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 media 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.

4 Ways That Social Media Is Like Angry Birds

Unless you’re a cave dweller who’s been off the grid for a decade or so, you’re probably familiar with the concept of social media. You’re also probably just as familiar with the mobile gaming sensation Angry Birds. They’ve both taken the world by storm over the past couple of years.

What else do these two things have in common? More than you probably thought. Whether you have an affinity for the former or the latter (or neither), understanding these social phenomena can have a positive impact on you as a professional and as an individual.

Here are some of the similarities between social media and Angry Birds, and what each can teach you about the other. [ Read More... ]

5 Brands With Great Mobile Marketing Apps

It’s a mobile world out there. Many brands are now exploring the capabilities of mobile marketing, either as a complement to their traditional advertising or as a totally independent project. It’s a new field, with plenty of room for experimentation and fresh ideas.

A few brands have already entered the mobile marketing arena with inventive ideas for presenting their products and engaging their customers. Whatever industry your company is in, you can learn some clever ideas from the mobile apps created by these well-known brands.
[ Read More... ]

Twitter Success Story: Author Lynn Sheene

This week we’re profiling a real-world Twitter Success Story from first-time author Lynn Sheene. Promoting her book on Twitter, Lynn was able to increase her followers by 400 percent, increase sales, land a feature article in a French publication and even get an offer for a launch party from a prestigious hotel chain. [ Read More... ]

5 Instagram Marketing Mistakes: Don’t Take These Photos

It can be tempting as a marketer or business owner to get your brand into the hottest social spaces as soon as possible — and you really should take part of your time and budget to explore what the latest social media has to offer for your company. However, when you finally decide to join a community like Instagram you have to make sure you have the resources to commit to it properly.

If you have the time and money to get your brand up and running on Instagram, you want to ensure you’ve got a clear idea of what your brand’s presence will be. Ask yourself if it will stand out from your other social efforts, and consider if the space works for your product or service. [ Read More... ]

An Interview With Yammer: How Social Is Changing Corporate Culture

It’s a safe bet to assume the majority of Sprout Insights readers have encountered some form of social media platform in their personal lives.

Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, chances are you’ve sent a status update to friends and family in your network. If you’re a business owner or manager, you probably employ some of these same tools to communicate your brand message to the world and to interact with members of your target audience.

But can social media tools be used inside organizations for management and staff to communicate with each other? Given the very public nature of social media, there are obvious limitations to the amount of internal information a company is prepared to share on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.

On the other hand, there is often a lot of valuable information tied up among your employees. It can be difficult to make sure that this information is available to all of the relevant stakeholders within your organization. To address this common enterprise business need, Yammer Inc. was born.

In this article, Yammer Director of Community Maria Ogneva, provides an overview of what Yammer is, how it sees enterprise social media impacting corporate culture, and the future of social business. [ Read More... ]

Spotlight on Startups: Capture POD reinvents the photo booth

At Sprout Insights, we comb the web to bring you the most up-to-date and actionable resources on how to use social media to grow your business.

To that end, we’re pleased to present the Sprout Insights series Spotlight on Startups. We’ll find the most innovative, useful startup companies out there, get the inside track on what they’re doing, and tell you how you can leverage their products and services for your own business.

This week we’re casting the spotlight on Capture POD — a promotional photo-booth rental company based in Miami, FL. [ Read More... ]

Can the New Facebook Camera App Help Brands and Business?

This week we’ll take a closer look at the new Facebook Camera app for iPhone.

Here’s the background: Earlier this week, Facebook launched its new Facebook Camera app, enabling everyone with a Facebook profile and an iPhone to take pictures, apply filters, and publish them to their Timelines directly.

A lot has been said about what this has to do with Facebook’s recent acquisition of Instagram and what the Facebook Instagram acquisition means for brands, but putting industry navel gazing aside leaves us with a more prescient question: Does this new app launch generate any potential or problems for businesses and brands on Facebook? [ Read More... ]

[Image credits: Jordan Owens, Clever Cupcakes, Michael Schoenewies, Yammer, Capture POD(YouTube)]