5 influencer marketing KPIs to measure your next campaign

The world of social media influencers has transformed significantly in recent years. What began as brands sending free products to popular social media users has now evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry, where contracted brand deals are closely aligned with targeted campaigns. Influencer marketing is no longer a novelty—it’s a critical component of advertising strategies.

Influencers don’t need celebrity status to make an impact for your brand. In fact, depending on your campaign goals, a nano-influencer could be an even stronger choice. To make the best decision in an influencer partner, clearly define your objectives for the partnership and then work backward to find the right fit.

In this guide, we’ll explore what influencer marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) are and why they matter. Plus, we’ll suggest a number of KPIs to get you started for your next influencer campaign.

What are influencer marketing KPIs?

Influencer marketing KPIs are essential to campaigns as they quantify the work both you and the influencer do. They define the overall ROI of the investment your brand made in partnering with a specific influencer. The KPIs you prioritize can guide which influencers you choose to work with, too.

Why are influencer marketing KPIs important?

Clearly defined goals set the foundation for stronger campaigns. Here are four specific benefits to setting KPIs for your next influencer partnership.

Measure influencer marketing ROI

KPIs offer the clearest insight into the impact of an influencer campaign.

Influencer marketing ROI can appear at any stage of the customer journey, from securing interest at the top of the funnel to converting a sale at the bottom of the funnel. Tracking appropriate KPIs will spotlight where and how your influencer campaigns reach your customers.

Set clear goals and benchmarks

Vague campaign goals will leave both you and your influencer partners frustrated. Clear KPIs let influencers know what’s expected of them upfront, ensuring a smoother collaboration.

The Sprout Social Index™ 2023 found that one of social media marketers’ top priorities in 2024 is to better quantify engagement in terms of business revenue, and 42% now include social traffic that leads to purchases in their reporting. Establishing clear benchmarks and KPIs allows you to directly link social traffic from influencers to conversions.

Optimize campaign performance

Influencer marketing KPIs are the guideposts in your campaign roadmap. As you and your influencer partners travel the campaign journey together, your KPIs serve as touchpoints to let you know you’re on the right track.

Optimize your influencer marketing campaigns by clearly defining key metrics and KPIs, and maintaining focus on them throughout the process. That way, you can make adjustments if the campaign starts veering off track.

Make informed partner selections

KPIs are an excellent tool to help you find the right influencers for your brand or campaign. If you truly need the most impressions possible, or want to break into a new market, a macro or even mega influencer with a large audience may be the best fit.

If engagement and brand sentiment are high on your list, a micro or nano influencer with an interactive, community-centric social media presence could be a great choice.

In this example, Portland, OR micro-influencer Candace Molatore worked with both Alaska Airlines and Portland International Airport to showcase the brand new terminal at the airport. Her post, which included a personal and sentimental connection to the airport, generated a significant amount of positive engagement from her audience. This influencer partnership was a great fit for driving engagement and enhancing the reputation of both brands.

Influencer marketing KPIs to start tracking

Once you have a solid understanding of why KPIs are important for influencer marketing, it’s time to select the ones that matter most for your brand’s goals. The KPIs you prioritize may change from campaign to campaign. Here are some common KPIs you can consider.

Reach and impressions

Reach and impressions are common metrics for many social media campaigns, making them natural KPIs for influencer marketing as well.

The right influencer partner can get you in front of potential customers you may struggle to reach via traditional advertising, including people who might not have considered your brand otherwise. Many influencers provide media kits that include average reach and impression numbers to set expectations upfront.

Earned media value

Marketing approaches typically involve two types of media: owned (the channels you have direct control of the content on, including social media, blogs, etc.) and earned (coverage of your brand that wasn’t purchased advertising and usually comes from PR efforts, such as television or print media mentions).

Earned media value (EMV) assigns advertising value to that earned coverage. This same metric can be applied to influencer campaigns. Likes, shares, comments and more all have value that can translate to social advertising dollars. A common formula for calculating EMV for an influencer campaign is:

Total impressions X Cost Per Mille (CPM) = EMV

CPM is the cost your brand pays per 1,000 impressions (“mille”) for a social ad. You can apply this to a specific social media network by using the CPM your brand normally pays in social ad campaigns.

Engagement

Social media engagement has become the gold standard of social marketing KPIs for good reason. Getting your content seen is one thing; getting potential customers to interact with your content is another.

Influencer marketing campaigns offer unique opportunities for your brand to engage with your target audience through likes, comments and shares. Influencers sharing products from brands they personally love often feels more authentic than a social ad a user was served randomly.

Conversions

Influencer campaigns can directly lead to conversions and even sales with the right approach. In fact, Sprout’s 2024 Influencer Marketing Report found that 86% of consumers make a purchase inspired by an influencer at least once a year.

To track conversions through your KPIs, you can focus on CPM and click through rate (CTR).

As mentioned, CPM is the cost your brand pays per 1,000 impressions for a social ad. CTR, on the other hand, refers to the percentage of people who click on an element they’ve been exposed to (think an affiliate link, newsletter sign up pop up, etc.).

In influencer marketing, these two KPIs show you both how many conversions were earned from the campaign and how much that same CTR would have cost in a regular advertising campaign.

Brand sentiment and awareness

Ideally, your overall brand awareness should increase as part of any influencer campaign. Brand sentiment is a nuanced KPI that speaks to how current customers, potential customers and the general public feel about your organization as a whole.

Conducting a sentiment analysis before and after an influencer campaign can highlight where and how the partnership made a difference.

How to select the right KPIs for your goals

KPIs vary for different brands and campaigns. To choose the best influencer marketing KPIs for your specific project, get clear on your goals and audience and be ready to adjust as needed.

Start with clear campaign objectives

Clear objectives and communication will start any influencer partnership off on the right foot. You need to be able to state the goals for your campaign. This may include things like generating sales, increasing brand awareness, launching in a new market or boosting customer sentiment.

Align KPIs with specific objectives

Your objectives should be specific, and your chosen KPIs should integrate with them. Include ideal outcomes and numbers where possible.

For example, if your influencer campaign has a goal of increasing positive customer sentiment by 25%, include KPIs around brand sentiment score and engagements like positive comments, likes and saves.

Consider your target audience

How well do you know your social media target audience? Knowing who they are and their social media habits will guide your KPI selection.

Are they a normally active audience that comments, shares and saves content? If not, that type of engagement might be a lower priority for you; alternatively, your influencer campaign could be an opportunity to encourage more community.

Use a mix of qualitative and quantitative KPIs

A simple number or statistic only tells you a small portion of the story. Conveying the ROI of your influencer marketing campaigns requires a mix of the quantitative and the qualitative.

A good data storytelling approach includes KPIs that speak to quantifiable info like reach and impressions as well as qualitative details like audience feedback and media coverage.

Continuously review and adjust your KPIs

KPIs for influencer marketing aren’t a “set it and forget it” part of your strategy. Once your partnership gets rolling, things may shift externally or internally that require some KPI reworking. You may see some unexpected demographics interacting with the influencer’s posts, or change in product development might present a new feature you can now announce. Don’t be afraid to be flexible and review, consider and adjust your KPIs as you go.

