What’s New in Sprout

Automated Alerts sends you notifications for messages that you identify as important. Available for Advanced and Enterprise plans, you can now set up rules to get alerted by email or mobile push notification every time incoming messages contain a specific keyword or phrase, or match a specific message type.

1. HOW-TO:
2. Go to your Smart Inbox and click the Settings icon on the right bar menu. Select Inbox Settings.
3. Select Create new rule.
4. Enter a rule title and description. From here you’ll decide which messages to get alerted for—if it contains an explicit keyword or phrase, is received by a specific profile or message type or any combination of these criteria.
5. Under Then take these actions select send an email to or send a push notification.
6. For push notifications, you’ll also need to enable the alert from your mobile app. Go to Settings -> Notification Preferences -> Inbox Notifications. Enable your rule under Rule Alerts.
7. Select Save. You’ll now see a preview of your rule. Choose Got It to complete the setup.

You can now aggregate paid campaign performance data with the new Cross-Network Paid Performance Report in Sprout. The report corrals campaign-level data from Facebook (including Messenger and Facebook Audience Network), Twitter (including Twitter Audience Network), Instagram and LinkedIn (including LinkedIn Audience Network) into one central location. The data is organized into an Overview providing an executive summary of performance, and a Campaign tab enabling users to sort campaigns by spend or selected KPIs. The report is available to everyone on a Professional or Advanced Plan.

1. HOW TO:
2. In the top right corner of your web app, select the Connect a Profile icon and add your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn Ads account (this does not count towards your profile limit).
3. From the Reports home, under Paid Social Reports, select Cross-Network Paid Performance.
4. Using the right rail, select the time frame you would like to analyze.
5. Select the campaigns you would like to include in the report using the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, And LinkedIn drop downs

You can now monitor and engage with Facebook Dynamic Ad Comments in the Smart Inbox. Once your Facebook Ad Account is connected, you can view incoming comments on ads using the Dynamic Ads message type.

1. HOW-TO:
2. In the top right corner of your web app, select the Connect a Profile icon and add your Facebook Ad Manager account (this does not count towards your profile limit).
3. From the Smart Inbox, select one or several Facebook profile(s) from the Profiles filters in the right bar.
4. Select the Facebook Ad Comments message type filter. Comments from Dynamic Ads will now appear in your Smart Inbox.

Sprout users now have the ability to add Carousel Cards to their Facebook Messenger bot workflows in order to increase engagement and drive traffic to targeted pages. Carousel Cards make it possible for users to display multiple images, buttons and calls-to-action within a single interaction.

1. HOW TO:
2. Within the Conversation Map, add a new message.
3. Select Carousel Cards and click Next.
4. Click Add a Card.  
5. Enter the URL for a hosted image.
6. Enter the destination URL for your image.  
7. Enter a title and a sub-title.
8. Add buttons to direct users to a specific URL. You can add up to 3 buttons per card.  
9. Scroll to the right to add another card to the Carousel Cards. You can add up to 10 cards.  

Note: Images attached to Carousel Cards must be hosted, meaning you must have a public URL available for each image. Images cannot be uploaded from the Asset Library at this time.

To expand the reach and engagement of your content, you can now type-ahead to discover more popular or related hashtags within the Compose window of Sprout’s iOS app.

1. HOW-TO
2. Go to Compose. In Compose, select your desired Instagram Business profiles in the Profile Picker.
3. Enter your message text. Begin typing your preferred hashtag.
4. Explore suggested tags in the the Suggested list and select a tag to add it to your message.

To make your content more accessible, you can now add descriptive text to images from within the Compose window.

1. HOW-TO
2. Go to Compose.
3. Select your desired Twitter handle from the Profile Picker. Add your message text.
4. Attach your preferred image. Select Image Options in the top right corner of the image.
5. Select Add Descriptive Text from the dropdown.
6. Edit or add your preferred descriptive text. Select Save.

Note: Descriptive text is only available for static images at this time. Animated GIFs or videos are not currently supported by this feature.

The new Word Cloud in Advanced Listening enables you to visualize the most used keywords, hashtags, mentions and emoticons in any given topic. You can further analyze terms by selecting/deselecting a term-type or by clicking on any term to view all messages relevant to that term.

1. HOW TO
2. Navigate to the Conversation tab in Advanced Listening.
3. Use the drop-down menu to select or deselect term types.
4. Click any term to view every related post.

