Ryan Barretto, Author at Sprout Social

Now we’re here: Sprout named #1 Best Software Product by G2

Ryan Barretto — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 14:05:49 +0000

The first few weeks of a new year are the perfect opportunity to reflect on our wins—and I’m thrilled to announce one of our biggest yet: Sprout Social has been named the #1 Best Software Product by G2’s 2024 Best Software Awards. That’s the number one spot when compared across products in every software category!

This is the eighth consecutive year Sprout has been recognized by G2. When I think about social media’s evolution over that timeframe alone, this award underscores the growing value of our product and the essential role social media management plays in businesses today.

Earning the top spot this year is a reflection of not only the exceptional work Team Sprout puts in every day, but of the way our customers are transforming their businesses with the power of social. G2’s annual Best Software Awards rank products based on authentic reviews from real users, informing the decisions of 90 million software buyers each year. I have immense gratitude for our more than 30,000 customers—we’re here because of you.

The voice of the customer is our north star

Our goal at Sprout is to be a joy to do business with. The only way we achieve that is by listening to our customers, making your problems our problems and acting on your feedback.

Throughout 2023, we were heads down expanding our integrations with industry-leading partners like Salesforce, making strategic investments in AI and delivering innovative functionality to users through our Tagger and Repustate acquisitions. And during that time, our customers were hard at work harnessing social to grow their businesses and create more meaningful relationships with their audiences.

Take convenience store chain Casey’s, which has maintained 90% faster customer response times since implementing Sprout’s Service Cloud integration:

For the first time in about five years, our Guest Relations Team reported that they didn’t have a backlog of messages to respond to. Sprout’s Service Cloud integration is a big reason for that.

Or consider how IT software company Ivanti generates $500,000 in earned media value through its Sprout-powered brand ambassador program:

We couldn’t have succeeded without the data, insight and partnership we got from Sprout. We’re up to 17,000 shares monthly with our brand ambassador program—which gives us a lot more reach and a lot more eyes. I think that through our partnership, we have created a beautiful effect.

And then there is Salesforce, which has saved 12,000 hours of work since implementing Sprout in 2022. Beyond working more efficiently, their team is using data from Sprout to power a full-funnel social media strategy:

Sprout has already made it easier for the Salesforce social team to share insights with our leadership about what our customers are talking about, and what their needs and issues are. This information helps to shape our company’s marketing, sales and operational strategies. And now, with Sprout’s integration across our platform, we can bring social insights and data everywhere across Salesforce.

Thank you

Accolades like these only happen when you are laser-focused on delivering the very best technology that is built, supported and used by the very best people. Sprout has developed a platform that champions the business impact of social, and our customers bring that impact to life every day.

To all of our customers: We see you. We appreciate you. And I can’t wait to reflect on what we accomplish together in 2024.

Access the full G2 rankings here. Not a Sprout customer yet? Let us show you around the platform with a personalized demo.

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Social customer care is a team sport—are you all in?

Ryan Barretto — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 13:37:42 +0000

When our brand new Samsung TV started acting up, I didn’t even think to call or email the customer support team. Instead, I went straight to social media to air out my frustration.

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

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

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

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Social customer care is everyone’s responsibility

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There’s no “I” in social customer care

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

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

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

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Making the most of your social media investments demands a new way of working

Ryan Barretto — Mon, 26 Jun 2023 13:55:46 +0000

It wasn’t that long ago when organizations struggled to understand why they should invest in social media. What was once thought of as an intern’s responsibility is now considered table stakes for any data-driven business. In fact, The 2023 State of Social Media report reveals 80% of business leaders expect their social media budgets to increase over the next three years.

But as funding for social media increases, so do the expectations to see immediate results. Business leaders have already proven social data is an invaluable asset—now they have to demonstrate the returns on that investment. If executives want to capitalize on all that social data has to offer, they need to reevaluate how social data is internally shared and acted on across their teams.

Organizations have yet to unlock social’s true potential

As integral as social is to business success, there’s a disconnect between how executives perceive social data and how it’s actually leveraged. The reality is teams struggle to get the most out of their social investment, with 69% of business leaders agreeing that social data is currently underutilized in their organization.