How to track and analyze influencer marketing KPIs

With your newly selected influencer marketing KPIs in hand, you’re ready to launch your project and start seeing the impact. We recommend implementing an influencer management tool and setting up proper tracking parameters to get the most out of your campaign.

Choose the right tracking tools

There are influencer marketing tools on the market that can support every stage of your projects, from influencer selection to daily management to campaign reporting.

Consider what tools you already have in place and whether they have features that translate to influencer marketing. You can also look into a tool specifically for your influencer program that covers all the bases.

For example, Sprout Social’s influencer marketing tool, Tagger, offers an AI-powered platform to find and choose influencers, create your strategy, execute campaigns and measure performance.

Set up tracking parameters

In some cases, you’ll have a specific UTM link that your influencer partner can share with their audience. This is beneficial for sorting specific traffic the influencer sends your way and accurately tracking your KPIs.

Be sure to set up your tracking parameters before beginning your campaign to get the best insights possible. Some influencer marketing tools, like Sprout’s, offer link tracking in-platform.

Analyze data and draw insights

As soon as data starts flowing in, you can dive in on analysis. While a comprehensive review at the campaign’s end is important, you don’t have to wait until things wrap to extract valuable insights.

Keep an eye on each of the KPIs you set and watch for both the expected and unexpected. As the campaign continues, draw out key insights that show how things are going and where you might adjust.

Select the right influencer marketing KPIs for your next campaign

Influencer partnerships can be a boon for your brand, and choosing appropriate KPIs is foundational to campaign success. Stay nimble—the influencer world is still evolving, and your KPIs and campaigns can, too.

If you need a platform to help you keep track of influencer marketing KPIs and overall social media strategy, get a demo of Sprout’s influencer marketing tool today.

The post 5 influencer marketing KPIs to measure your next campaign appeared first on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social https://ift.tt/atbUPxm
via IFTTT

How brands and partners use the Sprout Social API

In a world that moves at the speed of social, brands are constantly on their toes to keep up with customers and the competition. For social teams, it’s a juggling act that demands attention to detail and adaptability.

From scheduling posts and engaging with audiences to analyzing metrics and staying on top of trends, social teams always have their hands full.

Technical integrations that seamlessly connect with your existing stack to manage all your social media operations can save the day. They provide social teams with the ability to manage multiple workloads simultaneously, so they can focus on optimizing your brand’s social ROI.

By connecting your systems and automating routine tasks, technical integration makes it easier for your team to focus on what really matters—creating powerful narratives and driving meaningful engagement. Thus, turning social media management into a well-oiled machine where everything clicks into place effortlessly.

In this article, you’ll read how the Sprout Social API does just this for your brand. In particular, find out how our brands and partners use our API for publishing and reporting.

Does Sprout Social have an open API?

Yes, Sprout Social has an open API. The Sprout Public API enables you to extend your external workflows by integrating with our Publishing and Reporting tools.

Streamline your critical content creation workflows and funnel all your social profile data into your dashboards for centralized, automated reporting. This way, you’re able to meet your unique reporting needs and integrate social data into your broader analytics processes.

You can easily export post drafts, including text, images, videos, carousels and links, from your current project management software or content management tools to the Sprout platform. Also, plan and schedule the exported content in Sprout without disrupting the project management workflows you’re already working on.

Plus, your dedicated development teams can build custom integrations with your existing project/content management tools as and when you require them.

To access the Sprout Public API, your account must be authorized for API-use by your Sprout account representative. Once your account is provisioned, you can either ​​create an Account-scoped access token or an OAuth access token (using our OAuth 2.0 provider) to authenticate API requests.

Here’s a quick look at what the Sprout API includes:

• Owned profile data: Matches the data available in Sprout’s Profile Performance, X Profiles, Facebook Pages, Instagram Business Profiles, LinkedIn Pages, Pinterest Profiles, TikTok Profiles and YouTube Videos Report.
• Post data: This matches Sprout’s Post Performance Report data.
• Owned demographic data: View the data available in Sprout’s Facebook Pages, Instagram Business Profiles, LinkedIn Pages and TikTok Profiles Reports.
• Message data: Get detailed information, including metadata, about your messages. This includes messages received by and replied to from your profiles.
• Publishing posts: Create posts within Sprout.
• Media upload: Upload Media for use with publishing posts.
• Direct Tableau Connector: The Tableau Connector uses the Sprout API to pull your social data into Tableau. The metrics and data points are collected directly from those available in the Sprout API. This enables you to easily analyze Sprout API data directly in Tableau.
• Listening Topics: Retrieve earned media-related metrics and messages found within your Listening Topics.

Find out more details about the Sprout API.

How brands and partners use the Sprout Social Publishing API

Our customers and partners use the Sprout Social Publishing API to streamline their workflow, creating and publishing on-brand social content faster and more efficiently. Here are use cases from a few of our integrations, which are available with the Sprout Premium Analytics add-on.

Slate

The Sprout Social Publishing API integrates with the Slate CRM platform. You can craft and publish social content via Sprout, plus track content performance through our Reporting.

Create content in Slate’s Web Editor and send it directly to Sprout. Social teams can then log into Sprout to check the content before publishing or scheduling it.

The integration also enables you to reuse your top-performing content from Slate and send it to Sprout to schedule and publish across networks.

Once your content is published, you can track the performance of your social content through the Post Performance Report. Customize your reports by using Tagging to focus on the content you want to track based on your goals and objectives.

More about our Slate integration.

Opal

Our Opal integration enables brands to export and schedule branded content into Sprout, making it easy to collaborate with broader marketing teams.

This content is delivered seamlessly, so the content library in the Sprout platform is always updated. You can then log into Sprout to review the delivered content and publish it on your social profiles. You can also schedule the delivered content for publishing based on your campaign calendar. Once the post is published, you’ll receive a live URL on Opal from Sprout.

All the content that’s delivered from Opal is ​​added to the Sprout Library. If a piece of content is already in the Sprout repository, our tool will automatically link to the existing asset to avoid duplicates. This way you’re not worried about unnecessary data clogging up your asset library and have the relevant content you need at your fingertips.

As for content types, Sprout supports a wide variety on Opal. This includes Facebook posts and videos, Instagram posts, videos, Reels and carousels, TikTok videos, LinkedIn posts, X (formerly Twitter) posts and videos‌, and YouTube videos.

Optimizely

Sprout integrates with Optimizely’s Content Marketing Platform (CMP) to give you seamless workflows for managing social media campaigns. The integration enables large teams to collaborate more effectively by helping them plan their content better and schedule posts for publishing in one single workspace.

Import approved social content, including text, image and videos, to Sprout as post drafts and schedule them across your social networks as needed. Thus, eliminating the need for manual curation and giving time back to social teams so they can focus on the more strategic aspects of their work. Another key integration feature is Task-Based Publishing, which enables marketers to publish posts directly from tasks within the Optimizely CMP.

The Optimizely integration is available with the Sprout Premium Analytics add-on.

