The metaverse may have the answers. Consumers are steadily grasping the importance of this emerging technology with 39% saying virtual, artificial or extended reality technologies will play a role in their brand interactions over the next year and 67% of marketers expecting to spend at least a quarter of their budget on these tactics.

But the potential of the metaverse isn’t exclusive to external opportunities. I believe the metaverse could be the next big thing for internal collaboration—and connection.

Connection feeds innovation

In July, we brought the entire Sprout team to our Chicago headquarters for our first annual Mid-Year Meetup. Employees flew in from across the world (and over half of them were making their first office visit). The experience was amazing, but just like anything, there were trade-offs. As Sprout grows, we may not be able to facilitate flights, hotels and activities for thousands of people and we have to stay vigilant about constantly changing health guidelines.

The importance of Mid-Year Meetup wasn’t parties, food or even showing off our office space. It was about connecting with coworkers on a more personal level—a level that traditionally is best achieved face to face. That kind of connection breeds trust that is the foundation for performance and innovation.

The majority of employees (75%) in organizations with intentional collaboration report higher levels of innovation. Our employees are more likely to take the kind of risks that have big pay-offs if they trust the people they work with. The ideas that come out of brainstorming are better when the group has a baseline understanding of each other’s personalities. But as companies increasingly transition to a remote-first approach, it’s getting harder and harder to create those kinds of relationships. Leaders have to find new ways to connect their teams in a remote world. So, can the metaverse help?

Working in the metaverse

Going to work in the metaverse may sound far-fetched but workers are ready for it. Three in five tech employees are interested in using VR headsets in the workplace. Employers need to be ready to provide the experiences they’re looking for.

Connecting outside the conference room

A metaverse meeting is a step up from a routine Zoom meeting, but it’s still not using the technology to its full potential.

Let’s say you’re opening a store in a new city. You could use metaverse technology to “visit” the city with key employees. The immersive aspect of the metaverse experience can spur new ideas and understanding across your team. Or, if you’re onboarding a new cohort of employees, you could use VR technology to give them a virtual tour of your office or other locations that are important to your business to help them feel more connected. Metaverse technology is known for transporting users to a new place. Find ways to use that to your advantage.

Fostering more equitable engagement

With a hybrid work environment, it can be difficult to keep things equitable for your team members that go into the office and your fully remote employees. The “watercooler” opportunity to connect with folks across the org is something hard to recreate virtually. Or is it? The metaverse could help create the virtual version of that experience.

Despite the best intentions, it can be difficult to consistently enforce certain meeting etiquette (e.g., ensuring all meeting participants join video conferences individually, even if some are sitting in a room together). Working in the metaverse ensures that the playing field is leveled for all of your employees and provides team-building opportunities that work for everyone–regardless of where they’re based.

Going where you feel most productive

The metaverse isn’t only helpful for interpersonal interactions. It can also help you get more work done individually. As remote work becomes the norm, many people are choosing to work from anywhere, taking their laptops with them as they explore different locales.

But that isn’t always practical. If your dream workspace is a beach, you might run into issues with sand getting into your keyboard. The metaverse makes it possible to work wherever you want, without the limitations of the space. Allowing yourself to work in the environment where you feel most productive can yield incredible results.

Filling in the gaps

Remote work is no longer the exception to the rule. More than half of employees expect at least a hybrid work arrangement, if not a fully remote position. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to adapt to the new reality and equip our teams with the technology and infrastructure they need to be successful—even if that technology is a VR headset. As the metaverse becomes more prominent, we should be thinking about its values as an internal business tool as well.

Want to learn more about the metaverse? This article lays out everything you need to know.

The post Working in the metaverse: Virtual reality brings real-world engagement appeared first on Sprout Social.

5 ways to make money on YouTube (that actually work)

Monetizing content on any platform as a creator is tricky. YouTube is no exception.

Creators shouldn’t sacrifice entertainment value or authenticity for dollars and cents.

The good news? There is no “right” or “single” way to monetize your videos. You have multiple options based on your content, audience and promotional strategy.

Let’s dive into five opportunities to make money on YouTube and how they work.

1. Join the YouTube Partner Program

No surprises here! The YouTube Partner Program allows creators to earn revenue with ads run on their videos.

Let’s look at a quick snapshot of YouTube’s Partner criteria. Assuming you’re in line with the platform’s monetization policies, you need:

• 4,000+ authentic public watch hours within the past year
• 1,000+ subscribers
• An active and linked Google AdSense account

Chances are you’ve seen your fair share of YouTube ads. Given that YouTube saw a 25% YoY increase in ad revenue last year, you’re not alone.

From in-video to pre-roll, ads are a relatively hands-off way to make money on YouTube.

In terms of how much money you can make from ads, there are too many variables for a straight answer. These variables include:

• Your viewers’ demographics such as location and age
• Whether there are relevant advertisers for your videos
• Your content and industry

According to YouTube themselves, there are “no guarantees” for payouts or revenue share. Most information floating around is totally anecdotal.

While “$1 per 1,000 views” used to be the norm, times have changed. As the YouTube algorithm has evolved, so have the Partner Program and ad policies.  For example, the platform has explicit restrictions for advertising on YouTube Kids. Many major ad categories and targeting features are removed from videos intended for children.

You’re essentially looking at a numbers game regardless. You need to be earning thousands (or millions) of views per video to see any meaningful revenue.

Not sure about running ads on your channel? Totally understandable. Again, monetizing videos shouldn’t hold back your channel’s growth. 

Stuffing your videos with unskippable ads makes them borderline unwatchable. That said, a few ads here and there is totally fair game.

2. Earn support from subscribers with a Channel Membership

YouTube’s Channel Memberships are specifically designed to support creators looking to make money.

Think of Memberships like a Patreon or Twitch subscription. Subscribers pay a monthly fee in exchange for channel-specific perks. This might include exclusive content, chat badges and more. These benefits vary based on your Membership tier.

This feature is most relevant to creators that primarily post content to YouTube rather than treat it as a secondary channel. If you’re doing regular live streams or posting daily, Memberships make perfect sense. Currently, the eligibility for Channel Memberships is almost identical to the Partner Program.

3. Put promotional links in your video descriptions

Promo links are a low-hanging way to make money on YouTube without running ads.

Your video descriptions are valuable real estate and YouTube gives you 5,000 characters to work with. Funneling your YouTube viewers to relevant links is a no-brainer. For example, a creator might link to:

• A lead magnet (such as a free course or downloadable resource)
• Their website
• Their merchandise or ecommerce shop

Below is an example of how creators can promote their own products in a video description. If nothing else, links can turn YouTube traffic into on-site traffic. 

You’ll also commonly see creators put affiliate links in their video descriptions. The idea here is simple. You discuss products in your videos and then provide a direct way for viewers to check them out.

This tactic is extremely popular among review channels and creators making “how-to” content. For example, this video from MyLifeOutDoors breaks down tips for getting better sleep while camping…

…and provides affiliate links to the products mentioned in the video.

See how that works? The key here is that the products themselves are not the sole subject of the video. Some creators call out their affiliate links within their content and others don’t. The choice is yours!

Note: Affiliate links are totally allowed and don’t violate YouTube’s TOS. However, the platform does have an explicit policy for external links. Make sure to review YouTube’s guidelines before dropping links in your videos.

4. Feature sponsors in your videos

Sponsored YouTube videos are popular among big and up-and-coming creators alike.

Through sponsored content, you’re specifically promoting a brand within your video. These call-outs are typically done at the beginning and end of a video. Since these forms of ads are literally part of your content, they can’t be skipped.

In the example above, Binging with Babish’s Andrew Rea bookends his sponsorship from Cash App at his video’s beginning and end. He also highlights the sponsorship in the video description.

Audiences are sometimes critical of sponsored videos when the sponsorship is totally irrelevant to the creator, their content or viewership. The best sponsored videos represent some sort of creative tie-in that doesn’t distract from the creator’s style. This sponsored video from Beauty Within featuring skincare brand Whind is a good example.

These sorts of promotions are a win-win for creators and advertisers alike.

