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.

6 Reasons Facebook and Twitter Are More Important Than a Website

In the past, having a static listing in a printed medium like the Yellow Pages might have been enough to keep your top of mind with your target audience. With competition, emerging social media platforms, and the explosion of the mobile web market, a static presence is no longer a viable option. Nowadays, having a vibrant, interactive, online presence for your business is an absolute necessity.

To be fair, many businesses have embraced this need, and there are plenty of tools out there that make creating a website painless (and sometimes free). But even with tools designed to get a website up and running, is this enough of an online presence for your business?  With social media platforms continuing to expand, the conversation is quickly shifting to websites like Twitter and Facebook, as opposed to traditional business websites. [ Read More... ]

Foursquare Adds Scores to Explore Recommendations

Foursquare has provided individuals with on-the-go recommendations on where to eat, drink, shop and so on since launching Explore on mobile. The company today released an update for its iOS app that makes finding these places even easier.

Explore enables members to search for a venue by category, name, or specific keyword. Foursquare recently made this feature available to everyone, regardless of whether they had an account or not. Now it’s adding new ratings to Explore recommendations.

Moving forward, when an individual searches for something in Explore, he or she will see a score from one to 10 next to the name of the venue. These ratings offer potential customers a quick sense of how much people love the location. Foursquare promises these are different from the other types of ratings you see today. [ Read More... ]

Twitter Success Story: Planning Pod Builds Customers One at A Time

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’re profiling a real-world Twitter Success Story from Planning Pod – the “Swiss Army knife of applications” for running a small business. Planning Pod has employed a variety of Twitter tactics, such as keyword research, one-to-one marketing, and integration with other platforms to achieve a 30 percent conversion rate on signups to its small business management software platform. [ Read More... ]

How to Interpret Every Facebook Metric in Sprout Social’s Reports

The articles here at Sprout Insights are written 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.

We’ve written about Twitter reports, and the useful data they contain for Sprout Social users. Similarly, Facebook reports offer a wealth of data pertinent to that platform as well. Having powerful analytics and data to inform your decision-making means that you will be able to develop a more powerful Facebook strategy. Here’s what you can learn from Sprout Social reports and how you can put that information to good use. If you don’t have a Sprout Social account already, you can sign up for a free trial and check out all of the metrics for yourself. [ Read More... ]

How To Verify Your Website on Pinterest

Pinterest recently launched a new website verification feature as part of its ongoing fight against spam. As the name suggests, website verification lets you verify that you own the website listed on your Pinterest Profile.

Many businesses, especially larger brands, have had to deal with fake profiles or fake followers on social networks. Although unlikely, some tricksters are so good that you run the risk of a community forming around an impostor. While website verification won’t rid the Internet of spammers, it will help visitors distinguish between real accounts and the fakes.

Similar to Twitter’s Verified Accounts, once verified on Pinterest, a red checkmark will appear next to your domain in search results, as well as on your profile. It’s a fairly quick and painless process, but it can be tricky if you aren’t familiar with or don’t have access to your website’s server files. Here’s how to get started. [ Read More... ]

Which Social Network Should You Use to Host Your Next Event?

Organizing an event is a great way to get fans involved with your business and to put your brand in the public eye. But before you can play host, you need to get the word out to your guests. Facebook has long made a name for itself in this space with Facebook Events, but there are competitors — for example, Google+ recently launched its own competitor.

Social media networks offer plenty of features that let companies plan and promote events. Three of your most promising options are Facebook, Google+ Events, and Eventbrite. Each of them offer pros and cons, so you’ll want to have a clear idea of what kind of event you want to put on to pick the best option for your brand. [ Read More... ]

Spotlight On Startups: AirCover Family Locator Offers Peace of Mind

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 AirCover Family Locator — a location-based, personal security app — headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
[ Read More... ]

How 7 Brands Used YouTube as a Linchpin for Successful Campaigns

YouTube has always been a wildly popular social network for individuals to watch videos online, but brands have really taken to the channel as a way to engage their audiences, too. In fact, many brands have used YouTube’s high-engagement platform as a launching pad for their wider marketing campaigns.

That platform is an excellent one to use as the foundation as you build buzz about a product, live stream big events, or get breaking news out — and you can do that more quickly than with other forms of media in some cases. The following seven brands have really understood and leveraged the unique qualities of YouTube to launch exciting and successful campaigns.

See which tactics you may be able to emulate from these well-known brands that can be applied to your own YouTube campaign. [ Read More... ]

4 Things We’d Like to See in a New Facebook Timeline Design

It’s Facebook Friday — each week we’ll offer one tip for leveraging Facebook to increase customer awareness of and engagement with your brand or business.

Many of the changes Facebook introduced with the Timeline layout were steps backward for brands using the network. But more updates are on the horizon; Facebook has announced that it is testing a new design of Timeline that will offer some improvements aimed at addressing complaints about the network.

While the confirmed changes include a single, wider column for status posts, there are several other updates that we’d love to see happen in this redesign. Any of these suggestions could make Facebook easier to use for both companies and customers. Let’s hope that Mark Zuckerberg is listening!
[ Read More... ]

[Image credits: Whatleydude, Dennis Crowley, Planning Pod, West McGowan, Dichohecho, AirCover, Korosirego, paz.ca]