How brands and partners use the Sprout Social Reporting API

The Sprout Social Reporting API helps brands select metrics that best match their business goals and prove the impact of their data. Teams can view important insights in presentation-ready reports, which can also be quickly distributed to key stakeholders within the larger organization.

Here’s a walk-through of how brands and partners use some of our integrations.

Tableau

Our Tableau BI Connector helps you combine the power of your social data with all your important data streams.

Brands can connect Sprout into Tableau without additional developer resources and customize data visualization based on your data storytelling requirements. Choose the metrics you want and need per your priorities to understand how your social data fits into your overall business strategy. This helps you get an omni-channel view of your business insights as they funnel through all your key channels.

Connecting to Tableau from your Sprout account is easy. Use your Sprout API token to set up the Tableau Connector and then log into Tableau.

Navigate to Data > New Data Source > Web Data Connector

Once you’re in the Web Data Connector, enter the URL (https://api.sproutsocial.com/tableau), paste your Sprout API token and click Connect.

With this connection in place, your Sprout data will automatically appear in Tableau. ​​Now you can customize your Tableau dashboards to slice and dice your Sprout data as needed.

Datorama

Sprout Premium Analytics users can ​​bring their social marketing analytics into their marketing dashboards in Datorama, Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud Intelligence platform.

This Sprout Salesforce integration gives you metrics such as post-level data, Sprout Tag and campaign data as well as network metrics that aren’t available in Datorama, such as TikTok. You can also manage all profile permissions and reauthorizations in one place.

To start using the Sprout integration exclusively in Salesforce, use the API key, which you can generate by going into:

Account and settings > Settings > Click API Tokens under Reporting and Listening > Click Sprout’s Analytics API Terms of Service to review the terms > Select Agree, and Submit

 

Once you click Submit, your API key will be generated. Create a name for your Token and click Create Token.

Copy and paste your token in Datorama, and you’re all set.

Chattermill

The Sprout Social API integrates with customer experience (CX) platform, Chattermill, so brands can benefit from Sprout’s comprehensive analytics and reporting.

You can connect all your social media accounts on Sprout via Chattermill to track and measure customer feedback in social mentions. This enables you to have detailed reporting on common customer complaints, trends and spikes in conversations in one central dashboard. Teams get these insights in easy-to-understand reports and can easily share them with leaders and stakeholders to highlight and prove the brand’s social ROI.

Sprout customers can also use the Chattermill integration to analyze brand sentiment in customer feedback on review websites. This helps you understand your customer experience more holistically and draw actionable insights for tangible improvements to products and services.

Track your social ROI to propel your brand forward

Measuring and tracking your social ROI isn’t just about proving the value of your efforts—it’s a strategy that can move your brand forward in the right direction. Through integrations, teams can work smarter, saving time and resources spent on manual tasks or jumping between platforms for activities that have a greater impact.

The Sprout Social API helps you integrate your social data with your CRM and CX tools so you gain the insights you need. This helps you refine your marketing approach, optimize campaigns and make data-driven decisions that help you remain competitive, ever-green brand.

These metrics also give you the ability to allocate resources more effectively, ensuring that every action contributes to your brand’s growth and success.

Explore Sprout’s Premium Social Media and Analytics Reporting to improve your social strategies and prove your impact for sustained long-term success.

The post How brands and partners use the Sprout Social API appeared first on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social https://ift.tt/GLVNAif
via IFTTT

Global social media marketing: 8 strategies for selling worldwide

Global social media marketing strategies and new tools are empowering more brands than ever before to reach a worldwide audience. Creating an Instagram account or working with an influencer now gives businesses access to millions of people right away.

Going global effectively requires investing in a carefully crafted social media marketing strategy. This ensures you’re able to refine your audiences, optimize your content and achieve more reliable results across multiple regions.

In this article, we’ve outlined the eight steps for success in your global social media marketing journey. From defining objectives and designing personas to budgeting and tools, these strategies grant you and your brand a ticket to increase your share of voice across the world.

What is a global social media marketing strategy?

A global social media marketing strategy is similar to a regular social media strategy, but focuses on a marketing approach that goes beyond your domestic market.

Your current social media marketing strategy can act as a blueprint to capture the market in other countries.

Benefits of global social media marketing

In today’s digital-focused landscape, the importance of effective social media marketing can’t be overstated. A smart social marketing framework can give your brand’s reputation a boost, give you access to actionable data and expand your reach.

But what about a global strategy? For starters, a one-size-fits-all approach to your social accounts won’t work for global audiences and markets. It won’t even work domestically, as your content should be tailored to each audience and network.

People in different countries have different expectations of brands. You’ll likely have new competitors to consider, and other cultural backgrounds that impact how consumers perceive content. There are also language barriers and financial buying power to consider, among other differences.

For example, KFC’s Kazakhstan account uses the country’s local language and influencers, while promoting country-specific promotions and products. It combines these regional differences with KFC’s recognizable global brand, through its color schemes, font and other design choices.

A global social media marketing strategy enables you to clearly define your new audience. You can then conceptualize exactly how to communicate with that audience within your branding to achieve your desired results.

Set yourself up for success by getting the right documentation in place and creating ways to align your team. This will enable you to widen your reach while keeping your strategy close to home.

8 tips to ace global social media marketing

Define your global strategy by following these eight stages. They’ll take you through planning and execution, and how to refine your approach in the future.

1. Define your social media objectives

Having a social media strategy without goals is like driving without a destination. You’ve got momentum, but you won’t know if you’re going in the right direction.

Determine exactly what you want to achieve with each of your social media accounts and for each of your regional audiences. Some common social media goals include:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Generating more sales or leads
• Boosting your community engagement or PR
• Growing your audience through increasing follower counts
• Building traffic to your website

If you’re already engaged on social media, conduct a global social audit. An audit helps you to review how each of your accounts is performing right now. This should uncover insights into your ideal future objectives.

This video gives more details on how to conduct a social media audit.

2. Understand your global market

After defining your goals, you need to grasp the uniqueness of your global market. A fundamental part of international marketing is understanding how to market your brand to people from different cultures and regions.

Certain platforms are more popular in different countries; Southeast Asia has several good examples of this. In 2024, Facebook is the most popular social media platform in most countries. YouTube is also popular in Indonesia, while X (formerly known as Twitter) is the most popular in Thailand and Laos.

The first stage of your strategy should involve choosing the right platform for your chosen audience. Here are a few things to consider when you’re doing so:

• Platform popularity and availability: Facebook is the most popular platform worldwide in terms of monthly active users. But in China, where Meta is banned, Weibo or WeChat are popular platforms to use instead. And while LinkedIn is the world’s largest networking site, to reach the German job-seekers market, Xing is the more popular networking site.
• Target demographic: While there’s always some crossover, different age groups are more likely to use certain platforms over others. If your audience is younger, TikTok and Instagram may be your focus. If they skew older, Facebook will be key.
• Your team resources: Certain platforms, like TikTok, require specific skills in video editing, visual storytelling and more. You may want to consider growing your social media department if you need to expand your team’s specialties.
• Your goals: These might open opportunities for you to use different kinds of apps. For example, if you want to expand your customer service capabilities, use WhatsApp to help consumers around the world.
• Rising social media platforms: What platforms are on the rise in different markets? When you look at social media in Europe, for example, you can see that 41% of European customers plan on using WhatsApp.

