Social media collaboration: A complete guide to successful partnership

Ever come across a hilarious banter between two brands on social media? Or an engaging video featuring two of your favorite content creators? You enjoy the content so much that you share it with friends. Next thing you know, it goes viral. That’s what you get with a successful social media collaboration.

Collaborating with other brands or creators gives you double the creativity and a massive combined reach. So it has the potential to take your social media marketing strategy to the next level.

This post serves as a comprehensive guide to social media partnerships. We show you the pitfalls to avoid and share tips and best practices for success. Let’s dive in.

What is social media collaboration?

A social media collaboration is when two or more parties team up to create social media content. It’s a strategic partnership involving brands and/or creators to achieve a mutual goal.

For example, a brand may work with other brands to co-host a giveaway campaign. Or an influencer may create sponsored posts to promote a brand. Alternatively, a creator may partner with another creator to co-create content.

This allows them to tap into each other’s audiences, maximizing reach and engagement. Ultimately, this type of social media partnership boosts campaign impact.

The following example features a partnership between Summer Fridays and influencer Alexis Conway. The brand posts a Reel showing the influencer’s beauty routine incorporating the brand’s products.

Common social media collaboration pitfalls to avoid

In spite of these overwhelming benefits of working with a social media partner, there are a few risks involved. Here are some of the snags that you might hit in the collaboration process.

Partnership misalignment

The biggest pitfall is collaborating with a partner that’s not right for you.

At best, your co-created content fails to drive much engagement. At worst, you get a ton of backlash.

Take care to choose a social media partner whose values align with yours. Carefully research their history to make sure they haven’t been involved in a controversy.

Communication issues

Even with a perfectly aligned partner, your collaboration doesn’t automatically become a success. This is especially true with the risk of communication issues.

If you’re not communicating with your partner about expectations, you risk having a misunderstanding. The result? Missed deadlines, poor content, mediocre results—among many others.

Set clear expectations from the start about what you want from the partnership and how to communicate. Lay out all the details about what content to create and who’s responsible for what. Establish timelines so your project stays on track.

Misaligned objectives

Another common issue with social media collaboration is partners working toward different objectives. When each partner has a different goal in mind, they’ll expect different outcomes from the partnership. So you could end up with bad content and a weakly executed collaboration.

This all ties back to the need for clear communication.

Clearly define the purpose of your partnership from the start so everyone’s on the same page. Work out any misalignments in the beginning so you can hash things out and decide on a common social media goal.

Borrow from one of our resources, the Influencer Marketing brief template, that can help you lay the foundation of a partnership with creators. This can help you avoid some of these first few pitfalls we mentioned.

Legal and contractual concerns

There’s also the potential risk of legal disputes arising from your partnership.

Who retains ownership of the content that you co-created? Do you have permission to reuse it for something else? Is there any payment involved? If so, who gets paid and how much?

Even if it seems like a casual collaboration, it’s always a safe bet to work out your agreement in an official contract to prevent disputes.

Measurement and evaluation

Many social media partners struggle to understand the impact of their collaboration. Some don’t even feel the need to measure their performance.

Given all the time and effort you invested in your collaboration, it’d be a waste not to assess its impact.

Establish specific key performance indicators (KPIs) to help you assess your performance. Then use your social media analytics dashboards to track these metrics. Use these insights to understand what’s working and how to optimize for future collaborations.

Best practices for a successful social media collaboration

Once you’re ready to collaborate with a social media partner, a strategic approach is essential for success. The following best practices will ensure a seamless collaboration that delivers results.

Define your purpose

What do you wish to achieve through your collaboration? Why do you need a social media partner in the first place?

Start with a clear idea of the why behind your collaboration. This will make it easier to figure out the details of your partnership, such as collaboration type and KPIs.

Some common reasons for a social media collaboration include:

• Promoting an event
• Driving sales
• Promoting a product launch
• Boosting brand awareness
• Increasing engagement
• Gaining more followers

For example, Black Moon Cosmetics used social media collaborations to promote the launch of a new makeup collection.

Source

Find your ideal social media partner(s)

The most crucial step involves finding the right partner for your collaboration. This involves zeroing in on a partner who can add value to your partnership. You can assess your ideal partner using the following key criteria:

• Audience: Look for a partner who can help you reach the right target audience. In other words, their audience should complement or overlap with your own. For example, a beauty brand partnering with a makeup artist.
• Skills/strengths: Your partner should bring something valuable to the table. This is typically in the form of unique skills or strengths to complement your existing resources. For example, a skin care brand partnering with a dermatologist to create informative content.
• Values: Look for partners whose values align with yours. This ensures that your partnership comes off as authentic and relevant. For example, two sustainable brands creating an eco-friendly holiday gifting guide.
• Content style: Your partner’s content style should match your brand image and personality. For example, two comedy creators teaming up to create a new sketch.
• Reputation: Finally, make sure you collaborate with a partner who’s reputable in their niche. Whether they’re known for their expertise, skills or creativity, they should have a positive reputation.

Create a detailed project plan

Having a detailed plan for your collaboration helps you stay on track. It allows you to set clear expectations and prevent misunderstandings.

Put together a project plan that outlines details like:

• Roles and responsibilities: Who’s responsible for what? Who creates the content and who approves it?
• Deliverables: What content will you create? What format will you use? How many pieces of content do you need?
• Timelines: How long do you have to create each piece of content? By when do you need to approve the content? When do you plan on publishing it?

Develop a content plan

Put together a detailed content plan to guide your posting strategy. This is especially important for collaborations that run on for an extended time.

Consider relevant events and occasions over the course of your partnership. Look into your audience’s activity patterns to find out the best times to post on social media. Use this to figure out a posting schedule that meets your objectives.

For example, you may want to run special promotions to gear up for the holiday season. Or you may run a collab on the days leading up to events like Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day.

Source

Make sure to use a social media calendar to plan out what content to create and when. This makes it easier for both parties to organize your collaboration efforts and keep track of deliverables.

Align your social media style guides

With social media collaborations, you have two (or more) separate entities working together. Each entity has a completely different identity. So it becomes challenging to uniformly represent every partner in your content and messaging.

This is where a social media style guide comes in.

Granted, yours will be completely different from that of your partner. But once you exchange your style guides, you can get a better idea of how to accurately represent each partner. Based on this, agree on the messaging and identity that accurately reflects your partnership. Use this to maintain consistency in your brand messaging and visual identity.

Cross-promote your content

Collaborating with a social media partner allows you to tap into their existing audience and maximize your reach. However, each partner needs to do their part in cross-promoting the content across different social channels. This will help you reach an even bigger audience and exponentially boost your campaign impact.

Tag each other’s profiles so people can easily check out your page. Include relevant information and links so they can take the desired action.

4 bonus tips for social media collaboration

The best practices we shared above should set you up for success with your social media partnership. For an even smoother collaboration, here are a few bonus tips.

1.      Collaborate on creative brainstorming

Two heads are better than one, especially when it comes to the creative brainstorming process. Work closely with your social media partner to come up with ideas for your collaboration. Decide on details like your approach, storyline, narrative, style and format.

