Social media security best practices to keep your company and customer data safe

From social engineering to profile hijacking, social media accounts face many potential attack vectors. Social media security isn’t something companies can take lightly, especially in regulated industries like healthcare and finance. A brand’s online presence—including that of its senior leadership—is deeply connected to its reputation. A breach can damage customers’ confidence and put company information at risk.

Cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, so companies need to evaluate and adjust. In this article, we’ll cover social media security best practices to help you develop a security-first approach for your organization’s accounts.

What is social media security?

Social media security refers to the strategies, tools and best practices businesses and individuals use to mitigate risk and protect assets across social media platforms. This includes safeguarding sensitive information like customer data, employee details and confidential business information.

Common social media security threats include:

• Password theft
• Account impersonation
• Phishing and social engineering
• Data breaches

With the right privacy and security measures in place, organizations can lower the risk of these attacks and maintain a positive reputation.

The importance of social media security

Social media security goes beyond preventing account hacks and phishing attempts. It’s essential for protecting your brand’s reputation, employee and customer information, as well as ensuring compliance with evolving data protection laws (like GDPR and CCPA) and avoiding financial losses.

Think of it this way: Every employee, vendor and leader who touches your social media accounts plays a role in your overall security posture. Why? Because social media is inherently public. Any security breach can instantly damage your brand’s reputation through inappropriate posts, misinformation or scams visible to a wide audience. On top of that, the real-time nature of social means a malicious post can spread like wildfire, leaving little time to react.

And the stakes for brands are high. Not only can failing to follow data protection regulations lead to hefty fines, it can also lead to lost revenue due to damaged brand trust. According to a Q1 2024 Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 78% of consumers agree that, compared to a year ago, a brand’s social media presence now has a bigger impact on whether they trust that brand.

Top social media security risks and threats 

Here are the most common social media cybersecurity risks, along with sample scenarios of how they might occur in an organization.

Password theft

Password theft involves stealing login credentials (username and password) to gain unauthorized access to a social media account. This can be done by stealing the login credentials of an employee or through a brute force attack.

Password theft can apply to the networks and any third party tools used to access and manage social media accounts.

Account impersonation

Account impersonation in social media security refers to the act of creating a fake account that mimics a legitimate individual, brand or organization.

Attackers use these fraudulent accounts to deceive others into believing they are interacting with the real entity. This can include impersonating executives, employees or entire businesses to scam customers, spread misinformation or damage a brand’s reputation.

Phishing

Phishing is a common cyberattack where cybercriminals impersonate trusted entities via email or social media to trick individuals into sharing sensitive information, like login credentials or financial details. These messages may look legitimate, but often contain links or attachments that lead to malicious websites or install malware—programs intentionally designed to harm a device, network or server.

Phishing is a serious security threat, as it can compromise accounts and systems, leading to privacy breaches and financial loss.

Malware

Malware is malicious software designed to harm a device, network or server. On social media, it can be spread through links, downloads or attachments shared on various platforms.

One wrong click can lead to malware being installed on a user’s device, potentially compromising sensitive data or allowing attackers to take control of the system.

Social engineering

Social engineering is a manipulation tactic used to trick people into giving up sensitive information, like login credentials or financial details. Instead of using technical hacking methods, social engineers rely on psychological tricks to exploit human nature.

For example, a scammer impersonating a customer or a partner might send a direct message (DM) that includes a link to a malicious website. Without proper training on social media security best practices, your team might click the link, assuming it’s legitimate.

Spam and bot accounts

Spam and bot accounts are automated accounts used to spread spam, malicious links and misinformation, polluting your feed and potentially harming your brand. They typically mimic real users and can be tricky to spot.

The real threat lies in their ability to distribute harmful content, launch phishing attacks and impersonate legitimate users or brands. This increases cybersecurity risks for both your social media team and your followers.

Privacy breaches

Privacy breaches occur when unauthorized individuals gain access to personal or sensitive information shared through social media platforms. This can include login credentials, private messages, financial details or proprietary business information.

Breaches often happen due to weak security practices, phishing attacks or vulnerabilities within social media networks and third-party platforms.

4 social media security best practices to know in 2025

Here are some social media security best practices you can follow to safeguard your brand, employees and customers:

1. Implement strong password practices

Strong passwords are foundational to your social media security. They’re your first line of defense against unauthorized access, protecting your social accounts and any third-party management tools. But while most people understand the dangers of weak or shared passwords,  it’s easy to fall short in practice.

That’s why it’s crucial to choose tools with built-in security features like multi-factor authentication and single sign-on. These features combat “password fatigue” by making it easier to create and manage strong, unique passwords for each account. They also make it much harder for unauthorized users to gain access, even if a password is compromised.

Equally important is avoiding manual password sharing (like keeping passwords in a shared note). This practice makes it impossible to track who has access to which profiles, creating a major security vulnerability. If you can’t control access, you can’t ensure security.

2. Educate employees about social media security

Social media moves fast. This rapid evolution allows cybercriminals to innovate quickly, and unfortunately, exploit vulnerabilities on a large scale. But here’s the thing: Many employees may not be aware of the unique security risks that come with using social media for business.

That’s why it’s crucial to educate your team about the specific challenges of social media security. Here are a few key reasons it requires extra vigilance:

• Public nature: Social media platforms are inherently public, making it easier for attackers to gather information about your employees and target them with personalized attacks.
• Decentralization: Security on social media is a shared responsibility between platforms, users and businesses. This makes it more challenging to enforce consistent security practices across the board.
• Third-party apps and integrations: Many marketers connect their social media accounts to third-party apps and services, which can increase the risk of data breaches if those apps have weak security practices.

Empower your team to make smarter security decisions with up-to-date training that includes specific examples of social media threats. By illustrating how these risks can play out in realistic scenarios, you can help employees recognize and respond to potential attacks effectively.

3. Regularly review and update access permission settings for third-party applications

People change roles, leave organizations and projects evolve. To maintain strong social media security, it’s crucial to regularly review and update access permissions for all your social accounts and any third-party tools.

Start by setting clear user permissions. Your social media management platform should enable you to grant specific access levels based on each team member’s responsibilities. For example, in Sprout Social, you can set user permissions at the company and feature level. This ensures that team members have access to the tools they need—and nothing they don’t.

Equally important is establishing a clear workflow for removing system access when someone leaves the team or changes roles. This helps prevent former employees or those with new responsibilities from accessing sensitive information or performing actions they no longer have authorization for.

4. Create a social media crisis management plan

Crises don’t follow business hours. When a social media crisis hits, you need a plan to guide your response and minimize damage to your brand. This plan should outline the steps your team will take to address different scenarios, such as a hacked account or a data leak.

Imagine a hacker gains access to your social accounts and starts posting content that goes against your brand values. Or worse, what if they leak sensitive customer data? Without a plan, your response will likely be reactive, inconsistent and potentially damaging.

A strong social media crisis management plan will help you:

• Respond quickly and effectively to minimize damage.
• Communicate clearly and consistently with your audience.
• Protect your brand’s reputation and maintain customer trust.
• Coordinate efforts across different teams (social media, IT, communications, legal).
• Back up important data regularly and establish a recovery plan to handle security breaches.
• Learn from the experience and improve your future response.

