are all good questions and certainly ones that will make you great at your job.

But once in a while, it can help to think of an even bigger, more abstract and somewhat morbid question: What could destroy us?

While it’s not necessarily fun, it can be healthy to think through success as an uncertainty.

We don’t have to look too far. In 1980, seven of the top ten companies in the S&P 500 were oil and gas companies. IBM, which saw an extremely profitable run in the 1980s, was leapfrogged by companies like Microsoft and Proctor and Gamble. Microsoft took less than a decade to become one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Can you guess how many of the top ten valued companies in 1980 were still in the top ten in 2020?

Zero.

Even in just twenty years, it’s fascinating to think about how the world has changed. Oil and gas stocks, which once represented more than a quarter of the market, now represent less than 5%. Kodak, one of the darlings of the 1980s, is barely recognized today. Mergers, recessions, bankruptcies and latent innovation could continue to change the course of today’s giants. Many of the companies we think could be popular in the next twenty years may not even exist today. Certainly, nobody in 1985 could have predicted the future of Apple.

But what can you do as a marketer to prepare for the future?

3 frameworks to spot the big picture for your brand

By learning simple, strategic frameworks, you can start thinking through the trends that could define your company’s future and give you a leg up on areas and conversations to research. These frameworks can help you reinforce why you exist and how to analyze other competitors in the space to better chalk up your position.

Five Forces Framework

The brainchild of academic Michael Porter (essentially to modern strategy what Lebron James is to basketball), the Five Forces Framework is one of the most popular frameworks to understand what’s happening outside of your business.

Consisting of five components, Porter’s Five Forces essentially helps you answer the broader question of how attractive it is to be in a specific industry.

Porter’s Five Forces can help you address how power is distributed in an industry, the nature of how easy it is to enter and the likelihood of survival.

For example, look at the airline industry. There are only two significant suppliers: Airbus and Boeing. If they decide to raise prices or go on strike, it can create shockwaves throughout and likely impact every airline in the industry. In addition, since it costs a lot to build planes and market websites, it’s much harder to enter the industry.

In contrast, the real estate industry has more power in the hands of buyers, who have many options (brokers, websites) for price comparison. For sectors like food and beverage, there is a lot of competition, including healthier options at relatively low costs to the average person who wants to switch.

While not every company may have a traditional supplier or buyer framework (i.e., modern internet companies), every company is impacted by trends that influence buyers.

How to use the framework:

To start thinking through the five forces, the first step is to zoom out and look at the industry or space your brand is in, which can be clarified by a simple Google Search or look at Yahoo Finance. Use the image above to guide your template, with rivalry in the center and the corresponding forces surrounding it.

Start with your users or customers and think through some questions: What else are they using? If you disappeared tomorrow, what would they be doing? Then, think through the industry as a whole. Is it easy for new companies to come in? Does loyalty play a role? All the criteria in the above image can help you learn. What you do next depends on the output. If customer loyalty isn’t very strong or switching costs are low, it might be good to pay attention to what competitors are doing to combat that.

PESTELE Analysis

Another common framework is the PESTELE Analysis, which considers many factors like economic, political, social and legal factors that can influence your product or brand. Take a look at modern apps–it would’ve been impossible for an app like Uber to exist twenty years ago. It needed a few factors in its favor: Smartphones to become normalized, Apple to offer its app store platform, society to accept people getting into strangers’ cars and a confused regulatory atmosphere that couldn’t figure out how to govern ridesharing.

Similarly, PESTELE factors essentially created what the airline industry is today. The recession and airline deregulation of the 1980s forced many airlines into total collapse. American, Southwest, Delta and others were able to weather the storm and survive to continue their success today.

While understanding the environment and industry can help build a longer-term strategy, some tools are more helpful for internal analysis and more nuanced to the capabilities of your brand.

How to use this framework:

Unlike the Five Forces, which can largely be filled in through some level of intuition and understanding of business models, PESTELE requires a lot more research to understand the different trends impacting your brand.

Start with each driver of the PESTELE analysis above and dive into each separately. Politically, have any laws been passed that could impact your business? Any new laws that might be passed? Are there any new social trends that might make your business appetizing? Any new technology (i.e. generative AI) that could dramatically change the way people use your service?

What counts as a notable factor is entirely up to you, but PESTELE will open your brain up to think creatively about the business world around you.