It’s especially important to brainstorm together if your collaboration involves co-creating content.

Even if only one partner is in charge of coming up with ideas, everyone should sign off on the final idea.

2.      Build excitement for your collaboration

The more excited people are about your collaboration, the better the engagement. Strategically announce your partnership so people can look forward to it.

Create teasers and countdown timers to build excitement on the days leading up to your “big” announcement. Make sure both partners share these on their respective social media channels. Allow your respective followers to piece the puzzle together. This is a great way to get them involved and build anticipation for what’s coming.

3.      Get inspired by social media trends

Not sure how to run your collaboration? Check out what’s trending on social media.

See the latest trending topics, memes and videos to gauge people’s interests. Look at other brands and creators to see how they’re collaborating. Use these insights to find inspiration for your partnership.

4.      Make the most of social media collaboration tools

Streamline the collaboration process using social media tools.

• Collaboration software: Slack, Microsoft Teams or Asana help teams share information, discuss ideas and collaborate on projects in real time.
• Project management software: Airtable, ClickUp, Notion and Trello help teams manage and organize work, track progress and share updates.
• Cloud-based storage: Google Drive and Dropbox enable people across the organization to access shared content, documents, style guides and the like.

Sprout Social also lets you collaborate on your social media publishing with a shared content calendar. Visualize your content plan and allow partners to add notes or update the calendar in real time. Set up approval workflows so external stakeholders and internal teams can easily approve your content.

3 examples of successful social media collaborations

To get an even better idea of the types of collaborations you can run, let’s check out a few real-life examples.

Creator-to-creator

This involves two or more content creators teaming up to co-create new content. They may collaborate to promote something or simply to produce some fresh, engaging content for their followers.

For example, the following collab features Leena Dong, Jon Moon, Jeenie, Johnny Ung and Mike Bow. The content creators team up to produce an engaging comedy sketch parodying Korean dramas.

Creator-to-brand

This is the most popular type of social media collaboration. It involves a brand collaborating with a content creator to promote its products, services or events. Typically, the creator comes up with a sponsored post for the brand. In some cases, the brand may feature the creator in their content.

In the following example, Maison Margiela Fragrances partners with popular perfume influencer Roxy. The creator shares a detailed review of a new fragrance she received as a gift from the brand.

Brand-to-brand

This involves two brands with intersecting audiences working together. They may co-host events, run a joint giveaway or co-create content.

For example, Crescent Hotels and Resorts partners with Grove Collaborative to run a sweepstakes. Being the first plastic-neutral retailer, Grove has a massive following of people who care about sustainability. This aligns with the hotel’s efforts to support sustainable travel.

The two partners create an Instagram collab post so the content shows up on their respective Feeds, reaching more people.

How to find social media influencers to collaborate with

A successful social media collaboration relies on your choice of partner. This is also the most challenging part as it involves finding someone whose strengths complement yours.

If you’re a brand looking to collaborate with a social media influencer, Sprout simplifies the search process. Our powerful influencer marketing platform, Sprout Social Influencer Marketing (formerly Tagger), uses proven data to find influencers who are most aligned with your brand. Schedule a demo to see the platform in action.

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What makes a great influencer brand pitch: How brands can better collaborate with influencers

It isn’t uncommon for companies to receive hundreds of brand pitches in their social inbox from influencers and creators. Sprout’s Influencer Marketing Report found that 93% of influencers say the quality of a brand’s existing content impacts whether they agree to collaborate.

But what separates a perfect brand pitch from a bad one? How can you identify which influencers to partner with based on their outreach?

We’ve outlined everything to look out for in influencer brand pitches, from metrics and optimized account bios to a unique POV, so you can start finding the right influencers for your brand.

What is a brand pitch?

A brand pitch is a message, usually through emails or social DMs, where an influencer (or an agency representing influencers) reaches out to a brand to collaborate. Sometimes they also include detailed documents like a pitch deck.

Influencers create brand pitches to convince companies to work with them on future content campaigns. They usually include information like who an influencer is, their recent metrics and successes, and a proposed campaign idea.

What separates a good influencer brand pitch from the rest?

Not all influencer brand pitches are created equal. These outreach messages can help you identify whether an influencer is worth working with, or if they’re not quite the right match for your brand.

But to do that, you need to learn what separates a great brand pitch from a bad one. We’ve listed the main things brands should be looking out for when going through brand pitches.

Look for notable metrics

The best way to determine if an influencer’s content will succeed in the future is to check how successful they’ve been to date. Metrics show their audience size, how engaged their following is, the types of results they get from their posts and more.

Check if an influencer has listed any metrics in their message. They should have included data like their follower count, engagement rate and average post reach. Ideally, they’ll also have specific readouts for individual posts or campaigns.

Look for network-specific metrics, especially for networks your brand prioritizes. A breakdown of their network performance shows their preferred platforms, their reach across all social channels and if their audience aligns with yours.

Performance should be well-presented; this shows an influencer is committed to preparing their pitches and maintaining their brand. However, the actual metrics themselves are more important than their presentation.

Compare performance across all your brand pitch messages to figure out which influencers stand out.

Check they pass the brand safety test

For this next evaluation stage, scroll through the influencer’s profiles. Look at their content, and perform a quick audit for brand safety.

Check an influencer’s content and comments section don’t include nudity, profanity or discrimination. It’s also worth performing these checks across other social networks and through traditional Google searches. This could reveal controversies that aren’t happening on the influencer’s profile but are nevertheless having a big impact on their reputation in the wider world.

A perfect brand pitch might include an influencer’s self-audit into their content to prove they’re reliable to work with. This can be a good sign, but it’s always worth double-checking yourself before you proceed further. Skipping this stage risks serious reputation damage in the future if you work with an influencer who posts insensitive or abusive content.

Cheapholidayexpert is a notable UK influencer who regularly appears on UK TV and radio shows; due to her reliable reputation, she partnered with South Korea’s Tourism Organization on a travel-related campaign.

Check for optimized bios and profiles

After your brand safety audit, dive deeper into the influencer’s profile. Look out for how often they post, any brand collaborations, and if they’re part of any special interest groups or initiatives.

A bio is the first thing a user sees before following an influencer, so it should give you a concise summary of the type of creator they are and the values they promote.

Don’t forget to review their link in bio, as these show an influencer’s reach beyond their profile. Comedian and positivity influencer Troy Hawke has a comprehensive link in bio that includes his comedy tour, YouTube channel, merch store and more, with a funny heading that exemplifies his brand.

Finally, think about how a user might find their profile. Look at any keywords they’ve used in their headings, and make sure they align with your brand’s audience.

Reference their previous collaborations

A strong brand pitch should include several examples of an influencer’s previous collaborations. Presenting at least two or three different completed campaigns shows that an influencer has worked with a diverse range of companies. These case studies should all include success metrics and links to the content they produced during these campaigns.

This is possibly the most important part of an influencer brand pitch because it gives you a clear view of an influencer’s experience, performance and content types.

