I spoke with Peter Kennedy, Founder and General Manager, Influencer Marketing for Tagger by Sprout Social, to discuss how leaders can measure and maximize their influencer marketing return on investment (ROI) at each customer journey stage.

Why influencer marketing ROI matters

Nearly half (47%) of social marketers say measuring the effectiveness of campaigns is one of their top influencer marketing challenges, according to our Q3 2023 Pulse Survey. ROI is a critical proxy for gauging effectiveness, not to mention a jumping-off point for future budget asks.

Let’s cover three reasons why influencer marketing ROI matters:

1. Influencer marketing encompasses the entire customer journey

Kennedy says people often think about ROI as it relates to sales, but influencer marketing has changed the game. He explains ROI is often confined to bottom-funnel metrics like downloads or conversions, but influencer marketing drives returns across the customer journey.

“When you start to use influencer content across the entire journey, sales are definitely part of [your results]. But what’s the ROI of the awareness you’re building and the consideration?” he says.

In our LinkedIn influencer marketing roundtable, Kennedy emphasized how influencer content often fuels higher engagement than branded content. Our Q3 Pulse Survey also found that 79% of marketers describe influencer content as necessary for their customers’ experiences, and 81% describe influencer marketing as an essential part of their social media strategy.

“We’re getting better awareness, engagement, purchase, retention and advocacy because the content resonates more with people,” he says.

2. Influencers can help balance brand and performance marketing

The push and pull between brand and performance marketing is a common experience among chief marketing officers. Leaders often view performance marketing as a safer bet because it can be measured clearly and held more accountable for business results, making it easier to see how a company’s marketing dollars connect to revenue. But today’s consumers are savvy and recognize when brands only see them as dollar signs—so balancing brand and demand efforts becomes even more important.

Kennedy agrees and notes that, historically, performance marketers haven’t tapped into influencer marketing—but the landscape is changing:

“With A/B testing, they’re finding that influencer content converts faster and gets better click-through rates than branded content.”

3. Marketers must measure ROI to earn more buy-in

ROI is the key to commanding a larger influencer marketing budget. Even though the majority of marketers say influencer marketing is vital to their social strategy, only 34% have a dedicated budget for influencer marketing.

Influencers can help marketers reach their goals and earn more buy-in for future collaborations. Our data reveals social marketers rate influencer marketing as having a significant impact on their brand’s efforts including brand awareness (89%), increased brand reputation (87%) and customer loyalty (87%).

How to measure influencer marketing’s ROI: The 5 W’s + H of influencer strategy

Kennedy explains that calculating influencer marketing ROI is tricky because there isn’t a simple equation.

“You can’t just say, ‘We spent X on influencer marketing, we got this many sales and our ROI is Y.’ There are a lot more variables that need to go into that.”

Instead of searching for a formula to calculate success, consider several factors that impact a brand’s ROI. Kennedy organizes most of these into the Five W’s of influencer strategies (who, what, when, where and why)—and advises how leaders need each to better understand audience interest, behavior and preferences, which can further inform your influencer selections and campaign execution.

The who: Influencer identification

Our Pulse Survey data shows finding the right influencers is the top influencer marketing challenge. This is where the first of the Five W’s comes into play.

The “who” includes your target audience, their demographics, interests and affinities. Kennedy underscores the importance of hiring influencers based on audience fit and historic performance. He recommends looking at influencers who talk about your industry and whose content outperforms when they mention your topic or product.

Many marketers will start by searching a database to find influencers for their campaigns. They search based on audience demographics, location or topics the influencers discuss.

“Before I can even think about the influencer I need to hire, I need to consider what my channel strategy is,” he says. “I want these influencers to be authentic when they talk about certain themes or products.”

He says you must understand your product category or industry to help determine the most important channel(s) and which influencers to hire based on their social presence. Then he recommends filtering down to the target demographics and geolocation. Historical performance is another essential metric to track to ensure the influencer maps to their goals.

Another integral piece of the influencer identification process is checking their audience’s affinity. He points to an example of a health food company.

“The company may want to work with a particular influencer. But when you view their audience, their followers care about candy bars. That’s not the right audience because they’re not necessarily looking for healthy products, even if the influencer is on board,” he says.

“If the influencer’s audience makes sense, the influencer makes sense because they both talk about these [topics or interests]. Two plus two can equal eight with influencer marketing. So historical performance and audience alignment within your category are most important,” he says.

The influencer identification process is a manual journey that can take a lot of time and effort, but with Sprout, you can use People View to discover and organize profiles that interact with your brand.

This view ensures that you can authentically interact with the people who engage with your brand the most. People View can help foster connections with influencers, manage your VIP lists and view conversation history. This feature helps expedite the influencer identification process because you can see your most active audience members.

The where

Where you activate your influencer campaigns is equally important as the content. If your brand’s community is more active on one network versus another, that can help narrow down which influencers your brand should partner with to capture share of voice.

Kennedy explains when he asks brands why they are running a campaign on one platform, it’s widely based on assumption. But they’re often better suited to another platform because of their industry and audience. The engagement they are looking for is happening on entirely different channels.

The what

The “what” refers to the content types that will resonate with your target audience. For example, a 30-second makeup tutorial on TikTok may see higher engagement for people under 25, but longer videos may resonate with older audiences.

The content type you choose will depend on your brand’s audience, but our Pulse Survey shows giveaways (65%), product collaborations (62%) and influencer-led advertisements (57%) are the most common.

Each phase of the customer journey has different goals and KPIs. To maximize influencer marketing ROI, Kennedy advises brands to incorporate influencer content across all of them.

When most people think of influencer marketing, they think of content within the purchase stage like product reviews, tutorials and Live shopping experiences that support sales KPIs, but there are opportunities at every stage.

For example, in the awareness stage, the goal is to boost brand or product visibility. KPIs may include impressions, reach and views. This is when you could leverage posts on an influencer’s profile and repurpose influencer content for paid media.

In the retention stage, you’re aiming for repeat purchases and to increase KPIs like retention rate and customer lifetime value. You could leverage influencers in exclusive memberships or customer appreciation content. For advocacy purposes, influencers can support referral programs.

The why: Influencer marketing business goals

The “why” refers to your business goals. The driving force behind influencer campaigns is often one of two reasons: your competitors are spending a ton in this space, and you need to level up, or there are benefits to your products that you must highlight. For example, let’s say you want to understand the current landscape of influencer content about pickup trucks in the U.S.

“You may discover that towing capabilities are a popular topic. But when you review existing influencer content, another brand is being talked about most regarding towing capability. Although your product may have the best functionality, you’re actually being talked about the least. But now you’ve identified the white space in your industry and can start building a content strategy.”

Our survey shows two-thirds of marketers use social media engagements such as likes, shares and comments to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Social engagement data and conversion rates (in terms of sales, signups or downloads) rank as the two most important metrics to secure buy-in for influencer marketing campaigns.

The when

Campaign timing can make or break your influencer marketing results and effectiveness. Time can be broken down into multiple increments in terms of year, day of the week, or even the hour of the day that will yield the highest engagement.

Kennedy points to the example of content for a yoga company. The holiday season isn’t an ideal time for investment because people prioritize time with family and friends or travel for vacation. But after the holidays, you’ll see a spike in interest because people often focus on renewing their health and wellness rituals in the new year. Spring would be an ideal time as well.

“Understanding those time periods and the seasonality of your industry will be important. We’re going to get better engagement during the times of the year when people care about your industry and product,” he says.

The how: Influencer management overhead

Along with identifying the right partnerships, leaders have to consider influencer management overhead. From contracting to creative collaboration, there’s a lot that goes into daily influencer management. It can be an expensive undertaking if teams lack a transparent process for working with influencer management. Our survey reflects that 64% of markets manage influencer campaigns by working directly with their agents or reps.

Kennedy advises brands to consider local influencers to minimize travel and accommodation expenses. He also stressed considering the “when” of influencer management overhead to get the most out of your spend. “Even if you’re doing an earned campaign where I’m handing the influencer a product, we still incur manufacturing and shipping costs. It’s still paid media,” he says.

With Tagger by Sprout Social, you can integrate influencer marketing with your brand’s social strategy by harnessing data and analytics. With tools like Sprout’s publishing calendar and Tagger Projects, marketers can manage social campaigns and content, streamline influencer workflows, collaborate with talent and provide influencer compensation through a dedicated workspace.

Proving influencer marketing ROI with data insights

Illustrating influencer marketing ROI is a nuanced process. But by considering the Five W’s of influencer marketing strategy and weaving your content across the buyer journey, you’ll be able to prove your marketing dollars are well spent.

To learn more about using Tagger to shape the best path forward for your brand’s influencer marketing strategy, complete our inquiry form.

The post A 6-point framework for maximizing influencer marketing ROI appeared first on Sprout Social.

It’s no longer an anomaly to see public sector accounts going viral. But managing the social media presence of a government agency comes with a unique set of challenges. Complex platform security and governance requirements. Staff who balance multiple responsibilities beyond social. Ever-evolving strategies that can shift overnight.

Choosing the right social media tools for government agencies and other public sector organizations is a non-negotiable part of proactively reaching and engaging your citizens, saving your team valuable time, creating internal visibility and, ultimately, serving your community better. Use the criteria shared in this article to help your team harness the full power of social.

4 things to look for when evaluating social media tools for government entities

Investing in an intuitive social media management platform is an essential step toward building a strong relationship with your constituents. Yet, many agencies only use native tools to manage their accounts—leaving valuable insights and opportunities to connect untapped. Less than half of public sector entities use software to manage or execute their social media strategy, according to ArchiveSocial. The report also revealed agencies not being able to centrally manage their entire presence is the fastest-growing detriment to success on social.

Yet, not all social media management platforms are created equal. When evaluating social tools to help your agency make waves on social, look for one that:

1. Gives your team time back

Like in many industries, managing government social media is more than a 40 hour per week job, especially when staff members juggle other disciplines like communications, PR, digital marketing, content and more. This not only puts teams at risk of burnout, but prevents agencies from maximizing their presence on social and forming stronger relationships with their citizens and communities.

By using a centralized platform like Sprout Social, you’re enabled to make quick work of delivering social content, so your team can focus on engaging your constituents and refining your creative strategy. A recently commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting found that Sprout’s tools helped a composite organization representative of interviewed customers drive $973,000 in social media team productivity and efficiency savings over three years, and a 55% increase in year 3.

Here a few Sprout highlights that help teams collaborate more effectively:

• Shared calendar: Plan your strategy and maintain oversight from a central hub rather than disparate apps or spreadsheets. Organize posts across profiles, networks and campaigns using a visualized calendar to support a long-term strategy. For example, you can map out your posts for the upcoming week and month to assure your content lines up with priority community events.
• Publishing and scheduling: Boost collaboration between staff and increase productivity with campaign planning tools, automated workflows, and scheduling and monitoring tools. Automatically publish your content at the times most likely to reach constituents and receive real-time engagement updates.
• Message Approval Workflows: With internal and external approver features, ensure content is always approved and compliant with your agency’s communication guidelines—all within the Sprout platform.

2. Puts you in control of crisis management

Whether it’s important local events, public safety emergencies or otherwise, crises are an unavoidable part of government social media efforts. Teams need to be able to pivot their publishing quickly, respond to a surge in inbound messages and be proactive to avoid misinformation from spreading.

Stay on the pulse of social media conversations trending in your constituency to prevent minor risks from spiraling into large-scale crises. When evaluating social media tools for government use, look for powerful social listening and audience engagement solutions that do the heavy lifting for you.

The Sprout platform enables you to stop a crisis in its tracks. We offer a suite of tools designed to help you perfect your crisis response strategy—from easily monitoring your incoming messages to zeroing in on key conversations happening online.

• Pause All Content: In the face of a crisis, this feature enables you to pause all outgoing messages with one click—which saves you time and ensures your entire team is on the same page.
• Message Spike Alerts: If your message volume spikes, that could be indicative of a looming crisis. These alerts automatically send email or mobile push notifications when incoming messages exceed your hourly average, so your team doesn’t have to manually monitor your inbox 24/7.
• Social Listening: Sprout’s artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technology can help you gain critical intel about key public figures, trending misinformation and constituent concerns. The platform sifts through millions of social media data points in seconds, helping you access and share actionable findings with leadership and prominent government figures you work with.

3. Supports stronger, more meaningful citizen engagement

Your core mission is to serve your community—which includes serving them on their channel of choice: social media. To do so, you need to understand their preferences, concerns and communication needs, and be responsive and authentic when they reach out to you. Strengthen your citizen engagement by using social media tools that provide your team with valuable intelligence about your audience, and empower swift, proactive communication.