5. Publish product-focused promotional videos

Branded videos are created with the specific intent to promote a product or service. These videos can fall into a few categories where:

• A brand compensates the creator in exchange for their content or a review
• The brand has provided talking points and instructions to the creator (think: influencer or brand ambassador content)
• The creator is making a video to highlight a brand and earn affiliate revenue

These types of videos are common among beauty and skincare brands where creators unbox PR packages on camera.

Below is another example from a creator going into detail about Liquid IV and how it works.

In the video’s description, the creator’s promotional link is front-and-center.

These types of videos aren’t as common because they can feel a bit direct when it comes to promotion. That said, they’re relevant to industries like beauty, health and fitness where audiences like to hunt for products via YouTube.

Making money on YouTube: Fast facts and FAQ 

To wrap things up, let’s look at some common questions we get from people trying to figure out how to make money on YouTube.

How many views do you need to make money on YouTube?

There is no set amount of views you need to make money on YouTube.

Again, there are a lot of variables involved and dollar figures are anecdotal. 

Data from Influencer Marketing Hub notes that YouTubers can make $18 per 1,000 ad views which translates to $3 to $5 per 1,000 video views. 

Creator Shelby Church shared an in-depth breakdown of a video that earned 2.2 million views and $743 from ads. This equates to about 33 cents per 1,000 views. She notes that factors like presentation, age and demographics of viewership impacted the payout. 

In short, more YouTube views don’t always equal more money in your pocket.

How many subscribers do you need to make money on YouTube

There is no exact number of subscribers you need to make money on YouTube.

Creators that make careers out of YouTube are the ones uploading consistently and fostering communities.

Piggybacking on the point above, a higher subscriber count doesn’t automatically result in bigger payouts.

The inner workings of YouTube’s ad platform mean there is no “right” answer here. We can use YouTube tools like SocialBlade to give us a ballpark figure but the range of estimated earnings is massive. For example, the monthly earnings estimation for a creator with 90,000 subscribers is anywhere between $200 and $3,400.

Our advice? Don’t look at your subscribers as dollar signs. Focus on fostering a community before worrying too much about monetization.

How to make money on YouTube without posting videos

While it’s technically possible to make money on YouTube without posting videos, it’s definitely not the ideal way to approach YouTube.

Think about it. Brands don’t grow on Instagram by only posting on TikTok and vice versa. Every platform has different content types, styles and expectations. YouTube is the same way.

Sure, there are some steps you can take such as repurposing or cross-posting content to YouTube. This includes:

• Republishing Reels or TikToks as YouTube Shorts
• Taking webinars, presentations or slideshows and turning them into videos
• Taking streams from Twitch or Instagram Live and uploading them as long-form content.

Note: Speaking of Shorts, creators should be aware of the YouTube Shorts Fund. This is a $100 million fund dedicated to encouraging creators to post original shorts. The keyword here is original, though! Cross-posting content likely won’t get you there.

If you want to make money on YouTube, you need to grow your presence first

Making any level of income from YouTube requires conscious effort and consistency.

That said, countless content creators are making it happen with their content. Whether through ads or sponsorships, there are plenty of opportunities to monetize your videos. Hopefully, these tips can help you find a way that makes sense for you!

And if you haven’t already, check out our in-depth guide to YouTube marketing to take your channel to the next level.

The post How to make money on YouTube (and what creators should expect) appeared first on Sprout Social.

With 51% of consumers anticipating YouTube will be one of the social media platforms they use most this year, it’s a digital space your audience most likely uses. But with 500+ hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, high popularity also means high competition. Whether you’re new to YouTube or conducting a YouTube audit, using some of these features can help you stay ahead, grow your audience and give your channels a boost.

5 free YouTube features you need to use more often

To help your audience find your videos in YouTube and Google search alike, you need to use the right tools.

From underused YouTube search features to analytics on Premium YouTube features, here are some tools that can help you get the most out of your YouTube marketing plan.

Quick note: for some of these features, you may need to verify your account or sign up for the YouTube Partner Program. If you can’t find some of these features, try taking these steps first.

1. YouTube search features

Every YouTube rabbithole, deep dive or “how to” inquiry starts with a search. YouTube’s powerful search capabilities have made it the world’s second-largest search engine—of course, having Google as your parent company never hurts.

Let’s go through a few of the search features that can help you reach your audience, know your competitors and manage your community.

Search YouTube comments

Just like any other social media platform, responding to comments is a key part of YouTube community management. Search YouTube comments to find ones you haven’t responded to yet, identify which commenters have the most subscribers and use FAQs to inspire new content.

Do this by going to YouTube Studio > Analytics tab > Comments. See a few ways you can filter comments in the screenshot below.

Hashtag searches

Similar to Twitter, hashtags are searchable on YouTube. They even have their own landing page. This is a powerful tool for competitor research, to identify hashtags you should use and to inspire ideas.

Search hashtags by typing a hashtag into the search bar and hitting enter. Then, click the large hashtag icon to see videos that use that hashtag.

You can also search hashtags directly from videos. While you watch a video, look for blue hashtags above the title or in the description. Click on the ones you want to search.

2. YouTube Live features

With 37% of consumers saying live video is the most engaging content type, it’s a valuable asset to your video marketing strategy. Live video on YouTube even has a dedicated feed, which can help expand your reach.

A few need-to-knows: To use YouTube Live, you need to verify your channel. And if you want to film on mobile, there are minor additional requirements to meet. Either way, it can take up to 24 hours to enable your first livestream, so plan accordingly.

Live chat moderation features

The chat window during a live video builds engagement and community in real-time. It can also be daunting. Use live chat moderation tools to create a safer environment for fans and less stress for you. Here are a few of those tools:

• Assigning moderators: Moderators—like coworkers, collaborators or trusted fans—can respond to comments, remove harmful messages and hide users. Assign moderators by going to YouTube Studio > Settings > Community, or while you’re going live.
• Block certain words: To keep it PG and hate-free, prevent certain words from showing up in your chat by going to YouTube Studio > Community > Blocked words, and add your phrases. Messages containing these words will not appear publicly.
• Approve live comments: Review comments and decide whether or not to show certain messages. Activate this in YouTube studio > Settings > Defaults > check the box under “Messages in your chat.”
• Slow mode: If you’re streaming on desktop, limit how many messages each commenter can add to give yourself more time to check messages as they come in.

YouTube Premieres

Premieres allow you to watch a new video together as you launch it. This is a great way to build community through interactive content. Think: sharing new products, making big announcements and more. Just remember to promote your premiere across your channels.

3. Make the most of YouTube Studio features

YouTube’s dashboard and Studio offer powerful analytics and tools. And some of the best tools are easily overlooked.

Let’s go through the features in your YouTube Studio and dashboard that can make a big impact on your channel.

YouTube Channel dashboard

This is the first window you’ll see when you open YouTube Creator Studio. Get an at-a-glance view of your channel’s health including the latest comments, performance of your latest video and views over the last 28 days. You’ll also find helpful sections, like curated Ideas for you, news and tips for Creators and more.

Video editor and Audio Library

No editing software? No problem. YouTube’s video editor tool makes it easy to trim your videos—even published ones. You can also access the Audio Library in the editor to add ready-to-use, copyright-free music to your content.

Find the video editor and audio library, go to YouTube Studio > Content > click the video you want to edit > Editor.

(Google/YouTube)

Cards

YouTube cards are links that pop up throughout a video to direct viewers to related content in an unobtrusive way. Add up to five cards to one video.

You can add cards that promote another video, a playlist, a channel or, if you’re in the YouTube Partner Program, an external link. Add up to five cards to each video to promote relevant resources

Add cards while you’re uploading a video. Or, add them to existing videos by going to YouTube Studio > Content > Editor, and select the cards you want to use. Finally, you can adjust when you want your cards to appear and how long they stay on the screen.

In this same window, add even more links and include a subscribe button by adding an end screen. Add up to four elements to your end screen.

Adding closed captions

Closed captions are a best practice for social media accessibility, and they benefit viewers watching with the sound off.

When adding a new video or quality-checking old content, be sure to add captions to your video. Or, edit auto-captions for accuracy and embarrassing typos. Auto captions can take some time to populate after uploading a video. But once they do, go to YouTube Studio > Subtitles to add your own.

Video spotlight

Your video spotlight is a featured video that can automatically play when people go to your channel. Engage visitors right away while building your views and watch time as visitors scroll your channel.