SWOT Analysis

A SWOT Analysis is a popular framework used to categorize how you’re doing as a company. With the acronyms standing for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, SWOT essentially looks at how the present and future can coexist within a single framework. Take a look at an example SWOT of Nike–while you can see the workings of a strong company in the present, the opportunities and threats section of the SWOT can help Nike assess how it moves forward. Does it jump into better PR? New categories? VR?

Like the other frameworks, SWOT only benefits from the amount of detail you put into it and the creative ways you think about existing trends plus how they impact the work you do.

How to use this framework:

The great thing about the SWOT analysis is not only that it’s fairly easy to put together but that it is mostly internal and can be a good crux for reflecting on your current brand.

You likely have the knowledge to do a SWOT without much external research. The best part is that SWOT can also be done at a functional level–your social media alone can benefit from a SWOT analysis. This involves thinking through strengths (which platforms are you strongest on), weaknesses (struggling content), opportunities (new platforms and competitor advantages) as well as threats (market conditions, algorithm changes, etc.)

Don’t underestimate your role in zooming out

While not many jobs require you to build and populate these models as a function of your daily duties, understanding how the world is changing around you and how your company is positioned to benefit or fail is a muscle you can use for any job.

While it’s constructive if you’re a newer company or an upstart in the industry, it can also be a beneficial way to build influence within a larger or existing company. If you’re in a customer-facing role like social media, your eyes and ears are constantly listening to conversations customers, governments and competitors are having.

It’s not likely that you alone can fix the state of the company. After all, some of the brightest executives in the world couldn’t help Blackberry predict the business model that would spark iPhone adoption to skyrocket. But even if you’re not the one making the decision, a single input in a PESTELE or SWOT can be the catalyst to surviving the next twenty years.

Once you’ve used strategy frameworks to find opportunities for your brand, these three prioritization frameworks will help you define projects and next steps.

The post How strategy frameworks can help your brand stay relevant appeared first on Sprout Social.

Social isn’t just about awareness anymore. It’s a tool for customer service and nurturing loyalty. So, you need to leverage other departments to support the end-to-end customer experience.

To stretch social media’s impact in your organization, set up a continuous feedback loop to collect and analyze data from your customers and stakeholders. Then, use this information to inform business decisions and improve your brand’s online presence.

Think about it: Every team in your company is full of experts. Imagine the benefits of using their collective IQ to integrate social strategy and data in all aspects of the business.

A successful social media strategy is rooted in collaboration. Working with customer service, product and other departments on your strategy helps you get the most from your marketing resources. It also helps stay ahead of competitors and create personalized experiences for customers. Let’s walk through how you can practice social media collaboration with teams across your organization to increase your social strategy’s impact.

The benefits of cross-team collaboration

New ideas don’t have to come at the expense of existing initiatives. When everyone is on the same page, it makes it easier for folks to share their unique insights and experiences. This creates room for innovative strategies that can help differentiate your brand experience and align your messaging at every point of the customer journey. It also fosters interest and buy-in for your initiatives across the organization.

On the flip side, your social media data can inform business decisions and improve the customer experience beyond simply boosting brand awareness. Let’s take a more in-depth look at how departments outside of marketing can support implementing a comprehensive social strategy.

Customer support can fix problems before they escalate

Our research from The Sprout Social Index™ 2022 shows that more than three-quarters of consumers expect a response within 24 hours on social media. Depending on your message volume, that demand can be too high for your social team to balance on top of their other duties. Your customer service team is already primed to support. With social media collaboration tools, your social team can use their expertise to address questions or issues about your product or service quickly and accurately.

Your social media data is also a tool for customer support teams to learn how customers think. Valuable insights they make look at include:

• Customer sentiment
• Common issues or complaints that customers experience
• How quickly and effectively the support team responds to customer inquiries

This feedback helps customer support teams make data-driven decisions that improve the customer experience.

Sales can tailor messaging to your target audience

Like customer support, sales teams need to understand customers’ pain points and improve the sales they generate.

Valuable social data for sales teams includes information about:

• Customer preferences and interests
• Common objections or concerns customers have
• How customers interact with the company’s content, products or services

Social data helps sales teams customize sales strategies and messages to address what customers want.

For example, if a group of customers shows interest in a product or feature promoted on social, sales can highlight it in their communication efforts with those interested parties.

Additionally, sales can flag trends bubbling up in their customer conversations to inform niche interests or industry changes your social content should reflect. And equipping your sales team with guidance on their own social presence will boost their social selling efforts.

Product teams can use feedback to improve products

Product teams also need to understand customer needs and preferences.