Bonus Resource: Download our three-step template to document a social media crisis management plan. This template will help your team effectively respond and recover if a crisis strikes.

Get the template

Social media security best practices for executives and brand advocates

Executives and fellow employees can be powerful brand advocates. Their personal social media posts can humanize your brand, build trust and reach new audiences. However, it’s crucial to ensure they can participate safely and effectively without compromising security.

Here’s how to empower these groups while maintaining a high level of social media security:

Executives

When it comes to executives, managing their social media presence within a secure platform is key. This eliminates the need for shared passwords and provides a centralized hub for managing content and approvals.

With Sprout Social, executive communications teams can efficiently oversee leadership profiles on LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter). Easily schedule and approve posts, photos and videos directly within Sprout. If your executive prefers to approve content outside the platform, assign them an “External Approver Seat” to send content directly to their email for approval.

Employees

Employee advocacy is a powerful way to amplify your brand’s reach. Using a centralized platform enables employees to easily share pre-approved brand content while ensuring compliance with your company’s social media policy.

If your team has concerns about connecting their personal profiles to a company’s tool, reassure them that platforms like Sprout Social prioritize data privacy. Explain that Sprout only collects the essential information needed for employees to connect their profiles and share content from within the platform. This enables them to share company posts directly through our Employee Advocacy tool without needing to access their personal accounts.

How secure social media management tools keep you safe

Secure social media management tools act as a central hub for all your social media activity, making it easier to control access, enforce security policies and monitor for suspicious behavior. They provide a layer of protection between your valuable brand accounts and potential threats, helping you mitigate risks and safeguard your reputation.

At Sprout Social, we understand the importance of keeping data secure. That’s why we’ve incorporated world-class, enterprise-grade security standards into our platform. We’re trusted by over 35,000 organizations to help them manage millions of daily conversations across social media.

Here’s how we prioritize security:

• Purpose-limited data processing: We clearly identify our purposes for processing personal data from social media networks and limit our processing solely to those purposes.
• Data minimization: We ensure that the personal data we process is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary.
• Stringent data retention policies: We have established standard data retention periods for customer data and are stringent in ensuring that deletion requests are respected.
• Enhanced login security: We offer capabilities like single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) to add extra layers of protection to user accounts and prevent unauthorized access.
• Responsible AI usage: We weave AI into our product responsibly to enhance our platform’s capabilities while prioritizing data security. Whether it’s Sprout’s proprietary AI models or integrations with third-party providers like OpenAI or Claude, Sprout never sells customer data and ensures these models cannot use or store data for model training.

For more on Sprout’s security and privacy standards, check out trust.sproutsocial.com.

Guarding the gateways to social accounts and data

Safeguarding your brand requires staying vigilant in the ever-changing cybersecurity landscape. Continually educate yourself and your team to stay ahead of emerging threats. Remain proactive, and you can keep your accounts secure today and into the future.

Managing all your accounts and permissions on one central platform is a significant step toward greater social media security. Request a personalized demo to discover how Sprout Social empowers over 35,000 brands to achieve smarter, faster business impact with comprehensive social media management solutions. Our platform includes tools for publishing, engagement, customer care, influencer marketing, advocacy and AI-powered business intelligence.

The post Social media security best practices to keep your company and customer data safe appeared first on Sprout Social.

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How to schedule Reels on Instagram in 3 ways

Instagram Reels get some of the best engagement on the platform. These short-form vertical videos generate more impressions and comments than any other format. For small businesses, Reels are the fastest way to grow on Instagram.

But if you’re manually posting each Reel, especially multiple times a day, you’re doing more harm than good. Your team will end up spending hours each week on a repetitive task that can easily be automated with a social media scheduling tool.

Scheduling Instagram Reels in advance helps you post consistently, hit peak engagement times and focus on creating better content. It’s also a great way to keep the algorithm happy and rake up those views, likes, comments and shares.

In this post, we’ll show you 3 ways to schedule Instagram Reels.

Can you schedule Instagram Reels?

Yes! You can schedule Instagram Reels in three different ways:

• Natively using the Instagram app
• Using social media scheduling tools (e.g., Sprout Social)
• Using Meta Business Suite

We’ll show you how to schedule your Reels with each method below.

Note: Scheduling Instagram posts and Reels is only available for Instagram Business or Creator accounts (not personal accounts), so make sure you check your account type before diving in. Learn how to switch to a professional account here.

How to schedule Instagram Reels from the Instagram app

Third-party scheduling tools for Instagram have been around for a while, but the app itself did not support native scheduling until the end of 2022. Users can now schedule up to 25 posts daily and up to 75 days in advance directly through the Instagram app only. Scheduling is only available through the native app and not through desktop login.

Keep in mind, only Instagram Business and Creator accounts have access to this feature. Personal profiles are unable to schedule content.

Follow these steps to get started.

Step 1. Create a new Reel

Open your Instagram app and tap the + at the bottom of the screen or swipe right on your home feed to create a new Reel.

Select Reel from the content types at the bottom.

Step 2. Film or upload your video

Either shoot clips directly using the in-app camera, or upload videos from your phone.

Step 3. Edit and finalize your Reel

Add text, stickers, music, effects, etc., then add your caption.

Step 4. Schedule your Reel

Tap More options at the bottom of the screen.

Toggle the Schedule this reel option on, then select your preferred date and time from the menu that appears.

Go back to the previous screen and tap Schedule.

While Instagram’s native scheduling is straightforward, it has some limitations. For example, you can’t cross-post to other accounts. So if you need to share content across multiple platforms, check out methods two or three for scheduling Reels.

Using a third-party scheduling tool also gives you access to more in-depth analytics to track the performance of your Reels. We’ll talk more about that later.

How to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout Social via desktop

Scheduling Reels through Instagram’s native app works fine for some businesses. But if you’re a business dealing with a larger social strategy, you’ll need a tool that lets you easily schedule and manage content across multiple platforms.

Sprout Social is one of those tools that let you do more than just schedule Reels. You can cross-post on other networks, collaborate with your team, engage with your audience and track in-depth analytics—all in one place.

Here’s how to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout on your desktop.

Step 1: Sign up and connect your Instagram profile

Before you can schedule your Reels via Sprout Social, you need to connect your Instagram profile(s). Log in to your Sprout dashboard or sign up for a free 30-day trial here.

Click Connect a Profile and choose Instagram from the various options. Then, follow the on-screen guidelines to link your Instagram profile to your Sprout account.

Note: Link all your Instagram profiles to Sprout to schedule Reels to multiple accounts. You can also connect your other social profiles, including Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter (X).

Step 2: Compose your Instagram Reel

Once you’ve connected your profile, click Publishing on the left to open Sprout’s social media calendar. You can switch between list, week or monthly calendar views.

Hover on your calendar to schedule a Reel on a specific day. There’s also an option to leave notes (e.g., Reel ideas you want to share with the team).

You can also skip the calendar view and click the blue pencil/paper icon in the top right corner from any screen to create a new Reel.

Select the Instagram profile you want to publish to from the drop down menu.

Now, you can start composing your Reel. If you’re looking for inspiration, here are some Instagram Reel ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Add your Reel video

Start by uploading your media. There are several ways to do this in Sprout:

• Upload your Reel video directly from your computer
• Import from Bynder, Dropbox or Google Drive
• Add a video from your asset library in Sprout

Once you’ve uploaded your video, you can change the thumbnail frame by clicking on the pencil icon that appears when you hover on the attached media. You can also upload a different image to use as your thumbnail.

