How to Use SproutSocial: A Step-By-Step Guideline in 2025

Feeling like your social media is all over the place? 

It can be super hard to handle everything and still have time for other stuff. 

That’s where Sprout Social comes in!

Think of it like your helper for all your social media.

This guide will show you, step by step, how to use SproutSocial to make things way easier. 

Getting Started with Sprout Social

Alright, let’s get you set up with Sprout Social! Think of this as your starting point.

1. Signing Up and Initial Setup

First things first: You have to sign up! To do so, go to the Sprout Social website and create an account.

• • They have different plans, like different sizes of pizza. Choose the one that fits your needs.
  • Now, you’ll want to connect your social media platforms. This is how Sprout Social talks to your Facebook, Instagram, X, and other accounts. It’s like giving Sprout Social permission to help you.
  • Once you log in, you’ll see the main page – that’s your dashboard. Think of it as your control center for everything.
  • Take a look around! You can change how things look and set up how you want to get alerts.

2. Understanding the Smart Inbox

• • Okay, the Smart Inbox is pretty cool. It’s like one big mailbox for all your social media platforms.
  • Instead of checking each app individually, all your messages, comments, DMs, and mentions show up here. Easy peasy!
  • You’ll see different kinds of messages. Someone might @ you (that’s a mention), send you a direct message, or comment on your post.
  • To keep things tidy, you can organize your messages using filters (like sorting mail) and tags (like labels).
  • If you have a team helping you with your social media marketing, you can all see and answer messages in the Smart Inbox. This makes working together much simpler. It also helps with social listening, as you can see what people are saying about you in one place.

You can even set up a special search (that’s a query) to find specific things people are talking about across different social media platforms.

This gives you a lot of insight into what your audience thinks!

Mastering Content Scheduling and Publishing

Alright, now let’s talk about getting your awesome stuff out there using Sprout Social!

This section is all about planning and posting your social media content.

1. Creating and Scheduling Posts

• • When you want to make a new post, you’ll find a spot in Sprout Social to write it. It’s like starting a new email or text.
  • You can add all sorts of things to your posts: just plain words, pictures, videos, and website links. Make it interesting!
  • If you want different people on different social media platforms to see slightly different things, you can target your posts. It’s like sending a postcard only to your friends who like cats.
  • Sprout Social has a place to keep all your pictures and videos – it’s called an asset library. This makes it easy to find stuff you’ve used before.
  • Here’s a cool part: you can plan when your posts go live! Instead of posting right now, you can schedule it for later. Sprout Social even has tools called Sprout Queue and ViralPost® that help you pick the best times to post so more people see it.
  • If you have something you want to post regularly, like a “Tip of the Week,” you can set it up to post automatically again and again.

2. Utilizing the Calendar View

• • Think of the calendar view as a visual planner for all your social media content. You can see exactly what’s going out and when.
  • You can move around the calendar and use filters to see only certain types of posts or posts on specific social media platforms.
  • Need to change something? You can usually click on a scheduled post in the calendar and make edits right there.
  • If you’re working with a team for your social media management, you can all see the calendar and know what’s planned.

3. Publishing Content

• • When your scheduled posts are ready to go live, Sprout Social takes care of them. It’s like having a robot that posts for you at the right time.
  • Before something gets posted, you might have a chance to review it and say, “Yep, looks good!”
  • Sometimes things don’t go exactly as planned (like a post not going through). Sprout Social usually gives you a heads-up, and there are ways to figure out what went wrong.

This is a big part of good social media management!

And while you’re planning, remember to keep an ear out (that’s where your social listening tool comes in handy!)

For what people are talking about, so your content is always interesting and relevant.

Engaging with Your Audience Effectively

Okay, so you’ve got your posts going out, but it’s not just about talking at people, right?

It’s about talking with them!

This part is all about how to connect and chat with your audience using Sprout Social.

Let’s learn how to use it for just that!

1. Monitoring Conversations and Mentions

• • Sprout Social helps you monitor what people say about you. If someone mentions your brand name or uses a specific keyword you’re tracking, it pops up in your Smart Inbox.
  • You can set up special searches to find even more conversations around certain topics or hashtags that are important to you. It’s like having a radar for what people are saying.
  • Not all messages are the same. Some might be super important, like a customer asking a question. Sprout Social helps you see those and deal with them first.

2. Responding to Messages and Comments

• • When someone talks to you on social media, it’s good to talk back! Sprout Social makes it easy to reply to messages and comments.
  • If you find yourself saying the same things over and over, you can save replies in Sprout Social. This saves you time – it’s like having pre-written answers ready to go.
  • If you have a team, you can assign different conversations to different people. So, if someone asks a question about sales, you can send it to the sales team member.
  • It’s also good to keep track of how quickly you respond and how much people engage with your replies. This helps you see what’s working well.

3. Building Relationships

• • Sometimes, certain people have a big audience and their opinions matter – these are often called influencers. Sprout Social can help you find and connect with these people.
  • Don’t just talk about yourself! Participate in conversations relevant to your brand or industry. It shows you’re part of the community.
  • You can even use Sprout Social to run fun things like contests or giveaways to get people excited and involved.

While Sprout Social is great for many social media platforms, remember that some platforms, like LinkedIn.

Might have their specific ways people interacting. 

So it’s good to keep that in mind too!

You can generate better engagement when you understand how people communicate on each platform.

