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.

Beyond the Bottom Line: 3 Ways to Convince Execs That Social Matters

Have you ever tried cold calling a busy executive? If you’re a salesperson, feel free to shudder now. If you’re a social media marketer, you might not even know what a cold call is — considering how social media has revolutionized the way we now interact with individuals and businesses.

Nevertheless, many corporate executives are still unconvinced of the value of social media for business. With a median age of 55, most CEOs are familiar (and were quite happy) with a world before Facebook. In fact, 73% of CEOs actually think marketers lack business credibility!

So, should today’s corporate marketer pack up his or her social media management tools and start designing the new yellow pages ad? Well, we’d advise against that. Instead, here are three ways to convince executives that social really does matter. [ Read More... ]

Create a Mobile App for Less: Infinite Monkeys Offers 50% Off

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 pleased to post an exclusive offer from a recent startup that we profiled: Web-based, DIY, smartphone-app creation platform, Infinite Monkeys.
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An Often Overlooked Source for Twitter Content: Tweet Your Pins

This week we show that a great source of Twitter content can be found by simply tweeting your pins on Pinterest.

For the seasoned social media professional, coming up with content might not be that much of a challenge. Small business owners, however, are sometimes at a loss when it comes to finding content to tweet about beyond their products and services, or their latest specials.

A great source of popular, effective and engaging content can be found within your Pinterest pinboards. After all, Pinterest generates more even more referral traffic to websites than Twitter itself! So, if you need an infusion of content that’s likely to be viewed, shared and retweeted, make sure to tweet your pins on a regular basis. [ Read More... ]

Bandwagon to Nowhere: Why You Should Pick New Social Sites Carefully

There’s no question now that a company needs to maintain a presence on social media. These days, having an account on Facebook, Twitter, or the like is as important as having a company website. But the number of options available to a brand are frequently on the rise as new networks emerge to clamor for attention and members. How do you know whether and when to hop onboard a new platform?

Especially for a newer, smaller business with less money at hand, making smart decisions about when to jump on the bandwagon is crucial. There are some risks any time you open an account on a new site. But on the other side of the coin, ignoring new networks means you could miss getting a leg up on the next big thing. Here are some points to consider before you join any new social site.
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Read About How Social Media Is Changing Customer Service

Social media and the web have changed the way people do business in a lot of ways, but few professional disciplines have been as profoundly affected as has customer service. Customers often turn to Twitter or Facebook first when they have a problem, and they expect a prompt response.

That’s why Sprout Social has put together a helpful white paper loaded with guidelines for choosing and training social media staff, tips for ensuring follow-through on customer inquiries, and real world examples to illustrate how to efficiently make social media integral to your customer service strategy and internal process. [ Read More... ]

Why The New York Times Sets an Example for Facebook Timeline Presence

Facebook Timeline has led to major changes in strategy for brands. We’ve already looked at how music streaming platform, Spotify, has adapted cleverly to the layout. Another company that has excelled at working with the changes is The New York Times.

One of the interesting angles to the Times’ Facebook presence is that it isn’t directly promoting any sort of customer purchases. There are no explicit calls to subscribe to the paper; all of the content backs the Times’ reputation as a leading source for reliable information and analysis about current events. Here’s how the periodical is pushing for success in social media and modern journalism. [ Read More... ]

Sprout Social Recognized as a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer

Sprout Social, our parent company and social media management provider for thousands of leading companies across the globe has been recognized as a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer (PMD) in the disciplines of Insights and Pages.

Sprout is one of 10 companies that currently hold both badges and we’re happy to join the ranks of Buddy Media, Involver, Vitrue and Wildfire in the PMD program. We’re extremely proud of the hard work our team has done to attain this status.

Among other things, Sprout Social’s social media management tool offers businesses, agencies, and social media professionals the ability to generate beautiful, detailed, and exportable reports loaded with actionable data from the Facebook Insights analytics tool. Sprout Social also provides a useful interface for publishing to your Facebook Page and engaging with fans there.
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Spotlight on Startups: Booktango is a multi-platform e-book editor

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 pleased to cast the spotlight on Booktango — a free, online e-book editing platform based in Bloomington, IN. [ Read More... ]

By the Numbers: Exactly How Pinterest Produces Business Results

Heed the buzz and you may conclude that Pinterest is the next great social network — the next-best successor to mega-successes Facebook and Twitter.

But those two companies are generating substantial revenue for someone; in Facebook’s case, it’s for both the company itself and the countless businesses that use it. For Twitter, it’s a big hit for the businesses and publishers using it, and Twitter itself is slowly figuring out how to get results too.

We’re concerned with measurable results, not buzz. Does Pinterest have the same potential to generate real, trackable revenue for businesses the world over — including itself? Let’s take a look and find out.
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QR Codes: Pros, Cons, and What’s Next

Over the past few years, we’ve seen mobile technology revolutionize the way we interact with the world around us. Sometimes though, in the pursuit of the next big thing, well-intentioned marketers can lose sight of what their customers really like — or even understand.

While traditionally used in commercial shipping applications, many marketers and businesses have adopted QR codes as a potential way to connect with customers. For the unfamiliar: QR codes are the black and white square patterns popping up everywhere — from business cards to store windows.

Are QR codes the future of mobile marketing or are they marked for extinction? Here’s a look at some of the pros and cons of QR codes, as well as an investigation into what might be the next big thing in mobile marketing technology. [ Read More... ]

News Roundup: Facebook’s Red Letter Week of Mobile Expansion

This Friday, we’re looking back at week full of important Facebook news.

Mobile might be the future of social media, and this week we learned that Facebook is finally making some critical moves to prepare for that.

Most notable is the introduction of Facebook Timeline Pages on the mobile iPhone application, but Facebook has also been experimenting with ads and ways to integrate your business’ Facebook Apps into the mobile user experience. Let’s take a quick look at each of these. [ Read More... ]

[Image credits: SCA, Infinite Monkeys, Lee Haywood, Adam Kinney, Booktango(FB), Sonny Abesamis, ]