This is also where you can toggle the option to share your Reel to your profile feed or have it appear only in the Reels tab.

Write your caption

Next, write an engaging caption for your Reel. You can also add relevant Instagram hashtags, or tag users and other brands in your caption (e.g. during a partnership).

Sprout pro tip: Use our Enhance by AI Assist feature to generate more caption ideas and speed up your creative process. If you’re not sure what to post about, Enhance by AI Assist can help you create content based on a draft you input into the Compose box. If you’re looking to change the tone of the content (think: confident, friendly or professional), try Suggestions by AI Assist to align captions with your brand’s tone of voice.

Set a Mobile Publisher (optional)

If you want to use audio from Instagram’s sound library in your Reel content, you’ll need to choose a Mobile Publisher. This person will post your Reel from Instagram’s mobile app and will get a reminder (push notification) from Sprout’s mobile app on their device when it’s time to do so.

Step 3: Schedule your Reel

Scroll down to When to post and select your preferred date and time. This is when your scheduled Reel will go live. You can also adjust the time zone if your audience is located in a different country or region.

If you’re not sure when to post your Reel, select Optimal Send Times to see data-driven recommendations when your audience is most likely to see your content. Sprout’s ViralPost™ technology suggests the best times to post based on your historical engagement data to help you maximize your Reel’s impact.

After finalizing the date and time, click Submit or Schedule to add it to your calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Reels with Sprout Social via iOS app

Scheduling Instagram Reels using Sprout’s iOS app is similar to doing the same on desktop, with some minor differences. You can easily schedule videos on the go from your phone.

Follow the steps below to schedule Instagram Reels using Sprout’s iOS app.

• Step 1: Tap the Compose box and select your Instagram profile.
• Step 2: Upload your Reel video from your iOS device or Asset Library to the Compose box.
• Step 3: Write a caption, add your hashtags and insert any mentions or tags.
• Step 4: Tap Done and add Mobile Publisher Notes.
• Step 5: Tap Notify and then choose a publishing date and time for your Reel.
• Step 6: Tap Save. Your Reel is now scheduled and will appear on the publishing calendar.

How to schedule Instagram Reels from Meta Business Suite

You can also schedule Instagram Reels using the Meta Business Suite.

First, connect your Instagram account to your Facebook page so you can access both from the Meta Business Suite. Then follow the steps below to schedule your Reel.

Step 1. Create a new Reel

Log in to the Meta Business Suite, and click Create reel.

Step 2. Add media and caption

Upload one or more videos for your Reel content.

This is also where you can write a compelling caption to go with your video. Include any relevant hashtags, location tags or mentions.

Step 3. Edit your Reel

You can make basic edits to your Reel before you publish or schedule it.

Crop your video, add trending sounds from the built-in library, insert text and even enhance the original audio. There’s a timeline editor at the bottom to make editing and syncing audio easier.

Step 4. Schedule your Reel

Hit Next and select a date and time to schedule your Instagram Reel.

You can also add a poll and adjust privacy settings (Public or Restricted) at this step.

When you’re done, click Schedule. Your Reel is now ready to go live at your chosen time.

Why should you schedule Instagram Reels?

If you’re like most marketing teams, you’ve figured out that Reels are your ticket to growing on Instagram. But if you’re posting your videos manually throughout the day, you’re doing it the hard way.

Here’s why scheduling your Reels in advance might be the best thing you do for your Instagram strategy.

Maintain a consistent presence

Scheduling Instagram Reels ahead of time helps you consistently post fresh content, which keeps your audience engaged and your brand top-of-mind.

It also signals to your followers that you’re active and invested in connecting with them. Without consistency, even the best content can get lost in the noise, and your audience may drift away.

Sprout’s scheduling tools make it easy to maintain a regular posting cadence. You can plan your publishing calendar well in advance and make sure you’re not just posting Reels but also mixing in other content types like image posts, Carousels and Stories.

Maximize reach and engagement

Reaching your audience when they’re online is key to getting your Reels noticed. Instagram’s algorithm rewards content posted at the right time with more visibility and engagement.

But figuring out the best times to post isn’t always easy, especially when your audience is active in different time zones.

That’s where Sprout’s ViralPost™ feature can help. It analyzes your audience’s activity and recommends the best times to post for max engagement. Instead of guessing, you can rely on data to schedule your Reels for when they’re most likely to make an impact.

Save time and improve efficiency

Posting Reels manually every day can take time away from other important things like strategy building or content creation. Scheduling lets you batch your work, which frees up time to focus on those big-picture tasks that truly matter.

Need proof? Our Social Media Productivity Report revealed 63% of marketers feel that manual tasks hold them back from doing high-impact work. With the right social media management tools, however, 59% find they have more time to finish their tasks.

With Sprout’s publishing tools, you can upload and schedule Reels in bulk, plan weeks ahead and eliminate the stress of daily posting. With everything organized in one platform, you’ll have more time to think creatively and engage meaningfully with your audience.

Improve content quality

Creating great Reels isn’t just about hitting “post”—it’s about planning, editing and crafting content that truly resonates with your audience.

When you schedule your Reels in advance, you have more time to research customer needs and preferences, brainstorm content ideas, refine your visuals, write thoughtful captions and pick the best hashtags to boost visibility.

Combine that with Sprout’s AI Assist to get caption suggestions and help with drafting posts. Our smart writing tools make sure every Reel you share is polished and high-quality.

Streamline your workflow

Managing social media content can get overwhelming, especially when you’re juggling multiple platforms or working with a team. Scheduling keeps you organized and prevents last-minute issues like mistakes, typos or missed deadlines.

Sprout Social simplifies this further with a centralized workflow for drafting, approving and scheduling Instagram Reels and other posts. Team members can collaborate on, review and approve social content, making sure it’s aligned with your brand before it goes live.

Make data-driven optimizations

Understanding how your Reels perform is crucial for improving your strategy. Metrics like reach, views and engagement rates reveal what’s working and where there’s room to grow. Without these insights, you’re just guessing what your audience wants.

Sprout Social’s powerful Instagram analytics let you track your Reels’ performance in real-time. With granular data on your audience as well as individual posts, you can adjust your content, target the right audience and improve ROI in the long run.

Start scheduling Reels today

Let’s be real: manually posting Reels throughout the day is probably not the best use of your time. Sure, Reels are crushing it on Instagram right now—but spending hours on publishing means less time actually creating great content.

Good news? Scheduling changes everything. You’ll keep a consistent posting rhythm and free up time to focus on growing your brand on Instagram. No more dropping everything to post a Reel right this second.

Using a tool like Sprout makes this even easier, giving you everything you need to manage, schedule and optimize your Reels in one place. Sign up for a 30-day free trial now and see the difference scheduling makes.

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Authenticity in influencer marketing: How to find authentic influencers

Social media marketers understand how pivotal influencers are to the success of their brand. At the same time, they don’t always know the perfect formula to succeed with influencer marketing. In The 2024 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report, we found over 80% of marketers agree that influencers are an essential part of their overall social media strategy.