You can set two videos as your spotlight: a channel trailer for non-subscribers and a featured video that subscribers will see. To add this to your channel, go to YouTube Studio > Customization > Layout > Video spotlight.

Featured sections and playlists

The featured sections and playlists on your channel aren’t just “set it and forget it” items. Your channel will default to featuring four sections: Shorts, Uploads, Created playlists and public Subscriptions. But you can include up to 12 sections and regularly update them to keep your channel fresh, give new life to old videos and to keep people coming back.

Rearranging sections or adding new ones can point visitors to the content you want to promote first. Notice how Shopify has Shorts at the top of their channel—they’re clearly catering to their audience’s preference for short-form video:

While Headspace has Shorts last, choosing to feature playlists of kids’ videos and supportive mental health videos first:

YouTube Analytics

Explore the Analytics section of your dashboard for YouTube stats to feed your growth strategy. In your Channel analytics section, you’ll see four tabs of data to explore: Overview, Content, Audience and Research.

Each section provides a high-level look at your channel performance—from views to subscriber growth. Many of these metrics will look familiar if you’ve tapped into other social media channels’ analytics.

There are dozens of metrics YouTube offers, including ones you might not find on other platforms, like:

• What your audience and viewers search for
• Watch time—an important signal the YouTube algorithm uses to rank content in search.
• When your viewers are on YouTube
• Other channels/videos your audience watches

Analytics for Premium YouTube features

One of the main perks of Premium is watching videos without ads. Aside from taking advantage of trying YouTube experimental features, there’s not much you can do with YouTube Premium features on the marketer side. However, in Analytics you can see:

• Watch time and views that come from Premium viewers
• Earnings from Premium viewers—you can see this in the revenue tab, if your channel is set up for monetization.

SEO tools

When it comes to people finding your content, YouTube SEO is your superpower. YouTube’s goal is to show viewers content that best matches what they’re searching for.

Use these tools as you upload videos, or for existing videos to boost your ranking in the results page:

• Metadata in each video: Your video title and description are the best places to include keywords and search terms that your audience might use to find your video.
• Hashtags: When you type hashtags into your description, YouTube will show you how popular a hashtag is, which can help you identify popular topics and niche topics to rank for.

• Tags: While tags don’t boost your SEO, they are a great way to include common misspellings of your brand name or channel to guide people searching for you.
• Chapters: Besides helping your audience navigate longer videos, video chapter titles are a prime place to include keywords to show up in both YouTube and Google search. These can be auto-generated, or you can add them manually when you upload your video.
• The Research tab in Analytics: This tab in your Content Analytics is a powerful keyword tool to explore what new viewers and your audience are searching for on YouTube. Type in a word or topic to see what phrases and words people use when they search for those topics. Use this to inspire titles and keywords in your description to boost your chances of being found in search.

Custom graphics

Make your content pop. Custom watermarks add an extra element of branding and professional flair. While video thumbnails can visually connect related videos and attract viewers. According to YouTube, 90% of top-performing YouTube videos include custom thumbnails.

Add thumbnails to published videos by going to YouTube Studio > Content > click the video you want to edit > select an auto-thumbnail, or upload a custom design.

And add watermarks in YouTube Studio > Customization > Branding.

4. YouTube browse features to watch

I know what you’re thinking—we talked about search, so what are browse features on YouTube? Think about the last time you spent hours going down a YouTube rabbithole—you were probably using YouTube’s browse features. Browse features are areas meant to help viewers find new videos, and to get content in front of relevant eyes, including:

• YouTube homepage
• Subscriptions
• Watch Later
• Trending/Explore
• Suggested videos
• Other browsing features

Analyzing which of these sources your content is showing up in most can help you understand how your audience finds your content. Find this out in YouTube Studio > Analytics > How viewers find your videos.

With more than 70% of views on YouTube coming from recommended videos, you want to show up in browse. Let’s go through YouTube browse features to understand how to make your videos browse-friendly.

YouTube homepage

Everyone’s YouTube homepage looks different. Home selects videos based on a few factors:

• Video performance: How well your video has performed with similar viewers.
• Personalization: The watch and search history of your audience, how often they watch a channel and topic, and how often the video has already been shown to them.

Optimizing videos to show up in search can help them show up on someone’s homepage by increasing views, performance and more. Ensure your titles, descriptions and chapters all contain helpful keywords. And while you’re at it, make sure your thumbnail, or preview image, is visually appealing.

Subscriptions

The Subscriptions tab is where users can explore the latest content from channels they subscribe to. This makes it a great place to garner views from an existing fan base.

If your analytics indicate most of your audience finds your content in the Subscriptions tab, stay ahead by regularly posting videos when they’re most active. Using a tool like Sprout Social, you can schedule YouTube videos to publish at peak engagement times for your audience. Sprout’s optimal send times will even tell you the best times to publish in a given day.

How do you build your subscriber base? One of the best ways is by simply asking. Ask people to subscribe to your channel throughout your videos.

Suggested videos

Suggested videos display next to videos as you watch them. These tend to be relevant to the content being watched, so having videos featured here connects you to future fans.

To make your videos more likely to show up in the Suggested feed, check your videos’ SEO. Are your titles clear and accurate? Have you included keywords in your description, title and chapters?

5. Other YouTube features brands are using

YouTube Shorts

Short-form video is one of the social media trends that’s here to stay—66% of consumers think it’s the most engaging type of content. Use YouTube Shorts—a feed of 60-seconds-or-less vertical videos—to engage your audience with content they love.

Shopify uses Shorts for snackable info, or to give viewers a sample of a larger topic before directing them to a longer video.

You can either film a Short on mobile through the YouTube app, or you can upload pre-filmed footage under 60 seconds in length. Note: If you upload a vertical video under 60 seconds to YouTube, it will automatically become a Short.

On mobile, you can film a Short directly on the YouTube app, and you can even repurpose existing long-form videos by converting them into Shorts without having to reupload them.

(Google/YouTube)

Creator monetization features

To entice creators, the platform has been working on expanding monetization tools for Creators. Beyond traditional advertising, there are a few creative features Creators can use:

• Super Chat and Super Stickers: Encourage fans to purchase digital stickers for live chats.
• YouTube shopping: Eligible Creators can sell merch to fans below their videos, during live streams and through a digital storefront on their channel.
• BrandConnect: This YouTube influencer marketing tool connects brands and Creators to work together on campaigns.
• Memberships: Fans can become members of a channel by opting into a recurring payment in exchange for perks and exclusive content.
• Gifted memberships: Encourage fans to gift their friends memberships to your channel.

Just know: Creators who want to monetize their channels, videos and Shorts must have at least 1,000 subscribers and be in the YouTube Partner Program. And if you’re already monetizing your channel, use Adsense to choose what kinds of ads can be shown on your channel.

Most replayed

YouTube shows you the most replayed moments in your videos. Use this to identify key moments of audience interest to inspire Shorts. It can also tip you off to moments audiences didn’t find engaging that you should cut.

See this as a graph that appears when you hover over the progress bar.

What’s next: YouTube Experimental features to keep an eye on

If you have YouTube Premium, you might see these features in the “New” page that lets you try YouTube experimental features. If not, be on the lookout for these YouTube features on the horizon.

Go Live together

This will allow Creators to go live together, making it easier to collaborate while adding to the “social” side of this social media platform.

Selling NFTs

While the details are a little mysterious, YouTube is officially stepping into the world of NFTs. From what we can tell, YouTube is moving towards empowering Creators to sell NFTs, offering another monetization option.

“Press play” on these YouTube features to give your channel a major boost

You don’t need to use every tool that YouTube provides. And with the sheer amount of features on the platform, navigating which ones to focus on can feel overwhelming. Start by using some of the YouTube features mentioned in this article to build your confidence and your strategy.

If you’re in a content rut or not sure what kinds of videos to make for your channel, check out our YouTube content ideas article to get your creative juices flowing.

The post 5 YouTube features to use to boost engagement appeared first on Sprout Social.

In this post, we’ll explain everything you need to know about moderating and editing your YouTube comments.