They’ll be interested in data that shares:

• Customer feedback
• How customers are using the product in their daily lives
• Common issues or problems customers experience with products

Social is a goldmine of unfiltered comments and posts with this type of information. All of which help product teams understand how to improve your brand’s products and services.

Across all departments, audience insights from data-driven social media marketing are crucial to predicting the success of campaigns and product launches. By acting on the insights, you’ll stay competitive in an increasingly crowded market. And you can build a loyal customer base that gives you repeat business.

Identify who’s who in cross-departmental collaboration

There are a lot of benefits to social media collaboration across teams, but where do you start? Which key business stakeholders need insights from your social strategy?

Our research shows customer service and corporate communications teams typically contribute the most to social strategy.

Stakeholders will vary depending on your organizational structure but look at collaborating beyond your marketing team.

Here are a few key stakeholders who can contribute to and benefit from your social strategy and help you stay ahead of the game:

Customer service teams, especially the management team overseeing service level agreements (SLAs) and service agents’ workloads. They can delegate responses to customer questions and feedback on social. They’ll also need reporting to improve their responses to customer issues and complaints.

Sales teams, including sales enablement, will use your insights to understand customer preferences and objections. Then they can tailor their sales strategies and messages accordingly. 

Product teams, especially leadership and product leads, will need customer feedback and social data around common issues or requests to improve the product or service. Plus, they’ll inform you of upcoming releases that may require social promotion.

PR teams can monitor sentiment and address potential brand crises.

Executive teams will be interested in how social impacts the company’s performance to help them make data-driven decisions.

It’s clear social data helps each team find customer-centric approaches that further support your brand’s social presence and the company’s long-term goals.

Tips for successful social media collaboration with other teams

Once clear on social’s benefits for each team, you’re ready to build a workflow. Establishing clear processes and communication channels will make cross-departmental social media collaboration seamless. Here’s how:

Establish a point of contact for each team

Appoint someone from each team to lead and be the point of contact for everything social-related. Then, the team representatives can share updates about their departments’ progress with each other.

Set a meeting or collaboration cadence

Decide how often teams should meet and schedule dates in advance. During meetings, allot collaboration time to review progress and discuss challenges. And document each team’s review and share it with the other departments for alignment and visibility.

Give stakeholders access to social plans

Waiting for permission to access a doc is a real nail-biter when you’re in a time crunch. Save your teams’ cuticles by sharing docs ahead of time. And include everyone who needs access to social plans and strategies.

Share monthly reports and analytics

Along with access to the social plan, share monthly progress and data recaps with the other teams. Include analytics and insights that help clarify the plan and its effectiveness. Also highlight key takeaways for each team, focusing on the data that matters most to them.

Include social listening feedback

You need to understand your customers’ needs and speak their language when talking about your product or service. Through social listening, you can gather the opinions, experiences and other information they share with their networks about you and your competitors.

Establish a continuous feedback loop around your listeners. Share valuable insights, information and social listening data with teams on a set schedule. Then, they can design empathetic experiences and solutions that make your customers feel heard.

Build a better feedback loop with social media collaboration tools

Since carrier pigeons are outdated, consider using tools to communicate information about your social strategy and collaborate across your organization. They make it easy for everyone to stay up-to-date and work well whether you’re remote or back in the office.

Here are a few tools to add to your tech stack that will streamline your feedback loop:

• Collaboration software: Slack, Microsoft Teams or Asana help teams share information, discuss ideas and collaborate on projects in real time.
• Project management software: Airtable, ClickUp, Notion and Trello help teams manage and organize work, track progress and share updates.
• Cloud-based storage: Google Drive and Dropbox enable people across the organization to access shared content, documents, style guides and the like.
• Social media team collaboration software: Sprout Social offers a range of benefits—like comprehensive reporting and analytics and audience engagement tools—for companies looking to improve their social media strategy across networks.

Also, your client relationship management solution (CRM) can bridge the gap between teams. Since Sprout Social integrates with Salesforce, several teams have visibility into customer activity across channels to track the full customer journey. Plus, customer service can switch with ease between Salesforce and Sprout to handle customer service requests from social.

Use the power of collaboration for social strategy success

When everyone’s on board, success is inevitable. By harnessing collective expertise, teams make smarter decisions and efficiently measure results, boosting your social strategy and its impact on your business.

And using collaboration tools to enable cross-functional interactions will help teams create unified messages and experiences that drive results.