You can also leverage your current social media following to find regional insights. This is possible through social listening.

By using social listening tools, you can find out how your current social media account’s audience feels about certain content. Use a sentiment tracker to find out how positively or negatively your audience feels, then apply this to their region to uncover data that helps your global strategy.

With a Social Listening tool like Sprout, you can become an audience expert, identifying conversation trends and discovering influential topics. All of this data can be used to better understand your new target market and what they expect from your social media output.

3. Establish a global social media marketing team

There are many ways to build a social media team. Depending on the structure of your company, you’ll need to determine if this team will operate your social accounts independently, or with corporate oversight. You’ll also need to determine whether the team leads of each country or product have input on your overall global strategy.

Your social team might also be tasked with interacting with your audience through comments, direct messages or other forms of outreach. If this is the case, you need to tweak your approach to cater to each regional audience.

Using a tool like Sprout’s Customer Care solution can help your team personalize responses quickly, achieving more effective communication that crosses regional barriers.

4. Build audience personas for better targeting

Once you’ve understood your audience and assembled your team, you need to create audience personas for your new market.

Work with influencers and marketing team members with lived experience in your chosen region of expansion if possible. This will help you avoid cultural appropriation, and create tailored campaigns that resonate with certain markets.

Cultural moments also naturally occur across social networks. TikTok sounds often trend across regions, and talking points arise on X based on breaking news updates. Create a strategy to respond to cultural moments at the right time, and when they most resonate with your chosen audience. One example below shows Nando’s Pakistan account promoting the recent gold medal victory of a Pakistani athlete.

You can create audience personas using your current social media data. Use social media marketing tools to evaluate your existing audience, and then determine how you should tweak this data based on social differences in your new region.

You can also use social listening technology to refine this data based on comments and post engagements. If you want to go one step further, harness competitive intelligence to obtain these insights from your competition.

All of this data can help you uncover pain points and common attributes, which you can use to create several defined personas.

Once you’ve created these personas, apply the information to your brand voice. Think about how you can modify your messaging to better engage these specific regional personas.

5. Take advantage of influencer partnerships

Influencer marketing strategies should also fit into your wider global strategy. Working with influencers with engaged regional audiences can help you increase your reach in a particular market, and connect directly with your target personas.

For example, US brand Frank’s RedHot Sauce partnered with the UK celebrity influencer Danny Dyer through their regional UK account. This helped them work with a recognizable influencer in the country, furthering their brand’s UK reputation and sales.

It’s important to use an influencer marketing tool to find the right influencer for your campaigns. Tools like Sprout give you access to extensive filters, which can help you narrow down an influencer based on how popular they are in certain countries. You’re also able to manage and track the results of your global influencer campaigns easily.

6. Budget for your global social media strategy

Expanding your social media campaigns globally will involve some budget considerations. Segment your overall marketing budget to create localized budgets for each region. This will help you to keep control over the costs of each region and account.

If you’re working with influencers, consider the costs of working with people from different regions, as they will have different value considerations for their work. It’s also worth getting to grips with typical influencer pricing before you negotiate.

Make sure to apply localized costs to each of your budgets, including ad spend, cost of content creation and cost of content management. All of these will differ depending on how much you’re handling in-house and how much you’re outsourcing.

Look at how you can optimize your localized budgets once you’ve tallied up these costs, based on previous results, customer feedback or team needs.

Finally, always plan for a contingency fund. Save this fund ‌for any unexpected costs, such as emergency crisis management, currency fluctuations or ad testing.

7. Use a social media management tool to implement tactics wisely

Choosing the right social media platforms can only get you so far. You also need to be strategic and creative with your content to reach your audiences, and leverage tools to your advantage.

Social media management tools can help you tap into current trends, automate and schedule local content, suggest sentiment improvements through AI and more. Adopt these tools to:

Boost video content (particularly short-form)

Short-form video has skyrocketed in popularity, particularly across social media.

Using the type of content that consumers want to engage with can expand your reach and boost your engagement. Tap into this format, especially on networks that make it their priority, like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Below, PlayStation Italia partnered with an influencer to create an Instagram Reel that appeals to their target audience.

Use social listening to keep tabs on customer behavior

Social listening can give you key insights that help at every stage of the global social marketing process.

Optimize your listening using social listening AI tools, which streamline gathering and measuring your listening insights.

Fine-tune your brand voice and messaging

Create a dedicated brand voice cadence for each of your chosen target markets. Remember that you may need to modify your English to accommodate non-native speakers.

For your brand values and taglines, translate them into the native language and consult a local expert to see if any of them need changing. Sometimes, just a small tweak in wording will make all the difference.

Below, Netflix Latin America shares a popular meme for its SpongeBob audience in Spanish.

Schedule in local time zones and message locally

Your most active audience might be in the US but if you’re building up an audience in Germany, you’ll need to target them at the right times. If you’re operating with a single account, add local times and messaging to your post schedule.

Do yourself a favor and schedule your content ahead of time to ensure you’re reaching certain markets at the right time for them, without having to set an alarm for yourself to post at odd hours.

Keep up with local news, trends and holidays

Any local breaking news has the chance to become global. If your team is tracking it as it breaks, you have more time to get ahead of it or even pause the posting schedule.

Holidays are also a major consideration for international brands. For example, Father’s Day is not the same day globally. Plan ahead by noting any market-specific holidays or dates to prioritize in your content calendar. Below is an example from Apple’s Shot on iPhone campaign around the Chinese New Year.

8. Measure your performance to refine your strategy

Finally, refine your global social media strategy over time by always measuring your performance.

Look at how each of your accounts is doing against the goals you set out initially, and then consider how you can improve. This process is far easier if you use a social media analytics tool. For example, you can automatically analyze how posts on different channels do to understand what people like and why. You can also track how your competitors on social media operate, to benchmark your performance, get a report on each network‌ and more.

Collect an extensive analysis of your social media presence across each of your different regional accounts and make data-driven changes to refine your global strategy.

Start marketing to a worldwide audience of different generations

Marketing your brand globally is an exciting proposition, and with the above eight stages in mind, you can expand effectively.

One aspect of marketing that all cultures have in common is they’re all made up of several different generations, each with unique expectations.

An important expansion area to consider across social media is marketing to these different generations through a generational strategy. Read more about the considerations you should make for successful generational marketing across social platforms today.

The post Global social media marketing: 8 strategies for selling worldwide appeared first on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social https://ift.tt/e7Ivx1S
via IFTTT

How to master social media for retail in the UK

In today’s ever-changing retail landscape, brands are divided into two groups. Those who see social media marketing as a key part of their customer engagement strategy and those who view it as a nice to have.

The importance of social media in UK retail has only grown. The latest data indicates a notable surge in its use. In a 2022 report, it was found that 78% of consumers in the UK have upped their social media usage in the past year. About 65% have made purchases through these platforms. These numbers underline the essential role of social media in today’s consumer habits. And the potential it holds for those retailers who might be hesitant.

Social media is a go-to platform for retail customers.