Why businesses should monitor their YouTube comments

If you’re wondering whether you really need to monitor your YouTube comments, here are three compelling reasons why you should:

• YouTube comments can help you gauge customer sentiment. How do your customers respond to your content? Positively? Negatively? Not at all? Monitoring your comments can help you understand how customers feel about your brand.
• YouTube comments present an opportunity for engagement. Responding quickly to negative comments could help you improve your image—not just with an unhappy customer, but also with other YouTube viewers who see how you respond to conflict. Engage with positive commenters, too, and you might turn happy customers into brand evangelists.
• YouTube comments could help you develop new content. YouTube users aren’t shy about expressing their opinions. Pay attention to what they’re saying about your content, and you can develop new content that they want to see.

How to see your comment notifications on YouTube

There are three ways you can find comments on your YouTube videos:

1. You can see viewer comments by scrolling down to the comments section on any of your videos. YouTube comments always appear below each video on both mobile and desktop.
2. You can also see the newest comments by checking your notifications. On both mobile and desktop, view your most recent notifications by clicking the alarm bell icon at the top of the screen.
3. Alternatively, you can see all your comments and mentions in YouTube Studio. On desktop, navigate to YouTube Studio and on the left side of your screen, click Comments.

There, you can sort comments by helpful metrics and qualities such as:

• Whether you’ve responded to them
• If the comment contains specific text
• If the comment contains a question

To manage YouTube comments on mobile, you’ll need to download the YouTube Studio app. Similar to desktop, the mobile version shows you your latest comments on your dashboard or you can find them when you navigate to the Comments tab.

How to see your YouTube comment history

If you want to know how frequently your brand has been engaging with your audience, you might want to see your comment history. YouTube keeps a record of every comment your account has ever posted.

Follow the steps below to find your complete list of comments.

For desktop devices:

1. Navigate to History on the left side of your screen. This will show you your watch history by default.
   
2. Then, navigate to the right of your screen and click Comments under Manage all history.
   

On mobile:

1. Open the YouTube app.
2. Tap your profile icon in the top right corner of your screen.
3. On the left side, click on Select your data in YouTube.
4. Under Your YouTube dashboard, click on Comments.

Why edit YouTube comments

We all make mistakes—and the good news is, YouTube lets you edit your comments. Consider editing a YouTube comment if:

You made a typo

Misspelled something or made a grammatical error? No big deal—that’s nothing an edit can’t fix!

You didn’t use the correct tone in your response

Not proud of how you came across? Editing your comment can help you better communicate what you’re trying to express.

You need to update an earlier statement

If you made a comment in haste, or circumstances have changed, edit your comment so that you don’t mislead anyone.

How to edit YouTube comments

There are two ways to edit YouTube comments.

The first way is to open the video you commented on. This works best if you already know the exact video that has the comment you’d like to change:

1. Tap or click on the three vertical gray dots that appear on the top right corner of your comment. You’ll see an option to Edit or Delete.
   
2. Click Edit to change your comment.
3. Input your edits. When you’re finished, click Save.

Alternatively, you can:

1. Visit your comment history to go to the comment you want to edit.
2. When you’ve found the comment, click on the hyperlink to the video or its thumbnail.
3. Once the video opens in a separate tab, find your comment below it.
4. Click on the three vertical gray dots and click Edit.
5. Input your edits. When you’re finished, click Save.

How to delete a YouTube comment

Deleting comments follows the same series of steps as editing.

• On desktop and mobile: Navigate to the comment you want to delete directly, click on the three vertical dots and click Delete.
• On desktop only: Visit your comment history and click on the hyperlink or video thumbnail next to the comment you want to delete. YouTube will open the video in a separate tab. From there, navigate directly to your comment to delete it.

How to disable comments on YouTube

Comments can sometimes be overwhelming. While it’s important to know how to respond to social media comments, there may be times when you need to disable comments altogether. Whether you need to disable them to stop arguments, harassment or because you don’t have a dedicated moderator, here’s how to disable YouTube comments.

Disabling comments on a specific video on mobile

If there’s one video on your channel that’s flooded with comments, you have the option to disable comments on that video only. If you’re considering disabling comments, we recommend doing so on specific videos before disabling them across your entire channel.

1. Open the YouTube Studio app.
2. Click on Content.
3. Click on the thumbnail of the video.
4. Click on the pencil icon at the top of the screen.
5. Click on More options at the bottom of the menu that appears.
6. Under Comments, select Disable comments.

Disabling comments on a specific video on desktop

1. Visit YouTube Studio on desktop.
2. On the left navigation, click Content.
3. Click on the video.
4. After Audience, click on Show more.
5. Scroll down to Comments and ratings.
6. Select Disable comments.

On both desktop and mobile, you have the option to select Hold all comments for review. This won’t prevent anyone from commenting, but you’ll need to review and approve each comment before it appears under your video. We recommend this option if you have the time or resources to review all comments.

Disabling comments on your entire channel

Disabling comments on your entire channel is an extreme move, but it may be necessary at times. For example, if your brand is in the midst of managing a public relations crisis, or your comment moderator is on vacation, you might want to disable comments.

1. Go to YouTube Studio on desktop.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click on Community.
4. Click on the Defaults tab.
5. Under Comments on your channel, select Disable comments.

If you decide to disable comments across your entire channel, consider doing so as a temporary measure.

What are the benefits of disabling YouTube comments?

Whether you disable comments on a single video or across your entire channel, there are pros and cons to doing so. Consider these main points before you and your team take further action.

Pros of disabling YouTube comments

1. Prevent people from spreading harmful messaging. YouTube comment threads can get hostile. By turning them off, you’ll prevent trolls from leaving harmful comments.
2. Better control your brand’s narrative. When the public can’t interject with their views and ideas, you have more control over your brand’s image. This is important if you plan to promote your YouTube channel.
3. Alleviate your moderation team’s workload. If you’re a team of one or overwhelmed with the number of comments even with a large team, disabling comments will help reduce the workload.

Cons of disabling YouTube comments

1. Your brand may appear to be less trustworthy. Turning off comments may give people the impression that your brand is not interested in feedback.
2. You might frustrate your viewers that want to leave positive comments. Censoring the public’s ability to leave comments doesn’t just prevent negative comments, it prevents positive ones, too. Viewers that are loyal to your channel or enjoy your content may feel alienated by your decision to turn off comments.
3. Your channel may suffer a greater drop in engagement. Comments are a notable part of your engagement metrics. Your videos might not rank as well in search or suggestions if you turn off comments.

How to turn on comments on YouTube

If you’ve disabled or turned off your YouTube comments, you can turn them back on whenever you’re ready.

If you disabled comments for your entire channel:

1. Go to YouTube Studio on desktop.
2. Click on Settings.
3. Click on Community.
4. Click on the Defaults tab.
5. Under Comments on your channel, select Allow all comments.

How to turn on comments for a specific YouTube video on mobile:

1. Open the YouTube Studio app.
2. Click on Content.
3. Click on the thumbnail of the video you want to restore comments on.
4. Click on the pencil icon on the top of the screen.
5. Click on More options at the bottom of the menu that appears.
6. Under Comments, select Allow all comments.

How to turn comments on for a specific YouTube video on desktop:

1. Visit YouTube Studio on desktop.
2. On the left navigation, click Content.
3. Click on the video that you want to enable contents on.
4. After Audience, click on Show more.
5. Scroll down to Comments and ratings.
6. Select Allow all comments.

Work smarter when it comes to YouTube content

Depending on how popular your YouTube channel is, managing comments can turn into a full-time job. In addition to knowing how to turn comments on and off, it’s also important to establish a strategy for comment moderation and responses.

Looking to manage your YouTube comments more effectively? Download our free video metrics cheat sheet to help you optimize your video content strategy and make the most out of your YouTube community management.

The post YouTube comments: A complete guide appeared first on Sprout Social.

In this post, we’ll discuss what Instagram creator accounts are, who might use them and the differences and similarities between creator, business and personal accounts.

What is a creator account on Instagram?

Instagram creator accounts are public, professional accounts specifically for content creators who make their living through creating and sharing content online. This includes, but is not limited to, photographers, videographers, models, artists and influencers.

With the rise of a creator economy, it’s important to have an account that reflects who you are and what you offer.

If you use Instagram to share your creativity and build a following around your work, then an Instagram creator account (rather than a public personal account) might be right for you.

Features of an Instagram creator account

Instagram creator accounts give you access to tools that personal accounts and even business accounts don’t necessarily have access to.