You can now save time by bulk tagging and/or bulk completing messages from Sprout’s iOS app.

1. HOW-TO:
2. From the Smart Inbox in the Sprout iOS app, select a message by long-pressing anywhere on the message to enable bulk mode.
3. Tap any other messages you’d like to take action on. As you select more messages, the number indicator will change in the action bar at the top of your screen.
4. When multiple messages are selected, choose to tag or complete the messages from the icons in the action bar at the top of your screen.
5. To exit bulk mode without taking any actions, select the X next to the number indicator.

Available to Enterprise plans, you can now create custom parameters for URL tracking to better optimize social strategies and measure the impact of social on business initiatives.

1. HOW-TO
2. Go to Publishing Settings.
3. Find the URL Tracking section. Select +Add URL.
4. Enter the URL to be tracked, default parameters and custom parameters.
5. Select Save.

Available to Enterprise plans, you can now apply custom or default link tracking to social posts from Compose to better optimize social strategies and measure the impact of social on business initiatives.

1. HOW-TO
2. Go to Compose. In Compose, select your desired profiles from the Profile Picker.
3. Enter message text and desired link. Attach any desired assets, location, tags, etc.
4. Preview the added parameters within the Attached Link section.
5. Select your desired delivery method (Send Now, Schedule, Queue, Save as Draft or Submit for Approval.)

You can now perform multiple actions from a single Inbox Rule. Go to Inbox Settings to create a rule that automatically tags and completes messages that meet your criteria.

You can now analyze LinkedIn Ads campaign performance with the new LinkedIn Paid Performance Report. The reports offers both an Overview section to get an all-up summary of campaign performance and a Campaigns section that breaks out individual campaigns into a sortable, tabular view. The LinkedIn Paid Performance Report is available to all Corporate and Enterprise plans.

1. How to:
2. Connect Your LinkedIn Ad Account
3. In Reports, select the LinkedIn Paid Performance under the Paid Social Reports drop-down.
4. Use the campaign selector on the right hand side of your screen to select campaigns you’d like to analyze.

To increase engagement on Instagram, you can now more easily cross-post or cross-promote your published Instagram content onto Pinterest from Sprout’s Calendar.

1. HOW-TO:
2. Go to Publishing.
3. Go to the Calendar. Find your desired published Instagram Post. Select Duplicate from the Post Options.
4. Select your preferred Instagram and Pinterest profiles in the Profile Picker.
5. Enter message text. Attach your preferred image.
6. {Optional} In the Instagram First Comment section, add your desired hashtags.
7. In Pinterest Options, confirm destination URL is the permalink for the Instagram post. Example: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpAWI9KF-HZ/?hl=en&taken-by=sproutsocial
   Select your preferred boards or create a new Board.
8. Choose your preferred delivery method (Send Now, Schedule, Queue, Save as Draft or Submit for Approval.)

Within select reports, Sprout trial users will now see Report Preview Mode, which displays sample data to demonstrate what a report looks like once more data is collected. You can switch between your data and the sample data at any time during your trial.

Sprout users now have the ability to perform segmented analysis using Themes in Advanced Listening. Themes are custom segments enabling you to break down large data sets by product, moods or feelings, competitors, location, and more to generate pin-point insights for share of voice, potential impressions engagement and sentiment metrics.

1. HOW TO:
2. Click the Themes tab in your Advanced Listening dashboard.
3. Note: To have themes added for you, please reach out to your Sprout contact or successteam@sproutsocial.com.

Sprout users can now interact with potential impressions over time in Advanced Listening, making it easier to understand impression trends. The data can be viewed at an aggregated level or broken down by channel, content type, and demographic.

1. HOW TO: 
2. Under the Overview Tab, navigate down to the Potential Impressions section.
3. Click any point on the chart to navigate to posts from the selected date.
4. Use the dropdown menu above the chart to breakdown the data in different ways.

Keyword Commands can now be assigned to existing bot messages and workflows within the Conversation Map, giving users the ability to add more options to cover existing topics.

1. HOW TO:
2. When choosing a response type for a Keyword Command, select An Existing Message.
3. Click on the desired message in the Conversation Map.

Note: Restart Commands can now only be created within the Keyword Command under Existing Messages, enabling users to assign multiple keywords and phrases to trigger a Welcome Message.