Part of that is due to lack of access. Historically, access to social data was limited to platforms and tools that were technically complex to implement and required third-party interpretation. Relying on an analyst or software vendor to compile these insights often meant that information wasn’t coming in in real-time, slowing down teams whose decisions were dependent on that data.

Similarly, there are issues with how social data is shared and utilized throughout all parts of the organization, not just within the team responsible for owning social. Data reveals 56% of business leaders say they need greater collaboration between departments when it comes to using social data.

Because when social data is democratically leveraged, it can inform everything from sales strategy to product development to market research. In order to truly capture social’s value, business leaders need to reimagine how teams collaborate with each other and the tools needed to manipulate social insights at scale.

Social data is meant to be shared, not siloed

Back when organizations were wrapping their heads around the value of social media, it was standard practice to see social owned by one team like marketing or communications. Naturally, this limited who could access social data, a challenge that 35% of leaders say prevents their business from using social data to inform business decisions. But the solution isn’t as simple as handing teams like sales or finance raw, unstructured social data. There also needs to be an educational and enablement component to make social media intelligence actionable for everyone.

That means helping teams that historically didn’t use social data understand what insights they can glean from Reddit communities, Twitter DMs, LinkedIn mentions or even TikTok comments. Consider relying on your internal social experts to teach other departments what information lies beyond the likes, shares and video views on a specific platform. Don’t just say your organization is data-driven; teach your teams how to improve their data literacy. Creating a shared dashboard, for example, where you can pair social media intelligence with other data sources can help contextualize social data and provide teams a more holistic view of all business insights.

It also means executives need to lead by example and incorporate social data when making business decisions. The Atlanta Hawks, for example, use social listening insights to influence content strategies across several brand partnerships and anticipate what fans want to see from the team next. Similarly, Trek Bicycles used listening to capitalize on the sudden bike boom during the pandemic and forecast how long this trend might last. When business leaders treat social data as essential to their decision making, it can lead to tangible bottomline results and help brands build stronger relationships with their target audience.

Embrace AI or watch your competitors race ahead

When companies first started using big data, it wasn’t just their people, culture and workflows that had to change—their tech stack underwent a makeover too. Organizations had to invest in more robust tools that could store, process and analyze large data sets in a scalable and cost-effective way.

Similarly, an increase in funding for social media must be matched by an investment in more efficient, sophisticated tools. As companies reign in spending due to economic uncertainties like fear of a recession, the mantra “do more with less” is more relevant than ever before. Teams don’t have the time or headcount to manually analyze and interpret social data, especially when their competition is actively investing in those same data sources. Speed is the name of the game, and the organizations that embrace artificial intelligence in their social tools will be the ones that pull ahead from the pack.

Consider how AI can empower organizations to move faster from data analysis to action. One of the challenges we hear from customers is knowing how to extract relevant insights from social listening. With an AI-powered query builder, business leaders can get pointed topic suggestions to build better reports and waste less time tweaking their search criteria. AI can also empower organizations to move quickly by distilling unstructured social data into a handful of key headlines. Time otherwise spent summarizing raw data can be spent taking actions that have a measurable impact on your business or getting back to solving your customers’ pain points.

Of course, talks of AI adoption are always accompanied by concerns that AI will replace humans in the workforce. And yes, while it’s true that technological advancements like AI will disrupt nearly a quarter of all jobs, there’s also a net benefit we gain by eliminating redundancies or time wasted on mundane activities. Instead of looking at AI as a way to replace data analysts on your team, we need to reframe AI as a tool that can bring employees across your organization together to use social data more effectively. When teams spend less time accessing and getting to the most salient insights from data, they have more time to collaborate on opportunities that produce real results.

Don’t pigeon-hole your social media investments

These days, executives no longer need to be convinced of social’s impact on a business’ bottom line. Companies of all industries and sizes are spending more money than before on social media to gain a competitive edge that comes from the real-time insights only social media can provide.