It’s often the first place a customer will look for information about your business. But it’s also the first place they’ll go to ask questions, get help and offer you feedback. And this is true for every stage of the customer journey.

Social media for retail in the UK: crafting an engaging customer journey

The beauty of social media in retail is its ability to accompany shoppers along the path to purchase. Yet, this presents a challenge—brands must create marketing strategies that are effective across different platforms and resonate with diverse consumer preferences.

To truly harness the potential of social media, retailers should consider adopting the tactics and strategies that leading brands have successfully employed. This guide will show you how to map out an effective customer journey that leverages social media to the hilt.

1. Embrace an omnichannel social presence to support discovery

Larger retailers, don’t rely on one social media platform. While it may seem efficient to concentrate your efforts on one channel, you’re risking potential revenue by not being active where your customers are.

Let’s start with the basics. According to the 2022 Sprout Social Index, the top social media platforms in the UK are Facebook (56%), Instagram (55%) and YouTube (50%). Then there’s TikTok (35%) and Snapchat (31%), two platforms that are increasingly popular amongst UK consumers. British retailers should ensure they have a presence on multiple platforms to reach the most customers.

Here’s how retailers can maximize their presence across these diverse platforms while adhering to each one’s unique best practices and strengths:

• Facebook and Instagram: Focus on visually appealing content and interactive features like shoppable posts to drive direct sales.
• YouTube: Utilize video content to offer comprehensive product reviews and exclusive peeks behind the scenes of your brand, building transparency and trust.
• TikTok: Connect with a diverse and younger audience through distinctive, trend-focused video content that can propel your brand to new heights.
• Snapchat: Use this platform for time-sensitive offers and exclusive behind-the-scenes content to create a sense of urgency and exclusivity.

By strategically leveraging the distinct features of each platform, you can construct a more vibrant and captivating customer journey that’s not just about attracting but retaining buyers. This omnichannel strategy is vital in today’s media landscape, where consumer attention is split across many channels.

2. Enhance marketing campaigns to convert prospects into customers

Social media efforts should be integrated with existing marketing campaigns. This is essential as your social media goals are likely serve the same purpose as your overall marketing goals: to increase brand awareness, engage your community and drive web traffic.

Whenever you’re running a sale, launching a new product or promoting a special offer, you need to let your social media followers know.

Don’t be shy. Promote your products on social media. Research by Deloitte shows that 64% of consumers are influenced by social media posts from brands when making purchasing decisions.

Keep the excitement high by posting discount codes, special offers, and promotions. This sparks those impulse buys. And when you post captivating product photos on Instagram, it’s an invitation, not a hard sell. Creativity is key here—let your products shine in a way that’s engaging and authentic.

Cross-promotion is key. The value of a retailer’s email list is in repeat business. Having a strong social media following will appeal to potential partners and increase your value when approaching them.

A UK brand that has done a great job integrating email marketing with Instagram is Sweaty Betty. The activewear brand is known for delivering customer-centric content that resonates with its audience. Sweaty Betty uses its Instagram account to showcase its latest collections, share fitness tips and tell empowering stories of women embracing an active lifestyle.

Their email marketing is an extension of their social media marketing. It’s consistent, on-brand and, most importantly, engaging. Their emails feature the same type of content they post on Instagram, ranging from workout guides to new product launches and inspirational stories. This ensures that their audience receives the same positive and encouraging message, whether they are checking out the brand on social media or via email.

Sweaty Betty has mastered the art of using Instagram to build a sense of community and email to take that community connection deeper with targeted content and exclusive offers. The result is an ongoing conversation with customers that is both inspirational and squarely within the brand ethos.

3. Gather feedback from your social customers

Navigating the world of social media in the retail sector in 2024 involves much more than just promoting the latest deals and discounts. While it’s true that customers often follow brands to catch a good sale, the real challenge lies in engaging them on a deeper level that transcends mere transactions.

The key to capturing your audience’s attention is to create a strong brand voice and develop a connection. One of the most effective ways to do this is through interactive engagement. Here are a few innovative ways you can connect with your customers:

• Interactive Instagram Stories: Get the most out of Instagram by using polls, quizzes, and question stickers. These fun and interactive features can help to keep your followers engaged and provide you with valuable insights into their preferences and opinions.
• AI-Powered Chatbots: Implement chatbots on your social media accounts and website. This ensures your brand is always open to collecting feedback and that your customers will always have a quick and easy way to get in touch with your company.
• Social Listening Tools: Stay in the know with social listening tools. Monitor online conversations about your brand, products, and industry to discover trends and opportunities for improvement.
• The Power of Community:  Establish branded Facebook Groups or similar forums to foster a community where customers can connect. These environments are ideal for sharing feedback, generating ideas, and engaging in dialogue, all of which strengthen their loyalty to your brand.

Use these spaces to gather feedback on new products, informing your development strategies. Integrate creative questions in posts to diversify content and engage your audience. Retailers like Wilko excel by asking quirky questions that boost participation and cleverly showcase their products.

4. Enhance retention with proactive social customer service

Consider this: online shoppers are looking for convenience and they’re more likely to stick with a brand that delivers great customer service.

Customer care is now a critical component of social media success. The Sprout Social Index 2021™, UK & Ireland report found that being known for placing customers first is the top quality consumers ascribe to the best brands on social media.

For those in retail, connecting with your customer base on social media means more than just listening. It involves responding with empathy, personalization and in a timely manner. These are the foundational pillars of what today’s consumers have come to value, and they can significantly affect overall customer satisfaction.

As we noted in our Twitter customer service guide, 60% of users expect brands to respond within an hour.

Responding quickly to customer inquiries isn’t just about placating the needy—it’s an opportunity to differentiate your brand and show your level of commitment to customer service. In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to do business with a company if it offers a response to complaints and negative reviews.

Marks & Spencer is a shining example of effective social customer service. Their consistent interaction with customers, addressing comments and questions on social media, not only resolves queries but also bolsters their reputation as a brand that puts customers first.

Marks & Spencer’s social media customer service doesn’t just resolve queries and complaints but also celebrates customers and their positive experiences. Our data shows that this is the primary reason why customers choose to engage with brands on social. When it comes to social proof, these are the moments to be made.

The more you can spotlight satisfied customers, the better. Notably, poor customer service is one of the main reasons consumers unfollow brands on social media.

So don’t let customer service be an afterthought. By monitoring and employing social listening, you can ensure that no mention of your brand goes unnoticed.

5. Harness social listening to drive product and content innovation

The social media landscape is constantly changing, and so too are the buying habits of the people using it. Brands are always looking for new ways to attract and retain customers, and the market is more competitive than ever, making it essential that brands stay on top of what’s happening in their industry.

Enter 2024, and the need for tools like Sprout’s social listening suite has become more pressing than ever. This platform includes a query builder to help you track mentions, hashtags and keywords that are relevant to your industry. By keeping an eye on what your customers are currently engaging with or concerned about, you can stay ahead of the curve.

Sprout’s advanced listening features help retailers track their brand sentiment and mentions, which are essential for maintaining a healthy level of positive engagement and growth over time.