With Sprout’s platform, you can exceed your constituents’ expectations and deliver more tailored experiences on social media—while saving your team time. According to the Total Economic Impact™ study, for the composite organization, customer service specialists saved time equal to $142,000 over three years by using Sprout to respond to incoming me​​ssages and inquiries.

These Sprout tools are designed to help you foster connections with your citizens:

• Smart Inbox: Unify your social channels into a single stream so you’re empowered to monitor incoming messages, cultivate conversations and respond to your audience quickly. By tagging and filtering messages, you can prioritize what’s most important and discover unique engagement opportunities. Built-in collision detection notifications make for seamless collaboration, so you can see who has replied to a message and prevent duplicative work

• Brand Keywords: Often, people talk about your agency on social without tagging you directly. If you aren’t actively searching for these messages, you may miss important conversations. Brand Keywords are custom Twitter searches that constantly run and display results in your Smart Inbox, so you can see and respond to these highly relevant posts as easily as any other message. You can also set up alerts based on high priority or crisis keywords, so you’re always one step ahead.
• Custom VIP lists: Within the Smart Inbox, you can add the VIP label next to the avatar of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn users who messaged you. This feature helps you track correspondences with key players in your constituency, like reporters, elected officials and business leaders.
• Listening: In addition to helping you manage a crisis, Sprout’s social listening solution helps you keep up with relevant trending conversations and influential community leaders. The tools gather honest feedback about your agency’s performance on social and beyond. With these insights, you will be empowered to produce more meaningful content and ladder-up your learnings to decision makers.

4. Reshapes perception of what social can do

In the public sector, social is still largely misunderstood. Many hold onto the lingering belief that it does more harm than good, while others see it as a wild west of misinformation. The right tool will help your communications team quantify the impact of your social efforts and change the way your agency’s stakeholders see social media (even if they aren’t social savvy).

Using a social media management platform makes it easy to create clear reports that demonstrate how your social strategy translates to agency goals. For example, with Sprout’s Analytics tools, you can eliminate the time-consuming manual data collection processes in favor of automated, presentation-ready reports. The Total Economic Impact™ study found that Sprout eliminated manual data aggregation to prepare monthly reports by 75%, resulting in $39,000 in savings over three years.

By using Sprout, you can automatically generate:

• Tag Reports: Access an overview of your inbound and outbound tagged messages to easily analyze campaign effectiveness, volume and performance patterns.
• Post Performance Reports: Analyze cross-channel performance at the post level to understand what messaging and formats resonate with your constituents and why.
• Profile Performance Reports: Access a high-level overview of performance across all connected profiles to quickly evaluate social growth, and how that growth correlates with key initiatives.

5. Supports internal compliance

Compared to other industries, government entities have to balance their social media strategies and workflows against a host of compliance requirements.

For example, a 2014 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) bulletin mandated that federal agencies follow several best practices for managing social media records. Though the definition of what constitutes a “record” can vary by agency, social media posts that communicate policy information or even open-ended prompts that invite user engagement may all constitute records that must be archived properly. A 2023 NARA audit of 10 agencies found that most lack the tools and staff to handle social media record retention.

With Sprout, government organizations can leverage our audit trail to quickly export posts, messages and reviews from the Smart Inbox into a CSV file. These exports provide clear documentation of granular metadata, including message type and timestamps, the Sprout user who sent each message, and permalinks to the message on the original network.

Find the right social media tools for your agency’s workflow

When evaluating social media management software for your government agency, to paraphrase JFK, don’t hesitate to ask what the tools will do for you. With the right social media management platform, you can do your best work more efficiently, proactively curb crises, create more time for citizen engagement and confidently demonstrate the value of social at your agency.

For a more comprehensive look at the value social media provides, download The Total Economic Impact™ of Sprout Social study, and learn how Sprout delivered a 233% return on investment over three years.

The post Social media tools for government: What your team needs for success appeared first on Sprout Social.

We’ll help you navigate this learning curve so you can write effective prompts that align with your different marketing needs. Read on to understand the mechanics of AI writing prompts and how to craft them for the best results. Plus, explore different types of prompts and use cases.

What are AI writing prompts?

AI writing prompts are a form of interaction between a user and an AI tool that enables the model to generate the desired result. Prompts enhance the efficiency of an AI platform so it processes data more efficiently to derive valuable insights and generate engaging content.

AI prompts are both an art and a science. They need human intuition and creativity to formulate the right query and combination of elements necessary to catalyze an AI tool’s built-in prompt logic. It’s only then that you will fully utilize your AI tool and get the insights and ideas you need.

AI tools enable you to offload time-consuming tasks, saving time and energy for strategy planning and development. With effective AI prompts you can optimize these tools to extract key information from social listening and customer experience data.

Also, ideate and draft compelling content such as product descriptions, web articles and social posts. This is especially useful, given content creation remains one of the most time-consuming tasks for marketers, per The Sprout Social Index™.

AI prompts also help you customize content for a global audience by adapting it for different demographics to reach a wider audience. You also have the flexibility to adapt the tone and style of your writing based on the situation—a crucial part of AI-driven customer experience.

With this context in mind, let’s take a look at the different types of AI writing prompts needed to achieve various tasks.

Types of AI prompts

According to The 2023 State of Social Media report, 93% of business leaders say they expect to increase investment in AI and ML to scale social customer care functions over the next three years. It’s clear that brands are exploring AI capabilities for marketing and beyond more confidently. It’s no longer a question of when but how they will adopt AI.

Effective writing prompts spark your creativity and help you write more thoughtfully, so you can better meet your goals. Here’s a look at how different types of AI writing prompts serve various purposes.

Creative prompts 

These are used to develop engaging and creative content based on audience preferences. This includes long and short-form copy, artwork, music and videos. An example of a short-form AI writing prompt is, “Create a social post for Mother’s Day” and for a long-form is, “Write an email introducing (insert: new product) to an existing customer”.

Creative prompts can also be used to create content to mimic a certain writing style. For example, “Write a short brand origin story for a social post in the style of Mark Twain.”

If you’re using an AI image generation tool, a good prompt could read, “Create an image of a child playing with a dog in a garden”.

Informational

These prompts are used to extract details from big data to inform decision-making. For example, to get an overview of a competing brand, a prompt could read: Give me a brief history of Nike’s more successful shoe line.

Reasoning

These are used to draw conclusions about a subject and are useful in developing compelling content. For example, “What is the impact of building strong communities on social?”

Listicle

Listicles are multi-purpose AI writing prompts used to compile a list of options such as email subject lines, blog titles, brands, etc. For example, “Write a list of blog titles on the importance of an effective content calendar”.

Instructional

These help generate content to provide guidance. These serve various purposes such as customer service AI or creating a guide for a new team member. An instructional prompt may read, “Explain the steps needed to upgrade from the Sprout Social Standard plan to the Enterprise plan.”

Interactive

These prompts create interactive conversations and can be used in multiple ways. For example, to train a human resource team, a prompt would read: Pretend this is a job interview and I am interviewing a candidate for the role of a social media manager.

Keyword

These AI writing prompts are words or phrases that are closest to the goal of the generative content. These are mostly used to draw insights from data or in image or video creation.

How do AI prompts work?

AI writing prompts need to be very specific and contain all the essential elements required to elicit an optimal response. Here’s why this is necessary.

AI prompt engineering depends heavily on natural language processing (NLP). The technology helps the tool interpret queries, written in a conversational style, to generate relevant answers. NLP algorithms scan all the data points in a query, as machine learning and other AI tasks work in tandem, to generate the corresponding output. This process involves three stages:

1. Asking a query

The AI writing prompt is analyzed by natural language understanding (NLU), a subtask of NLP. This technology helps the tool identify the context of the query so other AI and ML tasks can take necessary steps to generate the right response.

2. Processing the query

The AI model scans available data to search for relevant information by using sub-tasks such as named entity recognition (NER) and intent recognition. Entity extraction and part of speech (POS) taggers in the tool identify relevant keywords and details such as the task (write a blog post), style (creative/formal) or word count (100).

Sentiment mining algorithms analyze the processed information and detect the tone to match the intent of the user. They modulate the response for appropriate phrasing and style as NLP algorithms choose the right words, grammar and syntax to create the output.

3. Answering the query

This part uses natural language generation (NLG), where different data points based on the question string in the prompt combine to generate a response. In the background, neural networks (NNs) help the tool retain the context of the query throughout a conversation. This enables the tool to remember previous prompts and generate responses relevant to the ongoing interaction.

Eventually, the tool generates the most accurate response based on its training and the AI writing prompt’s style (creative, listicle, keyword, etc.).

How to write AI prompts

AI writing prompts must be clear, concise and direct to ensure the tool understands the task accurately. Each query must be finely tuned, considering factors like topic relevance, keyword selection, structural coherence and target audience, to elicit the best possible response. Let’s dive in.

Goal: Be specific about the goal of your project. Are you creating a social post, customer care response, an email or a blog? Since each of these content types has a particular style, the response generated will only be accurate if you focus it on the goal.

Task: Your prompt should not contain more than one task. Every new task must be a separate query. For example, if you want to write a list of the most popular clothing brands with short descriptions and rank them according to popularity, you need to break this query into two parts.

Your first prompt will read, “Create a list of the most popular clothing brands and rank them according to popularity.” Once the tool generates the list, write the second prompt, “Write a short description for each brand on the list.”

Topic: Specify your topic. Are you writing about a healthcare product, the environment or a particular industry?

Target Audience: Think about who you are creating the content for. Is your target audience between the ages of 30 and 40? Are you writing for a group of professionals such as lawyers or teachers? Or is your content aimed toward customers you wish to convert?

Persona: Mention the persona you are writing for based on key traits, roles and responsibilities. For example, an AI writing prompt aimed at executive audiences could say, “Write a blog for business leaders in the SaaS industry about data security”. Specifying the persona is important because it helps the AI tool choose the correct vocabulary from its database and use it contextually.

Tone: Choosing the correct tone for your content makes it more compelling and engaging. This is especially useful in marketing communications and customer care. Specifying a tone such as assertive, happy, empathetic or friendly, helps sentiment analysis algorithms within the AI tool to choose appropriate words and phrasings in the response to ensure it matches the tone you specify.

Style: Mention how you want your response to be formatted. For example, you can ask for the output to be in bulleted form, paragraph or prose.

Keyword: Be specific about what you want from the response. The more specific you are in your query, the more accurate the output will be.

Word count: Last but not least, define the word count. It helps the AI tool know how long or short the response needs to be. In doing so, the tool can decide how much and what details are important to include in the response.

Combining as many of these elements in your prompt will help elicit the best response from your AI tool. Think of each of these elements as keywords and include or exclude them from your prompts as required.

Points to remember

Even though an AI tool generates answers conversationally, its understanding of nuances and contexts is limited. To meet this challenge, you must:

1. Be clear in your instructions.
2. Rephrase your queries if you’re not getting the response you want. This will also help train the tool to match your style.
3. Ask a close-ended question if you’re looking for a specific answer.
4. Include as much relevant detail as possible in your query.

Check the generated content for plagiarism and accuracy to meet the standards of your organization’s AI use policy.

Examples of AI prompts to improve your writing

Here are some examples of AI writing prompts used in different scenarios for content generation that will help improve your writing.

1. Social media messages

Social teams work on tight deadlines and constrained bandwidths to manage brand campaigns. Social tools with generative AI capabilities are apt for managing this challenge, like Sprout’s Suggestions by AI Assist feature.

The tool’s built-in prompt logic will generate three post options based on your prompt and enable you to make edits as you deem fit. You can also change the tone of the copy to be more confident, friendly or professional.

Here an AI writing prompt could read, “Are you feeling those summer vibes? Try our new seasonal lavender latte today.”

2. Social listening

According to the 2023 State of Social Media report, 97% of business leaders believe AI and ML tools will enable companies to analyze social media data and insights more efficiently. AI prompts are key in helping achieve this goal.

In such cases, the AI writing prompt is a keyword or a key phrase meant to extract meaningful information from social listening data. It should not be a sentence as this will dilute the accuracy of the result.

For example, in Sprout’s Queries by AI Assist, your prompt will be the keyword most relevant to your listening goal. When you write a topic keyword, such as a brand name for competitive analysis, the tool’s intuitive ML model will generate semantically similar keyword suggestions to assist in your listening goal.

You can apply the same logic to exclude terms from your social listening to narrow your search.

3. Copywriting

If you’re using AI prompts to fast-forward time-consuming parts of your writing project, the prompt will have a blend of the elements mentioned in the previous section.