These examples show the types of brands an influencer has worked with already. Check whether these companies are similar to your values or audiences. For the perfect brand pitch, an influencer should have tailored these examples to relate specifically to your company.

Queer-friendly YouTube creator SuperButterBuns regularly creates videos about Atlus videogames. Whilst not partnered, these videos proved their expertise, and their interest. To support the release of Metaphor ReFantazio, Atlus and Sega partnered with them on an exclusive video, likely because of SuperButterBuns’ previous work, and have already received 120,000 video views from an audience keenly interested in their games.

Review the content they created in these previous collaborations alongside the content a creator typically makes for themselves. Look at any success metrics, but also the creative approach they took to see if it aligns with your vision for influencer partnerships.

If you need something to compare their work to, check out Sprout’s examples of influencer marketing campaigns.

Determine whether they add value to your brand

Influencer-brand relationships are always a two-way street. An influencer is using this brand pitch to work with you, but they should also be thinking about how you stand to benefit from the collaboration.

In the best-case scenario, an influencer should have included a value proposition. This outlines how working with them will benefit your brand. Check if they’ve linked their value proposition to specific success metrics, as this shows they understand exactly what level of reach they can offer.

The Costco Guys and The Rizzler, both major internet celebrities thanks to their social followings, recently partnered with the wrestling company AEW. They created a unique value proposition thanks to Big Boom AJ’s (of the CostCo Guys) professional wrestling background and organized a collaboration match during one of AEW’s recent events.

A value proposition might also include a specific campaign pitch. If an influencer has included this, use it to review how creative their content ideas are and whether they fit with your current content strategy.

Don’t treat this like a deal-breaker; even if you don’t think an idea works for your brand, use it to determine if an influencer has done their homework on your brand and its messaging. In most cases, an influencer will be happy to work closely with you to develop a different campaign or to follow your initial creative direction.

Determine if they can bring a unique POV to your brand

Influencers form a unique and integral part of today’s social media culture. They each curate audiences centered around their individual content and personality.

One of the key benefits of working with influencers is to collaborate with, and benefit from, this unique perspective. When evaluating an influencer’s POV, first make sure they’re authentic.

Influencer authenticity can be tricky to determine, but it involves reviewing whether an influencer has a genuine connection with the community they’ve created. You can assess this by performing sentiment analysis on their comments, and looking at how they interact with their community on and off their profile. Also, check whether they practice what they preach when it comes to values, such as activism or inclusivity.

An influencer’s POV is also shown through the content they produce. How unique is the content they make at the moment? Are they following influencer industry trends, or are they the trendsetters? Your influencer partner doesn’t have to be fully unique, but if they are, it can help your brand collaboration stand out on today’s increasingly crowded social media platforms.

Katelyn Ohashi has a unique POV and following thanks to her background as a professional gymnast. This meant she traveled to the Paris Olympics. During her trip, GetYourGuide partnered with her to appeal to this niche audience through her unique perspective.

This POV should come through in an influencer’s brand pitch. Review how well an influencer presents themselves and their understanding of their audience.

Proactively start scaling your influencer marketing program

It’s good to know what to look out for when receiving influencer brand pitches, but don’t just wait for the right influencer to come to you. Follow these same principles to source influencers and creators to start, scale, or grow your influencer marketing program.

Finally, don’t turn an influencer away just because they don’t tick every box. Micro and mid-sized influencers with less experience can still become valuable partners because they often have highly engaged audiences.

Once you’re ready to start finding influencers for your own partnerships, follow Sprout’s 7-week influencer marketing strategy. Our approach outlines the steps you need to take each week, and the tools you can use to start planning, launching and tracking your next major influencer campaign.

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7 scroll-stopping YouTube Shorts ideas for brands (with examples)

YouTube is the king of long-form video content, but YouTube Shorts is quickly entering the spotlight. With 70 billion views a day and counting, Shorts are becoming a go-to choice for creators and brands to connect with their audiences through short-form video.

Interested in creating more YouTube Shorts but not sure where to start? Don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. In this post, we’ll explain what Shorts are and how they differ from other types of social videos. You’ll also get a ton of YouTube Shorts ideas with real-life brand examples to inspire you.

Understanding YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts. Instagram Reels. TikTok videos. What’s the difference? They’re all vertical short-form videos, but the biggest distinction between the three is their duration length.

Instagram Reels range from 15 to 90 seconds. TikTok videos are 3 seconds to 10 minutes long. And YouTube Shorts? They used to be capped at 15 to 60 seconds, but as of October 2024, they can now be up to three minutes long.

This duration length increase makes it easier to repost short-form video content from other platforms to YouTube Shorts and reach a fresh, untapped audience. You might think there’s a lot of crossover between the short-form social video apps. However, a 2024 AlphaWise survey found that 40% of Shorts viewers aren’t on TikTok or Instagram Reels. Meanwhile, 84% of TikTok and 88% of Instagram Reels users are already watching Shorts. Meaning Shorts give you an avenue to reach a new audience.

Shorts also shine when it comes to searchability. YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world after Google. Google is also testing a “Short Videos” tab on mobile search. This feature allows users to filter and find short videos from platforms like YouTube Shorts, making your content even more discoverable.

To sum it up, if you’re not creating YouTube Shorts, you’re missing out. The platform has quickly become the top short-form video platform for discovering new products and brands in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. It’s also more than doubled its average daily views in less than two years.

YouTube Shorts is carving out a unique space in the market and you can’t ignore its growth.

Good YouTube Shorts ideas to capture attention and resonate with your audience

Creating short-form video content is a lot easier said than done. Knowing what kind of content will resonate with your audience and the algorithm is tough. Coming up with new ideas all the time can lead to creative fatigue. And, of course, then there’s every social marketer’s worst fear: putting a ton of time and energy into videos that get crickets when you hit publish.

Fortunately, we’ve got some YouTube Shorts ideas (with examples) to get your creative juices flowing.

Answer FAQs from followers

Create Shorts around common customer questions to educate your audience and show your brand’s personality.

In this Short from Shopify, a helpful host answers the question, “What’s a print-on-demand business?” They keep their answer short and to the point, adding image overlays to help convey information. Upbeat background music and quick edits grab and keep viewers’ attention.

To maximize discoverability, include the question in the title and description. It helps users looking for answers on YouTube or search engines find your content. Also, invite viewers to comment with more questions to create a feedback loop with your audience.

Highlight customer reviews and success stories on YouTube Shorts

Use Shorts to spotlight positive customer reviews and success stories. Have video testimonials? Edit them down into short clips that evoke emotion. Written reviews? Compile multiple screenshots to create a montage-style Short.

Or leverage user-generated content (with permission) like Pattern Beauty. This Short highlights a customer’s experience with their haircare products as a part of their takeover campaign with Ulta Beauty salons. The customer shares the products the stylist used, her feelings about the products and a before-and-after transformation of her hair pre- and post-styling.