An Instagram creator account has access to:

• A Professional Dashboard and growth insights where you can track in-depth metrics about your followers and the reach of your posts. This includes what actions people take after seeing your content and impressions over a set period. You can also see daily follow and unfollow data to track how your content is affecting follower growth.
• A secondary inbox where you can organize your messages and control notifications you receive. You can filter messages by primary, general and request inboxes.
• Category labels, such as influencer, blogger, public figure, artist. This is an optional feature for your Instagram creator account bio.

Instagram creator vs. business account

If you’re using Instagram for business purposes, you might be wondering whether a creator account is right for you.

Generally, Instagram creator accounts are best suited for influencers, content creators, public figures, photographers and artists (again, just to name a few).

If you’re focused on building a personal brand, and you don’t directly sell products or use advanced analytics, then an Instagram creator account may be best for you.

If you’re running a retail business, brand, public service, or other business organization, an Instagram business account would be a better fit.

Instagram business accounts can also use third-party apps, such as Sprout Social, to create and schedule content. Keep this in mind if creating content in a high volume or if you want to plan your content calendar in advance.

An Instagram business account will give you access to features like contact buttons, Instagram insights and the ability to run ads. You’ll also be able to see audience insights on organic traffic, ad attribution and conversions.

Remember, you can switch between creator and business accounts without losing your data and insights, as long as you export your insights data. Don’t be afraid to test both account types to see which one works best for you.

How to make a creator account on Instagram

Wondering how to switch to a creator account on Instagram? Follow these steps:

1. Go to your profile page and click the three lines in the top right corner.
2. Click Settings.
3. Select Account.
4. Scroll to the bottom and click Switch to a Professional Account, then click Creator.
5. If you already have a business account, just choose Switch to Creator Account.
6. Choose a category that best describes your brand.
7. Connect to your Facebook page, if applicable.
8. Add or review contact information and choose whether to display this information on your profile.

You’re all set!

How to turn off creator account on Instagram

To convert back to a business or personal profile, follow these steps:

1. Go to your profile page and click the three lines in the top right corner.
2. Click Settings.
3. Select Account.
4. Click Switch to a Personal Account (or, Switch to a Business Account).
5. Confirm the switch.

Be aware that every time you switch between personal and professional profiles, Instagram will delete your insight data. Be sure to export your insight data before you switch, so you don’t lose it.

What are the benefits of an Instagram creator account?

Instagram creator accounts come with new features and benefits compared to personal accounts. Here are a few benefits of using an Instagram creator account.

1. Schedule Instagram posts

Currently, you can’t connect your creator account to any third-party scheduling apps. However, you can schedule Instagram posts using Creator Studio.

To schedule posts from the Creator Studio:

• Click the green Create Post button in the top left corner of your Creator Studio dashboard.
• Upload your content, write your caption, tag other accounts or include any other info you’d like.
• When you’re ready to publish, hit the drop-down arrow next to Publish in the bottom right corner.

2. Create shoppable posts

Instagram creators who sell products or give recommendations can create shoppable posts. As a creator sharing a product, upload a photo of the product and tag it with the brand account and, if possible, the specific product. When a follower clicks on your tag, they’ll land on a product description page where they can get more information or make a purchase within Instagram.

However, the brand you’re working with will need to give you access to their product catalog in order to tag the item. Take a look at how influencer Stylefeen tags Lulu’s Instagram account and the specific dress she’s wearing, which leads users to a shoppable Instagram post.

3. Filter messages into different inboxes

The DM inbox for Instagram creator accounts will look a little different than your standard personal or even business account inbox. You’ll see new filtering options that allow you to quickly find the types of messages you’re looking for.

For example, you can filter by:

• Primary DMs – These include notifications
• General DMs – These don’t include notifications
• Requests DMs – These don’t include notifications because these are messages from people you don’t follow

Inbox filtering also makes responding to multiple conversations easy with the Saved Reply tool, so you can respond to common questions quickly.

4. Use paid partnership tags

With more eyes than ever on ethical influencer marketing, disclosing your paid partnerships is crucial. Instagram creator accounts let you tag a paid partner in posts and Stories, so your audience knows when you’re collaborating with a brand. The partner brand will also be able to see your insights on that post, which improves campaign communication.

5. Try different CTA options

Instagram creator accounts have fewer options for calls to action (CTAs) than business accounts. While you can add a button encouraging people to Book Now or Reserve, you can’t offer other options like Learn More or Shop Now.

If you frequently use CTAs to drive traffic, an Instagram creator account might not be the best option for you.

Amplify your Instagram marketing strategy

Whether you’re a content creator or a social media marketer, it’s important to know the ins and outs of marketing on Instagram.

However, for influencers or individuals using Instagram creator accounts, think about what’s important to grow your own presence and engage your followers. To inspire your efforts, we’ve put together 10 lessons from Instagram influencers that can help guide your own creator strategy.

The post Instagram creator account: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Sprout Social.

But where does Twitter fit into the social commerce landscape, and who is buying on Twitter?

To answer this, we reviewed Twitter’s latest ecommerce features and looked to brands mastering them. We also explain how you can leverage these features to sell on Twitter and best practices to get started.

This guide will cover:

• Twitter ecommerce features you need to know
• Examples of Twitter shopping in action
• 4 tips for getting started with Twitter ecommerce

Twitter ecommerce features you need to know

Twitter has rolled out four ecommerce features: Shops, Spotlights, Live Shopping and Product Drops.

1. Twitter Shops

Merchants can use Twitter Shops to showcase up to 50 products from their online stores. A Twitter shop is accessible via a “View Shop” button on your profile. This free, mobile-first feature aims to convert brand enthusiasts to buyers on the platform.

However, the payment option for these shops isn’t hosted on Twitter. The checkout link will take customers to your website or app, where they’ll fill in their details to complete their purchase.

2. Shop Spotlight

The Shop Spotlight is a carousel on your profile that features five products in your Twitter Shop. Shoppers can swipe through the carousel and tap on products to learn more.

Shop Spotlight is a part of Twitter’s larger effort around Professional Profiles, expanding the dedicated space for businesses and creators with ecommerce features that drive engagement and revenue.

3. Live Shopping

Host a Live Shopping broadcast for followers to buy alongside—like an infomercial. The engagement and shopping options are displayed below the video stream, which include:

• A “Shop” banner and tab on the event’s page featuring all the products from the broadcast.
• The “Latest” tab where new products show up as they appear on the live stream.
• A live Tweet discussion about the product(s) that takes place underneath the live stream.

4. Product Drops

Product Drops are to Twitter shopping as trailers are to movies. Show potential customers a sneak peek of products and drum up anticipation before they officially launch. You can also track which user profiles engage with the drop to inform future advertising and marketing initiatives. Early brands testing this feature include Dior, The Home Depot and Union Los Angeles.

Product Drop Tweets show up as regular Tweets on a user’s feed. Users can also set a product reminder, notifying them when it goes on sale.

This Twitter shopping feature is currently limited to iOS in the US.

Now that we’ve covered Twitter’s ecommerce features, let’s look at ways you can use them to expand your brand’s presence and generate revenue on the platform.

Examples of Twitter shopping in action

Whatever your product or service, direct-to-consumer brands can benefit from integrating their creative content streams—videos, live streams or carousels—with Twitter’s ecommerce features. Whether you’re an established brand or just starting out, the platform’s ecommerce features make it easy to begin.

Let’s look at brands selling out fast on Twitter:

Trixie Cosmetics

Founded by drag start Trixi Mattel, Trixie Cosmetics sells premium cosmetics in vibrant, whimsical packaging.

Trixie’s Twitter strategy is distinct through their use of scavenger hunts, quizzes and behind-the-scenes content to drive engagement while featuring their products. To get their audience to actually buy, Trixie uses Shop Spotlights to launch new collections and builds hype around them through Tweets.

By leveraging Twitter’s full stack of features, Trixie is able to create a seamless brand and buying experience, building brand credibility and authenticity while promoting products. Look at your current Twitter strategy and identify ways to expand upon it with Twitter ecommerce tools. 

Use Live Shopping to host tutorials with influencers or share behind-the-scenes content, like Trixie’s warehouse tours and customer spotlights.