For example, to make an article on social media budget management more compelling, you could include a sample social media budget. Getting one from a generative AI tool will save you time from actually calculating it.

In this case, I specified the goal (budget plan) and topic (influencer marketing) along with very specific details such as the maximum budget and the tenure of the budget. The writing prompt reads, “Create a budget plan for influencer marketing keeping within $4000 for the year.”

4. AI art prompt

AI writing prompts for image-generation tools are a bit different from copywriting tools. These prompts need to be very specific and contain keywords related to all the elements you want in your artwork.

For example, I created this image for a social post advertising snow boots using this prompt: Winter boots on a snowy cliff surrounded by evergreen trees and autumn leaves, in front of mountains.

Master AI writing prompts to optimize your work

AI writing prompts enable you to dig into social media metrics, competitor performance and audience engagement levels. They are also great for creating content strategies, relevant social posts and targeted ads for higher conversions. Knowing how to mix the right elements in an AI prompt is the key to getting the best out of AI tools so you work smarter, not harder.

Use these tips to create stellar prompts as you explore AI marketing tools to manage your time and workflows better.

The post How to use AI writing prompts to get the best out of your AI tools appeared first on Sprout Social.

As algorithms continuously evolve and become more complex, social media marketers must embrace change, adapt swiftly and navigate these algorithmic shifts. The best strategy is to stay updated on trends and optimize your social strategy to maximize engagement.

This guide covers everything about social media algorithms, including important factors to watch out for and how to adapt your social media marketing strategies accordingly.

• What is a social media algorithm?
• Why are social media algorithms important?
• Understanding how social media algorithms work
• Social media algorithms by platform
• 10 Tips for staying ahead of the algorithm and optimizing your content
• AI’s role in social media algorithms
• Start mastering the algorithm
• Social Media Algorithm FAQs

What is a social media algorithm?

An algorithm is a series of instructions designed to solve specific problems, perform tasks or make decisions. In computer programming, algorithms direct the computer’s actions, such as sorting elements, locating data or identifying objects.

In social media, algorithms are rules, signals and data that govern the platform’s operation. These algorithms determine how content is filtered, ranked, selected and recommended to users. In some ways, algorithms influence our choices and what we see on social media.

Why are social media algorithms important?

Every social media platform comprises a mix of users with different preferences. Without a filtering system, users must navigate through a flood of posts, which can be overwhelming.

This is where algorithms come into play. Social media platforms employ sophisticated algorithms as intelligent guides, carefully sorting and matching content to audiences with similar preferences. Understanding the ins and outs of algorithms and why they are important is essential for any social media marketing strategy:

Filter out the content noise

When a new TikTok video or a Facebook post is published, it joins millions of other content pieces online. Algorithms function as librarians, sorting and connecting users with their preferences. This prevents overwhelming users with endless content and helps them find what they like faster. Algorithms enable users to uncover valuable posts, connect with like-minded individuals and explore their interests.

Show users more of what they’re interested in

Social media platforms use sophisticated algorithms to prolong user engagement. These algorithms control content visibility, sequence and recommendations based on user data like actions, behaviors and interests. For instance, if you interact with gadget-related posts, you’ll see more of such content. This personalization improves user engagement and in turn, creates a positive user experience.

Personalize user experience

Today, users have greater control over their content experience. Algorithms leverage data to personalize content recommendations. On platforms like Instagram, you can customize your feed by hiding posts, filtering comments, or selecting “Not interested” to curate your content.

Maximize organic reach

Understanding social media algorithms can boost your online social presence. As more users find your content, the algorithm becomes better at targeting users with similar interests. Creators and marketers can optimize their content for algorithms to leverage its distribution potential. When a post gains high engagement, the algorithm promotes it to a wider audience.

Understanding how social media algorithms work

Understanding how social media algorithms work is like unraveling the intricate threads that govern the digital tapestry of user experiences. These algorithms, like invisible guides, determine the content on our feeds. Let’s explore how social media algorithms function and how social teams can take advantage of it.

Algorithms search for relevant and valuable content

Algorithmic-driven content curation systems such as the Facebook News Feed and Instagram Feed monitor user behavior, interests and actions to recommend relevant content. For instance, if you engage with basketball content, you’ll likely see more of it.

These algorithms aim to refine content suggestions by adapting and learning from user interactions, ensuring content remains relevant.

Signals and important factors social algorithms consider

Algorithms collect user signals to match them with relevant content. Key signals include:

• User engagement: Likes, shares and comments indicate that users find the content interesting and relevant.
• Relevance: Keywords and hashtags give content context and improve its visibility.
• Timing and frequency: Posting consistently and at the right time when your audience is active can boost visibility.
• Recency: Newer posts are prioritized over older ones.
• User interactions: Accounts followed, interactions and click-through rates on links signals relevance and content quality.
• Profile authority: Follower count, consistency and engagement impact organic reach.
• Location: Algorithms take into account the location and demographics of users when curating content. Content may be promoted to users in similar locations.
• Content type: Different content types, like videos, images and text, are treated based on user interaction. Many platforms favor videos because they’re more engaging.
• Virality: Content gaining popularity and shares signals relevance to the algorithm.
• Watch time: This is the duration users spends watching videos (IG Reel, YouTube Shorts)

Social media algorithm example

If you use any social media platforms, there’s a huge chance that you’ve come in contact with the algorithm in play. Here are some examples you might have missed.

1. Twitter shows content based on the keywords users follow. For example, I follow the “SEO” keyword, and X (formerly known as Twitter) recommends posts with the keyword on my Explore page.
   
2. LinkedIn’s algorithm shows content that my 1st-degree connections are engaging with. In this post, for example, over 313 of my 1st-degree connections follow this account, so LinkedIn prioritizes the sponsored post on my Feed.
   
3. LinkedIn suggests content for users with similar keywords. I love reading about social media and content marketing on LinkedIn, so it’s no surprise they push this content type my way.
   
4. Twitter suggests accounts to follow based on the content they post and what you’ve liked.
   

Social media algorithms by platform

Every social media platform has its unique algorithm for content curation and display. These platforms look for specific ranking signals to discern user preferences. Let’s explore some social media platforms and their platform-specific rank signals to keep in mind.

Twitter algorithm

The Twitter algorithm is an AI-powered algorithm designed to curate content based on the user’s interests, preferences and past interactions rather than chronologically. According to Twitter, their algorithm looks through about 500 million daily Tweets to display only relevant ones on your timeline.

In 2023, the updated Twitter algorithm considers:

• Location and language: Twitter shows you content based on your location, especially in their “Trends for You” section.
• User interactions: Content is recommended based on your activity, including who you follow and interact with.
• Engagement level: Tweet popularity is determined by user engagement metrics such as likes, Retweets and replies.
• Relevancy: The relevance of a Tweet is based on the keywords used, the user’s interests and previous interactions.
• Recency: Recent Tweets hold importance, especially in the “Trending Topics” and “What’s Happening” sections.
• Profile Reputation Score: Active profiles engaging with others gain higher visibility; Twitter also uses TweetCred, a PageRank algorithm, to rate a profile’s credibility based on its followers, past activities, safety status and device usage.
• Similar accounts: Profiles are categorized based on the niche or topic discussed.

Facebook algorithm

With over 2 billion active users, Facebook is the largest social media platform yet. To moderate content on the platform, Facebook employs several algorithms to determine what content users will find interesting. The updated algorithm considers:

• Timing: Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes timing as a key signal for ranking content in user’s feeds.
• Demographics: The user’s location, language and gender can help predict their content preferences.
• Account credibility: The algorithm ranks accounts with credibility, a strong following, and engaging content.
• Content type: Facebook’s algorithm prioritizes the type of posts users engage with most. So, users who watch more videos will get more video content.
• Relevance: Posts with similar keywords or hashtags are recommended to users with shared interests.
• Engagement levels: High engagement, including comments, shares and likes, indicates quality content and since Facebook is all about creating meaningful posts, it ranks it higher.
• Facebook connections: Content from the accounts you follow is prioritized over those you don’t follow.

Facebook’s algorithm combines these signals to give the post a relevancy score, which predicts how likely a user is to interact with a post.

Instagram algorithm

Instagram’s algorithm is one of the most diverse social media platforms. According to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, Instagram is divided into 5 sections: Feed, Stories, Explore, Reels, Search. Each section uses algorithms, classifiers and processes to tailor content recommendations based on user behavior.

Instagram Feed

Your Instagram feed is a mix of content from accounts you follow, similar profiles you’re likely to enjoy and personalized ads. In the feed, posts are ranked based on several signals:

• Post recency: Recent posts from accounts take priority, appearing before older ones.
  
• People you follow: Posts from those you follow appear organically on your feed. For creators, this means having more followers increases your visibility.
• User activity: Posts you’ve liked, shared, saved or commented on convey your content preferences.
• Content type: Users who prefer photos will see more photos. The same goes for videos and carousels.
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• Post information: Posts with many likes, shares, comments and saves signal relevance to users with similar interests or locations.
• Interaction history: Your interactions with an account’s posts and frequency influence the appearance of their content in your feed.

Instagram Stories

Stories is an in-app feature that allows users to post photos or videos that disappear after 24 hours. Here’s what it looks like:

The ranking factors for stories are quite similar to those of the IG Feed. Stories use engagement signals such as:

• Viewing history: Frequently viewing an account’s stories would result in its prioritization.
• Engagement history: Liking or responding to stories is an engagement metric that impacts story rankings.
• Closeness: The algorithm considers your relationship with the story’s creator, including mutual follows, shared locations, and DM interactions.

Instagram Explore

Explore simplifies the discovery of new posts without needing active search. Here’s what it looks like on Instagram:

The grid comprises content recommendations from accounts you don’t follow but Instagram believes you might enjoy. Signals Instagram considers include:

• User’s past interaction: Content is ranked based on previous engagements with posts.
• Post popularity: The number of likes, comments, shares, and saves influences visibility.
• User’s explore activity: history of a user’s interaction on the Explore page, including liked posts and similar content.
• Account information: the frequency of interaction with the account in the past few weeks.

Instagram Reels

Reels are designed for users to explore new content from accounts they don’t follow, similar to Explore. Key signals for Reels content include:

• User’s activity: Recent interactions with Reels, such as likes, saves, shares, comments, and engagement.
• Interaction history: Your interaction history with accounts, even if you don’t follow them.
• Relevance: The content’s relevance is determined by popularity signals like likes, saves, and comments.
• Account information: An account’s popularity, including follower count and engagement level, informs content recommendation.

TikTok algorithm

TikTok’s algorithm is a recommendation system designed to curate the For You Feed for each user considering the following signals:

• User interactions: Your likes, views, shares, comments, searches, and interactions with accounts shape your feed.
  Accounts you follow or suggested for you
• Location: Recent and popular content in your region impacts your feed.
• Video details: TikTok uses video quality, captions, sounds or hashtags to recommend content.
• Device and account settings: This includes the language, device type and country.
• Watch time: The number of replays and completed videos influences your feed.

YouTube algorithm

YouTube’s algorithm considers many signals to rank videos on its homepage, including:

• Video performance: YouTube video performance is measured in terms of engagement metrics such as likes, shares and comments.
• Click-through rate: YouTube’s algorithm assesses the likelihood of user interaction with a video to recommend it to other users.
• Watch time and retention: Videos with longer watch time indicate quality content that retains viewer attention.
• Recency: Newer videos are promoted to subscribers who interact with the channel.
• User watch history and actions: Video watch time and post-interaction actions, like liking and commenting, signal relevance to the algorithm.
• Search history: What has the user searched for? Is it a recurring search?
• Demographics and location: Videos uploaded by creators in a particular location are pushed to local viewers before broader promotion.

LinkedIn algorithm

LinkedIn’s algorithm uses several ranking signals that contribute to the success of a post on the platform. Here are some to watch out for:

• Quality over quantity: LinkedIn’s algorithm filters posts into three categories: spam, low-quality and high-quality.
• Relevance: The algorithm assesses post relevance based on keywords, hashtags, and comments.
• Engagement probability: LinkedIn uses machine learning models to predict post engagement, especially within the first hour.
• Personal connections: LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritizes posts from your 1st-degree connections and those you engage with.
• Consistency: The algorithm rewards pages that post regularly with increased visibility.
• Credibility: Author expertise, insightful content and meaningful comments enhance post ranking.
• Recency: Recent posts hold significance for LinkedIn’s algorithm.
• Content type: The algorithm loves short-form videos and well-structured long-form content.