Share day-in-the-life or behind-the-scenes content

Give your followers a fun, quick look into what makes your brand tick. Depending on your brand or industry, this could include clips from special events like a photoshoot or more day-to-day work like packing orders.

This Short from local Rhode Island coffee shop chain The Nitro Bar is simple but effective. With a short text overlay and calm music, the Short lets their delicious-looking black raspberry matchas do the talking.

Highlight upcoming product releases or promotions

Build buzz for an upcoming launch or promotion with Shorts. Tease the products with close-ups or unboxings. Or take things further with a demo that shows the product in action and highlights key benefits.

We also love Oner Active’s behind-the-scenes approach. In this video, employees are asked to describe their upcoming Black Friday sale in one word. The result feels casual and relatable. It’s a refreshing change from the typical high-urgency “buy now” messages that consumers usually get. This approach helps the brand stand out and showcases what makes them different.

Repurpose existing content for YouTube Shorts

Thanks to its newly extended duration limits, it’s easier to repurpose existing content from other marketing channels for YouTube Shorts. Still, we don’t suggest simply copying and pasting assets from one channel to another. You should still tailor it slightly for YouTube Shorts.

Here are a few ways you can repurpose content for YouTube shorts to get you started, plus platform and video specifications to consider.

Repurpose Instagram Reels and TikTok Videos on YouTube Shorts

Reposting your short-form vertical video content to YouTube Shorts is a simple way to reach YouTube’s massive audience without reinventing the wheel.

Just remove any platform watermarks and consider replacing background music with trending YouTube Shorts audio. Also, include relevant keywords and hashtags in the description to boost discoverability.

We love how makeup brand Cheekbone Beauty repurposes this TikTok video for YouTube Shorts by swapping out the background music for a text-to-voice voiceover and uses video clips instead of a photo slideshow format.

When you’re ready to post, use a social media management tool like Sprout Social to streamline the process. The Publishing Calendar enables you to plan and schedule social media posts across different profiles and networks. Plus, the Asset Library will keep all your approved videos organized.

Create short trailers for a new video or podcast episode

A YouTube Shorts trailer builds hype and sparks curiosity for longer content, like a video interview or podcast episode. An effective trailer should highlight the most exciting or intriguing moment—like a powerful quote, surprising fact or key takeaway. Keep it short and punchy, and end with a clear call-to-action inviting viewers to check out the full content.

Thinkific nails this approach with their trailer for an episode of their podcast, Unique Genius, featuring finance content creator and business coach Ellie Diop. The short includes a compelling clip of Ellie, a podcast logo animation and a title card with important episode details and the release date.

Create a YouTube Short out of a longer video

Get more mileage from your long-form video content by editing it into multiple Shorts. It’ll drive more views to your longer videos and pull in viewers who are just looking for something quick and easy to watch.

Edit and post your video’s most exciting, funny or impactful moments. Or create an abridged Shorts-friendly version. Either way, be sure to optimize it for a vertical format.

For example, Brooklinen created a short version of this longer home tour video featuring artist Zoe Schlacter. The Shorts version gives viewers a taste of Zoe’s aesthetic and design approach, with a call-to-action at the end to learn more about the artist and brand collaboration.

Experiment and iterate with different ideas for YouTube shorts

Incorporating YouTube Shorts into your social strategy doesn’t have to be a heavy lift, especially if you’re already creating video content for other social or marketing channels. As long as your video is under three minutes and in a vertical format, it could work as a Short.

There’s also a lot of room for creativity. Social trends move fast. But you have more ideas for YouTube Shorts than you think, from answering common questions to highlighting customer stories and teasing upcoming launches or promotions.

The best approach is to focus on what works for your brand. Thankfully, a tool like Sprout Social makes it simple. You can use Sprout’s analytics tools to track performance, double down on the content driving the most impact and refine your strategy as you go.

Ready to get started? Use our YouTube strategy template to build a solid foundation for your YouTube efforts or optimize your current approach.

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13 TikTok analytics tools to boost your strategy in 2024

Success on TikTok isn’t random. It’s rooted in understanding your performance. The best way to do this is through keeping a close eye on your TikTok analytics.

TikTok analytics tools let you monitor your most popular videos, analyze your audience demographics and gain complete insight into the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. With these tools, you can use your findings to adapt your strategy and improve your bottom line.

Below, we’ve rounded up 13 of the best TikTok analytics tools in the market. Read on to find out which tool will work best for your team—and how to choose the right one.

What is a TikTok analytics tool?

A TikTok analytics tool is a software that enables brands and creators to get a closer look at how their TikTok presence is performing. Your TikTok analytics shares details like:

• Top videos
• Video views
• Audience demographics
• Video engagement

Analytics help you get a clear understanding of if your TikTok marketing strategy is working or if you need to make changes to better reach and resonate with your audience. A TikTok analytics tool can present you with this data.

13 TikTok analytics tools to try in 2024

Want to get a better view into your TikTok performance? Find the right TikTok analytics tool for your brand. We’ve got 13 of the best options right here.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is an all-in-one social media management platform that offers a number of features—TikTok analytics being just one. You can use Sprout Social to create a birds-eye-view of your entire social media plan, no matter which platforms you have a presence on.

Link your TikTok account to your Sprout Social account and monitor all of your social platforms in one simple dashboard. Look at charts and graphs to understand exactly how your content is performing, who your audience is and how TikTok fits into your overall social strategy.

You can also compare your TikTok analytics with competitor performance, create custom, monthly reports with a few clicks, publish, schedule and manage content across multiple profiles, respond to comments and messages and more.

Here are Sprout’s top features for understanding (and acting on) TikTok analytics:

Advanced performance analytics

Sprout’s TikTok Profiles Report gives you a clear picture of your performance. Access a performance summary or dive deep into metrics like video views, engagement, follower growth and audience demographics.

You can also see your top posts at a glance to understand how your strategy is working and what you can do to improve. Unlike TikTok’s 60-day limit, Sprout keeps your performance history forever, which helps you spot long-term trends in your data.

Custom views and filters

Build custom reports so you’re including the exact TikTok metrics and data that are important to your business.

View your results in different graphs so you can easily see what the numbers mean. You can also separate paid and organic TikTok analytics to seamlessly include in your reports.

Cross-network reports

Sprout lets you track metrics across multiple platforms to get a more holistic view of your social media strategy. You can access TikTok data in various Sprout reports, such as the Inbox Activity Report, Post Performance Report, Profile Performance Report and Tag Performance Report.

For example, you can compare your top posts on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook all in one report. This is great for understanding what type of content to post on each platform.

Pricing: Starts at $199/seat/month. Try free for 30 days.

2. Native TikTok Analytics

TikTok’s native analytics are completely free to use for anyone—creator and business accounts alike—who has published at least one TikTok video to their account. They are accessible on both the mobile app and on desktop, enabling users to view their analytics in their preferred format.

Key features:

• Get access to four main sections of analytics: Overview, content, followers and live videos.
• Learn what your top video content is so you can create more videos that resonate with your audience.
• Access data about your live videos if you regularly live stream.

