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.

How Researching on LinkedIn Can Help Plan Your Career

Over 20 years ago, author Stephen Covey wrote a groundbreaking book called, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Covey suggested that if we want to achieve success in our lives and in our careers, we should model the behaviors of successful people.

That advice is as relevant today as when the book was first published. But how can you find out the traits and behaviors of successful people in the first place? Luckily for us, social media networks like LinkedIn have made it much easier to discover detailed information about people’s professional histories, habits and career paths.

If you’re looking for a new job, or simply trying to plan your career to achieve your most efficient path to success, use the following LinkedIn research tactics and strategies. Find out what successful people whom you’d like to emulate are including in their profiles, what skills they list, and so on, and use that data to help inform your own plans. [ Read More... ]

How to Schedule Facebook and Twitter Posts With Sprout Social

The articles here at Sprout Insights are designed to keep you informed about ways to improve your social media presence. But beyond this publication, Sprout Social has tools that help you track and control that presence.

One of the coolest features of Sprout Social is the ability to schedule social media posts in advance on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The feature allows you to more easily plan out your social media strategy (it even offers suggestions for ideal times to schedule for maximum impressions) and avoid social media burnout.

Here’s an explanation of how to use Sprout Social’s social media management tool, and the benefits it can have for your business. [ Read More... ]

Position Yourself as a Resource for Local Media Outlets

It’s Twitter Tip Tuesday — every Tuesday we’ll focus on one Twitter Tip and show you how to integrate it into your social media strategy. This week we show you how to position yourself as a resource for local media outlets so that they’ll contact you when they’re looking to interview someone for a story.

In an effort to be relevant and timely, many media outlets are turning to social media sites like Twitter to keep an eye on trending topics, hashtags, and conversations in progress. The trouble is, it can be hard to get on the Twitter radar of an organization like CNN.

However, many news organizations and media outlets have allowed their local reporters to have their own Twitter accounts in order to me more accessible in their communities. [ Read More... ]

How YouTube Has Changed Political Campaigns Forever

The first televised presidential debate, the famed face-off between John F. Kennedy and a rumpled Richard Nixon, was a watershed moment for political campaigners. From that moment on, any aspiring politician had to adapt strategies and make sure that when the cameras were on, his or her appearance projected strength and power.

In 2008, Barack Obama’s successful presidential campaign took advantage of YouTube in smart new ways. While there’s no single, defining moment in his campaign to offer as proof, the transition of politics into the realm of the Internet, and YouTube in particular, is hard to deny.

What’s actually changed about how campaigns are run and won with YouTube? Here’s a look at how it all happened, and what you can expect to see as we approach the presidential election this fall. [ Read More... ]

Spotlight on Startups: SpareFoot is a marketplace for self-storage

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 start-up 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 pleased to cast the spotlight on SpareFoot — an online, self-storage marketplace based in Austin, TX. [ Read More... ]

Instagram vs. Pinterest: Which Is More Important for Brands?

In the past year and a half we’ve seen a real shift in social media. A move is happening away from the strict confines of the 140 character update towards something more visual.

More than ever, we are sharing images and video with one another — in increasingly simpler ways. In a relatively short amount of time Pinterest and Instagram have both grown into their own juggernaut communities.

Both of these services offer great, new, visual ways to connect with your fans and potential customers, but do you really need to focus on both? In the battle of Instagram vs. Pinterest, which one is a better fit for your brand? [ Read More... ]

How to Ask Facebook Questions Without Seeming Obnoxious

Facebook Questions has been available within the social media network for a little more than a year, but it hasn’t seen wide adoption among brands and businesses. Many company Pages still use regular status updates to pose queries to their followers. A recent study from Momentus Media suggests that this may not be the most effective route to fan engagement, however.

So, why the reluctance to using this feature? It can certainly yield interesting feedback in terms of informal market research, and could also be a new angle for getting followers to connect with your brand. Of course, it’s possible that some Facebook members feel the direct inquiry approach of Questions is a little obnoxious. We’ll walk you through some of the platform’s perks, explain how to use it wisely, and look at some brands that have the right idea. [ Read More... ]

[Image credits: LinkedIn, jayneandd, jsawkins, SpareFoot(FB), John Morrison]