At the same time, an increase in social funding can’t be the only variable changing at the organizational level. There needs to be a fundamental shift in how teams collaborate with one another and what tools they use to analyze social data—or businesses risk letting their social media investments fall by the wayside.

For more findings on how business leaders are adapting their workflows to further integrate social data throughout their organizations, download The 2023 State of Social Media Report today.

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Understanding the ROI of Sprout Social

Ryan Barretto — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 15:00:46 +0000

The journey from follower to customer varies to such a large extent, it’s hard to sum it up in a neat analogy or metaphor. Tying social tactics directly to revenue is easier said than done, creating tension when competing for resources and budget.

At Sprout Social, we recognize the hurdles that come with understanding social media ROI. We also recognize the transformative impact social can have on a business. That’s why we’re dedicated to creating solutions that elevate even the most sophisticated social strategies, creating a clear line from social insights to return on investment.

To better understand Sprout Social’s ROI, we commissioned a Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting that clearly quantifies how a composite organization comprised of our customers benefited from our platform. We’re delighted to learn that Sprout delivered a 233% return on investment over three years, resulting in up to $1.3M in savings.

We believe that the data, use cases and customer testimonials in this report can be an asset as brands build their business case to invest more in their social strategy

With Sprout Social, teams reclaim time and resources to invest back in creativity and customer connections, so brands can harness the power of the channel to drive revenue and business impact.

The ROI of social media management

Social media is a vast and sprawling ecosystem. Navigating all that it has to offer can feel like a game of whack-a-mole. If you direct all your focus in one area, you risk missing another.

The right social media management platform demystifies the game, allowing you to capitalize on every opportunity to build an audience—and drive revenue—for your business. The time saved around publishing, scheduling and reporting will empower you to maintain agility and innovate. Advanced analytics capabilities provide data that yields org-wide impact, from marketing to sales to HR.

This is how brands expand the value of social beyond marketing and communications. Social media ROI starts with strong visibility and collaboration between social teams and other departments. The best possible software solution elevates social data, taking it from simple KPIs to the foundation for making key business decisions.

The ROI of Sprout Social

Getting to the ideal state outlined above requires an intuitive platform teams love to use. Making the wrong choice can lead to unforeseen expenses – from team inefficiencies to a sunk cost on a product no one uses.

The Total Economic Impact™ of Sprout Social study found that our platform boosted team productivity, provided intuitive reporting, enhanced customer interactions and established critical governance. Customers even described Sprout as a “can’t live without” resource. Here’s why:

The benefits of Sprout Social

To fully understand the benefits of Sprout Social, let’s unpack some of the numbers that feed into the $1.3M estimated savings. Over three years, our platform helped brands:

Boost team efficiency and productivity by 55% in year 3, saving $973K
Eliminate manual data consolidation to prepare monthly reports by 75%, saving $39K
Reduce reliance on paid media through Employee Advocacy, saving $233K
Save up to $473K by consolidating legacy data solutions

On top of these savings, Sprout helped brands move in lockstep with their audience, anticipating needs and delivering in record times. Brands using Sprout stay in constant contact with their customers while remaining ahead of any social media crises, saving customer experience teams up to $142K.

“Because of [Smart Inbox], we are demonstrating to our community that we’re not only addressing the customer we’re interacting with, we are also a reliable channel.”

– Community and social engagement team lead, SaaS organization

We believe these numbers are a direct result of our unparalleled focus on customer needs, along with a long-standing commitment to research and development that keeps us moving at the speed of social. We’re honored to partner with over 34,000 brands, providing them with elegant, intuitive solutions that drive business impact.

Is Sprout Social worth it?

These savings are pretty impressive numbers, but they’re only a fraction of the value you can get from choosing Sprout. Yes, our product helps streamline processes, speed up time-to-insights and develop a 360-degree view of customer activity. That said, we also understand that working in social media will always involve a layer of mystery.

Algorithms change, platforms go in and out of fashion, consumer usage trends shift. We know that in order to keep up, we must also move boldly toward the unknown.