Who should you partner with? What kind of content should you create with influencers? How can you make sure your influencer marketing methods are going to pay off? It all comes down to influencer authenticity.

In this article, we get into the nitty gritty of what influencer authenticity is, why it matters and how you can use it to drive revenue and make a business impact.

What is authenticity in influencer marketing?

Authenticity may sound like social media jargon, but it’s a concept that’s essential to connecting with your brand’s social media followers. The definition of what is authentic in marketing is a moving target, as it varies across generations and demographics. In the context of social media marketing, influencer authenticity refers to influencers that are true to their values and mission. In authentic influencer marketing, brands work with influencers whose values and mission align with their own.

Authenticity in social media is something users want more of—whether it’s from influencers or others. According to The 2023 Sprout Social Index™, authentic, non-promotional content is the number one thing users don’t see enough of on social media. It’s what they crave.

Influencer authenticity makes your brand look more believable to consumers simply by association. How can you spot an authentic social media influencer? Look for these traits:

Transparency and honesty

Examine how the influencer communicates with their audience, especially about their brand partnerships and brand deals. The FTC now requires influencers to disclose brand partnerships, so influencers must note which posts are sponsored by their partners or that they’re doing a brand deal with a specific company who’s paid them to create content.

Disclosing a brand partnership is just one way to be transparent. As we’ve seen in our research, social media users are looking for authenticity and transparency about business practices and values. Look at how the influencer talks about the brand in their posts. For example, do they share that they loved the brand even before they started working with them? Do they talk about certain aspects of the brand that align with their personal values and interests? This type of transparency and honesty helps to create trust with followers.

@SpiceSpoon is a social media influencer that focuses on modern Pakistani, Afghan‌ and Persian Cuisine. In the post below, she specifies that she has a partnership with a sponsor so her audience is aware that it’s a paid post. In the caption, she notes specific aspects she loves about the product, such as their sustainable farming methods—something she’s passionate about.

Genuine passion and interest

Does the social media influencer really care about the topics they post about? Are those topics an important part of their life? Unless the social media influencer is a talented performer, most users and brands can see right through faked passion and interest.

Authentic influencers live and breathe their area of expertise—it’s not only how they make money, it brings true joy and value to their lives.

Engagement with followers

Look at how the influencer interacts and engages with their followers. Do they passionately talk about common interests or do they brush off comments and DMs from followers?

Showing authenticity with social followers involves engaging with them, whether that’s by liking comments, replying to comments or even using user-generated content (UGC) in posts.

If an influencer isn’t building an emotional connection with their followers, they likely aren’t putting their authentic selves out into the world—and a partnership with them could harm your brand.

Why authentic influencers matter

Why should your brand prioritize influencer authenticity? Appealing directly to consumers is a major reason, one that helps increase influencer marketing return on investment (ROI).

Authentic marketing with influencers not only captures your target audience’s attention and gives them what they want, but it also has several other benefits like enhancing your credibility, increasing engagement with followers and creating meaningful relationships with consumers. Who can say no to that?

Here are other reasons influencer authenticity matters:

Builds trust and credibility

Brand trust—you can never have too much of it, but you can certainly have too little. If your consumers trust your brand, they know they can rely on you to fulfill your promises to them. This makes them much more likely to purchase from you again or refer you to their family and friends.

The same is true for authentic influencers. They build trust with their audience by showing how true they are to their values and mission. This increases credibility with their followers, encouraging them to engage online and consider making a purchase based on the influencer’s recommendations. People are much more likely to buy a product or service from someone they trust, after all.

The Pasinis’ social media presence revolves around their connection to Italy—it’s the area of their expertise. As a result, when they share travel tips for Italy (that include brand partnerships like the one below), their followers trust their recommendations.

Drives engagements and conversions

Authentic influencers tend to engage with their followers by liking and responding to comments, especially when discussing matters that align with their own values. Meaningful interactions like these increase the likelihood of their followers taking action—such as going to your brand’s social media profile or clicking through to your website from a sponsored post.

Never underestimate the value of social media engagement. It helps social media users feel connected with influencers and the brands they promote, creating a sense of loyalty and community.

@Maymah is an influencer whose content focuses on fitness training and modest gym outfits. She responds to her followers’ comments in almost every post, driving further engagement.

Create long-term relationships

Speaking of loyalty and community, authentic influencer marketing is a great way for brands to create long-term relationships online—both with influencers and their followers, benefiting everyone involved. How does this work?

Influencer authenticity, by association, builds brand authenticity. When the influencer’s followers feel aligned with the influencer’s values and see them as being authentic online, they feel more inclined to trust what they say. And if the influencer vouches for your brand, their followers will want to create a relationship with you as well, all based on the influencer’s word.

Be sure to live up to expectations by engaging with your influencer’s audience online when and where it feels appropriate to do so.

Enhances brand reputation

Influencer marketing and authenticity in content creation go hand in hand. You can’t have authentic social content without an authentic influencer and vice versa. Partnering with the right influencers can positively impact your brand’s image and reputation, especially if your brand values align with the influencer’s values. This kind of alignment will help both the brand and the influencer create content that feels meaningful

For example, if you work with an influencer who values sustainability just as much as your brand, you’ll be able to enhance your brand reputation with their followers through a strategic partnership. If your brand doesn’t feel the same way about sustainability, however, your partnership won’t resonate with followers.

@GreenGirlLeah is an influencer whose content revolves around sustainability and environmentalism. Naturally, her content features brands with similar values, like in the example below, where she partnered with brand Brilliant Earth.

How to identify authentic influencers

There’s no shortage of social media influencers online, so how do you find the best partnership for your brand? Our blog on how to find the right influencers is a great start to getting a shortlist of candidates, but you’ve also got to consider influencer authenticity.

Follow these tips to find the right influencer for your brand.

Conduct a content analysis

When it comes to influencer marketing and authenticity in content creation, the best way to find what your brand needs is to do a deep dive into the influencer’s content. This is a key step, so be sure not to rush it—you want to take time to watch or read posts in detail.

Look for consistency in the influencer’s message: Do they talk about their values in the same way across their posts? Also consider how genuine their content feels. Is the influencer enthusiastic in how they talk to their followers? Do they show passion and interest in the topics that matter to your brand?

Originality can’t be understated. It’s ranked as one of the top factors that make a brand memorable on social, with 38% of consumers remembering brands who share original and creative content. Consumers don’t want to see the same trends over and over again. If the influencer shares new and interesting content on a regular basis, they might be a winner.

Identify values alignment

Influencer-brand partnerships are successful when the influencer’s values align with the brand’s values. If there’s a major disconnect, the authenticity of the relationship fades—and consumers can tell.

When reviewing the influencer’s content, pay special attention to what drives them and compare them to your brand’s values. While the influencer may not share 100% of your values, there needs to be considerable alignment on the things that matter most.

For example, if a luxury home decor brand values high-quality manufacturing and doesn’t like to cut corners—and the influencer’s whole platform is about cheap and quick home decor “hacks”—there’s a disconnect in values here. Even if the brand and the influencer agree on other values, this type of misalignment can tank a partnership and create a brand crisis.

Evaluate audience engagement metrics

Analyze the quality of interactions between the influencer and their followers. Look at engagement metrics such as likes, shares and comments to evaluate the level of engagement the influencer has with their audience. Around three-quarters of marketers focus on engagement metrics when tracking social performance.