3. Socialinsider

Socialinsider is another social media management tool that offers several different features—TikTok analytics being one of them. Socialinsider enables its users to monitor metrics like views, engagement, and follower growth, while also giving them access to information like historical content trends and top-performing content.

Key features:

• Compare your TikTok metrics over time by viewing historical data to find trends within your own content.
• Discover your most popular categories of content so you can easily create more that resonates with your audience.
• View charts and graphs with your TikTok metrics to interpret their meanings.

4. Loomly

Loomly enables brands and agencies alike to analyze their social media performance, create and schedule content, manage online campaigns and conversations and collaborate amongst their team. Loomly offers tools for a variety of social media platforms, TikTok included.

Key features:

• Measure your video content’s performance in real time to see which videos are most popular.
• Use post labels to easily categorize your content based on type or campaign.
• Automate analytics reports to make your reporting process even smoother.

5. Brand24

Brand24 is an AI social listening tool built to help brands monitor their online presence, their competitors and their audience. Brand24’s TikTok analytics is of a different sort. Instead of monitoring your own performance, you can use this tool to track brand mentions, industry conversations and competitor performance.

Key features:

• Monitor your mentions feed to see what people have to say about your business on TikTok.
• Track the volume of discussions around your brand to preemptively plan for potential crisis management.
• Find the top industry influencers you should be working with on TikTok.

6. Social Champ

Social Champ is a social media management tool that helps its customers publish social media content, manage their content calendar, analyze their performance and engage with their audience. Users can connect each of their platforms to this tool, including TikTok.

Key features:

• Get downloadable PDF and PPT exports of your TikTok analytics to share with your team.
• Keep an eye on weekly and monthly results to find patterns and improve your strategy.
• Discover your top-performing posts so you can create more content that your audience loves.

7. Pentos

Pentos is a TikTok analytics tool, plain and simple. Its entire purpose is to help brands and creators track their competitors, find the best audio clips to use, hop on trends and improve their overall TikTok performance.

Key features:

• Access an extensive list of each week’s top trending audio clips to include in your videos.
• Track your competitors’ performance so you can see how you stand up against them.
• Export your TikTok data to compile into your monthly social media reports.

8. Exolyt

Exolyt is another tool that was created only to help brands and creators get a better grip on their TikTok accounts. This tool is perfect for analyzing your content as well as monitoring trends, conversations, influencers and trends across TikTok.

Key features:

• Discover the day’s top hashtags so you can include trending tags in your video captions.
• Get insights into your brand sentiment on TikTok so you know your reputation on the app.
• Access audience demographics and metrics regarding your TikTok performance.

9. Iconosquare

Iconosquare is an analytics tool at its core, helping social media marketers monitor their presence across a number of social media platforms like TikTok. Other features include post scheduling, social listening and social media inbox management.

Key features:

• Create custom dashboards so you’re only met with the metrics that mean the most to your business.
• Monitor engagement to discover which content your audience loves best.
• Easily export your results to compile into your monthly, quarterly or yearly report.

10. Keyhole

Keyhole is another comprehensive tool that is solely dedicated to social media analytics and helping brands monitor their online performance. While brands can access publishing and scheduling tools, most features include social listening, historical trend tracking, influencer tracking and the like.

Key features:

• Measure your accounts over time to get accurate historical data and trend analysis.
• Find optimal posting times to further improve your overall reach and presence.
• Get deeper insights into your audience and what they want to see from you.

11. Rival IQ

Rival IQ is another social media analytics tool perfect for helping brands monitor their online presence across a number of social media platforms—of course, with TikTok being one of them. On top of offering a wealth of analytics tools as part of its regular subscription, Rival IQ also offers free reporting and benchmarking tools for marketers.

Key features:

• Use the hashtag analytics tools to find the best TikTok hashtags to use in your content.
• Conduct comprehensive social media audits to help adjust your strategy and improve performance.
• Get a birds eye view into your TikTok performance so you can see top posts, engagement and other TikTok metrics.

12. Quintly

Quintly is a social media analytics and competitive benchmarking tool that helps brands make sense of their online performance and compare it to their competitors. The suite of tools only includes options for analytics, reporting and other features.

Key features:

• Create custom reports by choosing from more than 500 metrics that you want to track.
• Access pre-made dashboard templates meant for analyzing different outcomes.
• Use the fast Analysis feature to gain instant insights into your TikTok performance.

13. Dash Hudson

Dash Hudson is a social media management platform that offers a suite of different tools for marketers, brands and agencies to use. Access tools like visual AI, social listening, link-in-bio tools, audience engagement and analytics.

Key features:

• Leverage predictive AI to help you find trends you can use in your content planning.
• Segment your content to easily pinpoint which types of videos perform best.
• Access analytics and reporting tools so you can ditch your spreadsheets for cohesive reports.

What to look for in a TikTok analytics tool

There are many different TikTok analytics tool options out there—we’re covering 13 different ones within this article. So how do you decide which tool will work best for your business?

By the way, if you’re looking for a breakdown of the best TikTok monitoring tools specifically, we recommend reading our post on those instead.

But generally, here are three key features to make sure your TikTok analytics tool has so it can help maximize your strategy.

Trend analysis

One important part of maintaining a relevant and exciting TikTok strategy is staying on top of popular TikTok trends. Knowing what’s trending improves your chances of going viral on the platform and reaching a massive audience with a single video.

This means you’ll want an analytics tool that gives you the full scope of what’s trending. This way, you can easily jump on trends while they’re hot, increasing views and staying relevant.

Streamlines reporting

Analytics platforms make it easier to get the full scope of your account’s performance. You can look at a single dashboard where all of your metrics are in one place. Best of all, many TikTok analytics platforms allow you to export your data, making social media reporting a piece of cake.

Hashtag tracking

A main facet of your strategy should revolve around TikTok hashtags. Hashtags can improve your position on the For You Page and can help your videos show up in search results. With 40% of consumers using TikTok as a search engine, this is extremely important for increasing your reach.

Find a TikTok analytics tool that can help you with hashtag tracking so you know the best and most relevant hashtags to include alongside each of your videos.

Use a TikTok analytics tool to grow your presence

The right TikTok analytics tool can help understand your performance, find opportunities and win on the platform.

But why stop there? Sprout Social’s social media management platform lets you track TikTok analytics alongside all your other social metrics—in one place.

Access granular performance data, spot trends, build cross-network reports, schedule videos and posts and even respond to comments and DMs directly through Sprout.

Want to check it out for yourself? Sign up for a free 30-day trial today.

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How to measure and communicate the value of social media

How you explain your social media strategy’s value can secure the executive support it needs to thrive. At Sprout Social, we leverage our platform to translate social data into actionable insights that resonate with leadership. And we want to help you do it, too.

By integrating data from Sprout Social with insights from other marketing channels, we’ve streamlined workflows for surfacing and sharing social insights. This approach empowers our leaders with real-time data to make smarter, faster decisions.

Here’s how we’re showcasing social media’s value and securing resources with Sprout.