That’s why we work with leading technology providers and social media platforms to solve hard problems and relay best practices back to our customers. With Sprout, you not only get outsized ROI—you also get a partner in navigating social media’s ever-changing terrain.

Get a full view of Sprout Social’s ROI

Sprout can help propel your brand to the next level of social media management. It’s a new playing field where social is integrated at every level of a company and social media professionals are empowered to drive real business innovation.

Get a clearer look at how our tools can transform your approach by downloading The Total Economic Impact™ Of Sprout Social study today.

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1+1 is more than two: How partnerships can level up your business

Ryan Barretto — Tue, 21 Feb 2023 15:51:08 +0000

Everything is better with a partner. Business is no different. At Sprout Social, we’ve completed two acquisitions, facilitated dozens of integrations and collaborated on countless co-marketing opportunities with our partners. I—and the rest of the Sprout Social team—am always on the lookout for businesses that complement our product suite.

We’re freshly on the heels of our second acquisition, a sentiment analysis and natural language processing company called Repustate. As we welcome the Repustate team and product under our umbrella, I’ve been reflecting on partnerships and what makes them work—and what doesn’t. When done right, partnerships make your business stronger, add value for your customers and open up a new world of opportunities.

Approach partnerships with purpose

Everyone is facing economic headwinds right now. When it comes to the tech industry, that’s compounded by the fact that the era of the single-point solution is over. As companies tighten their belts and tech stacks, their expectations for your products are rising. We all know that one company can’t provide everything for everyone, so how can you ensure your solution is business critical?

Enter partnerships. Combined efforts will always be stronger than singular approaches when your potential partners are looking to achieve the same goals you are. You can get more done when you work together, even if that means working outside of your company walls.

For smaller companies, joining forces with a larger firm can give you more resources and financial solvency. Companies can hit product roadmap milestones faster with integrations and acquisitions. Marketers looking to find new audiences in their ideal customer profile can pursue co-marketing efforts with like-minded partners to widen their funnel.

At Sprout, partnerships are just the way we do business. Whether we’re working with LinkedIn to host a webinar or launching a new network integration like TikTok, our business couldn’t thrive without our rich portfolio of partners.

Corporate compatibility tests

We’ve forged enough partnerships to be able to quickly evaluate which will work and which aren’t the right fit. There are three things we look for in a potential partner.

Customer value

If you’re a customer-centric company, you always start with how any decision will impact the customer. That couldn’t be more true with partnerships. From marketing to product, the partnership has to create additional value for the end user. Asking yourself what a potential partnership will add to your customer experience or how it will address their pain points should be the first step in evaluating any partnership.

For example, we found that most of our current (and ideal future) customers were leveraging Salesforce solutions like Service Cloud and Tableau. We partnered with Salesforce to provide greater social media control and empower our customers with a 360 view of customer interactions and data–all in the tools they know and love. In the age of the product suite, partnerships are a cheat code to level up your business value.

Complementary goals

You’re likely not going to partner with your direct competitors. But no matter what you’re selling, there’s a product or service someone else offers that’ll make yours even better. Think about your current and ideal customers. Figure out what else they need. Find the businesses that are meeting those needs and explore ways you can help each other.

Another thing to consider is complementary markets. There may be another business that solves your customers’ needs, but if they’re going after a completely different segment than you are, it won’t work out. If your business is aimed toward enterprise manufacturing companies and a potential partner is pursuing mid-sized restaurant chains, it’s not going to be a good fit—no matter how symbiotic your products seem.

Mutual benefit

It should go without saying that both partners should stand to benefit from your efforts. It’s likely that one partner may be more invested or have more to gain from your partnership, but everyone needs to get something out of the deal. An uneven partnership is destined to fail.

Doing the partnership do-si-do

So you’ve picked your partner. What comes next? Navigating partnerships can be tricky but with a solid foundation, you can set yourself up for success.

Assemble your team

Every person on your team won’t be involved in orchestrating your partnership. There is such a thing as too many cooks. But at the same time, you need to loop in the right folks from the beginning. You might have to make adjustments as your plans progress, but evaluating who needs to be involved at the start will ensure a smoother transition.

