This week on Sprout Social Insights we tackled guides for Facebook, Twitter, and small business to help you better reach your customers with the social tools that make a difference.

Check out our articles below to find out more about each one and how they can help you with your social media goals.

And check in every day to Sprout Social Insights for more how to guides and breaking social media news.

How to Use Facebook for Customer Support

Although most brands utilize Facebook Pages for marketing, many are still struggling to take advantage of its customer service benefits. It was recently reported that only five percent of comments on brands’ Facebook Pages ever receive replies.

That metric is shockingly low considering the volume of consumers that turn to social media to communicate with brands. The thing about social media is that you need to be social — and talk to your customers. If you’re not engaging with your audience, you’re missing out on valuable feedback. You’re also running the risk of losing these customers altogether. To avoid that particular outcome, here’s how to effectively use Facebook for customer support. [ Read more... ]

Study Shows Social Media Can Lead to More Votes

There’s no question that social media has played an important role in political campaigns over the last four years. According to a recent study, being active on social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, made a “significant difference” to a candidate’s chances of being elected.

Dr. Ciaran McMahon – a lecturer in psychology at Dublin Business School – set out to examine the impact of social media on the Irish general election last February. Of the candidates polled, 78% had Facebook accounts and only 57% had Twitter accounts.

His report found that candidates with Twitter accounts receive 46% more votes than those without. Additional results reveal that candidates with Facebook accounts received 53% more votes than those that weren’t active on the social network. [ Read More... ]

The Twitter Tweak That Can Improve Your Search Results

This week we’ll show you the Twitter tweak that can improve your search results.

In previous articles, we’ve discussed the importance of search in your Twitter marketing strategy. Twitter has its own powerful search tool, located at the very top of the Twitter home page. But did you know that by default, you may be missing out on many of the search results, unless you know this very specific Twitter tweak? [ Read More... ]

How to Set Up Goals and Track Conversions in Google Analytics

If you want to know the true results of your online marketing efforts, from social media to keyword targeting, you will want to set up goals in Google Analytics. Goals allow you to see which traffic sources and content lead to the most conversions on your website.

For a company that sell products or services on the web, “conversions” occur when a customer transitions from simply visiting a website or viewing an ad to actually responding to the content by signing up, purchasing something, or some other engagement activity.

It’s up to you to define these objectives, but Goals in Google Analytics can help you track them. Here’s how to do it. [ Read More... ]

New Algorithm May Boost or Drop Klout Scores

The social influence measurement platform Klout announced today that it has introduced a more accurate scoring algorithm, and as a result current scores may rise or drop.

Klout measures behaviors across a variety of platforms – such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and others – and makes the results publicly available for everyone to see in the form of a numeric score called a Klout Score.

Scores are based on influence, which is the ability to drive action. The company described this as a PeopleRank algorithm, which is based how many people a user influences, how much that user influences others, and how influential the people in that user’s network are.

With this update some users are noticing that their scores have either gone up or dropped. This is normal as new factors are being taken into account during calculations. The good news is that Klout now provides more information about why a score has dropped and how to improve it. [ Read More... ]

Study Reveals Facebook and LinkedIn Favored Among Small Businesses

While there is a variety of social media tools available, a recent study revealed that small business owners are still favoring Facebook and LinkedIn for marketing and sales campaigns.

More than 1,000 small business owners were polled by social media marketing firm iContact. The company studied how the owners used and rated Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Groupon. [ Read More... ]

How to Publish Notes to Your Facebook Page

This week we’ll show you how to share information with customers or fans by adding blog post-like Notes to your Facebook Page.

You might associate Notes in your mind with personal profiles — after all, they’re most often used by people with regular Facebook profiles to blog about their lives. But you can make Notes for Facebook Pages just as easily as you can for profiles. [ Read More... ]

[Image credits: Hash Milhan, Collin Knopp-Schwyn, Al_HikesAZ, Carla MacNeil, Owen Brown]