Why social media teams need to communicate the value of their strategy effectively

There’s a constant push and pull between social teams and leadership. Social media is a long-term investment, but businesses need clear, measurable returns to justify spend.

The challenge often looks like this: Leadership teams want to see results, so a social media manager spends so much time manually reporting and measuring impact that they have little time left over for creative strategy. Without time for meaningful, strategic initiatives, performance suffers, and leaders don’t see the impact needed to justify additional spend. The cycle repeats.

Breaking this cycle requires integrated tools that help you connect the dots between organic social content and activity further down the sales funnel. This is how you earn the trust, time and space to focus on audience-driven content that delivers stronger long-term results. As results come in, they lay the groundwork for securing additional headcount and resources to take your strategy further.

Proving social media’s value starts with executive buy-in

Achieving the ideal state outlined above starts with securing executive sponsorship. Depending on your starting point, revamping your reporting infrastructure may involve anything from procuring social media software to prioritizing the effort amid other marketing initiatives. Having a leader in your corner ensures the work pushes through bottlenecks and doesn’t stall.

For us, using Sprout meant we already had the tools to capture data for multi-touch attribution. However, gaining support from our CMO and VP of Brand and Social was essential to elevating this initiative alongside other marketing analytics efforts.

“Social teams are driving revenue,” says Sprout’s Senior Social Media Strategist, Olivia Jepson. “But last-touch attribution only tells part of the story. Strategic discussions about how social impacts the entire funnel—spanning top-of-funnel engagement and reach metrics to down-funnel demand—are essential for building a more effective reporting infrastructure.”

With guidance from our executive sponsors, we reimagined our social reporting approach, replacing our five-year-old content tagging structure with a new framework aligned to Sprout’s messaging priorities. Their support also fostered a closer partnership with our marketing analytics team, ensuring the effort was prioritized within their workload.

Bridging the gap between social and business value with Sprout

Building an actionable social media dashboard is a marathon, not a sprint. Jumping into reporting without clarity on what you’re trying to measure can lead to an impact narrative that falls flat.

Start by defining your goals and working backward. “The ability to identify what content impacts pipeline revenue through multi-touch attribution was at the top of our wishlist,” explains Rachael Goulet, Sprout’s Director of Social Media.“We also wanted better data visualization and flexibility to customize reports, so we could highlight channel and content impact while maintaining a holistic view.”

This approach helped us focus on the key metrics linking social’s impact to pipeline generation—KPIs like Earned Media Value (EMV), Cost Per Action (CPA), Cost Per Lead (CPL) and of course, Leads Generated.

These metrics measure brand discoverability, message resonance and clear revenue pathways, and are sourced from four primary platforms: Sprout Social, Employee Advocacy, Salesforce and Google Analytics.

In Sprout, we use My Reports—a premium add-on that allows us to elevate the metrics that align to business priorities in a compelling way—to measure:

• Campaign performance, measuring our social’s impact on cross-team initiatives.
• Key brand message performance, identifying copy and creative that consistently resonate.
• Cross-network performance, focusing on the channels that drive the greatest audience impact.
• How well we’re engaging target audience segments, including the product focus areas that are making the biggest impact.

Employee advocacy also plays a major role in Sprout’s social media efforts, contributing $450,000 in earned media value last year alone. Using Sprout’s Employee Advocacy tool, we gather impressions data to provide a complete view of social reach.

Thanks to diligent UTM tagging within Sprout, we can connect social and employee advocacy efforts directly to revenue using our integration with Salesforce. Multi-touch attribution allows us to track the impact of social media, influencer marketing and employee advocacy on leads throughout the sales funnel, so we get a true measure of pipeline impact.

The final piece in our data feedback loop is Sprout’s Tableau BI Connector. This integration allows us to further analyze Sprout data, uncovering richer network and audience insights in a custom dashboard that strengthens the narrative around our strategy’s impact.

How we communicate social’s value to our leadership team

Data storytelling is both an art and a science. The science is about collecting, analyzing and visualizing accurate data. The art? Weaving a narrative that shows what it all means and how it drives business impact.

At Sprout, we’ve found a rhythm that works for us: a monthly social performance executive summary. It combines key metrics tied to business value with competitive context, so leadership sees how we’re stacking up against the competition.

“A lot of people don’t know what they can ask for when it comes to social data,” says Jepson. “Once I started packaging insights and sharing them proactively, more teammates started coming to me with their own requests for data pulls. It got the social team’s foot in their door.”

This scalable formula helps us consistently share insights and keep leadership in the loop. We got here by thinking of our executive team as an audience—treating each leader like a consumer when we deliver data.

What happens when you tell a stronger social ROI story

This new approach helped us showcase the full value of our social media strategy. By switching to a multi-touch attribution model, we uncovered a 5,800% increase in additional pipeline impact. Factoring in efficiency gains, social lead generation and earned media value, the Sprout Social platform delivers a 529% ROI.

Now, we’re able to clearly demonstrate the ROI of top-performing content and key messaging initiatives. We can also highlight the value our product offers social teams—quantifying benefits like social customer care, reporting efficiency and time savings.

By showcasing the impact of our strategy, we’ve secured additional budget for team growth, expanded our influencer marketing efforts and even gained buy-in for Sprout’s first-ever brand activation at Design Miami 2024. These wins wouldn’t be possible without a deep understanding of both our data and our product’s potential to deliver results.

Embracing our role as end users of our own product takes this a step further, creating a feedback loop that not only improves how we demonstrate value but also supports customer-driven product design and development.

Looking to showcase the ROI of your social media strategy? Request a personalized demo of Sprout Social and see how it helps connect the dots between your strategy to real revenue impact.

Request a demo

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The complete guide to using social media for business

With powerful marketing tools and an expansive potential reach, social media is a goldmine for businesses. Yet having a social media presence alone is no longer enough as organic reach declines and competition grows fiercer. Establishing an identity and a sense of community is the key to standing out on social media for businesses.

The more you stand out, the better your chances of attracting customers. But if you’re new to it, you may not know the best way to incorporate social media into your overall strategy. While the importance of social media marketing for businesses is already well-known, marketing is just one piece of the puzzle. You also need a holistic approach that leverages the channel to support every other aspect of your business.

We give you a comprehensive guide to help you do just that. Let’s find out how to use social media for business.

Benefits of social media for business

The benefits of social media aren’t one-size-fits-all. That said, here are five upsides that brands can see from a smart social presence.

• Create meaningful connections: Social media opens a two-way communication channel between brands and their audience. Use it to answer questions, handle customer service queries and gather feedback. These interactions help you build a stronger connection with your audience.
• Show off your products: From testimonials to tutorials and beyond, social media is a prime place to show off products. Use the opportunity to highlight what makes your product great and how it can add value to your customers.