If you’re pursuing an integration or a product-based acquisition, your product team needs to be involved from day one. When we evaluated Repustate, our internal product team was invaluable in helping us determine how much upside the deal presented. They know the product inside and out. They know where you’re planning to go on your roadmap. Lean on that internal knowledge.

Get to know each other

If you’ve decided to partner with another organization, you already know their product and audience are a good fit. But what about your goals and values?

Early on in your partnership, it’s imperative to sit down and find out what you have in common. How do your cultures align? Where do your roadmaps sync? What values do you both hold? The answers to these questions will be your north star throughout the process.

Be transparent

On day one, you and your partner have to be honest with each other about what you want to gain. Maybe you’re hoping to increase your customer base. Maybe you want to offer new functionality for your customers. Maybe this project is a trial run to see if you should form a longer-term relationship down the road. Whatever the case may be, you have to lay your cards on the table at the beginning.

Having an open line of communication is key to a healthy and successful partnership. You need to be honest with each other about what’s going well and what needs improvement. You need a clear understanding of which team is responsible for what and what your expectations are on cadence and speed. Transparency is what turns good partner match-ups into great relationships.

Howdy, partner

Partnerships are one of the most effective ways to grow your business, especially in uncertain economic times. Working together increases your efficiency, provides more value to your customers and creates a more robust product. Sometimes two is better than one.

Want to see partnerships in action? Learn more about the power of social media management integrations.

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Don’t go it alone: Creating social relationships with technology

Ryan Barretto — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 15:00:21 +0000

The other day, I saw something unexpected. After a customer issue, my dad’s immediate and first reaction was to get help through social media. He was having issues with a company’s web app and his first thought wasn’t to call their support line, or even leverage their web chat, instead it was to message them on Instagram. We often think social media belongs to Millenials and Gen Z, but everyone is using it. And if you haven’t equipped your business with the technology that enables seamless social media interactions, you’ve already taken on a lot of risk.

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

Keep in contact with your audience

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

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

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

Reach out in real time

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

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

Connect through conversations

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

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

React to changing conditions

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

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

Teaming up with technology

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

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

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

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Good work: Building careers that make an impact

Ryan Barretto — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 14:00:01 +0000

If you’re a business leader, you’re probably thinking about the emergence of quiet quitting, or doing the bare minimum at work. It’s impossible–and inadvisable–not to. Only 32% of workers report being engaged at work, with the rest ambivalent, or worse, actively disengaged like 18% of workers.

At this point, there’s no disputing that the pandemic irrevocably changed the way we work. But its reach goes further than whether or not you travel to an office. Two years of collective turmoil caused us all to examine our lives, values and priorities. Without the distraction of life outside of work, many employees realized their work wasn’t working for them. For some employees, their 9-5 feels like serving hard time.

I can relate. In my first inside sales job, I wasn’t stimulated by the work. I rarely thought about work outside of office hours and I definitely wasn’t thinking of ways I could be better at my craft. I–and my coworkers–felt disconnected from the future vision of the company. Even though we were working in revenue, directly connected to the success of the business, our roles didn’t seem important. In another life, I would have been a prime candidate for quiet quitting.

Luckily, since then, I’ve had the opportunity to move into roles that excite and energize me. My job makes me want to be better in every aspect of my life. I know from experience that true happiness at work inevitably translates into more happiness outside of work.

Work shouldn’t be a four-letter word

A lot of the conversation about work-life balance focuses on the life side. Don’t get me wrong, the life side is the most important. Being active and engaged with your friends, family, hobbies and community creates a fulfilling life–which makes the work you produce that much better. But it’s important to realize that the two will never be in balance. Sometimes, you’ll need to spend more time in your personal life and other times you’ll have to step up at work. What’s more important is making sure the two are in harmony. Your work should support the rest of your life and vice versa.

I love what I do. I love the constant learning and growth that my role affords me. And the excitement my job brings shows up in my personal life. My wife can always tell when I’ve had an energizing day professionally because I bring that excitement home. Which in work from home world, means I walk downstairs more fired up than usual.