Pinterest algorithm

The Pinterest algorithm ranks content using key ranking signals such as:

• Topic relevance: Keywords, hashtags, and user interactions determine content relevance to users.
• Pin quality: Your pin’s level of engagement, such as likes, saves and comments defines pin quality.
• Domain quality: Website safety and visitor engagement impact Pinterest rankings. If visitors feel safe on your website, Pinterest ranks your content highly.
• Account quality: Pinterest assesses your account credibility and posting consistency as a ranking signal. If you’re considering Pinterest marketing, then ensure your account is on the good side.
• Recency: The algorithm considers how recently a pin was published and how recently it was updated.

Reddit algorithm

Reddit’s algorithm is designed to rank content based on what’s Hot and Best, guided by key signals like:

• The number of upvotes, downvotes and total votes it gets. Reddit uses votes as a signal to determine post relevance.
• Recent posts gain more traction and visibility. If you’re marketing on Reddit, ensure you consistently post valuable content.
• The types of comments it gets. For example, a comment with nine up-votes and two down-votes will rank higher than a comment with one-up votes and no-down votes.

Tumblr algorithm

If you use Tumblr for marketing, here are some signals to watch out for:

• User interaction: Tumblr considers likes, reblogs, comments and follows to expand content reach to a broader audience.
• Post content: The algorithm uses tags, text, images and multimedia to understand the post context and make recommendations.
• Post timing: Newer posts receive higher visibility and are prioritized over older ones.
• User preference: Past user interactions, content engagement and followed blogs influence content recommendations.

10 tips for staying ahead of the algorithm and optimizing your content

To stay ahead of the algorithm and leverage its potential for business growth, you must understand how it works and its governing rules. Through trial and error, we’ve learned several ever-green principles to help you stay ahead of the algorithm.

1. Ask questions and encourage comments from your audience

Social media algorithms favor highly engaging content with tons of comments, shares and likes. More engagement equals better chances of going viral. To encourage comments, ask questions that resonate with your audience. Ask their take on trending topics or go bold with thought-provoking inquiries to spark conversations.

While a question-based CTA is great for encouraging conversations, doing it right is what matters. Avoid controversial or offensive questions to foster positive discussion.

2. Tag other accounts in your posts

Tagging on social media involves mentioning someone by their username (or handle) in a post, comment or image, creating a clickable link to their profile. For example, a fashion curation account on Instagram may post several looks and tag the content creators or designers.

Tagging accounts in your posts boosts collaboration, brand exposure and visibility. On platforms like Instagram, tagging someone in a picture gets it featured in their “Photos of You” section, expanding your reach to their followers.

It’s good practice to reach out to accounts you tag and explain why before doing so. Ensure you have an established relationship with the account and, more importantly, that the post is relevant to the audience.

3. Tack on the right hashtags and keywords

Hashtags categorize posts and boost post discoverability to a wider audience.

Use hashtags strategically; don’t go overboard. Stick to 3-5 hashtags to avoid overwhelming your audience and hurting visibility. Also, skip overly saturated hashtags and opt for focused ones. For example, rather than using hashtags like #InteriorDesign with 175M posts on Instagram, substitute for a smaller hashtag like #InteriorDesignTrends with 484,000 posts.

To find hashtags, use the autocomplete function on the social media platform you’re posting on. A better way is to use a social media management tool like Sprout Social. With Sprout, you can use social listening to monitor trending hashtags and select the best ones for your brand based on performance, sentiment and demographics.

4. Optimize your post timing to encourage engagement

When you post matters as much as what you post. Timing is a key ranking signal for many algorithms to rank a post. This means that a high-quality post, created for a defined audience, can underperform if posted at the wrong time.

The best posting times vary based on your audience, industry and platform, but generally, aim to post when your audience is online for maximum visibility and interaction. In our research, we found that the best time to post on social media generally is between 9 a.m. to noon.

Using Sprout’s ViralPost® takes out the guesswork about the best time to post for your industry. ViralPost analyzes your individual audience data and suggests optimal timing for each social platform you use.

5. Figure out your publishing frequency

There’s no universal answer to how often you should post on social media. It depends on several factors, but one thing is certain: Growing on social media requires consistency. Instagram’s algorithm, for example, prioritizes the recency of a post as a key signal for ranking content.

A personal philosophy is to post only when the content is relevant to avoid overwhelming your followers. Use a social media calendar to plan your content and schedule your posts to stay organized. Sprout Social gives you the flexibility of planning and streamlining your workflow without much hassle.

6. Publish more video content across all networks

Video outperforms text-based content on social media platforms because it’s easier to understand, conveys messages quickly and adds a personal touch.

When creating a social media video marketing strategy, creativity is key. Share behind-the-footage of your product, create how-to videos or share an office tour with your audience—find your best mix of content. Make it exciting and engaging to watch, so your audience has a reason to stay.

Optimize schedule, and promote your video using a management tool like Sprout. For example, Sprout’s YouTube publishing options let you fine-tune categories, playlists, privacy settings and thumbnails. Manage and schedule your posts conveniently from your social media calendar for optimal timing.

7. Craft relevant and engaging captions

One principle that stands the test of algorithmic changes is creating content that’s highly relevant to your audience. Social media platforms prioritize engaging, high-quality content that elicits positive reactions.

Creating engaging captions depends on your audience and the platform, which guides posting times and content choices. For example, while long-form captions work for LinkedIn’s professional audience, shorter captions work best on Instagram. It’s best to test and learn.

Start your post with a strong hook. Aim to educate, entertain, promote or interact with your audience. Be concise, provide value and avoid unnecessary jargon. Conclude with a call-to-action (CTA) encouraging reader interaction.

Test multiple content types—videos, text or images—to determine what resonates with your audience and track the social metrics (think: impressions, clicks and views) to identify top-performing posts.

8. Experiment with different types of content (template)

If there’s one thing for certain, it’s that there is no absolute when it comes to what is successful on social media; it all depends on what works for your audience. Experiment with different types of content, like videos, photos or live streams, to see what resonates with your audience. In our recent Content Benchmark Report, we found that consumers found short-form videos the most engaging.

Run A/B tests on your content types at different times and track the analytics for engagement using Sprout analytic and reporting tools. Once you find the right combination, replicate its success. Stay creative and remain open to exploring other content types.

9. Measure performance

Don’t forget to monitor your content’s performance. Define clear goals and KPIs aligned with your business objectives. Ensure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable and relevant to your business’s objectives.

Track common metrics like reach, impressions, engagements, likes, shares and mentions. Use Sprout’s analytics feature to track metrics in real-time and generate reports.

10. Embrace new features

Embrace newly released features to showcase your creativity and adaptability. Platforms reward creators who experiment with their new features. They want more people to use these new features, so early adopters are often rewarded with higher visibility.

AI’s role in social media algorithms

The fact is, without AI, social media wouldn’t exist in the first place. AI has played a significant role in developing and curating algorithms to learn about users and make deliberate decisions based on the collected data.

Here are some ways AI plays a role in social media algorithms:

1. Flagging of misinformation and fake news

Social media platforms use AI to detect fake news and filter out offensive, harmful and disrespectful content. For instance, Twitter uses machine-learning models, AI-driven algorithms, user reporting and human moderation teams to identify and flag misinformation. The algorithm analyzes the tweet content and account history to fact-check the accuracy of the information shared.

2. Moderate content for user safety

It’s fair to say that social media can be unpleasant due to trolls who engage in offensive behavior, such as making hateful comments and, in worse situations, harassment.

To maintain quality discussions, platforms employ content moderation tools to identify suspicious posts and comments. For instance, Reddit uses machine learning models to spot suspicious comments, which are further reviewed by human moderators. Likewise, Facebook uses an AI tool to detect abuse and fraud in posts, images and videos, with human reviewers stepping in when needed.

3. Personalize content delivery

AI-driven algorithms segment users based on explicit (follows and likes) and implicit (video-watching time) details to personalize content recommendations. Users can select preferred keywords, follow hashtags or hide inappropriate words in their Feeds and DMs.

User data, including feedback, actions and behavior informs content recommendations and suggests related posts with similar keywords.

4. Provide real-time analytics

AI algorithms have the capacity to collect, process and analyze data as soon as it is generated. Platforms like Facebook, which records billions of daily users, use generative AI for rapid predictions, understanding user relationships and addressing security issues in real time.

When users log into Facebook, the AI algorithm immediately tracks their in-app behavior, including user engagement, content performance and trending topics, to offer personalized recommendations.

Start mastering the algorithms

The key to winning with algorithms is understanding how they work. Understand the best practices for satisfying the algorithm and you’ll be on your way to increasing your engagement and growing your audience base.

If you want to learn more about how businesses are harnessing social media for growth, read our report on The 2023 State of Social Media: AI & Data Take Center Stage.

The post Everything you need to know about social media algorithms appeared first on Sprout Social.

That’s the question you should ask if you’re trying to improve your social performance and generate revenue. Consumers expect brands to treat them like friends (or at least friendly acquaintances) by being attentive and personal, not ignoring their messages while spamming their feed with posts.

According to The Sprout Social Index™, consumers think the most memorable brands are the ones who respond to their customers (51%) and prioritize communicating with their audience rather than posting a lot of content (37%). Yet, only 8% of social marketers believe themselves to be leaders in customer care on social.

Now is the time to reflect on how much time your brand spends on customer relationship marketing, and how teams can work together to improve this function at your organization. In this article, we explain the role of personalized social media marketing and strategies companies can use to build customer relationships that lead to increased revenue.

What is customer relationship marketing?

Customer relationship marketing is the focus on building long-term relationships with customers across their journey with your brand—from the early stages of acquisition to retention and reactivation.

These enhanced relationships lead to increased customer lifetime value (CLV), engagement, loyalty and return on investment (ROI). Think of it like this: The more you put into building relationships with customers, the more your company (and your customers) will get out of it in the long run.

Some common customer relationship marketing activations include loyalty programs, community events, omnichannel customer care, customer feedback surveys and social media audience engagement.

The role of social media in customer relationship marketing

Social media is a non-negotiable part of a relationship marketing strategy, as social is consumers’ go-to channel for interacting with brands. Social and customer care teams are instrumental in providing customer satisfaction and are on the front lines of interactions that define both one-to-one customer relationships and brand image on a large scale.

Because social media is more public than other customer relationship marketing channels, your followers pay close attention to how you’re treating your customers. A single interaction with a customer can create a lasting impression and an emotional response that ripples across your follower base and impacts your bottomline.

According to Index data, of the 1,817 consumers we surveyed, 76% agreed they notice and appreciate when companies prioritize customer support, and another 76% value how quickly a brand can respond to their needs.

To provide an exceptional customer experience, companies must be prepared to deliver a social media customer support strategy that is both timely and high quality—a challenging feat for teams who are already stretched thin. According to a Q3 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey, 63% of customer care professionals report a high volume of customer requests that translate to longer wait times and less intentional responses. Another 48% cite wasting time on manual tasks, while 41% have gaps in available customer information that make it difficult to handle requests.

As a marketing leader, you should lay the groundwork for deeper collaboration between social and service teams, and advocate for time-saving technology and integrations. Empower your team to provide the valuable, efficient and timely responses customers look for on social.

The 1-to-1 marketing and revenue connection

To help get buy-in for the value of customer relationship marketing, tie your efforts directly to potential revenue gains. There’s already a growing recognition that social efforts and interactions earlier in the customer journey—like audience engagement—aren’t just interesting, they translate to revenue.

In fact, according to Index data, in 2024, quantifying the value of social engagement in terms of revenue will be marketers’ primary way of demonstrating social’s impact on business goals.

Why are so many marketers sure engaging with audiences on social media translates to revenue? Because social teams see how engagement with social users within your target audience leads to new followers, which translates to loyalty, repeat purchases and increased CLV. The Index shows us that 68% of consumers follow a brand on social to stay informed about new products or services, and another 48% want access to exclusive deals or promos.

Social media is like the new shopping mall, and if you want to give your virtual storefront a chance to succeed, you need to build long-term relationships.

Customer relationship marketing strategies on social media

The first step toward effective customer relationship marketing is showing up. If your brand leaves customers on read, you risk making them feel unimportant or, even worse, send them into the hands of your competitors.

Here are three tangible ways you and your team can build customer relationships that equal more engagement, conversions and revenue.

Engage with audiences on social media

Social media is the go-to channel customers use to solve problems related to their order, ask questions about the latest product drops and announcements and share candid feedback about your brand and offerings. It’s critical for your team to participate in these conversations (even when you aren’t tagged or mentioned) to build long-lasting relationships with your customers.