Twitter Spotlights can double as pop-up sales introducing limited-edition products, seasonal specials or influencer collaborations to ignite excitement and give a special reason to buy now.

Arden Cove

Arden Cove is a brand selling theft-resistant travel bags and accessories—empowering women to travel without the fear of being pick-pocketed.

Their consistent posting schedule paired with proactive customer engagement allowed them to integrate Twitter Shops seamlessly. With special discounts available through their Twitter Shop, customers can enjoy a unique experience while shopping in the app. Plus, their live streams amplify special products and give customers the chance to interact directly with the brand.

Arden Cove creates compelling content that keeps their audience engaged throughout their buying journey, from inspiration and aspiration to conversion. Focus on converting your aspirational Twitter content into direct sales. Spark interest with live streams featuring your products or Q&As with experts, then drive excitement with Product Drops of coveted items. The previews, reminders and limited-time offers will encourage conversion.

All I Do Is Cook

This brand sells ready-to-eat African food products, using Twitter to inspire their audience with recipes that incorporate their ingredients. All I Do is Cook takes it a step further by selling their recipe ingredients directly to customers via Twitter shopping features.

Their structured Twitter Shop is segmented into categories—such as Snacks, Sides and Stews and Soups—to help buyers effectively navigate products.

Their strategy features a guided approach that ushers customers to their products based on interests, reducing friction on the path to conversion. Turning their Twitter Shop into more than a store, but a shopping guide. 

Organize your products to make everything easy to find, then layer in other Twitter features so your customers can quickly find the latest products.

Now that we’ve seen how brands are creatively strategizing for Twitter ecommerce, the next question is: How do you get started?

4 tips for getting started with Twitter ecommerce

Before you dive in to your first sale, here are some things to keep in mind when building your Twitter ecommerce strategy:

1. Start small

Don’t feel the need to incorporate all of these features at once. Identify which would make the most sense for your audience and brand. Consider who follows you on the platform and what they’d be most interested in purchasing. Then start with offering products that align with those interests.

If you have more than 50 products to sell, Twitter Shops can double up as “Bestseller” or “Last few pieces” lists for popular items that sell fast.

Twitter Spotlight is well-suited for featuring signature products that are integral to your brand’s identity, such as the Louis Vuitton tote or MAC Cosmetics’ Ruby Woo lipstick.

2. Collaborate with influencers

Twitter has its own band of influencers who are trusted by their communities. Find influencers who echo your values and collaborate with them to host Live Shopping events or co-tweet Product Drops to expose your brand to a larger audience.

3. Integrate ads

Twitter’s algorithm places ads where it makes the most sense in a feed—between actual conversations about products. This is why Product Drops can integrate naturally with Twitter’s conversational ads. Remember to create your ads and Product Drop content in the same brand style for a consistent experience.

4. Align with trends

Twitter is one of the epicenters of conversation around the latest news and trends, and users are also not afraid to share their opinions about brands and products on the platform. Listening to these conversations can uncover content and promotional opportunities relevant to your target customers and products. Leverage Twitter listening data to unearth relevant trends and weave them into your Product Drop content, live streams and more.

Embrace Twitter ecommerce

Twitter ecommerce is not limited to brands that are already popular on the platform. These features can help brands of all sizes start selling directly on the platform. Find your niche and nurture your community with the content and products they want and need.

To learn more about expanding your ecommerce strategy on Twitter and beyond, read our 2022 Social Shopping Data Report.

The post Twitter ecommerce: How to embrace the next social shopping frontier appeared first on Sprout Social.

With so many networks and interactions across social media, tracking your engagement data can be tricky.

Thing is, those engagements are invaluable to your brand.

According to the Sprout Social Index™, 60% of brands analyze their social data daily. Putting your social interactions into context can uncover how to do better business. This includes strengthening your sales strategy and uncovering what your audience wants.

Below we’ve broken down some of the best social media monitoring tools and how to pick one that makes sense.

What is social media monitoring (and why does it matter so much)?

Consider that the stakes are high when it comes to your social mentions. Based on Sprout’s own research, supporting sales strategy (65%) is the number one use of social data by brands. From competitive analysis to figuring out how to better serve your customers, monitoring serves as a treasure trove of insight.

And focusing on actual customer conversations means that you can take action with confidence.

If nothing else, comprehensive monitoring also helps you understand how customers at large feel about your brand. After all, social media is the go-to place for consumers to sound off. Since social mentions are totally transparent, uncovering those mentions is largely a matter of having the right tools.

10 social media monitoring tools that should be on your radar

Again, owning and understanding your social interactions is crucial.

But doing so is easier said than done when you’re trying to track activity across multiple platforms.

When some brands are dealing with dozens (or hundreds!) of interactions on a daily basis, it’s easy to lose track of key conversations. Likewise, native social analytics primarily focuses on direct @mentions and @tags.

With dedicated social media monitoring tools, you can track your brand’s meaningful engagements wherever and whenever they happen.

There’s no shortage of monitoring tools out there. The following list can help you hone in on a tool that makes sense for your brand based on your needs.

1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social gives you everything not only to track important interactions but also to act on them.

For starters, our platform keeps track of mentions, comments and keywords across multiple networks including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

The ability to condense all of your interactions into one platform is a massive time-saver. Doing so ensures that you don’t miss any noteworthy mentions or let customer service concerns go unanswered.

For example, Sprout’s Smart Inbox provides a real-time, up-to-date list of all of your social interactions. This includes communications between leads, followers and customers.

With a collaborative inbox, you and your team can reply to mentions and call-outs without leaving the platform. These features speed up response times and allow your team to offer a consistent experience to your customers.

Beyond monitoring, Sprout’s s suite of social listening tools is equally powerful. You can track specific queries using boolean operators to zero in on conversations that matter most. We make it easier to detect call-outs and shout-outs as they happen.

And with Sprout’s social analytics, you can report on all of the above to track the progress of your social presence.

Keep track of metrics including average response times and engagement volume to ensure that you’re consistently growing and improving. Consider that the best social media monitoring tools work across multiple platforms and encourage growth wherever your team is active. That’s exactly what Sprout does.

2. Agorapulse

Agorapulse’s platform lives up to its namesake with features to help brands keep a better pulse on their social mentions.

The platform’s monitoring and listening features are designed to help brands focus on “what counts.” With countless notifications and mentions for busy brands to sift through, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.

To combat comment overload, Agorapulse allows users to set parameters to filter specific phrases and platforms out of their monitoring feeds. The platform also makes it a cinch to label and organize notable customer conversations and competitor activity. This activity includes negative competitor mentions and opportunities for your brand to intervene.

These features highlight the fast-paced, high-stakes nature of social media monitoring and why tools matter so much.

3. RivalIQ

Perhaps not surprisingly, RivalIQ’s platform focuses on competitive analysis to help brands keep an eye on their business rivals.

Monitoring and benchmarking features allow brands to understand their share of voice and how they’re growing versus their competitors.

The most notable features of RivalIQ are the platform’s variety of real-time alerts. For example, the platform can identify when a competitor has changed their social media bio as soon as it happens. Recent features include the ability to also see when a competitor boosts an organic post as an ad.

These alerts can give you a head start on understanding your competitors’ positioning, promotions and campaigns.

4. Mention

Mention is yet another monitoring tool that lives up to its namesake as a powerful @mention tracker.

For brands and agencies alike, the platform claims to monitor over one billion sources for relevant mentions and comments. With so many conversations to sift through, the platform offers plenty of filtering options to help brands “eliminate noise.”

Likewise, the platform’s alerts can keep brands in the loop. Additional features of the platform include identifying spikes in mention volume. These instances can help brands identify a potential social media crisis or PR opportunity sooner rather than later.

5. Keyhole

Keyhole’s monitoring abilities are primarily focused on helping brands find influencers to work with.

Automated keyword and hashtag searches uncover influencers posting about topics relevant to brands. The platform also uses hashtag analytics to highlight influential accounts, posts and conversations around any given topic.

6. HubSpot

If you’re already using HubSpot as your CRM, consider how the platform can double as your social media monitoring tool of choice.

HubSpot’s features aren’t radically different from most tools on our list. The platform tracks interactions, engagements and content performance.