I’m a first-generation Canadian. Like many children of immigrants, I watched my parents work extremely hard. But they loved every minute of it. I never heard my dad complain about his job. It wasn’t out of pride, it was because of the sense of fulfillment his work provided. I used to see him reading industry magazines in his spare time and couldn’t understand the appeal–or why he wanted me to read the latest copy of CIO magazine. But now, as an adult with my own career, I recognize just how much joy he got out of his job and the passion he had for mastering his craft. Seeing his version of work-life harmony inspired my work ethic, and I hope my daughters are learning the same lesson from me.

Fostering an engaged work environment

Over half (60%) of workers are emotionally detached at work. As a leader, that should worry you. On a business level, companies with engaged workforces report 23% higher profits. But on a human level, you should want to create an environment where employees want to thrive. Here are some ways I try to share my excitement with my team.

Start from the beginning

At Sprout, we onboard in cohorts. This system ensures that everyone–regardless of title, experience or job function–has a common foundation from day one. We introduce our new hires to our mission, values and vision before we introduce them to our product. That’s by design. Knowing how and why we work shows our cohorts that our culture is intentional and we’re happy to welcome them into it. When I spend time with our new hires, I highlight the opportunity they have to improve the organization and the purpose that fuels it all.

Share the why

Less than four in ten remote or hybrid employees under 35 clearly know what’s expected of them. That represents a failure in leadership, not an individual. One of the most important things you can do as a leader is share why we’re doing things. The average employee doesn’t have the product roadmap memorized. It’s not their responsibility.

As leaders, we have to continually paint the picture of where we’re going and what it will take to get there. Keeping your team abreast of future plans helps them recognize their place in them. If they know where you’re going, they’ll be excited to get there with you–even if there are bumps along the way.

Embrace flexibility

I’m the assistant coach for my daughter’s cross-country team. She had a meet in the middle of a Thursday afternoon. In the days before remote work, I never would have been able to make it. But remote work brings the possibility of flexibility, so I was able to help her team, cheer her on and take her to get ice cream afterward. Later that evening, I got back online and was able finish my day feeling a real sense of accomplishment in all aspects of my life.

Before moving to a remote setup, I only spent meaningful time with my daughters on the weekends. The expectation that work had to be done within traditional work hours meant I’d leave the house before they got up and sometimes got home after they’d already had dinner. Having the flexibility to work at the times that work for me has made me a better father and husband. But it’s also made me a better employee.

Without the underlying pressure of missing out on the big moments, I can focus when it matters. Giving employees the space to be human and allowing them to optimize their own schedules makes for better results–at work and outside of it.

Encourage communication

Loving what you do is powerful but hating it can be equally destructive. We spend so much of our lives at work and that time can either be a net benefit or detractor. It’s essential to create an environment where your employees can come to you with career concerns.

If one of your team members is feeling stifled in their role, not connecting to their daily tasks or feeling like they aren’t contributing to the big picture, give them space to address it. Work with them to identify stretch projects or opportunities, evaluate how they spend their time and reinforce how their role impacts the business as a whole.

If they’re dissatisfied because they aren’t aligned with the values, mission or culture of your company, help them find out what matches up. On average, we spend 81,396 hours of our lives working. Make sure your employees are spending that time doing what resonates with them.

Live to work–but not how you think

Work is a part of life. No matter how hard you try, it’s impossible to separate the two. When I stopped viewing work and life as conflicting priorities and started viewing them as aspects of who I am, a new world opened up to me. Meaningful work has the power to enhance every aspect of your life. You just have to find out what means something to you.

Looking to create a more engaged workplace? Learn how to measure and improve employee engagement with this article.

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Sprout Social named a strong performer among social suites by independent research firm

Ryan Barretto — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 16:45:25 +0000

We’re excited to announce that Sprout Social was named a strong performer in The Forrester Wave™: Social Suites, Q3 2021 report. Forrester evaluated the nine most significant social suites across 36 criteria and gave Sprout the highest possible scores in 13 criteria including onboarding and account management, performance, and usability.