Other important metrics to track include click-through rates, reach and impressions, which are also directly impacted by audience engagement. If you note upward trends, it’s typically a good sign. Downward trends should be investigated—because it may mean the influencer is struggling to connect with their followers.

Consider follower count—but not too much

On a related note, the influencer’s engagement may depend on how many followers they have. In some cases, the more followers an influencer has may mean they have more engagement as well—but that’s not always the case.

Often, micro and nano-influencers have high levels of engagement because they have a highly targeted, engaged follower base. So, while follower count is important, it’s not as important as the level of engagement or authenticity.

Authenticity in influencer marketing isn’t impacted by follower count. While it can be beneficial for your brand to work with mega influencers, the ROI only pans out if those influencers align with your brand and have loyal followings

If you want to connect with your target audience through strategic partnerships, check out this worksheet to help you create a social strategy that blends data and values.

Review past partnerships

Do your due diligence by looking at the influencer’s history of collaboration to gauge their authenticity and alignment with your brand. How many brands have they worked with before? What kinds of brands do they typically work with? How do those brands compare to your brand? The answers to these questions can help you evaluate if the influencer is right for your needs.

Consider influencer marketing benchmarks, like those found in The 2024 Influencer Marketing Benchmarks Report, to see how well the influencer’s partnerships have performed. If the influencer hasn’t met past brand expectations, there could be something amiss with their partnerships, messaging or engagement.

DermDoctor is a board-certified dermatologist. His brand partnerships are typically with skincare brands, like in the example below, showing consistency and authenticity.

Use an influencer marketing platform

An influencer marketing platform is a great way to speed up the identification and vetting process. Whether you’re interested in virtual influencers or human influencers, you can use influencer marketing platforms to connect with top creators in your industry, narrow down your search and identify influencers that align with your brand.

Once you’ve found your partner, you can use influencer marketing platforms to manage contracts, content and analytics.

Finding authentic influencers with Sprout Social Influencer Marketing

In order to harness authenticity in influencer marketing, you need the right tools. Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger) is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands find and connect with influencers that align with their brand values. Brands can maximize their influencer marketing ROI and create lasting business impact.

Check out these key capabilities:

Advanced search and filtering

Sprout’s Influencer Marketing enables users to filter influencers based on criteria such as audience demographics, engagement rates and content categories. Use the 50+ search filters to find influencers that not only align with your brand values and mission, but serve the same target audience as you.

Brands can create data-driven influencer-marketing strategies for effective collaboration. By partnering with social influencers who have the power to introduce your brand to their loyal audience, you can reach more people who may be interested in what you have to offer.

Authenticity and brand affinity analysis

Sprout’s Influencer Marketing helps you assess an influencer’s authenticity by analyzing their content, audience engagement and past brand partnerships, so you can be sure they’re the right fit for your campaign.

Influencer Marketing’s proprietary algorithm uses machine learning and audience psychographics to match brands with creators who have a strong affinity for one another. The platform also has a content health capability that compares crucial performance metrics among influencers so you can make data-driven decisions that result in business impact.

Streamlined workflow and collaboration

Once you’ve found the influencers you want to work with, managing the partnership is made easy with Sprout’s Influencer Marketing. It simplifies the process of overseeing influencer campaigns with its end-to-end campaign workflow. You can optimize every aspect of the campaign, from planning to approval and posting.

Foster collaboration between your team and the influencer with collaboration portals, which make onboarding and communication easy. Organize feedback and approvals for the influencer and track performance all from one interface.

Build long-term relationships with authentic influencers

Nurturing long-term relationships with authentic influencers isn’t a one-and-done job. It requires strategy, planning and continued collaboration, but it’s worth it for the level of brand advocacy you get in return.

The key? Mutual respect.

Brands and influencers need to see eye to eye and be on the same page about the goals of their collaboration. Through candid communication and clear expectations, you can be on your way to establishing a partnership that lasts years.

Consider giving influencers creative freedom to create content for your brand, avoiding overstepping your role as a partner. Provide guidance when needed to protect your brand, but keep in mind that the influencer has built a following for a reason and they know what kind of content appeals to their audience.

Champion authenticity in your next campaign

Whether you’re new to influencer campaigns or have already partnered with several influencers, it’s time to put authenticity front and center. It’s what social media users want and they’re in charge of your brand’s success on social.

Use this influencer marketing toolkit which will set you up with the resources to begin, budget and build an influencer strategy optimized for ROI. Establish strong relationships on social for the long term with influencers, followers and customers.

 

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Instagram social listening: Transform your brand’s strategy

Instagram is no longer just a platform for sharing photos from brunch or #OOTD posts. It’s where people get the latest news, find new products and get buying recommendations. In other words, it’s a gold mine of information to understand your audience better. And Instagram social listening helps you dig into it to uncover valuable insights about who your audience is and what they want.

In this post, we take a deep dive into the art of social media listening for Instagram. We explain why it’s important, how it works and how to build an Instagram social listening strategy. Let’s get started.

What is Instagram social listening?

Instagram social listening is the process of tracking relevant conversations on the platform. It involves listening in on conversations about specific keywords, topics, hashtags and competitors. This helps you extract valuable insights to inform other aspects of your Instagram marketing strategy.

Not sure what to post? See what your followers are buzzing about to get inspiration for new content ideas. What memes are they sharing? What topics are they discussing?

Similarly, these conversations help you:

• Identify potential customers and influencers
• Assess your overall brand health and sentiment
• See what your competitors are doing
• Guide customers on their path to purchase
• Stay on top of the latest industry trends

Instagram social listening gives you firsthand, actual answers based on facts. So you’re no longer wasting your efforts and resources on guesswork.

Why Instagram social listening matters

Brands shouldn’t live in a bubble when it comes to their Instagram activity. Listening puts your mentions, interactions and comments into context. This helps you engage people and grow your account.

Below are some specific ways that Instagram empowers you to connect with customers.

Learning what your audience wants on a personal level

Social listening on Instagram lets you hone in on the needs and pain points of your target audience. It shows you what conversations people are having, even outside of your brand’s account. This gives you a better idea of what they want based on the posts they’re creating and the comments they’re leaving on a friend’s or influencer’s post.

These insights will then inform your social media content strategy and promotion strategy. Knowing what your audience wants can even guide your product development efforts.

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Providing more impactful Instagram customer service

“Good” service goes hand-in-hand with having a pulse on customer questions, comments and concerns.

This becomes challenging when people use Instagram to vent their frustrations instead of talking to you. Instagram social listening ensures that you never miss a @mention. It also helps you track posts containing branded keywords. So you can stay on top of customer service conversations beyond your direct call-outs.

That way, you can respond swiftly and step up your social media customer service efforts.

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This could be a game-changer, with 76% of consumers in our 2023 Sprout Social Index™ report valuing how quickly a brand responds to their needs. Our report found that consumers also equally appreciate it when a brand prioritizes customer support. 70% also expect to get a personalized response for their customer service needs.

Discovering meaningful customer content to promote your brand

Your customers are your best marketers. Listening can clue you in on valuable content and social proof you can promote yourself. This might include:

• Positive reviews, testimonials and customer success stories
• User-generated content (think: customer photos and videos)
• Shout-outs from potential co-marketing partners (think: brands, influencers and creators)

Rather than dig for these opportunities, listening ensures that they all come to you.