As Azad Yakatally, Head of Social Media at Klaviyo, put it, “As the most accessible touchpoint for consumers, social media has become the call center, suggestion box and customer service desk for brands.”

When responding to customer comments, DMs and reviews, make sure your team:

• Maintains a consistent brand voice across all platforms.
• Uses automated responses wisely, making sure they don’t sound too robotic.
• Factors online review management into your strategy.
• Encourages customers to share positive experiences publicly.
• Has a system for routing escalations to the appropriate teams.
• Shares customer feedback with departments like product development or competitive intelligence.

Personalize social media marketing

Personalization is the new standard. According to the Index, 70% of consumers expect a company to provide personalized responses to customer service needs. While 30% of customer care professionals already agree it’s essential to do things like use a customer’s name in a response, true personalization goes deeper.

When personalizing initial responses on social media, your team should do things like:

• Humanize customer service interactions by empathizing with the feelings of your customers and the unique situations they’re in. Example: We understand how frustrating it must feel not to receive your order on time when you had such a big event coming up. Send us a DM so we can help make the situation right.
• Make specific recommendations based on your customers’ online behavior, even if they’re not directly related to your business. Example: We love that you’re taking our suitcase with you on your trip to Chicago! Have you checked out this guide to Chicago museums?
• Tap into customer data related to order histories and past experiences with your brand. Example: Thanks for tagging us in this video! We love that you were the first one to try our new product. Can we send you other new products to try in the future?

Once a customer slides into your brand’s DMs, personalized customer care requires an integrated tech stack that enables a clear flow of information between marketing, service and other relevant teams. You need to supply customer-facing employees with the intel they need to solve complex customer issues, answer questions and have a complete view of a customers’ journey with your brand.

Increase workflow efficiency

The Q3 Pulse Survey results reveal 45% of customer care professionals list integrated technology like customer relationship management tools (CRMs) as the most common way they address their biggest customer care challenges.

Index data demonstrates 96% of marketing leaders recognize this and have already pledged to integrate social data into their CRM solutions within the next three years. In the meantime, it’s essential for executives to share the value of customer relationship marketing and position social as the missing piece in the customer experience equation.

By doing so, CMOs and other leaders will break down silos and enable stronger collaboration org-wide—paving the way for more workflow efficiency in the future. This process requires those at the helm of marketing departments to ensure the social media management tools their team uses are equipped to integrate with CRMs and scale customer care functions.

For example, an intuitive platform like Sprout Social is built for quickly onboarding customer care teams, consolidating collaboration between social and care and seamlessly integrating with CRM solutions like Salesforce.

Customer relationship marketing examples

Here’s a look at real brands that excel at customer relationship marketing and have built experiences rooted in relationship building and responsiveness.

Chewy’s compassion builds loyalty

Chewy, the pet food, products and supplies retailer, has become synonymous with their support of grieving pet owners. They surprise many of their customers with personalized cards and gifts in honor of their dearly departed animals.

In this TikTok, user @spidergwenin reacts to a package she received from Chewy that contained a kind message and a painted portrait of her recently passed beta fish, Echo. The TikTok has received over 60,000 likes and 700 comments, many of which share equally heartwarming stories about how Chewy supported them during a loss.

Though many posts about Chewy’s compassion go viral, their one-to-one marketing efforts aren’t just reserved for famous creators. Any bereaved pet owners who contact Chewy are likely to receive a token of support. Like this Post on X (formerly known as Twitter), where a mourning pet owner shares the card and flowers she received from Chewy. Though this post didn’t generate a lot of buzz, Chewy’s team still took time to reply to the Post with words of encouragement. Chewy’s efforts help them maintain lifelong customer loyalty and priceless brand advocacy.

It’s clear Chewy’s customer relationship marketing strategy requires a lot of cross-channel coordination and, most importantly, true empathy for their customers. Engaging with audiences on social media is an excellent way to build your brand, but it’s important to make sure the entire support team is aligned on your customer marketing initiatives.

MeUndies uses customer feedback to evolve their product line

MeUndies, the disruptive underwear and loungewear brand, weaves customer care into the fabric of their brand ethos. Their handful of agents receive roughly 6,000 DMs each month on Instagram alone, yet make it a point to respond to each customer with attentiveness and speed.

On X, MeUndies receives a high volume of product feedback—mostly customers sharing their ideas for new products with the team. Like this Post from a user who asked for Hanukkah themed undies. MeUndies follows through on routing customer ideas to their development department. The social team even shares the good news with their customers when their ideas are being brought to life.

MeUndies’ approach to customer care has helped them carve out a niche in their industry, making them stand out as the providers of underwear and personalized customer care for everybody. MeUndies’ seamless and consistent customer care is supported by Sprout Social’s Smart Inbox and its internal collaboration tools.

McDonald’s responsiveness invigorates fandom

McDonald’s needs no introduction. The global fast food giant is a favorite in the industry, and that is due to its consistent service worldwide—both in brick-and-mortar locations and online. The McDonald’s team, like most ubiquitous brands, receives countless messages, comments and engagements each day.

Yet, the team replies to each individual comment and message, even when they aren’t directly tagged. Here’s an example of a recent exchange between a customer asking them to bring back an old favorite and McDonald’s responding with a form the customer can fill out to share the feedback with higher ups.

McDonald’s also succeeds at keeping a pulse on the fandom surrounding their brand, and playfully joining in to build brand affinity. For example, when the recent #GrimaceShakeTrend took TikTok by storm, McDonald’s was quick to play into it and doubled down on their Grimace campaign, causing their fans to flood their posts with positive engagements.

McDonald’s demonstrates what’s possible when you truly listen to your customers, and what can happen when you give them what they want. Whether it’s improved customer service, to bring back discontinued products or to get behind an internet trend involving your brand (even if it involves a large, purple blob covering “crime scenes” in milkshakes).

Make customer relationship marketing investments a priority in 2024

Just like in friendships, building long-term relationships with your customers (and potential customers) takes time. It’s not as simple as answering one DM or service call. It requires responding to each customer with a personal touch, and going out of your way to interact throughout the customer journey. This necessitates stronger internal collaboration and streamlined tools.

As you finalize your plan for 2024, think through the role of social in your customer relationship marketing plan—in the marketing department and beyond. Use the CMO’s social media marketing agenda for help identifying the biggest ways you can capitalize on these social efforts in the coming year.

The post How customer relationship marketing on social media drives revenue appeared first on Sprout Social.

Just as snowy decor starts appearing before Halloween has even arrived, your holiday customer service strategy must be ready ahead of peak shopping season. To keep things running smoothly, customer care teams must make the most of all available resources. Luckily, Sprout Social is equipped with tools designed to alleviate the holiday rush while strengthening customer relationships—a gift that keeps on giving well after the holiday season.

‘Tis the season to bolster your customer care strategy. Keep reading to shape your strategy, and to find out which Sprout features will set your team and customers and team up for success.

Why social needs to be at the center of holiday customer service

Answering customer questions on social sits firmly in the center of the social media and customer care Venn diagram. So much so that 74% of US and UK consumers say they’re likely to reach out to a brand on social this holiday season, according to a Q4 2023 Sprout Pulse Survey of 1,623 consumers.

Social media is a direct line to your customers. And during the holiday season, their outreach will inevitably increase, further extending social’s crossover into the customer care realm.

Let’s look at three key ways social media must be central to your holiday customer service.

Social is the home of product discovery

“TikTok made me buy it” is more than a catchy phrase. It’s a reflection of the influence social media has on buying behavior—on TikTok, and beyond. Instagram reports that 70% of shoppers look to the platform for their next purchase. And Facebook has the highest number of social commerce buyers.

Social media is a virtual mall designed for product discovery, social proof and purchasing all in one place. And consumers know this, too—55% of consumers say they rely on brands’ social media accounts when it comes to discovering and learning about new products during the holiday season, according to our Q4 2023 Pulse Survey.

Social media must be at the center of holiday customer service because it’s at the center of shoppers’ gift hunt. Outfitting your team with the training and customer care social media tools they need makes it easier to meet customers where they are.

Customer outreach on social media will surge during the holiday season

The most wonderful time of the year is also the busiest time of the year for customer service agents. 63% of consumers strongly or somewhat agree that they are more likely to reach out to a brand on social during the holiday season vs. the rest of the year, according to our Q4 2023 Pulse Survey. And our data shows that this outreach most frequently comes through via direct messages and in-post comments.

If your customer service team isn’t seeing (let alone responding to) customer questions and comments on social, they’re missing the chance to build customer trust and loyalty. Over half of consumers say that the most memorable brands on social is simply respond to customers, according to the most recent Sprout Social Index™.

Having visibility and access to social is crucial for delivering strong customer service. If customer care teams are only reviewing and responding to email, phone and web form requests, they’re not getting the full picture.

Consumers reach out on social during every step of their shopping journey

From asking about restocks and order status to sharing glowing reviews, customers use social media along every step of the purchasing journey. Asking product questions and sharing positive feedback were the top two motivators for consumers to contact brands via social, according to our Q4 2023 Pulse Survey.

And when it comes to contacting brands, consumers do have network preferences. Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are the top three platforms consumers expect to use to contact brands during the holiday season. All the more reason your team needs access and, if necessary, training on engaging through these channels.

Remember: A stellar holiday customer service strategy does more than just answer questions. It can convert prospective customers into lifelong customers and brand advocates. At the same time, a strategy that doesn’t account for social has the power to do the opposite.

8 tips for enhancing your holiday customer service strategy

Holiday-related spikes in support requests can be stressful. But the right process and tools can empower your team to rise to the challenge.

If you want to revisit and revise your team processes before the rush hits, here are eight tips for enhancing your holiday customer service strategy, and some ways Sprout can help along the way.

1. Plan ahead

Like we said, the holidays feel like they start earlier every year. If you’re not planning ahead for the holiday surge, you’re already falling behind.

The last thing you want during a busy holiday season is to play catch up. So plan ahead to cover all of your bases before the “season’s greetings” decor goes up in stores.

Consider the other milestones your agents should align with—think: key dates for holiday marketing, like sales and launches, that may lead to a spike in messages or tools they need to learn.

Planning ahead can mean different things to different businesses. For your team, it may mean securing budget to hire temporary holiday support staff (which we’ll get to.) Or creating a dedicated RACI model to align on social customer care. Or talking to the merchandising team about when certain sales will start and end to prepare your agents.

2. Create holiday-specific FAQs

According to the Index, 54% of marketers plan on using customer self-service tools like FAQs to scale social customer care. Add holiday-specific FAQs to your site, chatbots (more on that below) or even post captions so customers can find answers themselves.

No matter how many FAQs you provide, you will always get repeat questions. Prepping pre-written answers to common questions your team can pull from saves everyone time.

Creating one source of truth for these quick responses ensures consistency. For example, using the Sprout Asset Library, you can quickly search for and select pre-written answer templates as you respond to a question on social.

And if you want to limit or expand permissions, you can easily adjust who can access the Asset Library within Sprout.

3. Staff up

No matter how early you prepare for the holiday rush, you may simply need more hands on deck. Consider hiring temp or additional staff. E-commerce brand Threadless hires additional holiday customer service staff every season to provide additional support.

Speed is key. The quicker your new staff can hit the ground running, the smoother your holiday season will be. Ensure you provide training and tools that make onboarding a breeze. For example, Sprout has earned industry recognition as a platform with high ease of use, setup and admin—crucial elements when you need to get new staff into a tool fast. And with features like Tasks, where you can assign specific messages to specific Sprout users, you can further streamline collaboration even as your team scales.

4. Employ a system to tackle the highest-priority customer inquiries

Ensuring the highest-priority messages are sorted and answered quickly is crucial. Think: complex issues, time-sensitive or negative inquiries, even positive comments that warrant a swift response.

Sprout’s Sentiment for Messages capability lets you identify and sort messages based on whether they’re positive, negative or neutral, and create inboxes based on these sentiments. This empowers you to identify opportunities for proactive engagement—especially important for developing deeper audience connections, like in this conversation with Calvin Klein.

Inbound message tagging is another way to get the most out of Sprout’s Smart Inbox. An organized tagging strategy can help you create tailored inbox views, triage customer questions and report on your efforts once the holiday season wraps up.

Make sure all your customer care agents—seasonal or otherwise—are up to speed on your strategy with thorough documentation. If you’re not tagging messages in Sprout already, here are potential use cases to consider:

• Tag by urgency: If your agents are divided by support tiers, tagging messages by urgency can help ensure customers are connected to the right representative quickly.
• Tag by customer concern: Understanding trends in customer questions and complaints (e.g., in relation to specific themes or products) can better prepare you for next year’s holiday season. Use the Cross-Network Tag Performance report to report on questions by internal Tag.
• Tag by response need: Some messages aren’t actionable. For example, if someone promotes their own services in your replies, you’re better off ignoring it. Creating a unique Tag for messages that don’t warrant a response can help you more accurately measure your agents’ time to first response (TTFR) rates.