According to the report, “Sprout Social’s culture-first mindset drives its strong service and unified social suite. Sprout Social’s emphatic “culture as a business model” go-to-market approach translates into strong account management, employee retention, and overall customer satisfaction. This Chicago vendor has a singular focus on solving social media problems and perfecting its craft there.”

The report adds, “Foundational user experience, user management, and collaboration and workflow capabilities are Sprout Social’s strengths, culminating in unified dashboards and reporting. Expansion into social commerce is evident with a soon-to-be generally available Shopify integration in the Inbox module and an Instagram bio link-to-shop feature in the Publishing module.”

These features, while not generally available at the time that Forrester conducted its evaluation, are now available to all Sprout customers.

To us, the evaluation reflects Sprout’s unique values and strong understanding of what our customers need in order to succeed today and in the future. Our driving focus is to deliver powerful solutions to our customers, empowering them to make a real impact on their business. To do so, we have not only built an intuitive platform with critical data and insights, but we have also created a culture that invests in and deeply cares for our customers and employees.

We believe our “culture-first mindset” has enabled us to deliver top-rated onboarding and account management while also attracting strong talent who continue to innovate Sprout’s platform to address digital transformation and an evolving market.

According to recent research, 90% of executives agree that businesses are increasingly moving their e-commerce strategies to social media and that social media will soon become the primary communications channel for companies to connect with customers. Anticipating these trends, Sprout has built powerful capabilities for customer engagement and continues to make advancements to its platform to meet growing needs in social commerce.

Access the report’s full analysis of Sprout Social here (available to Forrester subscribers and for purchase) and if you’re new to Sprout, get started with a free 30-day trial.

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More than a buzzword: Lead with social to see customer experience differently

Ryan Barretto — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 16:01:56 +0000

In the last few years, “customer experience” (or CX) has become a buzzword that every business appears to be developing a strategy for, or changing a process to address. How many businesses are factoring social media into this equation? For so many companies, social media teams are still the last to know about high-level strategy changes. But when it comes to understanding your customers, they’re first in line.

Before businesses jump to revamp their CX, they should take a step back, think about the most important elements of CX today and how they see it evolving over the next few years. Social media is most likely the answer and should be at the core of those shifts. Otherwise, any changes your business makes may be antiquated in the near term. Because social is the customer experience—today and especially tomorrow.

Customers are in control of their experience with your business

At its core, customer experience is built on the various touchpoints that a customer has with your people, your products and your brand. Historically, businesses have had more control over how that experience happened and (for the most part) it was very linear and predictable.

Today, consumers are in control. They choose their own adventure. They select where they want to interact with your brand, research products and make purchases. As a result, your brand, people, products and services need to be available in an omnichannel way.

Consumers may dictate their experiences with your brand, but businesses can choose to invest in consistency, efficiency and quality across their physical and digital spaces. Think about the experiences you’d have in a brick-and-mortar retail shop. That business has a certain way they want store associates to present themselves and treat customers. There are intentions behind the way the business merchandises the store and designs its shelves. Businesses need to think about how their products, values, standards and culture show up on social media in the same way.

Customer experience starts with social media

We all recognize that the pandemic forced businesses to transform. Everyone had to evolve to maintain relationships with customers, market to them and sell products and services in a world where face-to-face interactions were no longer an option. Social became the go-to channel and a catalyst for keeping the customer journey moving.

As we emerge from the pandemic, that will remain true. Consumers have spoken and social is the most convenient and engaging place to connect with your brand. That’s why we’re seeing the exponential rise in social customer care and social commerce. We’re no longer limited to discovering and learning about products, we also have the ability to transact, moving through the entire customer journey on a single channel with ease.

More consumers on social yields more insights into your current and potential customers, but too many businesses are leaving that data on the table. Businesses have a responsibility to act on that intelligence—show your customers you’re listening, that you’re attuned to their preferences, that you give a damn about giving them the best experiences possible. Customer experience stops being a buzzword only if you do something about it.