Coupled with HubSpot’s sales CRM, the tool highlights the correlation between top-performing content and social interactions with sales. For example, you can see if customers interacted with a certain piece of content or a team member via social. This goes hand in hand with understanding your social media ROI and the impact of your social team.

7. Brand24

Brand24’s media monitoring features include sentiment analysis and instant notifications for all of your social mentions. The platform can also detect trending hashtags that relate to your brand.

A notable feature of the platform is its mention feed that detects spikes in activity. The platform’s “summary” feed also makes it easy to track your brand’s PR efforts from week to week.

8. Atribus

Atribus is a consumer intelligence tool with an emphasis on social media monitoring. Helping brands uncover “unmet needs,” the platform digs deep into customer conversations and data.

Specifically, the platform highlights common complaints within any given industry through sentiment analysis. This provides opportunities for competing brands to identify pain points and intervene. Atribus is capable of automatically classifying mentions into complaints versus inquiries, too.

9. Zoho Social

If you’re using Zoho as a CRM, the platform’s complimentary social media monitoring features are incredibly useful.

Beyond the standard monitoring features we’ve talked about, the platform lets you build a custom listening dashboard. From hashtags to specific platforms or media outlets, this gives you a comprehensive understanding of your PR and social presence at a glance.

10. Awario

Awario’s monitoring features are also similar to many of the platforms mentioned above.

That said, Awario Leads is a noteworthy addition to the platform’s regular monitoring and listening capabilities.

In short, Awario can identify specific instances of people asking for recommendations for a particular industry. This again shows how monitoring is an active process that can help you win more business.

How could social media monitoring help you build better campaigns?

Stepping up your social monitoring should be a top priority regardless of your industry.

The closer you track what people are saying about your brand, the better you can serve your target audience.

Likewise, you can form more meaningful relationships with your followers and customers. That’s because you’re already clued into their wants, needs and pain points.

Doing so means having the right social media monitoring tools at your fingertips. With an all-in-one tool like Sprout, you can align your publishing and customer service strategy with your monitoring insights in one place.

Looking for more inspiration to level up your social marketing campaigns? Make sure to grab our collection of social media templates if you haven’t already!

The post 10 social media monitoring tools to inform your campaigns appeared first on Sprout Social.

A recent study found that 75% of brands have been exposed to a brand safety incident within the past year. Nearly half of those companies received some sort of fallout on social media because of these incidents.

In this new world of social advertising, brand safety issues aren’t an “if”—they’re a “when”.

Protecting your brand reputation in this evolving landscape requires collaboration, foresight and planning. To help, we’ve gathered everything you need to know to create brand safety guidelines for a social-first world.

Keep reading to learn how you can limit brand safety risk on social.

What is brand safety?

Brand safety is all about risk mitigation. In advertising, brand safety refers to the measures that protect a brand from mishaps that might threaten its reputation.

For the most part, these measures focus on preventing ads from appearing alongside inappropriate or offensive content. For example, a company can create brand safety measures that prevent their paid advertising efforts from popping up in content that promotes hate speech or violence.

If this happens, the average consumer might misunderstand the placement as an endorsement of the content itself. A recent study found that 49% of consumers say their perception of a brand is negatively affected when it appears alongside offensive content.

Why is brand safety important?

It’s like the old saying goes: when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

A proactive brand safety plan is the only way to mitigate risk on social. While most social networks have standards in place to prevent ads from showing up within harmful content, these standards are usually developed after a brand safety blunder makes a threat clear.

For example: In March 2017, several advertisers had to pause or pull their YouTube ad spend after being called out for appearing alongside homophobic and racist content. The controversy, while unfortunate, did illuminate the need for improved safeguards in programmatic social advertising.

Risk is a natural part of adopting a new social network, feature or tool. If you let that stop your brand from hopping on the latest social media marketing advancements, you risk falling behind your competitors and out of favor with your target audience. That’s a major risk in itself.

The only real way to protect your business online is to create brand safety guidelines that understand and address the social media landscape.

Brand safety and social media

Social media advertising is projected to grow by 25% in 2022, reaching $137 billion in ad spend.

As the paid social game grows, potential risks grow alongside it. Communication and marketing professionals have to account for a slew of potential brand safety threats, including:

• Paid social ads appearing alongside harmful or damaging content
• User-generated content featuring false claims about a product or brand
• Scandals involving creator or influencer marketing partners

Thankfully, social also doubles as a powerful risk detection and prevention tool. One of the many benefits of social listening is that you can use it to monitor the larger conversation around your brand, illuminating any sources of potential controversy before they spin out of control.

Brand safety statistics to pay attention to

Senior leaders are also increasingly invested in the new world of brand safety. A recent study from Weber Shandwick found that:

• 75% of global executives have experienced a recent reputational crisis that could have been prevented.
• 39% of global executives have experienced a crisis that impacted their company’s brand reputation within the last two to three years.
• 87% of executives say customers are the most important stakeholder when it comes to perceptions of a company’s reputation.

Social media is a center point in consumers’ daily lives. It’s the first place they turn to for information, entertainment or an outlet to voice their thoughts and opinions.

If companies want to stay in the good graces of this priority stakeholder, they’ll need to rethink their brand safety guidelines from a social-first point of view.

How to limit brand safety risk on social media

The easiest way to limit brand safety risk on social media is to create comprehensive brand safety guidelines. But, before you can do that, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the existing brand safety controls across popular networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and TikTok.

Brand safety on Meta platforms

Meta offers several brand safety controls that work across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. These features allow you to choose the level of control over where your ad appears. Placements can be restricted by content topic, format and even source.

Brand safety on Twitter

Twitter’s Brand Safety Marketing Collection offers both technical and general advice on how to keep your brand safe on the network. Their efforts to keep Twitter a safe place for brands and communities include various content moderation features and ongoing partnerships with independent expert organizations.

Brand safety on YouTube

In 2021, YouTube became the first digital platform to receive content-level brand safety accreditation from the Media Rating Council. Their continued accreditation speaks to the many initiatives Google has taken to ensure advertisers get the most out of their investments in the network.

YouTube’s brand safety features recently went through an overhaul to make them consistent with those available through Google search and display ads.

Brand safety on TikTok

Earlier this year, TikTok launched its Brand Safety Center to provide marketers with up-to-date news and recommendations on brand suitability within the network.

As its footprint in the social media landscape grows, the TikTok team has been hard at work creating brand safety solutions within their ad platform. As of today, those features include the TikTok Inventory Filter, plus some pre- and post-bid safety tools.

Building brand safety guidelines into your social media strategy

Documented brand safety guidelines can empower others to take part in risk prevention strategies. Here’s how you can create and distribute your guidelines with maximum efficiency:

Define brand standards

What is “inappropriate content”?

The answer might seem straightforward but the more you dig into it, the more nebulous it becomes. For example, one might assume all content involving illegal drugs is inappropriate. In reality, that would end up filtering ads from sources that share news features, educational content or preventative resources on the topic.

To figure out where your company falls on the many different types of inappropriate content, you need to talk about it. Host a roundtable to talk through these resources from the American Association of Advertising Agencies. Outline the amount of risk you’re comfortable with and build an exclusion list for paid advertising efforts.

Identify a point person for brand safety issues

Brand safety is everyone’s responsibility. Still, when it comes time to launch a crisis response strategy, you’ll want to limit it to one or two people calling the shots.

Decide which parties will be responsible for assessing incoming risks and response needs. Once it’s been decided, socialize the role within your company. That way, when an employee notices a potential brand safety risk, they’ll know just who to call.

Outline a response strategy

Even the most preventable crisis can feel random when it strikes. An actionable response strategy will enable your team to work quickly and efficiently as they address stakeholder concerns.

Create a crisis management plan that outlines what steps to take in the event of a brand safety incident. People will likely turn to your social pages for updates on how your company is responding, so be sure to include guidelines on sharing public apologies as well.

Set up a social listening topic

Use a social listening tool to set up a brand health topic so you can monitor the ongoing conversations around your brand.

Sprout’s Listening tool has three features that can help you proactively address budding brand health crises:

• Spike Alerts to notify you of shifts in conversation activity around your Listening Topics.
• Sentiment Analysis to understand trends in audience perception around your brand.
• Word Cloud to quickly observe what topics are driving the conversations around your brand.