Use these tagging strategies individually or in combination to streamline response and reporting efforts. By proactively tagging inbound messages, your team will be able to provide excellent customer service no matter how many messages you receive this holiday season.

5. Tap into automation and AI

An impressive 81% of marketers say AI has already had a positive impact on their work, according to the Index. And it’s undoubtedly front-of-mind for teams wanting to ensure customer service efficiency this holiday season.

Here are two stand-out areas where automation and AI customer service tools are a game changer:

Faster responses

There will always be customer questions that go beyond your prepped FAQ answers. And fresh responses take time.

AI tools create a starting point for responses that your team can build off of, minimizing effort—having these tools baked into your current workflow streamlines your process further. Sprout’s Enhance by AI Assist, for example, suggests AI-generated responses for you to choose from and customize when responding to social comments and DMs. You can even select the tone you want your response to convey.

Lean on chatbots

If you’re not already using chatbots to lighten the load for your team, this is your sign to start. And if you are, this is your sign to update them with holiday FAQs.

To address basic holiday customer service questions faster, we recommend using Sprout’s Bot Builder. These rule-based chatbots can manage common questions that come through Meta’s Messenger or X (formerly known as Twitter) Direct Messages.

To start, determine what conversations you want your chatbot to handle. If you need help, Sprout comes equipped with a customer care-specific Bot Template, which can be adjusted to suit your needs.

6. Give agents the context they need to succeed

To set your team up for success through the holidays, you must provide them with the right information and tools. This also means providing agents with the customer context they need to succeed.

If your team has to toggle between multiple tools just to respond to one customer message, you’re doing your team and audience a disservice. Plus, your team may miss important customer history.

Sprout supports social CRM integrations with a number of tools, like HubSpot and Salesforce, eliminating the need to bounce between systems. Details from each can be accessed directly within the Smart Inbox so you can get a better understanding of the customer you’re supporting, the issue at hand and what’s been done so far to help.

For example, Sprout’s Salesforce integration empowers users to leverage social data for a world-class, omnichannel care experience. It enables your care teams to meet customers where they are vs. sending them to other channels, like a phone line or email.

An integrated social support strategy can make a major difference when dealing with a high volume of social messages. Connecting Sprout throughout your tech stack paves the way for more exceptional support experiences for your team and customers.

7. Establish collaboration norms

Creating a frustration-free, collaborative environment can look different for everyone, depending on the needs of your company. Before you design a process, you first need to evaluate existing and potential points of friction.

If you’re new to prioritizing social as a customer care channel, here are some questions to consider:

Who will review responses from seasonal agents and new hires?

Monitoring responses from new agents is time-consuming but necessary at the start of a busy season when quality control is especially important. To build an approval process, first identify which agents can be responsible for approving messages. Pair them with newer agents to ensure all replies stay compliant and on brand. As new agents feel more comfortable in their role, they’ll be able to handle issues without an approver.

To manage approval processes in Sprout, use the Reply Approvals workflow to submit, review, approve or reject messages directly within the platform, minimizing disruptions for all parties involved. You can also create user teams in Sprout to ensure conversations and message comments are fielded to the right people for replies or clarification.

Who should agents go to with questions?

Whether all tough questions go through a single individual or you have point people for specific issues, documenting who’s responsible for what topics can help prevent confusion and frustration when dealing with social messages.

To further reduce confusion, use Sprout’s Conversations feature. This centralizes team conversations within the Smart Inbox, so questions can be answered without extra emails or direct messages back and forth.

8. Capture feedback and performance metrics in real-time to constantly improve

To refine your holiday customer service strategy, you must be able to capture feedback and measure performance. Externally, customer feedback surveys are critical to seeing the big picture of how people feel about their service.

Add surveys directly to your social platforms for customers. Using Sprout, it’s easy to configure and implement surveys that measure Customer Satisfaction Score and Net Promoter Score on Instagram, Facebook and X—three major platforms for customer engagement.

Internally, analyzing customer service metrics—like reply time and messages answered—fills in the details behind why customers may feel a certain way about your service. In Sprout, the Inbox Team Report lets you easily measure team effectiveness and performance—from a bird’s eye view, and by individual team members. This report breaks down metrics like median first reply times and unique messages replied to, taking the guesswork out of refining your customer care process so you can head into the holiday season strong.

‘Tis the season to be efficient: Master your holiday customer service strategy with Sprout Social

A strong holiday customer service strategy has a long-lasting impact that continues long after decorations have been put away for the season. The folks on the front line of your brand have the power to alleviate customer concerns and earn their loyalty. Providing your team with the right tools can free them up to focus on creating exceptional customer experiences—the kind that drive repeat engagement, clicks and purchases.

Luckily, Sprout can keep your customer care team in good cheer well into the new year. Start a free 30-day trial and help bring more joy to your agents and customers this holiday season.

The post Prepping your social customer care team for the holiday rush with Sprout appeared first on Sprout Social.

From influencer marketing growth stats to data surrounding the top three influencer marketing platforms, learn more about the state of this marketing strategy and how to get started.

Jump to an influencer marketing stat category:

• Influencer marketing growth statistics
• Influencer marketing advertising statistics
• Influencer marketing budget statistics
• Influencer marketing statistics for TikTok
• Influencer marketing statistics for Instagram
• Influencer marketing statistics for YouTube

Influencer marketing growth statistics

Influencer marketing has been steadily growing over the years and is showing no sign of stopping. Learn more about the industry and its projections for the future.

1. The influencer marketing industry is expected to reach $21.2 billion worldwide in 2023

The influencer marketing industry was worth just $1.7 billion back in 2016. It hit $16.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to increase by another $5 billion this year. This exponential growth demonstrates the health of this industry.

2. Instagram is the top influencer marketing platform worldwide

89% of marketers agreed that Instagram was the number one influencer marketing platform. YouTube came in second at 70% and Facebook in third at 45%. Interestingly enough, TikTok was excluded from this survey, though we do know that TikTok influencer marketing is also a big deal.

3. The global influencer marketing platform industry is expected to hit $22.2 billion by 2025

Influencer marketing platforms have also been popping up regularly to assist in a number of related tasks: finding influencers, partnering them with brands, creating contracts, planning campaigns and more. So there’s no surprise that the platform market size is also growing. It hit $15.2 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $22.2 billion by 2025.

Influencer marketing advertising statistics

Social media advertising is also a big part of influencer marketing. Promoting your influencer content can help improve the overall reach of your campaigns. Let’s dig into some stats surrounding influencer marketing advertising.

4. Influencer marketing ad spend worldwide is projected to reach $30.81 billion in 2023

Brands are expected to spend $30.81 billion on influencer marketing advertising throughout 2023. This spending is expected to increase to $47.80 billion by 2027.

5. The average ad spend per user in the influencer marketing industry is $5.78

Influencer marketing ad spend evens out to around $5.78 per internet user. This is expected to increase over the coming years.

6. The most influencer marketing ad spend is in China

China is the country with the largest influencer marketing ad spend at $16.76 billion.

Influencer marketing budget statistics

How much are brands spending on influencer marketing? As the industry increases, more and more marketing and social media budgets are allotted to influencer marketing.

7. 39% of brands worldwide have worked with only 10 influencers or less

39% of brands have worked with 10 influencers or less. 21% of brands have worked with 10-50 influencers, 16% with 50-100 influencers, 11% with 100-1,000 and 12% with a whopping 1,000+ influencers.

8. 25% of brands worldwide put 10-20% of their marketing budget towards influencer marketing

20% of brands put less than 10% of their marketing budget towards working with influencers, 25% of brands put 10-20% towards influencers, 18% of brands dedicate 20-30% of their budget to influencer marketing, 13% give 30-40% of their budget and 23% of brands focus 40% or more of their marketing budget on their influencer marketing efforts.

9. Brands are expected to spend $7.14 billion on influencer marketing domestically in 2024

Increasing from $2.42 billion in 2019, brands are now expecting to spend a total of $7.14 billion on influencer marketing in 2024.

TikTok influencer marketing statistics

TikTok and the short-form videos it boasts are a popular format for influencer marketing. Learn more about TikTok influencers and why this is such a powerful platform.

10. There are over 100,000 TikTok influencers in the U.S.

As of June 2023, there were over 100,000 TikTok influencers in the United States, with follower counts ranging from 5,000 all the way to 1,000,000+.

11. The majority of U.S. TikTok influencers have 50,000-100,000 followers

Nearly 2,000 TikTok influencers have 5,000-10,000 followers, 25,000 have 10,000-50,000, 42,000 have 50,000-100,000 followers, 35,000 have 100,000-250,000, 23,000 have 250,000-1,000,000 and nearly 9,000 have over 1 million followers.

12. Shein, Target and Netflix are the three most-mentioned brands on TikTok worldwide

Shein has been mentioned by 13,400 TikTok influencers, Target by 11,200 influencers and Netflix by 8,500 influencers.

Instagram influencer marketing statistics

Instagram influencer marketing is a must-use strategy for many brands, especially considering most marketers agree it’s the top influencer marketing platform. Learn more about the state of influencers on this social network.

13. There are over 500,000 influencers on Instagram

With over 500,000 active influencers operating on Instagram, it’s no wonder this is the number one influencer marketing platform. There are so many influencers in various niches, giving brands of all shapes and sizes the opportunity to partner up.

14. 65.39% of Instagram influencers worldwide have less than 10,000 followers

The vast majority of Instagram influencers are nano-influencers, with less than 10,000 followers. 27.73% of Instagram influencers have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers, 6.38% have 50,000 to 500,000, just 0.28% have between 500,000 to 1,000,000 and only 0.23% have more than 1 million followers.

15. 14.32% of all Instagram influencers are lifestyle influencers

The biggest category of Instagram influencers is lifestyle influencers. Next, we see music influencers (8.5%), beauty influencers (7.63%) and family influencers (5.74%).

16. Instagram influencers worldwide charge anywhere from $20-7,000+ per post

Nano-influencers (less than 10,000 followers) tend to charge $20-100 per post, micro-influencers (10k-50k followers) charge between $35-450, mid-influencers (50k-500k followers) charge between $150-2,500, macro-influencers (500k-1m followers) charge between $250-7,000) and mega or celebrity influencers (1m+ followers) charge $1,200 and up.

17. Instagram, Zara and Shein are the three most-mentioned brands on Instagram worldwide

Instagram has been mentioned by 85,500 Instagram influencers, Zara by 66,400 influencers and Shein by 57,200 influencers.

18. Instagram influencers worldwide with less than 10,000 followers have the highest engagement rates

Nano-influencers, or influencers with less than 10,000 followers, have the highest engagement rate at 2.53%. Micro-influencers have an engagement rate of 1.06%, mid-influencers come in at 0.91%, macro-influencers at 0.86% and mega-influencers at 0.92%. The average engagement rate of Instagram influencers is 1.9%.

YouTube influencer marketing stats

Finally, let’s cover YouTube influencer marketing stats and what the state of this long-form video platform and its affiliate with influencers looks like.

19. There are nearly 500,000 YouTube influencers in the U.S.

There are nearly 500,000 YouTube influencers in the United States. We don’t have global data, but we can assume there are even more potential influencers to partner with on YouTube globally.

20. The majority of U.S. YouTube influencers have 10,000-50,000 subscribers

Nearly 70,000 YouTube influencers have 5,000-10,000 subscribers, over 300,000 have 10,000-50,000, nearly 30,000 have 50,000-100,000 subscribers, 27,000 have 100,000-250,000, 20,000 have 250,000-1,000,000 and nearly 8,000 have over 1 million followers.

21. The top three YouTube influencer categories globally are people and blogs, entertainment and music

The largest category of YouTube influencers (20.6% of influencers) focuses on content surrounding people and blogs. This is followed by entertainment influencers (16.8%), music influencers (13.7%) and video game influencers (12.1%).

22. Steam, AliExpress and Flipkart are the three most-mentioned brands on YouTube worldwide

Steam has been mentioned on YouTube 76,060 times, AliExpress has been mentioned 53,060 times and Flipkart has been mentioned 49,040 times.

Keep these influencer marketing statistics in mind

Want to ramp up your influencer marketing strategy? Knowing these statistics can help. But so can the right influencer marketing tools. Find the best tools for your team so you can start partnering with influencers in your niche.