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Instagram social listening vs. social media monitoring

Quick side note! Let’s take a moment to break down what Instagram listening isn’t.

Listening is about more than @mentions, comments and #hashtags

Terms like “monitoring” and “listening” often get used interchangeably among marketers. They aren’t the same, though.

• Social media monitoring is the act of tracking @mentions, comments and hashtags. Monitoring is a crucial aspect of listening, but it’s only part of the process.
• Instagram social listening involves translating conversations and customer talking points into action.

Interactions matter, but so does context. Think about it. Someone tagging a fashion brand in their OOTD post versus calling out that brand’s products are apples and oranges.

A tag simply means, “This is what I’m wearing/using.” A call-out goes deeper into what they love about the product or why they chose it specifically. Also, not every mention of your business on Instagram involves a direct call-out or tag. This is likely to happen when people are complaining about your brand or expressing their frustration.

Social listening for Instagram is about deciphering the context behind those relevant conversations. This then empowers you to take appropriate action and make informed decisions.

The takeaway? If you’re only looking for mentions of your brand name or campaign key terms, you’re missing out on key conversations.

You’re also missing opportunities to intervene and take action to engage customers. That’s why it pays to be proactive via listening.

How does Instagram social listening work, though?

Good question! Instagram is a strange beast as far as listening to customer interactions goes.

For starters, you’re juggling a lot of different queries. Tags, mentions and branded keywords are just the beginning.

And although IG search has improved, you need to do some digging to find and pull together relevant conversations.

Instagram social listening involves the following three-step process:

• Creating queries based on your business, hashtags and terms relevant to your industry
• Monitoring mentions, tags, comments and interactions
• Assessing all of the above to take action

This action could be something as simple as responding to a post. Or it may involve a bit more complex process of solving a customer’s problem.

Starface uses brand tags and hashtags to find relevant customer content. The following Reel shows how a customer created a DIY bag charm using the brand’s star balm. Starface responds with a comment about how smart this is. Even a simple acknowledgment like this is enough to build a strong brand community.

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Features such as Instagram’s keyword search and tags can help you dig out content relevant to your brand. Coupled with your comments and brand tags, you have a decent idea of what people are saying about your business.

This is obviously a lot to sift through by hand. Again, Instagram doesn’t make listening particularly easy by default.

The good news is that there are tools out there to help. Sprout’s social media listening tool helps you hone in on relevant Instagram conversations. Brands can create their own listening queries for Instagram via Boolean syntax and rules logic.

Choose from existing templates to simplify your Instagram social listening efforts. Monitor brand health, discover industry insights and analyze your competition. Or check out how your campaign is performing and how people are responding to an event.

Sprout’s Query Builder is where you enter the words, phrases or hashtags you want to track. For Instagram, it’s crucial to include hashtags as a part of your Query since Sprout uses hashtags to collect data from the platform.

Not sure what words or phrases to track? Queries by AI Assist is a useful feature that automatically suggests additional words or phrases. Enter one keyword relevant to your industry and the capability comes up with other related keywords to add to your Query.

Optionally, exclude specific words and phrases and select industry themes to reduce noise in your social listening data. You can also configure your alerts and apply additional filters to streamline your search.

How to build an effective Instagram social listening strategy

Of course, understanding Instagram listening and how it works is only half the battle.

How do you turn all of these metrics and observations into action?

Your social listening strategy ultimately boils down to your goals. Below is how brands can use Instagram social listening to level up their marketing efforts.

Conduct competitive analysis to find ways to stand out

One of the best uses of social listening is competitive analysis.

Consider ultra-competitive markets such as the beauty industry, for example. New products are constantly popping up every day, with new brands adding to the competition. Tracking tags and trending discussions will show you which brands are dominating the space and why. So you can better position yourself in the face of stiff competition.

Meanwhile, direct mentions and branded hashtags highlight conversations specific to your brand. This helps you uncover what makes your brand different.

Uncover opportunities to improve your products

If you want to know how to improve your own products and services, who better to ask than your own customers? Prompted or not, followers can clue you in on new ideas.

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Of course, not all feedback from your followers is going to be direct. People might create posts or Stories complaining about your products without tagging you. Using an Instagram social listening tool will help you zero in on those relevant discussions.

Likes, comments and shares also help you measure how customers are responding to certain products. Look at an influx of interactions to see which products are a customer favorite. Alternatively, posts with a lower engagement can show you which items are falling flat.

Make valuable customer touchpoints on the path to purchase

The latest Instagram stats show that 70% of shoppers look to the platform for their next purchase. And over 60% research brands and products on the app. So if you take the opportunity to engage these potential customers, you could effectively grow your sales.

Instagram comments are a goldmine for finding folks interested in your products. This rings true for people who don’t know about you yet or might be looking for a new spot in your space.

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Listening makes it easier to maintain relationships with satisfied customers, too. This includes check-ins and opportunities to earn more UGC.

Discover industry and content trends relevant to your followers

Social listening is invaluable for tracking industry trends. For starters, you should know the tags your audience follows. But are how they responding to such trends? What’s the context behind those trends? How can you apply them to your own campaigns?

On a related note, Instagram listening can keep you from accidentally copying your competition.

For example, brands need to differentiate their tone, content calendar and captions if they want to stand out on Instagram. Effective listening can help you uncover tags and trends that your competitors might be missing out on and how you can fill the void.

Monitor your customer sentiment and keep people happy

Let’s say you’ve launched a new product or campaign.

You obviously want to know how your audience feels about it, right? Are you building the kind of buzz you expect? Or is the campaign falling flat with your audience?

Again, you may not always get those answers from direct mentions. Chances are there are users out there who can provide a concrete answer, though. You need to keep track of the posts people are creating about the product or campaign to get an idea of its impact.

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This is where sentiment analysis comes in, helping you gauge how folks are reacting to your brand on Instagram. Track the sentiment around specific campaign tags and products. Whether it’s “yay,” “nay” or “meh,” sentiment analysis can inform you to better serve customers and score more love from your Instagram followers.

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What Instagram social listening tools are available to brands?

Native Instagram search tools allow basic brand listening. But the process is manual and taxing, especially if you’re going all in with Instagram social listening.

After all, brands need to track multiple tags and competitors. That’s not even considering your own mentions and branded keywords. Given the sheer amount of content posted to Instagram daily, sifting through it all is no small feat.

Investing in a proper Instagram social listening tool saves you the trouble of digging through thousands of posts each day.

Sprout’s robust suite of social listening features is a game-changer for brands looking to step up their Instagram presence. Businesses can track dozens of queries beyond simple hashtags with the help of our Query Builder. This gives you a holistic understanding of your brand and industry to inform your larger marketing efforts.

Reporting and analytics provide a quantitative look at your listening so you can make data-driven decisions. Second-guessing a campaign or your next move on Instagram? Look no further than your numbers for peace of mind.

Listen, learn and grow with Instagram social listening

Social listening on Instagram helps you tap into the pulse of industry trends and conversations. These insights inform various aspects of your business—from your content to your product development.

Stay on top of those critical conversations with Sprout’s robust social media listening solution. Try it for free for 30 days to see how it can power your Instagram social listening efforts.