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• Increase your brand’s visibility and reach: Social media drives product discovery, as highlighted in the latest social media statistics. Many potential customers will see your brand’s TikTok or Instagram before they see your website. They may learn about your brand when they come across your posts in their Explore or For You pages. Or they may even find you through a friend’s or influencer’s post. So having an established social presence is crucial to boost your visibility and reach.
• Gather real-time insights: Social media is a treasure trove of data points that are all out in the open. Learn more about your audience’s pain points and interests from their conversations. Discover the latest trends in your industry and the most popular types of content. From your audience to competitors, there’s no better place to conduct market research.

Setting social media goals for your business

These social media benefits don’t happen by accident. Instead, they’re a result of a strategic, goal-driven approach to using social media. That’s why it all starts with a goal.

Keep in mind that social media goals are unique as they’re totally dependent on your business. Also, you can set multiple goals that actually overlap and influence each other. Goals affect everything from your content strategy to the social platforms you use.

There’s no “right” way to set goals but the process can be a lot. A few tips to get you started:

• Start with the big picture before getting granular. Why does your business need a social presence? What resources do you need to make those results a reality?
• Look at your target audience and customer personas. For example, how are your customers using social media? Is your audience glued to TikTok or Instagram or another social media platform? What types of content do they want to see? Brainstorm how using social media for business can help you reach your audience.
• Think about your business’ holistic marketing strategy and how social media fits in.
• Tie your social media goals to actual metrics and KPIs. This is a big one in an era where marketers are under pressure to prove ROI. From engagement to traffic and beyond, there’s plenty to track.

Example social media goals and KPIs for B2B brands

• Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
• Lead generation (marketing qualified leads)
• Competitor analysis (share of voice) and market share
• Audience engagement (likes, replies, shares, etc.)
• Drive customer loyalty (+ CX) and reduce churn
• Customer service efficiencies (engagement speed and rates)
• Reputation management
• Customer satisfaction
• Positive reviews
• Customer sentiment online

Example social media goals and KPIs for B2C brands

• Brand awareness (growth, engagements) and consideration (link clicks, web traffic)
• Find new sales opportunities (conversations to join)
• Uncover brand expansion opportunities
• Reputation management (engaging with inbound messages)
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Inspire customer loyalty
• Product launch analysis
• Competitive analysis

How to create a social media strategy for your business

Once you have your goal in place, it’s time to put together a strategy to achieve said goal. Let’s break down the essential steps to building a successful social media strategy for your business.

Step 1: Coordinate with relevant teams

Based on the goals you’ve outlined earlier, identify which departments or teams will be most relevant to your social media efforts. For example, you may have a marketing team that will handle the social media strategy, a customer service team that will want to respond to customer queries and a sales team that may want to nurture leads through your social content.

Work with each department to identify how social media can deliver the most value for them. Ask each team what they want to find out from social media. How do they want to use it? How can your brand’s social media presence serve them? This will help you come up with a plan that covers all the sides of the business.

Your sales team, for instance, may want to find and nurture leads through social media. So your strategy may involve identifying key purchase conversations on social media.

Step 2: Identify key platforms

Do some audience research to understand which social platforms your audience spends the most time on. Gain an understanding of the various platforms your audience uses and how each one caters to their specific interests.

This will make it easier to streamline your social media efforts as you can come up with a suitable strategy that covers each platform in a relevant, targeted way.

Consider also these kinds of questions to determine how these platforms will work under teams’ responsibilities: Which platform do you want to use to provide customer support? Do you want to include LinkedIn to attract potential employees?

Step 3: Set up a dedicated social media team(s)

Now the biggest question is: Who’s going to execute your social media strategy?

Many businesses use social media mostly for marketing. So the marketing team handles most social media tasks. But what if you want to use social media for customer support? Or what if your marketing team doesn’t know how to handle sales queries?

It’s important to have a dedicated team to handle key social media tasks relevant to each department. You may set up a team that handles all things social media. Alternatively, you may embed social media experts into various internal teams. The exact social media team structure depends on what works for your business.

15 social media tips for your business

1. Be original

Nothing beats originality if you want to stand out on social media. Yes, jumping in on trends and recreating popular memes are a quick way to drive engagement. And we’re not telling you to abandon that approach altogether either. However, you need a publishing strategy that’s unique to your business.

In fact, our 2024 Content Benchmarks Report found that original content is what makes a brand memorable on social. Come up with unique and creative ways to get your message across.

2. Show your product/service in action

So what original content can you create for social media?

Our 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report found some interesting answers. Original content that shows your product or service in action is the biggest factor that compels consumers to buy.

Keep your content equally informative and entertaining. According to the report, 66% of social users find that edutainment is the most engaging type of brand content. We recommend creating original videos showing what your product is capable of. Demos, how-tos, walkthroughs and tests are just great ideas of how you can apply edutainment in your next social media posts.

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3. Keep people entertained

Speaking of entertainment, most social media users aren’t looking to be sold to. They just want to get a few laughs or find something to pass the time. So the best way to hook them in is by keeping them entertained.

Keep your Feed balanced with content that provides some lighthearted entertainment. A few ideas to get started would be: memes, comedy skits, ASMR videos and polls!

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4. Make user-generated content work for you

Content from your customers serves a double purpose of informing people and earning their trust. It can show them exactly what your product or service is capable of in a real-world setting. Plus, since the content comes from other consumers, it adds an extra layer of trustworthiness.

Bonus point for saving your team the trouble of having to produce original content from scratch. Balance your Feed with user-generated content featuring your products.

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5. Build a human, people-first social presence

This might seem like a no-brainer.

That said, busy businesses tend to get stuck in a “copy-and-paste” approach to social. Comments and social captions should feel like they were written by a real person, not a robot.

Injecting personality into your posts is a low-hanging way to relate to your audience. Beyond that, personalizing your replies to people shows that you’re there to help them. This is one of the best ways to use social media for business to build connections.

In fact, people expect brands to personalize their responses. According to the 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 70% of consumers expect a personalized response to their customer service needs.

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6. Look at your social presence as a resource (not just a promotional channel)

Don’t make the mistake of treating your social presence as a dumping ground for offers. Building an audience means being genuinely helpful, not salesy.

Many of the best practices across social media treat their accounts as resources. That means:

• Creating actionable, educational content (think: how-tos, tutorial videos)
• Answering questions and sharing advice with your audience
• Sharing company updates and keeping customers in the loop

Imagine that your social accounts are your first touchpoint with a potential customer. Sharing resources makes a better first impression than screaming “BUY NOW!”

7. Show up consistently

This applies to both publishing content and engaging with customers.

Conventional wisdom says that social media algorithms reward consistency. Sprout’s own research on the best times to post on social media confirms this.  If nothing else, letting your social feeds gather cobwebs isn’t a good look.

Neither is leaving your followers hanging. Making a conscious effort to reply to questions and comments is crucial. This is why you need to keep a close eye on your @tags and social notifications.

In fact, the Content Benchmarks Report found that this is much more impactful than publishing frequently. 37% of consumers think that the most memorable brands directly engage with their audience on social.

8. Collaborate on social customer care

While most businesses are already aware of the role that social media plays in customer care, the line regarding who owns it remains blurred. This makes it challenging to efficiently deliver satisfactory social media customer experiences.