Social media is a treasure trove of business intelligence. Listening is the key. By listening to your customers on social, you can adapt your product offerings and content strategy to better match their needs and desires, helping to maintain relevance and a competitive edge in a crowded retail market.

6. Leverage user-generated content to highlight brand advocates

User-generated content (UGC) is essential for retail brands on social media, as it helps to showcase products authentically and build a vibrant community.

H&M is just one example of a major retailer that capitalizes on UGC to display its products and, in turn, bolsters community engagement and conversion rates. By offering customers the platform to share their experiences, brands like H&M can effectively harness the enthusiasm of their customer base.

Take British brands like Boots UK and ASOS for example. They’ve been known to cleverly utilize UGC by spearheading campaigns around specific hashtags, encouraging customers to share their product-related stories in beauty or style. Not only does this foster a strong sense of community, but it also significantly boosts the product’s visibility by leveraging authentic, customer-generated content.

When embarking on an influencer marketing journey or seeking to promote UGC, creating a singular hashtag is now best practice. This opens up an added avenue for customer engagement, fostering a more vibrant dialogue between you and your audience.

7. Optimize social shopping for an effortless user experience

Transforming social media platforms into effective sales channels requires more than just posting product links. To truly enhance your social media conversion rates, the shopping experience must be streamlined and user-friendly.

Take the example of In the Style. They have mastered the art of social shopping on their Instagram platform. By selecting “View Shop,” users are directed to a well-organized catalog that not only showcases their products but also provides detailed descriptions and essential information. This integration makes it incredibly easy for customers to browse and make purchases directly from their social media feeds.

Ensuring the transition from browsing to purchasing is as smooth as possible is key. By minimizing the steps and simplifying the process, brands can significantly improve the shopping experience, encouraging more users to make purchases directly through social media platforms.

Ideally, you want to keep your customers moving from Point A to Point B rather than bouncing between a bunch of links and redirects. Even if you don’t use a third-party tool for social shopping, making your social landing pages scrollable and mobile-friendly is a must-do.

Additionally, social platforms are constantly rolling out new shopping and advertising features tailored for social media for retail. For example, the roll-out of Instagram Checkout signals how networks are trying to make it easier for brands to encourage purchases.

8. Inspire long-term loyalty with paid social ads

Of course, we can’t talk about social media for retail without discussing paid ads.

With social algorithms seemingly cracking down on purely promotional organic posts, running ads allows retailers to appeal to customers without running the risk of spamming them.

The good news is that retailers can personalize and target their advertising like never before. Brands can run campaigns to prospect for new customers or reach out to returning customers simultaneously.

For example, brands like PrettyLittleThing and Look Fantastic use Facebook and Instagram’s dynamic ads to reach former customers or they’re looking to reactivate. Such ads serve as a cost-effective way to reintroduce your brand to customers and are likewise noted for their high ROI.

9. Don’t forget your physical packaging

If you’re a retailer, you have a distinct opportunity to make a lasting impression on your customers in person.

This can be done by combining your social presence with your physical packaging if possible. From stickers and business cards to quite literally wrapping up your products with your social handles, there are tons of creative ways to couple social media with in-person promotion.

Even something as simple as a branded business card snuck into your shipped orders is a smart move. Retailers can’t be shy about promoting their social presence and in-person creatives are one of the most meaningful ways to do it.

10. Increase your customer lifetime value over time

The endgame of social media for retail is to nurture customers and encourage them to become long-term shoppers.
In other words, you can’t afford to solely focus on acquisition. Growing your follower count is nice, but ask yourself: is your social presence resulting in long-term engagement and purchases?

If someone is willing to follow your brand, they’ve already signaled their interest to make a purchase. This highlights the need to promote offers while also connecting with a diverse content calendar. As noted by the examples above, retailers have a ton of creative options available for regularly engaging their target audiences.

At the same time, consider how you might enhance the value of your social following over time. Step up your efforts during the festive season when consumer spending peaks. Implement influencer marketing and user-generated content campaigns.

Try your hand at social advertising. And don’t forget to keep an eye on engagement through social analytics. By tracking your growth and engagement metrics, you’ll develop a better understanding of what leads to purchases among your followers over time.

How are you using social media for retail?

There’s no denying that retailers have their hands full in terms of their social presence. But as we said, retailers have the most to gain from social media at large.

From uncovering new customers to increasing the value of the ones you already have, the amount of creative business opportunities available to retail brands on social media is seemingly endless. And with the help of tools such as Sprout Social, brands can run and monitor their campaigns by the numbers to win more customers along the way.

There’s never been a better time to go all-in on your social media to drive more traffic, build a solid community and secure more sales.
Interested in more tips for creating a social-first customer experience? Download this checklist for providing exceptional customer service on Instagram today.

The post How to master social media for retail in the UK appeared first on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social https://ift.tt/LjVhK8U
via IFTTT

How to schedule Instagram Stories [2024 Guide]

Want to keep your brand top-of-mind for your audience using Instagram Stories? Consistency is key, but when you’ve got a million other tasks, you might not have the time to manually create and publish Stories content throughout the day.

Manual publishing also has its challenges. What if an image gets cropped weirdly? Or the sticker link you included doesn’t work? Now, instead of focusing on other tasks, you’re stuck troubleshooting tech issues. However, scheduling Instagram Stories can help avoid these scenarios.

We’ve created this in-depth guide to show you how to schedule Instagram Stories. You’ll learn the benefits of scheduling and step-by-step instructions for using Sprout Social and Facebook Business Suite’s scheduling features.

Why should you schedule Instagram Stories?

Short answer: scheduling Instagram Stories makes a social media marketer’s life a lot easier. But here are a few of the most impactful benefits.

Save time

According to Harvard Business Review, workers spend under four hours a week reorienting themselves after toggling between apps and websites, or 9% of their overall annual work time. Scheduling Stories allows marketers to focus on one task at a time instead of interrupting what they do throughout the day to post, saving them time, effort and focus.

Create scheduling consistencies

Stories appear right at the top of the Instagram feed, so they’re often the first thing people see when they open the app. Scheduling your content helps you appear consistently at set times throughout the day or week. It also allows you to take advantage of the best times to post on Instagram to maximize visibility.

More opportunities for strategic content planning

Publishing different types of Stories (e.g., promotions, behind-the-scenes, user-generated content) will help engage your audience and keep them interested in your brand. Maintaining a balanced content mix is much easier when scheduling Stories in advance. It allows you to zoom out to cover all your bases—rather than just posting to post without a strategic plan.

Maintain cohesive branding with templates

With their temporary nature, many brands’ Instagram Stories are less strict and polished than their Feed posts. Marketers can still take the less-polished approach when scheduling Stories, but having a set schedule gives you the opportunity to prepare the content in advance and maintain a more cohesive look and feel with design tools like Instagram templates.

Plan for large campaigns

Planning for a wide-scale marketing campaign? You’ll likely have a variety of deliverables to create and push out before, during and after the event. Getting proactive by setting up as much content as possible ahead of time, including scheduling Stories, will help you stay organized and give you more capacity to devote to real-time engagement when the campaign is live.