Analyzing Your Social Media Performance

Okay, so you’re posting and talking to people – that’s great!

But how do you know if what you’re doing is actually working? 

Sprout Social has some cool ways to help you see how you’re doing.

1. Understanding Sprout Social’s Reporting Features

• • Sprout Social has a special section where you can see reports and numbers about your social media stuff. Think of it like getting a report card for your posts and profiles.
  • There are different kinds of reports you can look at. Some show how your overall profile is doing, some show how each post performed, and others tell you about the people who follow you (your target audience).
  • You can even change the reports to show you just the information you care most about.

2. Key Metrics to Track

• • For each social media platform, there are certain numbers you should pay attention to. For example, “engagement rate” tells you how much people are liking, sharing, and commenting on your posts. “Reach” shows you how many unique people saw your content, and “impressions” tell you the total number of times your content was displayed (even if the same person saw it more than once).
  • It’s important to know the difference between reach and impressions. Reach is like the number of different houses your newspaper was delivered to, and impressions are like the total number of newspapers printed.
  • You can also see how many new people are following you and learn things about them, like their age and where they live. This helps you understand your target audience better.

3. Gaining Insights and Optimizing Your Strategy

• • The numbers you see in Sprout Social can give you clues about what kind of social media content your audience likes best.
  • If a certain type of post gets a lot of likes and shares, that’s a good sign you should do more of that!
  • By looking at the sentiment of the comments (whether they are mostly positive or negative), you can see how people are feeling about your brand.
  • Sprout Social even has tools that let you compare your performance to your competitors. This can give you ideas on how to refine your social strategy.

By regularly checking your reports.

You can refine your social strategy and make sure you’re reaching the right people with the right message.

Leveraging Advanced Features

Okay, you’ve got the basics down. Now let’s look at some of the extra cool things Sprout Social can do!

These are like the secret levels in a video game that can really boost your social media management.

1. Using Sprout Queue 

• • Remember when we talked about scheduling posts? Well, Sprout Queue and ViralPost® are like super-smart schedulers. They don’t just let you pick a time; they try to figure out the best times your audience is online so more people will see your posts.
  • You can set up your own rules for the Sprout Queue, like saying you want a certain type of post to go out on Mondays. ViralPost® looks at past analytics to guess the best times automatically.
  • When you post at the right time, you’ll probably see more likes, shares, and comments – it’s all about getting your social media content seen by the right eyes.

2. Implementing Social Listening

• • We touched on this before, but social listening can get even more powerful. You can set up really specific searches to track not just your brand name, but also things like industry news or what your competitors are doing.
  • Sprout Social can even try to figure out the sentiment (how people feel) around these topics. This can help you spot trends and understand what people are talking about in your field.
  • If there’s a problem brewing online about your brand, social listening can help you catch it early and deal with it before it gets too big. It can also help you find new opportunities!

3. Collaboration and Team Management

• • If you have a team helping you with your social media management, Sprout Social has tools to facilitate their collaboration.
  • You can add your team members to Sprout Social and give them different levels of access. Some people might be able to create posts, while others can only reply to messages.
  • You can also set up workflows. For example, before a post goes live, someone else on the team might need to approve it. This helps ensure that everything looks good.

4. Integrations with Other Tools

• • Sprout Social can talk to other apps and services you might use, like Google Analytics (to see how social media traffic affects your website) or your customer relationship management tool (CRM) to keep track of customer interactions.
  • These connections can help you see the bigger picture and make your overall workflow smoother.

Don’t be afraid to try them out and learn how to use them.

They can save you a lot of time and give you valuable insight!

Alternatives to Sprout Social

Here are some alternatives to Sprout Social, each with a key strength:

• Metricool: Dive deep into your social media performance and keep a close eye on your competitors, often at a more accessible price point.
• Socialpilot: Streamline your content calendar with powerful and affordable scheduling features, including efficient bulk uploading.
• Sendible: Enjoy a user-friendly interface coupled with a wide array of integrations to connect all your essential marketing tools.
• Content Studio: Discover trending content and efficiently publish across multiple platforms, sometimes at a more budget-friendly cost.
• Heropost: (Information limited – explore if it caters to a specific niche or offers a unique pricing structure for your needs.)
• Agorapulse: Manage your social media effectively with robust listening tools and a unified inbox, often providing excellent value for its features.
• Zoho Social: A smart choice if your business already utilizes the Zoho ecosystem, offering seamless integration and cost-effectiveness.
• Buffer: Get started quickly with its intuitive interface and reliable scheduling capabilities, a great option for straightforward social media management.
• Sprinklr: For large organizations with complex requirements, this enterprise-level platform offers extensive social media management and customer experience tools.
• Later: If visual content, particularly Instagram, is your focus, Later provides specialized planning and scheduling features.
• Loomly: Enhance your team’s content creation process with its collaborative calendar and efficient approval workflows.
• Blaze: (Information limited – investigate if it offers a specific feature or caters to a particular social media marketing need.)

Conclusion

Sprout Social: Your helpful tool for managing all social media in one spot.

It lets you see messages in real-time, plan posts. 

You can even automate some things and get keyword suggestions.

It helps you prioritize customer questions and collaborate with your team.

By looking at the numbers, you get actionable insights to help you share content that people like.

Give their free trial a go and see how it can streamline your work across social!

Frequently Asked Questions