At a basic human level, it’s encouraging when we feel heard, represented, seen and understood. Customer preferences will continue to change, it’s inevitable. But social data is the fastest, most unfiltered way to track those shifts as they emerge.

One Sprout customer, Lodge Cast Iron, used social listening to tap into conversations that potential customers were having about recipes and cooking products. The data revealed they actually had a large vegan contingency who were looking for meatless recipe ideas. The Lodge Cast Iron team took that insight, joined the conversations and tapped into a new market, while also giving the people what they wanted.

Social media managers hold the keys to the customer experience

When you receive a message on social, you don’t automatically know if it’s a customer lead, a support issue, product feedback or even the start of a crisis. Messages don’t come with a label, nor do they get automatically routed to the appropriate teams like customer support, for example.

This is just one of the reasons that our social media marketers play a critical role in CX and customer relationships. They are the ones triaging these interactions, so they need to be tied to all different parts of the organization to ensure that customers’ messages are getting to the right people.

We are starting to see a shift where most executives agree that social media will become the primary channel for their company to connect with their existing and prospective customers. Even so, many organizations still put social in a corner.

In the Sprout Social Index, Edition XIX: Breakthrough, we found that 43% of marketers say social teams still feel siloed. If businesses are committed to using social to improve and inform the customer experience, they need to elevate social to the strategic, customer-facing function it should be. Break social teams out of the silos they’ve long been in. Give them a seat at the table and consistent opportunities to share their unique perspectives. The sooner businesses bring social into cross-team efforts, the better.

The best time to plant a tree is today

Even though we’ve seen social evolve rapidly in the last several years, we’re still early on in the adoption curve for businesses. There’s plenty to be learned, but we do know that providing a seamless, positive and complete CX on social gives companies a competitive advantage.

The businesses that invest early, harness the mountains of available social data and are committed to adjusting their strategy, are going to be the winners. Because if you don’t show up for your customers on social, another brand will. That’s the nature of the game, but the good news is it’s never too late.

The best time to plant a tree is today. So dig in, plant the seeds for a social-first customer experience, nurture it and watch it grow.

Download Sprout’s State of Social Media Report for more data and insights your business needs to determine the path forward in this increasingly social consumer environment.

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Sprout Social named to G2’s 2021 Best Software list for the fifth consecutive year

Ryan Barretto — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 15:17:35 +0000

We’re excited to share that Sprout Social has been named one of the best software companies for 2021 by G2. In total, Sprout is featured in eight categories on G2’s list, including Highest Satisfaction Product, Best Product for Enterprise, Best Product for Marketers and Best Product for Customer Service. This recognition is especially important to us as it is based solely on reviews from our customers. As a company we dedicate ourselves to delivering solutions that empower our users to make a real impact on their businesses with critical data and insights, flexible tools and an intuitive user-experience—seeing that work recognized in the reviews of our customers is humbling.

Our customers’ success is our top priority and we’re grateful for the opportunity to support them as they navigate an ever-changing landscape. This past year, especially, accelerated digital transformation across businesses and increased the reliance on social as a primary communication channel. The Sprout platform enabled users to not just respond to those changes, but thrive in this new environment, and we look forward to our continued partnerships with all of our 25,000+ customers.

G2 releases their list of best software companies annually to recognize leaders in product performance and user satisfaction. The list is created with data from more than 1M verified customer reviews on the G2 platform. Here is what our customers had to say:

“This is an ideal platform to extract real business value from social networks through tools and functions that provide effective publication, participation, analysis, reports, among others.”

“There are experts available at every turn and the support available is unmatched (not even close) by competing services. In an age of tech, customer service and going the extra mile is SO appreciated.”

“Social listening has been incredibly valuable to our team as well in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic. Being able to have a pulse on the public’s opinion has helped us tremendously as we respond to the patient’s needs.”

“The user experience is well designed, adding additional profiles is a snap, and the interface and speed far outstrips every competitor I’ve ever used.”

If you’re a Sprout user and are interested in sharing your experience with others, please visit us on G2, or if you’re new to Sprout, get started with a free 30-day trial.

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