The post 22 influencer marketing statistics to guide your brand’s strategy in 2023 appeared first on Sprout Social.

But with a market that’s flooded with options, you may have a hard time choosing the best LinkedIn analytics tool for your business. This post helps you narrow down your options and provides you with a list of the top choices. Let’s take a look.

Why do you need a LinkedIn analytics tool?

LinkedIn analytics refer to a set of metrics used for measuring how your Page and posts are performing on the platform. LinkedIn analytics tools help you keep track of those metrics and understand the effectiveness of your strategy.

According to the latest LinkedIn stats, the platform is the most effective channel for generating B2B leads. However, those leads don’t appear out of nowhere. You need to actively work on producing content that would attract your target audience and turn them into valuable leads.

With the help of a LinkedIn analytics tool, you can get key insights into your audience and better understand how to engage them. You’ll be able to see what types of content resonate with the audience, what information they’re seeking out and so on. This helps you strengthen your strategy to make more effective use of LinkedIn for your business.

Which LinkedIn analytics tool is the best and why?

The native LinkedIn analytics tool offers a range of essential insights into your Page performance. But if you need to dig a little deeper than that, you should consider using a third-party tool. Ideally, these tools should offer data-backed suggestions on how to improve your performance. This includes suggestions such as the top content types and the best times to post on LinkedIn.

The best LinkedIn analytics tool for your business depends on your unique needs and operation size. For example, agency users would want a tool that lets them generate multiple client reports.

At the bare minimum, the tool should let you track key performance metrics for your LinkedIn Business Page. This includes follower and visitor metrics, update metrics, profile metrics and lead metrics. Additionally, you should be able to measure your standing in the competitive landscape. Some tools even let you track metrics related to LinkedIn employee advocacy.

Beyond these basics, you can look for an analytics tool that supports other aspects of your LinkedIn strategy. For example, if you’re running LinkedIn ads, you need a tool that keeps track of your paid campaigns.

Keeping this in mind, here are 12 of the best LinkedIn analytics tools in the market to help you make the right choice.

1.     Sprout Social

Sprout Social’s powerful LinkedIn analytics features put it at the top of our list. The platform gives you a comprehensive look into your LinkedIn performance through key metrics.

What makes Sprout stand out is the ability to help you visualize your LinkedIn data, making it easier to analyze your performance.

An overview of your LinkedIn Page performance helps you understand your Page growth over time. The Performance Summary shows you changes in impressions, engagements and post link clicks. And the Audience Growth chart helps you visualize the number of followers gained or lost over time in a color-coded graph.

For more in-depth insights, Sprout breaks down your performance at the post-level. So you can understand what resonates with your audience based on engagement rates and content types. This informs your LinkedIn strategy by helping you develop more effective content.

Meanwhile, the Paid Performance Report shows you how your LinkedIn ads are performing. This reveals paid metrics such as ad spend, impressions, engagements, clicks and web conversions. You can really drill down on specific campaigns and ads to identify your top-performing ones.

Beyond this, Sprout offers the following key LinkedIn analytics features:

• Tag Performance Report to analyze volume and performance patterns of tagged messages
• Competitor Report for advanced social media competitive analysis
• Inbox Team Report and Task Performance Report to measure the productivity of teams and individual members

Pricing: Starts at $249 per month

Free trial: 30 days

2.     Keyhole

Keyhole offers a powerful Profile Analytics tool to measure your LinkedIn performance. The dashboard gives you a summary of your activity and performance during a given time period. You can keep track of the number of posts, engagement rate and average likes per post during this period.

The tool helps you visualize your post performance with a chart depicting the timeline of posts and engagements received. You can access comprehensive analytics to compare your performance against the competition. The dashboard lets you benchmark your account size, engagements, share of voice and sentiment against theirs.

One of the main highlights of Keyhole is the data-backed suggestions on how to optimize your performance. It gives you recommendations on the best time to post and optimal post length to grow your social media engagements.

Pricing: Starts at $99 per month

Free trial: Limited to 3 account trackers and a sample of historical data

3.     SocialPilot

SocialPilot provides you with detailed insights to see which LinkedIn posts are the most visible and engaging. This helps you fine-tune your content strategy and get more out of LinkedIn marketing.

You can access comprehensive audience insights to research trends in reach and growth patterns. SocialPilot even shows your most active fans so you can amplify their voice for better brand advocacy.

Pricing: Starts at $30 per month

Free trial: 14 days

4.     SocialInsider

SocialInsider offers a powerful analytics tool for LinkedIn. It lets you track your engagement evolution along with vital metrics such as reach and impressions. This gives you an idea of your most impactful strategies so you can optimize your content mix for greater results.

The tool comes with competitor analysis features to see how you stack up. You can keep track of your competitors’ follower growth, engagement rate and campaign performance from this tool.

SocialInsider provides detailed post analytics insights to inform your social media content strategy. These insights help you understand optimal caption lengths, hashtags and content formats. You can then optimize your posts for performance based on this information.

Pricing: Starts at $149 per month

Free trial: 14 days

5.     Brand24

Brand24 is an analytics tool with a focus on social listening insights. It lets you measure brand awareness and presence through brand mentions. These insights help you assess the impact of your latest LinkedIn efforts on improving reach and brand awareness.

You can use the tool to analyze sentiment and understand how people feel about your brand. This gives you an idea of what they like or dislike so you can fine-tune LinkedIn strategy accordingly.

Brand24 helps you measure the effectiveness of your campaign with hashtag analytics. Beyond hashtag volume, it keeps track of metrics such as reach and engagement. This paints a clearer picture of how your campaign hashtags are performing.

Pricing: Starts at $99 per month

Free trial: 14 days

6.     Social Status

Social Status is a full funnel LinkedIn analytics tool. It lets you track top-of-funnel metrics such as reach and impressions. You can measure middle-of-funnel metrics like video views and engagements. Plus, it shows you the effectiveness of your LinkedIn efforts through bottom-of-funnel link clicks.

The Content Feed gives you a comprehensive look at your post performance metrics. This helps you visualize the type of content that makes an impact with your target audience.

Pricing: Starts at $9 per month

Free trial: 14 days

7.     RivalIQ

RivalIQ gives you comprehensive insights into your LinkedIn post performance. You can easily identify your top-performing posts and replicate them for your content strategy. It helps you visualize how your posts are performing by post times. This allows you to optimize your publishing strategy to target optimal post times.

This LinkedIn analytics tool lets you measure hashtag performance by activity and engagement. You can then use these insights to inform your hashtag strategy and maximize your LinkedIn reach.

Pricing: Starts at $239 per month

Free trial: 14 days

8.     DrumUp

DrumUp is a social media management tool that offers comprehensive LinkedIn analytics. It lets you track key performance metrics such as shares, comments and clicks. This paints a clear picture of the types of content that works for your brand so you can fine-tune your strategy.

You can use smart filters to perform a deep-dive analysis and quickly identify your top-performing content. Plus, you can easily spot trends by tracking changes in engagement metrics.

Pricing: Starts at $15 per month

Free trial: 14 days

9.     Iconosquare

Iconosquare is one of the most comprehensive LinkedIn analytics tools in the market. It gives you engagement insights so you can track how they correlate to your content efforts. You can then refine your strategy to boost engagement and improve your brand presence.

The tool helps you visualize your community growth on LinkedIn. It gives you a detailed breakdown of your audience demographics. So you can optimize your efforts according to where they are and what languages they speak.

Pricing: Starts at $49 per month

Free trial: 14 days

10.  Talkwater

Talkwater comes with powerful analytics for audience insights and social benchmarking. Additionally, it offers tools for media monitoring, customer feedback analytics and social listening. It lets you measure your competitors’ social media performance and analyze where you stand. This helps you identify areas for improvement and opportunities to capitalize on.

This analytics tool provides comprehensive audience insights to inform your targeting efforts. You can use it to discover new audiences and uncover prospects that are ripe for purchase.

Pricing: On request

Free trial: No info available

11.  Inlytics

Inlytics is an analytics and scheduling tool specifically designed for LinkedIn. It provides you with real-time and historic visualizations of your content performance. You can use it to track metrics such as impressions, reactions, comments and engagement rates.

One of the most useful features is the Profile Improvement Recommendations. You can get actionable suggestions on how to optimize your profile and improve visibility. Plus, your audience engagement insights will help you understand your audience better. This will then inform how to optimize your content to better resonate with them.

Pricing: Starts at $12.50 per month

Free trial: Free plan with limited analytics

12.  Hootsuite

Hootsuite offers advanced analytics to measure the return on your LinkedIn marketing strategy. This lets you visualize your organic and paid metrics in a single dashboard. So you can better understand how your organic content efforts and your ad campaigns are paying off. It shows you your top-performing posts and best times to post to help you optimize your strategy.

The tool provides you with reports that compare your LinkedIn performance against that of your competitors. These insights can inform how to duplicate their success and leverage missed opportunities.

Pricing: Starts at $99 per month

Free trial: 30 days

Which LinkedIn analytics tool will you choose?

When choosing the best LinkedIn analytics tool for your business, it’s important to clearly assess your needs and budget. This will help you narrow down the features that are important to you and the ones you can sacrifice.

If you’re marketing on other social media platforms, make sure to look for a tool that provides analytics for those other channels as well. This will streamline your social media analytics efforts so you don’t have to switch between multiple tools. Learn more about the top social media analytics tools that offer analytics for LinkedIn.

The post Best LinkedIn analytics tools to maximize your marketing appeared first on Sprout Social.

In this article, we’ll discuss SMS marketing, including the types, benefits, best practices to follow and examples of marketing strategies that will take you ahead of your competitors.

• What is SMS marketing?
• Types of SMS text marketing campaigns
• Benefits of SMS marketing
• 6 SMS marketing best practices to follow
• SMS marketing strategies with examples
• SMS marketing software to try
• Take advantage of SMS marketing

What is SMS marketing?

SMS marketing (or text marketing) is a form of mobile marketing that allows businesses to send text messages to customers and prospects. This involves using a short message service (SMS) to send messages like promotional offers, discounts, appointment reminders and shipping notifications.

SMS marketing has many advantages over other marketing strategies, such as email marketing. One advantage to SMS marketing is a 98% average open rate, which is 5x that of email (20%), meaning there’s a higher chance your audience will see your text message than your email. SMS marketing also boasts a 9.18% click-through rate compared to email’s 2.5%.

SMS marketing is a great way to reach your target audience with a concise and clear message. You can use it to inform your customers about a weekend sale or promotion and advertise your business with a higher chance of receipt and action.

Types of SMS text marketing campaigns

There are many types of SMS marketing campaigns, from simple to complex. Here are three of the most effective forms:

1. Promotional SMS marketing campaigns

Promotional SMS marketing campaigns are designed to generate interest in a product or service. They can include discounts, coupons and other special offers. Everyone loves an incentive, and freebies have always been a great way to grab attention and drive more people to your store. This works even better with a compelling call to action (CTA).

Take a look at this SMS marketing example from Jenni Kayne, a fashion brand featuring a personalized coupon code and a direct link to their shop page.

2. Transactional SMS marketing campaigns

Transactional SMS marketing messages are sent in response to an event or action. These campaigns offer time-sensitive information to the customer, such as appointment reminders, shipping notifications, password resets, or product releases. Because these messages are timely and relevant, they have a high open rate and can effectively drive conversions.

An example of a transactional SMS campaign is an order confirmation from an e-commerce purchase. Here’s an example from Baking Steel that includes order confirmation, tracking information and an unsubscribe option.

3. Conversational SMS marketing campaigns

The major difference between conversational SMS marketing and other conventional SMS marketing methods is that it involves text responses as prompts. This two-way SMS marketing campaign mimics human conversations, with automated back-and-forth responses between your brand and the customer.

Conversational SMS blends natural language processing for lifelike digital chats, combining human agents and automated texts for effective customer engagement and retention.

Benefits of SMS marketing

With 7.3 billion people estimated to have smartphones by 2026, wouldn’t you rather use this to reach your target audience? Here are five benefits of SMS marketing:

1. Reach customers faster

If you have time-sensitive information to share, SMS is the right medium, as 95% of text messages are opened within three minutes of receipt. For example, if you’re running a limited-time offer, you can use SMS to inform your customers.

2. Increase response rates

Unlike other marketing channels, SMS allows you to reach customers directly on their mobile devices, and customers are 134% more likely to respond to an SMS than an email. Because text messages have a much higher response rate, they can keep your customers engaged with your SMS marketing and open opportunities for further offers.