As marketing teams mostly handle social media, the responsibilities of responding to customers tend to fall on them. Yet without proper training on customer care processes, the quality of responses may suffer.

A collaboration between the two teams can solve this common challenge. With each team sharing responsibility, there’s better coordination on who responds and how to respond. So relevant team members can proactively take action with minimal back and forth. Based on the 2023 Sprout Social Index™, 36% of businesses are choosing this approach.

9. Involve your C-Suite and employees to amplify your business

As noted earlier, social media shouldn’t be treated as an island.

This applies to your own team as well. The sooner you’re able to get approval and buy-in from your C-Suite, the better. Brand-building through employee advocacy is another way to use social media for business.

Employee advocacy is the promotion of a brand by its employees on social media.  Instead of solely promoting products, advocates promote a company at large. This means:

• Sharing behind-the-scenes experiences about work life
• Celebrating team members and workplace accomplishments
• Amplifying company messages and promotions

Chances are you’ve seen your fair share of employee advocacy in action on LinkedIn.

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Again, the crowded nature of social media means anything you can do to stand out is a plus. Advocacy is an opportunity to boost your company’s profile and exposure via social.

10. Be prepared to experiment with different types of content

Brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to the types of content they can post.

From short-form videos to Stories and slideshows, you have plenty of options. Different industries and types of brands thrive on different types of social media content.

That said, don’t make assumptions when it comes to what performs best.

Just because a competitor posts a bunch of memes doesn’t mean you should follow suit. Let your own analytics and engagement guide your content strategy.

According to our Content Benchmarks Report, consumers want brands to focus on short-form video. And the shorter the better, with 42% preferring videos shorter than 15 seconds. Meanwhile, 39% expect to see videos between 15 and 30 seconds long.

11. Create compelling ads

Your organic social media efforts will not generate immediate results. Make sure to back them up with strategic paid advertising. According to our Social Media Content Strategy Report, being targeted with an ad compels consumers to buy.

There are two things you need to perfect with your social media advertising:

• Targeting: Make sure the right people see your ads, so you get more value out of your ad spend. Show your ads to people who’ve visited your site before or interacted with ads from similar brands. And don’t forget to target them on the right platforms.
• Creative: Come up with an ad creative that would make people want to engage. Go for clever (and relevant) copy combined with eye-catching visuals.

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12. Leverage influencer partnerships

Influencers have thousands of followers who enjoy their content and look to them for advice. So what they say goes. Partnering with them can give you much-needed exposure to build your social media following. It can even compel people to buy from you, according to the Social Media Content Strategy Report.

Keep in mind that we’re living in an age of authenticity, where consumers expect honesty from the influencers they admire. Findings from our 2024 Influencer Marketing Report support this. 47% of consumers want to see authenticity from influencers, even when posting sponsored content.

Moreover, 67% say that the best brand and influencer collaborations are honest and unbiased.

So your partnerships should be genuine, involving influencers who actually love your brand and its products. Give them the creative freedom to infuse their personality and voice into the sponsored content.

13. Lean into transparency

Speaking of authenticity, you need to embed it into your brand’s overall social media strategy. Consumers are increasingly expecting brands to be transparent about their practices and values. According to the 2023 Sprout Social Index™, consumers feel like they don’t see enough of this from brands on social.

People also want to see brands posting about how they make and source their products. These expectations align with the greater move toward conscious consumerism. More consumers are choosing to buy from brands that use sustainable and ethical practices.

So being transparent about those practices on social helps you attract customers whose values align with yours.

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14. Use AI thoughtfully

Artificial intelligence helps social media teams to execute strategies more efficiently. In fact, 81% of marketers in the 2023 Sprout Social Index™ say that AI has positively impacted their work.

That said, 42% of consumers are still apprehensive about brands using AI in their social media interactions. So be mindful about how you use AI to support your strategies. Focus on using it to optimize backend activities. This could involve tasks like social media analytics, campaign targeting and sentiment analysis.

15. Work on a corporate communication plan

One last pointer for anyone on the enterprise level.

The power of social media as a communication channel shouldn’t be taken lightly. Brands have the opportunity to reach massive audiences at a moment’s notice. This applies to customers, industry leaders and competitors alike.

The stakes are high for large companies with significant audiences and stakeholders. That’s why having a corporate communication plan is crucial. In short, you need to establish rules for:

• Internal communication, including employee engagement and internal marketing
• External communication, including PR and how you speak to the public
• Executive communication (ex: how the C-level discusses your company on social media)
• Crisis communication to deal with controversies and damage control situations

Having all of the above squared away empowers brands to have consistent messaging. Likewise, you can avoid miscommunication and countless public headaches in the process.

Use social media marketing tools for business

Good news: you’re not expected to do everything totally DIY when building your presence.

There’s no shortage of social media marketing tools out there to help with the heavy lifting. Depending on your needs, you might consider investing in a combo of the following:

• Scheduling tools that allow you to queue up content across multiple platforms
• Analytics tools that measure content performance and engagement (see Sprout Social below)
• Listening and monitoring tools that make it easier to track audience conversations

The more opportunities to consolidate your tools, the better. Working with fewer tools means squeezing the most out of what you have. Also, you save a ton of time onboarding.

Here’s a quick overview of the best social media tools for your brand.

Sprout Social

Sprout is an all-in-one social media management platform with a comprehensive suite of social tools and analytics. For example, the platform makes it a cinch to map out your content calendar across platforms. This is a shining example of how to save time and avoid bouncing between tools.

Sprout’s analytics and dashboards encourage a goal-driven approach to social media for business. Advanced analytics means fewer question marks and a better understanding of your presence. This includes your top-performing content and social channels.

In short, you have a constant pulse on what’s working, what’s not and what you should do next.

Sprout’s proprietary AI tools also give you actionable insights to make informed decisions. Get AI-powered suggestions on how to improve your content. Focus on the most important customer care interactions with AI analyzing your messages.

Later

Source: Later

Later lets you automate various aspects of your social media. It comes with a unified calendar to plan your content for all your social channels. Schedule these posts to go out automatically at times when your audience is most likely to engage.

Use the built-in analytics to get powerful insights into your social media performance and how to improve it. Meanwhile, the social listening tools help you keep a pulse on trending conversations and see what people are saying about specific topics.

CoSchedule

Source: CoSchedule

CoSchedule is a social media scheduling tool with robust publishing features. The social calendar gives you better visibility into your content strategy. This allows you to easily spot gaps and make necessary adjustments and schedule your content to automatically go out at the best times across different social channels.

Unlock the power of social media for business

An active social media presence is the key to winning over consumers in a saturated market. It’s where your brand can showcase a unique personality and appeal to your audiences. Use the tips outlined above to get started on your social media journey or strengthen your existing strategies.

Sprout makes the job so much easier with a platform that combines all your social media management needs. From content to trend analysis and beyond, the platform empowers brands to build their presence with confidence. Get a personalized demo to see how Sprout’s comprehensive features can drive your strategies.

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