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Earned media value: How to calculate it and what to look out for in the calculating process

For years, earned media value (EMV) has been a staple for marketers trying to measure the impact of their social media efforts, especially for influencer marketing and organic social media efforts. But in today’s data-driven world, where we can track everything from website clicks to conversions, is EMV still a relevant metric?

The answer, as with many marketing questions, is a bit more complex than a simple yes or no. While EMV is a great tool for understanding your brand’s social presence, it’s just that—a tool.

This blog post will explain in detail, explaining its benefits and its limits. It will also help you understand why a complete approach to measurement is important for showing social media ROI.

What is earned media value?

Earned media is any content that mentions your brand that your business didn’t paid for. In simple terms: Earned media means earned engagement by your “digital word of mouth,” not engagement from your own media channel or bought through paid promotions or advertising of content.

Earned media is most commonly relevant in the realm of social media, where user-generated content, influencer collaborations and online conversations can significantly impact brand perception. It also is relevant in public relations, content marketing and event marketing. But today, we are going to focus on earned media value in the world of social media.

Earned media value, or EMV, is a way to value the different actions people take when they interact with different social media content. These engagement actions include comments, likes, shares and mentions. These actions are then projected to be worth a numerical dollar value to your business.

So, for example, if a creator receives 1,000 likes on an Instagram post, using a customized EMV benchmark of $0.10 per like, that post would provide an estimated value of $100.

Is it worth measuring EMV for your brand?

The answer to that question depends on your specific social media marketing goals and objectives.

While earned media value can provide valuable insights into the impact of your social media efforts, it isn’t the only metric that should be considered. It’s important to also track other key performance indicators, such as reach, engagement rate and conversion rate. This will help you to get a more comprehensive understanding of your social media success.

Ultimately, using EMV as a tool together with other metrics can still help guide you in guaging the effectiveness of your social media strategy.

Earned media value can be a useful metric for:

• Benchmarking: Track your brand’s performance over time and compare it to competitors.
• Identifying trends: Spot spikes in EMV that might indicate successful campaigns or viral content.
• Reporting to stakeholders: Provide a high-level overview of your social media impact.

However, keep in mind that EMV has its limitations. It doesn’t directly correlate to business outcomes like sales or leads, and it can be influenced by factors outside your control (like changes in platform algorithms).

What to look out for when earned media value is calculated

When reporting to stakeholders about your social media impact, it’s valuable to include a high-level overview of your earned media value.

While earned media value can be a useful measure for evaluating the success of your social media efforts, it’s important to keep in mind common challenges around earned media value formulas.

Here are a few key things to watch out for around how earned media value is calculated:

• Common calculation inconsistencies: The challenge with EMV calculations is that there is no standard way to assign a monetary value to social media engagements. Some methods rely on advertising equivalents, like cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-engagement (CPE), while others use arbitrary multipliers based on perceived value. Not to mention, the calculation of earned media value can vary significantly between different social media platforms and partners. This can lead to inconsistencies and make it difficult to compare results across platforms.
• Lack of transparency: Be wary of partners who are vague about their approach to calculating EMV. Some may claim their calculations are based on a “proprietary algorithm” or a “trade secret.” This lack of transparency makes it difficult to determine the accuracy and reliability of their results.
• Misaligned KPIs: Ensure the EMV calculation aligns with your specific goals. Misalignment can lead to skewed earned media value figures and make it challenging to accurately measure the success of a campaign. It’s crucial for companies to carefully choose and align their KPIs with their EMV calculations to get a more accurate understanding of their campaign’s effectiveness.
• Over-reliance on EMV: Don’t fall into the trap of relying solely on earned media value. In today’s sophisticated marketing landscape, we have access to far more granular data and attribution models that can paint a bigger picture on ROI than this one calculation.

Looking for the best way to capture your social media data across various social platforms accurately for calculating your social ROI and overall EMV?

Enter: Sprout Social, the all-in-one social media management platform.

Under Sprout Social’s Premium Analytics, Sprout seamlessly integrates reporting across various social media platforms for you. This integration ensures that you have a comprehensive view of your social media engagements for your various accounts across multiple social media networks. It enables you to analyze accurate data for seamless EMV calculations. Additionally, with Sprout Social’s reporting, you will find a repertoire of invaluable data tracking and visualization to present your social media ROI to stakeholders.

Curious to explore Sprout Social? Get started with a 30-day free trial today.

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How to calculate earned media value

As previously mentioned, calculating earned media value does not look the same for everyone. A common approach we can easily recommend, however, is as follows:

1. Determining your average cost-per-engagement (CPE) for paid social media. This provides a baseline for valuing organic engagement.
2. Assigning weights to different types of engagement. For example, a share might be weighted more heavily than a like.
3. Multiplying the number of engagements by their respective weights and your CPE.

Let’s give you an example. We’ve decided that our average CPE is $0.50.

You receive 100 likes, 50 comments and 20 shares on a post.

You assign weights of 1 to likes, 2 to comments and 3 to shares.

• Likes: 100 likes x 1 x $0.50 = $50
• Comments: 50 comments x 2 x $0.50 = $50
• Shares: 20 shares x 3 x $0.50 = $30

Total EMV for the post: $50 + $50 + $30 = $130

Important Note: This is a simplified example. More complex calculations might factor in reach, content type and other variables.

Leverage powerful social media analytics to prove ROI

To sum up, earned media value is a useful metric for benchmarking, identifying trends and reporting to stakeholders. However, it isn’t the be-all and end-all of social media measurement. To truly maximize your social media strategy, it’s essential to integrate EMV with other metrics that provide a more complete picture of your efforts. By understanding the nuances of EMV calculations and leveraging tools like Sprout Social’s reporting tool, you can ensure that your social media strategy is data-driven and aligned with your business goals.

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Social media in sports marketing: Takeaways from the Chicago White Sox’s game-changing strategy

The role of social media in sports is quite literally game-changing. Local franchises now have global fanbases, and those fans expect real-time updates on and off season. When official team accounts fall short, fans are quick to fill the gap with their own content. This dynamic presents a unique challenge for sports marketers—but like all challenges, it also offers great opportunity.

Just ask Tim Brogdon, Director of Digital Content for the Chicago White Sox. He and his team modernized the franchise’s approach to social media management, creating space for fans to celebrate—and commiserate.

We sat down with Brogdon to learn more about the team’s strategy, and to get his perspective on the ups, downs and best practices of social media in sports marketing.

Social media’s impact on sports marketing

Social media has reshaped the way teams, athletes and brands engage with fans. What used to be a one-way broadcast is now a conversation with the masses. To succeed, teams first need to keep up—which is easier said than done.

“While there is fan focus on the games themselves, sports marketing is so much more than those individual events.” says Brogdon. “We strive to authentically grab attention and engage with our audience year-round.”

In the past, sports fans only saw game-day footage captured by professional broadcast crews using high-tech cameras and audio equipment. Today, meeting fans’ growing demand for content requires a small army of contributors. Everyone plays a role—from digital content teams and fan services to the athletes themselves—ensuring a steady stream of engaging content.

All those efforts reap big wins in terms of fan engagement. According to the 2024 Content Benchmarks Report, organizations in the leisure, sports ‌ and recreation sectors typically receive eight times the average number of inbound engagements on their content each day compared to other industries.