Coordinate with other marketing efforts

Let’s say you’re launching a new product. You’re running Meta ads, have an email blast scheduled for your subscribers‌ and have posts lined up on your Instagram and TikTok feeds. Scheduling your Instagram Stories to go live simultaneously ensures that your entire digital audience sees the same message across all channels. When someone sees the ad, checks their email‌ or scrolls through Instagram, these efforts reinforce your message and strengthen your product launch.

How to schedule Instagram Stories with Sprout Social

Want to save time, maintain consistency and stay active on Stories when your audience is? Use Sprout Social’s Instagram Story Scheduling workflow to streamline content creation and scheduling.

Here’s how to schedule Instagram posts, specifically Stories, with Sprout Social on desktop and mobile.

How to schedule Instagram Stories on desktop with Sprout

• Step 1. Select the Compose box and select the profile you wish to post on.
• Step 2. Toggle This is a story on.

• Step 3. Select and add media to the Compose box from your desktop, Bynder, Canva, Dropbox or Google Drive, according to the following specifications:
  • Video:
    • File type: .mp4, .mov
    • Max file size: 650 MB
    • Max length: 2 minutes 30 seconds
  • Image:
    • File type: .jpg, .png
    • Max file size: 20 MB
• Step 4. Optional: add an Approval Workflow in the Publishing Workflows section for extra accountability.
• Step 5. Schedule the Story. You have four options:
  • Select your desired publishing date and time
  • Create a Draft to save to your social media calendar and schedule it later
  • Queue the Story to automatically post at a pre-set time
  • Send it right away to publish the Story immediately

• Step 6: Click Schedule or Submit. Your Story is now scheduled and will appear on the Publishing Calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Stories on the Sprout iOS app

• Step 1. Select the Compose box and select the profile you wish to post on.
• Step 2. Toggle This is a story on.

• Step 3. Select and add media from your iOS device or Asset Library to the Compose box. Choose up to 10 photos or videos according to the specifications in the desktop scheduling workflow.
• Step 4. Tap Done and add Mobile Publisher Notes or a Link Sticker URL for each Story frame. You also have the option to add story notes and texts to copy to your clipboard when you’re ready to post.

• Step 5. Tap Notify and then choose a publishing date and time for your Story. You also have the option to create a Draft, add it to your Queue or Send it right away.
• Step 6: Tap Save. Your Story is now scheduled and will appear on the Publishing Calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Stories with Meta Business Suite

• Step 1. Navigate to your Meta Business Suite and select Create story.

• Step 2. Choose where your post will appear: Facebook, Instagram or both.
• Step 3. Select and add visual content to the Media section. Choose up to 10 images and videos to preview before you schedule your post.

• Step 4. Select a scheduling option for your post. Click Share now to publish your post immediately, Schedule to manually select a future date and time to publish your post or Active times to share your Story at a recommended time when your followers are most active.

• Step 5. Click Schedule (the blue button in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen) to confirm your scheduling option and publish or schedule your post.

Start scheduling your Instagram Stories

Since its launch in 2016, Instagram Stories has been a popular feature for social media marketers. Because they only last 24 hours, brands are often more authentic and creative with their Stories’ content than their Feed. Thanks to their poll, question and quiz features, they’re also great for real-time engagement.

Adding scheduling tools like Sprout Social or Meta Business Suite to your Instagram Stories content production process allows you to reap all the benefits of this fun feature on your own schedule. It also helps ensure you post the most impactful content at the right time for your audience.

But if you want to use Stories strategically, you can’t always post on the fly. Scheduling your content in advance will help you show up at the best times with the most impactful message. While this guide will help you do just that, Instagram Stories are just one piece of the Instagram puzzle. You need to think bigger if you want to own this platform. Check out our Instagram for Brands guide to step up your Instagram game and future-proof your strategy.

The post How to schedule Instagram Stories [2024 Guide] appeared first on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social https://ift.tt/BclOrUg
via IFTTT

How to use AI for social media

Managing a social media strategy is a constant balancing act between creativity and operational demands. But what if someone could handle most of the day-to-day manual tasks?

AI can be that “someone” stepping in to handle the routine tasks that consume your time, leading to greater efficiency and innovation. The idea is to let AI be your assistant, so you and your team can focus on melding creativity and strategy.

Brands and leadership teams recognize the importance of integrating AI into their workflows, but it’s not as simple as flipping a switch. According to the 2023 State of Social Media report, 39% of business leaders cite insufficient training and development as a significant hurdle in implementing AI effectively.

This article will guide you on how to use AI for social media and overcome these challenges to leverage AI in your marketing strategy. We’ll explore practical ways to integrate AI, from content creation and audience engagement to influencer marketing and customer support.

Embracing AI in social media strategies

The 2023 State of Social Media report shows that nine in 10 leaders expect their companies to increase investment in AI and ML for marketing over the next three years. And more than 80% of marketers feel AI has already positively impacted their work.

AI’s role in social media marketing goes beyond content creation and scheduling. It enables social media managers to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, such as social media monitoring, social listening, responding to customer interactions, data analysis and even managing influencer campaigns.

By automating these activities, you get valuable time back to concentrate on strategic initiatives that drive your brand’s growth.

But with the use of AI also comes a common misconception that AI makes customer experiences more robotic. In reality, AI improves your ability to create a more customer-centric, personalized brand experience.

For example, Sprout Social enables teams to improve customer engagement by detecting sentiment, prioritizing high-importance messages, and providing quick, automated responses. These capabilities help your brand remain responsive and relevant in real-time, even outside business hours.

Remember—AI still needs human supervision to ensure that interactions stay true to your brand’s voice and values.

How to use AI for social media content creation and publishing

Social media is fueled by content, which makes content creation one of the most time-consuming tasks for any social media manager. But it’s far from the only responsibility. You must also optimize content for various platforms because a post for LinkedIn might not work as well on X (formerly known as Twitter).

Learning how to use AI for social media becomes crucial in this context. AI tools enable you to generate multiple variations of the same post, which saves time and effort. AI can also be a source of inspiration (or a good sparing partner) by providing fresh ideas for content, captions and more.

While AI-generated content may require some tweaking, it speeds up content creation significantly, making it an invaluable resource in a social media manager’s toolkit.

Let’s take a closer look at how AI can simplify and optimize your daily tasks in social media content creation and publishing.

Personalized content

People prefer posts that speak directly to their needs and interests, especially when they’re wading through a sea of social content. Personalizing content can take time and effort, especially when managing large amounts of data and diverse audience segments.

One way AI can assist is by producing customized content that appeals to specific audiences, enabling you to craft posts at scale that engage your desired audiences across various channels. Sprout Social’s Suggestions by AI Assist does this by providing tailored suggestions for post text based on your chosen topic or theme.

Use Sprout Social’s Suggestions by AI Assist to craft posts at scale that engage your desired audiences across various channels.

You can choose from multiple tone options—informative, humorous or persuasive—so the content aligns with the moment and your audience’s preferences.

Optimizing images for search

On ever-crowded social media platforms, achieving visibility requires more than just compelling content—it demands a strategic approach to accessibility and search optimization.