Users now have the ability to test their Keyword Commands in the Previewer within the Conversation Map.

1. HOW TO:
2. Type in a Keyword Command in the input bar in the Previewer.

The Settings screen has been updated on both iOS and Android apps to show push notification states at every level, providing an at-a-glance view of what is enabled or disabled. This enhancement gives Sprout users more control over their push notifications, as well as the ability to easily customize their settings.

1. HOW TO:
2. Under Settings, Click Notification Preferences.
3. Click into individual settings for network activities, inbox monitoring, team collaboration, and Sprout-specific notifications as needed.  

The power of Sprout’s Advanced Listening solution is now integrated alongside the Engagement, Publishing and Reporting tools you use everyday. The integrated platform includes:

• More Channels: Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Reddit, Tumblr, and broader web (Blogs, Forums and News Sites) data as sources to give a complete picture of social conversation.
• Interactive, easily filterable data to research conversation around your brand, industry, and competitors.
• An updated Topic Builder to create complex topics through an easy to navigate experience.
• A new tabular layout organizes related data to surface targeted insights by visualizing information in context.

Advanced Listening is available for purchase as a Premium Add-On to clients of any plan.

1. HOW TO:
2. Navigate to the Listening tab.
3. Select you Topic in the left nav you would like to analyze.

The refreshed Topic Builder makes it easy to put together the queries you would like to analyze in Advanced Listening.

1. HOW TO:
2. Use the Left Nav to select + New Topic
3. Select what you would like your Topic to be called.
4. Select the channels you would like to pull data from.
5. Input the keywords, phrases, hashtags, cashtags or user information you would like to analyze.
6. Refine your Topic with additional filters such as post language, post country, posts from verified users, and more

There are four tabs to help you analyze the conversation around your Topic: Performance, Conversation, Demographics, and Messages. Data in each tab is clickable enabling you to drill down to related posts.

Performance summarizes Topic data and enables you to select different breakdowns highlighting important information or other ways to view selected charts. The Conversation tab illuminates top terms within your selected topic to help highlight emerging trends. The Demographics tab provides a look into those posting about your topic including demographic information and a sortable profiles table to identify influencers. Finally, the Messages tab provides every message in a sortable, tabular format to help identify top posts.

Using Message Search Filters, the entire data set can be filtered in real-time by channel, date range,  specific keywords, phrases, hashtags and authors.

1. HOW TO:
2. Select the Performance, Conversation, Demographics, or Messages tab.
3. Click charts to drill down to posts from a specific time period.
4. Use the breakdowns above a chart to dimension the data or select specific metrics to include.
5. Use the right rail to filter your data in real time around date, channel, or Message Search Filters.
6. Click the column header in a table to search by metric.

You can now analyze Twitter Ads Campaign performance with the new Twitter Paid Performance Report. The reports offers both an Overview section to get an all-up summary of campaign performance and a Campaigns section that breaks out individual campaigns into a sortable tabular view. The Twitter Paid Performance Report is available on all Professional and Advanced plans.

1. How to:
2. Connect Your Twitter Ad Account
3. In Reports, select the Twitter Paid Performance under the Paid Social Reports drop-down.
4. Use the campaign selector on the right hand side of your screen to select campaigns you’d like to analyze.

Enterprise users now have the option to show or hide Bots from the top navigation bar when inviting new users to a Group.

1. HOW TO:
2. In Settings, click Invite New Team Members.
3. Add their information and give them access.
4. Click Send Invite.
5. Select Bots.
6. Click Save.

Enterprise users now have the option to show or hide Bots from the top navigation bar for existing users in a Group.

1. HOW TO:
2. Under Users & Social Profiles, select on a team member.
3. Below Feature Permissions, select Bots.  
4. Click Save.

Keyword Commands make it possible for bot users to setup chatbot responses for specific keyword triggers or phrases. With this update, users can get more coverage over their bot experiences to account for unique responses.

1. HOW TO:
2. Within the Conversation Map, click the Key icon in the right-hand toolbar.
3. Click Add a Keyword Command.
4. Enter a Title.
5. Add keywords or phrases.
6. Add a response.
7. Click Save.

Note: Keyword Commands only account for exact keyword or phrase matching.

The Bot Builder can now be accessed in the top navigation in the Sprout app (Enterprise only). Additionally, we’ve introduced a first use tour for new users to get acquainted with the Bot Builder.