Ready to set up cross-departmental collaboration to achieve social success? Sprout Social has you covered. Deliver social insights org-wide with this template.

The post How social media collaboration can boost your strategy’s impact appeared first on Sprout Social.

Developing strong relationships with your customers is the key to both short and long-term success. Relationships drive brand loyalty, and brand loyalty is what keeps your business growing. Social media is built on the kinds of conversations that create deep relationships. You have to be primed to take advantage of that. But social media is complex. Without reliable, top-tier technology, your teams won’t be able to manage all of the complexity of a sophisticated social strategy. A good tech stack is your best friend in social, no matter what department or function you’re working in.

Keep in contact with your audience

Most businesses aren’t ready to accept that social media is the preferred channel for consumers. But over half (54%) of global customers have a more favorable view of brands that address support needs on social media. Even with stats like that, businesses still want to direct customers to support lines or emails. That’s understandable and certainly much easier to manage. Phone lines and emails are channels we have a long history managing and that we can easily direct to the relevant department. Meanwhile in Social, we don’t have that same luxury because we can’t control how, when and where messages come from.

And that’s because your customers don’t see your business as neatly broken up into sales, customer support and marketing teams. They see your business as one entity, and it’s easy to message that entity on Facebook. As business leaders, our job is to understand and meet our customers’ desires, and right now our customers desire a seamless social media support experience.

Just like phone and email technology makes it easier for us to route requests to the people who can answer them, social media tech stacks can do the same. Investing in social media enablement technology makes sure that both your teams and customers have a seamless experience from start to finish. Technology can segment your messages into leads, questions and complaints so the right person is always ready to send the right reply. Technology also keeps track of every message you receive, so every message gets a reply, so you are better equipped to help this customer in the future, and so you can use the data to inform your future decision-making.

Reach out in real time

Social media is the only marketing channel that gives you instant feedback. Every view, like and comment is a data point that can tell you how well your campaign is performing. With those results, it’s hard to see how any other channel could beat it. Any campaign you create with traditional media–whether that’s television, billboards, radio or print–should be supported by a social media campaign so you can see the impact and make adjustments in real time.

Social-first marketing strategies give you the power to be truly data-driven. But you can’t harness that data without technology. Knowing that 10,000 people have interacted with your business on social in the past week is nice, but it doesn’t help you make decisions. You need to be able to drill down into those interactions to find their action items. Your quantitative data–like engagement or post metrics–will show you the impact of your campaign while your qualitative data–like the content and sentiment of the replies or mentions–can tell you where you’re succeeding and where you need to shift the course. Without technology by your side to help you interpret it, they’re just numbers.

Connect through conversations

Any relationship is built through conversations. For brands, those conversations have traditionally been one-sided. But social media gives your customers a voice–and it’s your responsibility to listen and interact. Commenting on, liking and responding to your audience’s content is a key strategy for socially sophisticated brands. By showing you care about the things your audience cares about, you inspire brand loyalty and trust. But once again, scaling this strategy is impossible without technology.

As your social media presence and team grows, it’s imperative you have the technology in place for them to succeed. They’ll need a single source of truth to keep track of comments and interactions with customers. That’s not something they can do natively in a platform or with a less sophisticated social media management solution. Being a leader means equipping your team for success. And as the complexity of your strategy grows, they’ll need a tech stack to simplify it.

React to changing conditions

We’re all feeling the effects of market and consumer shifts right now. It can sometimes feel impossible to know what’s going to happen next. But social media can be a leading indicator of what’s to come for your team–if you know how to use it.

Social data is some of the most powerful data we have access to. It’s an aggregation of billions of peoples’ thoughts, opinions, anxieties and joys. Social data holds the answers to your business’s most important questions. Whether your team is focusing on investor relations, sales, research and development or HR, social data can help them make data-driven decisions in real-time.

Teaming up with technology

When you’re facing economic headwinds, you have to react quickly. You can’t do that without support. Sometimes that support comes from your team but other times, it comes from technology that solves the problems you didn’t even know you had.

Social media represents one of the largest business opportunities of our lifetimes. The relationships it builds–and the dividends those relationships pay–can’t be overlooked. Businesses that are ready to take on the challenges and complexity of social media are primed to win, and businesses that aren’t will be left behind.

Want to learn more about the power of social data? Check out this article on how social data can level up your business in difficult times.

The post Don’t go it alone: Creating social relationships with technology appeared first on Sprout Social.