Sprout Social’s Generate by AI Assist streamlines this process by automatically generating accurate and descriptive alt text for your images. This not only makes your content accessible to visually impaired users, enhancing inclusivity but also boosts your visibility.

Sprout Social’s Generate by AI Assist streamlines this process by automatically generating accurate and descriptive alt text for your images.

Search engines like Google rely on alt text to interpret image content, which can improve your ranking in image search results. Moreover, social media platforms use alt text to enhance post discoverability within their search functions.

AI Assist also takes it a step further by generating relevant hashtags, enabling brands to reach their target audience more effectively when users search through hashtags.

Automated scheduling

Timing is everything in social media. Use AI to determine the best times to publish content.

Sprout’s Optimal Send Times takes the guesswork out of scheduling by determining the optimal times to publish content based on when your audience is most active.

Sprout’s Optimal Send Times takes the guesswork out of scheduling by determining the optimal times to publish content based on when your audience is most active. This helps maximize your brand’s visibility and impact, even when you’re not online but your audience is.

How to use AI for social customer care

Social media platforms have prospective and existing customers. To cater to them both, you must stay informed and help them whenever needed.

However, handling every incoming message manually is next to impossible. This is one of the primary examples of how to use AI for social media. AI can help manage high volumes of customer inquiries efficiently and keep consistent, timely responses, all while reducing the burden on your customer care team. This enables you to maintain a high standard of customer service while conserving your resources.

Tailor your responses

According to the State of Social Media report, 42% of business leaders believe that quick responses are essential for online business success. AI can automate routine responses and flag messages requiring human attention so that no query goes unanswered.

Sprout’s Enhance by AI Assist refines responses by suggesting different tones and styles, helping customer service teams maintain a consistent brand voice while responding swiftly. This also aids in crafting more detailed responses, so every customer feels valued and heard.

Sprout’s Enhance by AI Assist refines responses by suggesting different tones and styles, helping customer service teams maintain a consistent brand voice while responding swiftly.

Prioritize customer care based on message sentiment

The sheer volume of incoming messages makes it crucial to identify those requiring immediate attention. Sentiment analysis classifies messages as positive, negative, neutral or unclassified, allowing AI models to help teams prioritize responses based on urgency and importance.

Sprout’s AI-powered Sentiment Analysis quickly finds and addresses negative comments or complaints. This helps to reduce problems before they get worse, so your brand’s reputation remains unscathed.

Sprout’s AI-powered Sentiment Analysis quickly finds and addresses negative comments or complaints.

Classify and respond to messages in real-time

Things move quickly on social.  AI can help you understand and respond to the message’s intent in real-time.

Sprout’s Message Intent and Recommended Response capabilities help your team understand the message type in the Smart Inbox and suggest timely, relevant responses. This lets your team focus on the most important interactions, improving the customer experience.

AI for social listening and insights

AI enables you to process and analyze vast amounts of data quickly. As a result, you can identify shifting consumer trends, understand audience sentiment and get actionable brand insights that can refine your strategies as fast as possible.

AI for social listening can help you:

Dig through data faster

One of the biggest challenges in social listening is the sheer volume of data generated across various platforms. AI can process this data much faster than any human team, identifying relevant conversations, key topics and emerging trends that might otherwise be missed.

Summarize trends and findings

Once data is collected, the next step is to make sense of it. AI can help summarize trends and critical findings, providing a clear and concise overview that can be easily acted upon. This enables brands to quickly understand the bigger picture without getting bogged down in the details.

Understand audience emotions

Understanding the emotions behind what people say online is paramount for crafting the right responses and strategies. AI can analyze sentiment at scale, categorizing content as positive, negative, neutral or unclassified, giving brands a clearer picture of their audience’s emotions.

Here’s how Sprout’s AI capabilities improve your social listening strategy for better insights.

• Analyze by AI Assist: Quickly generates insights from Social Listening topics, helping brands stay on top of trends and audience concerns.
• Summarize by AI Assist: Provides concise summaries of large data sets, making it easier to understand vital findings and take action.
• Queries by AI Assist: Generates effective keyword suggestions for more accurate and relevant sentiment analysis.
• Spike Alerts in Listening: Alerts teams to sudden changes in topic volume, impressions, engagement‌ or sentiment, enabling proactive responses.
• Smart Categories: Automatically classifies and groups entities within Listening Topics, making it easier to interpret complex data.
• Explicit Content Filters: Removes explicit or inappropriate content from Listening Topics, maintaining the focus on relevant and constructive conversations.

AI for employee advocacy

Employees are some of the most potent advocates for any brand. When employees share their experiences, it can quickly shape the narrative on social media. Their feedback reflects on your brand’s image and can significantly influence public perception.

This is why many companies are engaging their employees as brand advocates. One of the main strategies is giving employees the right tools and resources. This will make it easier for them to create content and share authentic brand stories.

AI tools, like Sprout’s Message Ideas by AI Assist, help quickly generate post ideas, making it easier for employees to participate in advocacy programs. It provides tailored content suggestions aligned with your brand’s voice so that employees can share posts that are authentic to them and your brand.

Sprout’s Message Ideas by AI Assist help you quickly generate post ideas, making it easier for employees to participate in advocacy programs.

Integrated with Sprout’s Employee Advocacy platform, AI Assist helps your team expand your brand’s reach by enabling your colleagues to build and leverage their social presence with ease.

How to use AI for influencer marketing

Effective influencer campaigns hinge on a deep understanding of the conversations and trends that resonate with your target audience. Social listening helps you identify these key discussions and the right influencers to amplify your brand’s message. Leveraging AI, especially when considering how to use AI for social media, can speed up this process.

Sprout’s Social Listening solution helps you automate and manage these tasks efficiently. Our solution analyzes billions of data points in seconds, providing real-time, actionable insights on the topics that matter to you.

Queries by AI Assist enhances your ability to extract critical audience insights from social feedback and chatter, enabling you to stay focused on what’s important. You can also create Theme suggestions within your queries and apply them to Listening Topics for deeper analysis and understanding.

Monitoring your brand’s health with Sprout’s Social Listening can help unearth new trends or emerging conversations, including spotting potential brand influencers. Keeping a pulse on these conversations helps you effectively identify and collaborate with key influencers your audience listens to. By understanding how people discuss your brand and offerings,  you’ll be able to pinpoint conversation drivers and leverage them in your content and influencer campaigns to expand your reach and influence.

Create your AI social media blueprint with Sprout

Managing social media is more than just a one-person job; it requires a dedicated team. When your team has an AI assistant that’s available 24/7, you’ll be an unstoppable force. This AI-driven support tackles the manual routines so your team can focus on what truly matters—strategic planning, creative innovation and meaningful engagement with your audience.

As you learn how to use AI for social media, think about how Sprout’s capabilities will enable you to create social media posts, listen to your customers, respond to them in real time and gain valuable insights that drive better decision-making. This comprehensive support system is built to help your team, and your brand, grow and thrive.

See for yourself by signing up for a free trial.

The post How to use AI for social media appeared first on Sprout Social.

from Sprout Social https://ift.tt/wQvjiHK
via IFTTT