3. Complement other marketing channels

While an SMS marketing strategy is strong on its own, it can also be used to enhance other marketing channels. For example, you could use SMS to promote a contest or sale on social media or increase your email newsletter subscribers. You could also use SMS to remind customers of an upcoming event or webinar to increase signups.

4. Build customer loyalty

SMS marketing can help you build customer loyalty by sending personalized messages and offers to individuals. This is a great way to make your customers feel valued and increase their chances of returning to your business.

5. Increase revenue

SMS marketing platforms can boost revenue by driving traffic to your store or website. You can use SMS messages to promote special sales and events and remind customers to complete their cart purchases. This mobile commerce approach takes advantage of the accessible nature of texts and seamlessly integrates into your brand’s marketing efforts.

6 SMS marketing best practices to follow

Now that we’ve gone over how to do SMS marketing for your business, let’s look at some best practices to get the most out of your campaigns.

1. Only send texts to those who opted in

Only send texts to those who have permitted you to do so. The best way to do this is to include an opt-in form on your website or other online channels.

Even if you have an opt-in, it’s a good idea to send an initial text thanking a new subscriber and asking them to confirm opt-in with a simple reply of “Yes” or “No.” A great example of this is the opt-in message from Flexispot, which states their business name, to alert who is texting before confirming subscriptions to marketing and promotional messages.

2. Make it easy for customers to opt-out

Make it easy for customers to stop receiving your texts by including an unsubscribe option. This could be as simple as replying “STOP” or “Unsubscribe” to the text. Opting out of your SMS marketing campaign.

3. Identify your brand early

Keep your messages concise. When you have your target audience’s phone number, introduce your brand immediately. This makes recipients more receptive to your message from an unknown number. Start with your brand name, followed by an irresistible offer within the second sentence. Instant brand recognition and brevity are key.

4. Keep messages short and to the point

For SMS marketing success, keep it within the 160-character limit. Eliminate unnecessary content to boost message open rates and clicks. An effective framework for SMS campaigns is usually in this format:

1. company name
2. customer name
3. enticing offer or brand promotion
4. conditions for opting in
5. a strong call-to-action, and
6. an opt-out option

Providing opt-out options makes consumers feel more relaxed since this is presented as a choice, not a requirement. If needed, include a shortened link for additional information.

5. Create a consistent SMS marketing strategy

As with any type of marketing effort, consistency matters. Find the right balance of messages you can send within a reasonable timeline. Don’t overwhelm subscribers with too many messages, but don’t go silent either. Striking this balance keeps your brand relevant without becoming a nuisance.

6. Adhere to privacy laws and regulations

Finally, ensure you comply with Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) privacy laws and regulations for SMS marketing. Obtain express written consent, always include your business name, provide clear terms and conditions, offer an opt-out option during business hours, and respect consumer privacy and rights. Adhering to these regulations saves you from legal issues and protects consumer privacy.

SMS marketing strategies (with examples)

Ready to ramp up your SMS marketing? Here are some creative SMS marketing strategies, along with examples, to get you started:

1. Send welcome messages to new subscribers

Once a customer subscribes to your SMS marketing campaign, send them a welcome message. This will ensure they know they’re subscribed and allow you to engage with them immediately. Plus, it sets the tone for future interactions.

Welcome messages don’t have to be long or complex. A simple “Thank you for subscribing!” will do. You could even include a coupon code or special offer to sweeten the deal.

2. Announce new product releases

Another smart use of SMS advertising is to announce new product releases. Share the excitement with your subscribers to create buzz and re-engage customers who haven’t shopped with you in a while.

You can also drive traffic to your store or website by including a link in your SMS campaign to entice people to check out your latest offering. For example, texting “Check out our new arrivals” with a direct link to your website can boost traffic and give people a reason to visit your site.

3. Follow up on abandoned shopping carts

The average cart abandonment rate for e-commerce businesses is 70.19%. That’s a lot of potential revenue that’s left on the table. SMS marketing can help you recover some of that lost revenue by sending abandoned cart messages to customers who have left items in their online shopping carts.

4. Inform customers when products are back in stock

As a consumer ourselves, it’s frustrating when desired items are out of stock. SMS marketing offers a solution to notify customers when products are back in stock, ensuring they don’t miss out on a restock opportunity. You can also alert customers about similar or related products that may go on sale.

5. Collect customer feedback

Customer feedback is essential for business improvement. SMS surveys collect customer feedback quickly and easily. You can create a short survey using tools like Google Forms or SurveyMonkey and send the link via SMS. Or, ask customers to reply with a rating (from one to five) and follow up with those who give a low rating to uncover areas for improvement.

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6. Provide text-based customer service

You can use text messages to provide customer service. This is especially useful for businesses with a mobile workforce, like plumbers or delivery drivers.
If a customer needs to get in touch with someone, they can simply send a text rather than making a phone call. This can save the customer time, and it can also be less disruptive for the business.

Here’s an SMS marketing example from U-Haul, which offers customers the opportunity to check in and out via text:

7. Ask for production or service reviews

Many companies use SMS marketing services to gather reviews about their service or staff. You’ve probably seen this from companies like Uber, asking customers to rate drivers after their ride to get feedback on their experience and identify improvement areas.

According to the Sprout Social Index™, 83% of consumers recommend a brand they follow on social media to friends and family. Consider displaying these reviews on your website, social media pages, and SMS marketing messages.

8. Promote online and in-person events

Promoting your upcoming events through SMS marketing can get people excited and engaged. Your SMS event reminders can include:

• Date, time and location of your event
• A CTA to encourage people to buy tickets or sign up
• A link to your website or event page
• Details about what attendees can expect
• Hashtags to promote on social media
• Emojis to increase engagement

If you have a limited number of spots available, be sure to include an RSVP link in your text so subscribers can reserve their spots right away.

9. Start a VIP program

A VIP program encourages loyalty among your customers and subscribers. People love to feel like they’re part of an exclusive group, so make them feel special by offering VIP-only discounts, early access to sales and new products and other benefits.

To promote your VIP program, include a signup link in your SMS messages when customers purchase a product. You can also promote your VIP program on social media, your website or in-store. Use the right SMS marketing service to send relevant messages to different groups within your target audience and increase your conversion rate.

SMS marketing software to try

Rather than spend more time and effort on traditional SMS marketing methods, leverage SMS marketing software to streamline your strategy for greater success. Here are some standout options:

1. Attentive

With an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, Attentive ranks high as an effective SMS marketing software for sending personalized messages to your brand. You can integrate this with your email subscriber list and provide targeted messages for diverse groups.

2. SlickText

Integrate SlickText seamlessly with your brand’s existing software using its global API platform to get the best SMS marketing experience. Overall, this SMS marketing software features core features like text message scheduling, two-way text messaging, analytics and tracking reports for monitoring user engagement.

3. Klaviyo

Say hello to an omnichannel platform with automation and advanced segmentation capabilities. Klaviyo contains specific features that allow you to target specific consumers based on preferences and behavior. You can leverage this to increase conversions, especially with other marketing channels.

4. Birdeye

You don’t have to be technically inclined to use Birdeye. An amazing feature that makes Birdeye stand out is its easy integration with social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. This means you can easily incorporate a visual aspect into your SMS marketing campaign and spread your success across multiple platforms.

Take advantage of SMS marketing

SMS marketing can help you reach your target audience and increase engagement. By marketing to your customers where they are most active, you have a better chance of keeping their attention.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of SMS strategies at the start. Some customers may prefer discounts or deals, while others may be looking for customer service support through order confirmation or shipping updates. By incorporating SMS marketing into your overall marketing efforts, you can further refine and define your social media marketing strategy.

The post SMS marketing 101: What is SMS Marketing (+ examples) appeared first on Sprout Social.

Within minutes, Samsung responded and helped me slide into their DMs to investigate my case further. The agent (Nick) was kind, knowledgeable and connected me with the right team to solve my technical issues. And when Samsung didn’t hear back from me, several days after my TV was working again, they even reached out to make sure my case was truly resolved. The entire experience was fast, seamless and demonstrated just how much Samsung cares about its customers.

As consumers, we celebrate the brand experiences that are prompt, personalized and make us feel valued by the brand. And according to the latest Sprout Social Index™, 76% of consumers notice and appreciate when companies prioritize customer support. It’s not enough for brands to just engage with customers before and during the buying process. Consumers want to be surprised and delighted at every step of their journey, and brands that deliver on those expectations can turn someone into a life-long customer.

While today’s business leaders don’t need to be convinced of social customer care’s value, they do need to answer who in their organization should own those efforts. But the reality is that social customer care requires the input and collaboration of multiple teams. For shared ownership to be productive rather than chaotic, everyone who touches social customer care needs to be on the same playing field.

Social customer care is everyone’s responsibility

Considering how social supports nearly every facet of the customer journey, brands recognize the need for social customer care to be treated like a team sport rather than the responsibility of one owner. According to the latest Sprout Social Index™, only 24% of businesses say social customer care will be exclusively owned by marketing or customer service teams in the future.

Historically, it used to be that whoever owned the keys to a brand’s social channels was responsible for effectively addressing customer inquiries, concerns and feedback. Social media managers would attempt to juggle their own marketing priorities while also serving as the liaison between consumers and service teams. Consider this familiar scenario: A customer asks a question on social, the social media manager emails or Slacks the service team, then responds back whenever they have an answer. Sometimes customers are redirected away from social entirely and asked to repeat the details of their situation via a form or other channel. As a result, the responsibility is placed on customers, with resolution times spanning days instead of a couple hours.

Now imagine that same scenario where the marketing and service teams are working in harmony. Service agents don’t have to wait for social marketers to triage messages in order to resolve customer complaints. Likewise, social marketers can focus on activities that best harness their expertise instead of chasing down answers that could be easily addressed by the service team. It’s this collaboration between teams that enabled Casey’s, for example, to increase their response times by 90%, ensuring their customers always have a positive experience when communicating with the convenience store chain.

Expecting one team, or one person, to manage every online consumer interaction sets your brand up for failure and ignores how customers actually want to engage. But coordinating stakeholders across multiple departments to align on one cohesive customer care strategy presents its own set of challenges. The more players you have contributing to social customer care, the more essential it becomes to have a sophisticated playbook that keeps everyone in sync.

To scale, you need the right tools and workflows in place

Collaboration between teams is just one half of the social customer care equation. You also need the tools and processes to effectively engage with your customers on social, something only 30% of brands have invested in. It’s not enough to hand the keys to social over to your customer service agents—or pull your social team into your helpdesk platform. Everyone needs to be able to access and act on the right information without relying on others for direction. Here’s why:

• Increased efficiency: With a central solution, brands can achieve economies of scale because your team builds expertise on one tool rather than multiple point solutions—reducing time spent training and onboarding team members later. An intuitive customer care platform can streamline the workflows between marketing and service teams by democratizing access to social data and insights. Increasing transparency across teams makes it easier to see who is handling what, reducing miscommunications and ensuring every interaction is properly addressed. Atlassian, for example, utilizes Sprout’s Tagging capabilities to quickly assign tasks to the right teams and always keep conversations with customers moving.
• Stronger risk management: A shared social customer care platform also helps brands mitigate reputation risk because all teams get the full view of what’s taking place on social. Complaints made on social are publicly accessible by other customers and competitors, and we’ve all seen what happens when a post about a bad customer experience goes viral. With a unified tool that gives all teams a window into what people are saying about your brand, social media marketers and customer service agents can shut down reputation nightmares before they spiral out of control.
• Top-line growth: Finally, consolidating your social customer care tools gives brands an opportunity to transform their customer care strategy from a cost center into a growth engine. When brands can maintain a 360-degree view of their customer, they can use those insights to surprise and delight audiences at scale and salvage potentially negative experiences. With the right context and the right teams in place, even inquiries about a defective product or order gone wrong can transform into an immediate or future purchase.

There’s no “I” in social customer care

If social customer care is a team sport, it’s not enough to have one superstar taking all the shots. You also need a deep bench of people and resources to stay a step ahead of the competition. Brands need to implement tools that enable teams to access the data they need to respond effectively, while also putting insights into the hands of those working to improve the overall customer experience.

At the end of the day, your customer isn’t concerned with who responds to them—only that you do so in a timely and meaningful manner. While those standout customer moments do require the full cooperation of multiple teams, it doesn’t have to come at the expense of simple workflows or solutions. By eliminating silos and democratizing access to social across their organization, brands can consistently deliver personalized service that keeps customers loyal for life.

For more data on how brands can evolve their social customer care approach to stay ahead of the competition, download the Sprout Social Index™, Edition XIX: Breakthrough.

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