The benefits of social media in sports marketing

Sports marketers who step up to the social media plate can score major rewards for their franchises. Here are three ways social media strategies can benefit the teams they support.

It promotes fan engagement—even during tough seasons

A social-first media strategy allows teams to connect with fans in a less corporate, more relatable way, making teams less reliant on wins for positive engagement. The White Sox aren’t the first to pioneer this strategy. Brogdon was inspired by another big name in the sports marketing world: The Cleveland Browns.

“One example I’d always bring up internally while trying to get buy-in is the Cleveland Browns,” shared Brogdon. “Allie Raymond—who’s now with the Los Angeles Chargers—led their social media strategy during the team’s 19-game winless streak. Even during a winless season, they were widely regarded as the best NFL team on social.”

The White Sox social media team captured similar success after setting the record for most losses in a single season. “In September, the White Sox were the third highest ranking team in terms of engagement on X, and number one in engagement per follower. That’s during the time Shohei Ohtani made history with his 50/50 season and other teams were vying for playoff spots. We took difficulties on the field and made them wins off the field.”

It expands reach into new audiences

Thanks to the rise of the algorithmic feed, a stranger is just a fan who hasn’t come across your content yet.

“Our strategy doesn’t hinge on follower growth,” explains Brogdon. “The algorithms are feeding people content whether they’re following the Chicago White Sox accounts or not. Instead, we want to create content that encourages people to pause, view, like and comment. Shares and sends (DMs) are also important, because that impacts virality.”

This impact of social media on sports marketing goes far beyond baseball. A record-setting 5 billion people engaged with the 2022 World Cup on social, and the 2024 Summer Games saw 12 billion engagements. The channel turns die-hard fans into armchair sports analysts while introducing the game day experience to new audiences, ready to be captivated.

It creates new revenue opportunities

Corporate sponsorships have long been a key revenue stream for professional sports teams, but in the past, opportunities for promotion were mostly limited to stadium signage and jerseys. With social media, however, the potential for lucrative partnerships has expanded dramatically.

“Our reassessed strategy at the end of the season caught a lot of attention on social and earned media, which led to a partnership with Dude Wipes,” says Brogdon. “So, in addition to boosting engagement, impressions and growth on our social profiles, we were able to generate revenue for the organization even as the season was winding down.”

The story behind the Chicago White Sox’s new social media approach

Every social media manager knows that behind every brand meme are multiple strategy discussions and layers of internal approvals—and sports is no exception. So how did the White Sox get buy-in for a relatable and self-aware social media strategy that navigated on-field challenges? To put it simply, they worked as a team.

“Our team did a lot of internal advocacy to showcase the potential benefits of talking about losses in a relatable way while taking eyeballs off of players and the front office,” says Brogdon “Our roster saw a lot of new faces added before 2024 season, so early on our strategy was dedicated to getting to know them. We want to humanize them so fans look at them with a sense of empathy and respect.”

As September arrived and the possibility of making history became real, Brogdon and his team took some time to get everyone on the same page. These efforts called for a bit of managing up, along with a solid proof of concept.

At one point, the social team even created memes on the spot during a meeting with the front office’s senior vice president of communications to show what the strategy could look like in real time.

“We would literally go into meetings with printed out memes to share as examples during presentations,” shares Brogdon. “We had to prove that our ideas were grounded in best practices while breaking our normal cadence. We wanted to move forward with a more relatable version of our existing brand voice, but wrapping that up in a presentation that appeals to executive staff takes some time, effort and energy.”

All the internal advocacy, meetings‌ and effort behind their strategic vision ultimately led to a 5% increase in social media sentiment during the month of September. Plus, it gave fans another team to root for: the social team.

4 social media best practices sports marketers need to know

When it comes to professional sports, a great strategy can’t be built in a silo. There are countless other teams and individuals that’ll impact and be impacted by your efforts. To create more seamless social-first experiences, you need to work with all of them. Here are four best practices for getting it done.

1. Take the time to secure internal buy-in

In a perfect world, all of your colleagues would be on board with your strategy after a single presentation. In reality, it’s never that easy, but don’t let the work scare you. The time you take to secure internal buy-in plays a critical role in the success of your strategy.

“Communicating and building relationships with other people who have the ability to enhance your strategy can’t happen overnight,” says Brogdon. “It takes time and effort to sell your strategy internally. There are so many stakeholders that need to buy in, including the social and video teams, marketing, sponsorship and supervisors, etc.”

If you want to give your organization’s social presence a creative overhaul, you have to slow down to speed up. Talk with individuals across your organization, share the rationale behind your ideas and listen to their critiques. This will help you create a stronger business case once the opportunity knocks.

2. Lean on your network

The role of social media in sports marketing is major, but teams are still smaller than you might expect. If you’re a sports marketer in need of some creative inspiration, try looking beyond your organization for help.

“One of my favorite things about sports marketing is the community,” says Brogdon. “It’s much smaller than people realize. You’re able to see a lot of cool success stories from people you’ve worked with or run into over your career.”

Sharing victories and losses with other social media professionals working in the sports industry can spark big ideas. “Everyone creates content around their core and secondary audiences, all while taking their brand identity and account demographics into consideration. It’s interesting because we all get access to the same data, but everyone does something different with it.”

3. Make the most out of time with players

Players are your greatest content creators, but their main focus is on performing on the field. So how can you prep them to capture social content without disrupting their game?

The Chicago White Sox social team maximizes their limited time with players by integrating content strategy into existing touchpoints. “We have two major opportunities to educate our players on social media,” explains Brogdon. “We connect with newly acquired players at a social media session in the fall in Glendale and hold a full team session during Spring Training”

These sessions not only allow the social team to introduce the White Sox digital brand but also give players a glimpse of how the social and video teams will work with them throughout the season. It’s a relationship Brogdon describes as ‘symbiotic’—players learn how to support the social team’s efforts, while the social team helps players amplify their personal brands.

4.  Develop a reporting infrastructure to support corporate partnerships

When the Chicago White Sox sought a new social media management solution, Sprout Social’s Tagging feature stood out as a game changer.

“The ease and convenience of reporting through custom Tags stood out to us immediately” says Brogdon. “Being able to provide marketing, PR, corporate partners and senior leadership with precise, channel-level data is huge for us.”

MLB isn’t alone in recognizing the benefits of this feature. The Atlanta Hawks social media team also uses Sprout to implement their sophisticated Tagging strategy.

“Everything we post gets a content pillar tag and a content medium tag, at minimum,” shared Katie DuPre’, Atlanta Hawks’ Social Strategy Manager, in a previous interview. “We also create campaign ID tags for any larger marketing campaigns. For example, when we were at All-Star Weekend, all live content coverage got a specific tag. After the event concluded, we were able to go back and recap the success of our event coverage.”

When it comes to social media in sports, you have to bring your A-game

Sports marketers across countries, teams and leagues are doing some big things on social. These efforts don’t just impact marketing KPIs—they introduce franchises to the next era of fans.

If you want to get into the game, you need a social media management and analytics platform that can provide you with real-time insights and engagement opportunities. Download our social media management buyer’s guide and learn how to make the most informed choice today.

The post Social media in sports marketing: Takeaways from the Chicago White Sox’s game-changing strategy appeared first on Sprout Social.

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