Create onboarding training

The world wide web is a big place. It’s nearly impossible for a single team to stay on top of every potential brand safety threat that may arise. To keep your brand reputation safe, you need to equip everyone with the resources they need to help stop a threat in its tracks.

Ask that managers include links to brand safety guidelines and protocols in all onboarding materials. Include quick primers on why these materials matter and what teams can do to help.

Brand safety first

Protecting a brand’s reputation isn’t any single team’s responsibility. Everyone in your company should be equipped to stop a potential brand safety mishap in its tracks.

Fill out this corporate communications plan template and share it with your team so they know what to keep an eye out for on the brand safety front. The more prepared you are today, the less you’ll have to worry about a crisis damaging your brand reputation tomorrow.

The post Brand safety: What you need to know to protect your brand’s reputation appeared first on Sprout Social.

Fair warning: YouTube SEO is a beast. You have to find the best keywords, optimize all parts of your video around that keyword and link to your other videos—and you also have to find the winning hashtags for each video.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain what YouTube hashtags are, why they’re important and how to properly use them to increase video views.

Ready to get started?

What are YouTube hashtags?

YouTube hashtags are words or phrases that help users find videos based on subject matter or category. Users can click on hashtags to see all YouTube videos that have the same hashtag.

Why use YouTube hashtags?

YouTube hashtags are similar to hashtags on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—with a few added benefits.

Hashtags help YouTube understand what your video is about

When you use relevant keywords as video hashtags, you’re giving YouTube more information about your video, which can help your video appear in search results.

Hashtags help more users find your content

If you’re using relevant YouTube hashtags and your video is appearing in search results, your video view counts will likely increase—and hopefully, your subscriber count will follow.

Hashtags help you categorize your videos

Many brands organize their videos into playlists. Hashtags can help categorize your videos by topic or theme.

How to find the best YouTube hashtags for your videos

You don’t want to use hashtags that spammy or irrelevant videos are using. Always do a quick search to see what pops up when you’re considering a hashtag to ensure that the content that appears relates to your own video.

Here are some ways to find the best hashtags for your videos:

1. Check relevant trending videos

Search for the main theme of your video. For example, we searched for “Internet of Things” to see what hashtags the top-ranked video was using. While you wouldn’t want to use the branded hashtag, you would want to use the two other hashtags (this video has nearly 2 million views!).

2. Research top-performing competitor videos

Take a look at the hashtags your top competitors are using, along with the number of views per video. Click through to related videos to search for yet additional hashtags.

3. Check YouTube autosuggest

Just as the Google search bar attempts to anticipate what you’re searching for, YouTube will show you hashtag suggestions once you type the hashtag symbol.

If the top hashtags aren’t relevant for your video, add a word or phrase that will produce more relevant results.

4. Try a YouTube hashtag generator

Need to find hashtags in a hurry? Try Ahrefs, Aux Mode or Kparser — all of these platforms can generate loads of hashtags instantly, based on the term you input. And Sprout Social’s YouTube Listening feature can show you trending topics and associated hashtags.

How to add hashtags to YouTube videos

There are two different areas where you can add hashtags to your YouTube videos. The first is in your video’s title, and the second is at the bottom of your video’s description.

How to add hashtags to your YouTube video title

Before you use hashtags in your video’s title, do some keyword research. A relevant title, preferably with keywords, can be just as important as hashtags in helping users find your content.

Take a look at this video from Sprout Social’s YouTube channel. All videos in the #SproutChat series start with the same hashtag in the title followed by a short, relevant search phrase or description.

There are several #SproutChat videos on Sprout’s YouTube channel, all of which appear when users perform a search query for #SproutChat.

If you include the hashtag in your title, it will always be clickable from your video page. In search results, clicking on the hashtag will take users directly to your video.

How to add hashtags to your YouTube video description

The other place you can add YouTube hashtags is at the end of your video description. Once you optimize your video and include your YouTube keywords, video summary, links and sources, add a handful of hashtags to the bottom of your video’s description, as this brand did:

Video descriptions give you a place to add hashtags that might otherwise seem out of place in your video title. YouTube ensures that your hashtags are always visible above your video titles, so users can click them to find other videos that use those hashtags.

Take a look at what a video looks like when you add hashtags to your description—YouTube adds the first three right above your video title:

YouTube hashtags: 6 best practices

So now that you know how and where to add YouTube hashtags to your videos, it’s time to cover how to strategically implement this practice.

Follow these best practices to help you promote your YouTube channel with hashtags:

1. Use 3-5 hashtags per video

YouTube allows you to place up to 15 hashtags in your description. YouTube has stated that if you use more than 15 hashtags on your video, it’ll ignore all hashtags. So make sure you don’t overdo it.

We recommend using 1-2 hashtags in your video title (and remember that only the first three hashtags in your description will appear above your video title).

2. Create your own branded hashtags

While YouTube encourages searching through hashtags by placing them in prominent areas on your video, this can also mean that viewers will click on those hashtags and end up leaving your YouTube channel.

This is why you might want to create your own branded hashtags as we saw with #SproutChat. If a user clicks to see more videos, they’ll only see more of your own channel’s content.

3. Add location-based hashtags to local videos

If you’re trying to expand your reach in a geographic area, use location-based hashtags. Make sure your hashtags are specific. For example, the hashtag “#Springfield” could apply to a number of US cities; if you’re referring to the capital of Illinois, consider using “#SpringfieldIL.”

4. Follow YouTube hashtag policy guidelines

YouTube monitors hashtags for compliance with its hashtag policies. YouTube may remove any videos with hashtags it deems misleading or vulgar. Stick to the 15-hashtag limit and ensure your hashtags are relevant to avoid running afoul of YouTube hashtag rules.

5. Monitor video views from your hashtags

After you start using hashtags, you can view your YouTube analytics to see which hashtags are drawing users to your content.

6. Track industry and competitor hashtags

Not sure what hashtags to use? Take a look at what your competitors are doing. At Sprout, we call that social listening, and it’s a great way to spot trending hashtags, learn what content appeals to your target audience and see other valuable metrics.

Here’s a look at what social media listening can show you when using Sprout’s dashboard:

Start including hashtags in your YouTube strategy

Excited to start including hashtags in your YouTube strategy? Make sure you’re using them strategically by incorporating relevant hashtags and using branded hashtags that help your audience find more of your content.

Now that you’re ready to level up your YouTube hashtags, check out our YouTube marketing guide for more tips to update your strategy.

The post YouTube hashtags: The complete guide for marketers appeared first on Sprout Social.

For years, social media has been dominated by aesthetic. Instagram grids morphed from a product feature into an aspiration—something you could form into the image of your ideal self, life or brand. Facebook feeds went from stream of consciousness to uplifting updates. LinkedIn posts weren’t just about your professional experience, they were about your entire professional outlook. Terms like “personal brand” became part of the lexicon. Gen Z watched it all happen in real-time, growing up in a reality that wasn’t quite real, but it wasn’t fake either. People took those trips and made those life changes. They just edited out the inconvenient details that make life, well, real.

It’s clear that Gen Z isn’t entirely comfortable with that version of reality. Across platforms, young people have decided to share it all, from messy break-ups to professional failures. These posts are engaging for the viewer but seem to be equally cathartic for the poster. It’s a different version of personal brand.

But social media trends shift constantly. Should platforms build themselves around the current moment? That’s the question behind BeReal.

What is BeReal?

BeReal is a social media platform built around spontaneity. A prompt goes out to everyone at the same time. You have two minutes to take a picture of yourself and your surroundings—and if you don’t, the app lets your friends know.

Instead of a post time, it shows how long you took to respond to the notification. You can only add people you know directly. There’s no algorithm dictating whose posts you see, and there isn’t much to scroll through. Two minutes can also make up your total time spent on the app, a welcome change for social media fatigued users. The result is an app that’s reminiscent of past eras but also distinctly grounded in today. BeReal has risen to prominence quickly, with over 7 million global downloads as of May 2022. There’s clearly something to their methods.

Context is key

The fact that BeReal feels different than other apps is by design. The app is inherently reactionary. Even the name suggests that other platforms (and their users) aren’t being entirely genuine. Two minutes isn’t enough time to put together an aesthetic. It’s unfiltered in a world that’s overwhelmingly filtered.

But it’s not entirely clear if people are ready to move away from posting their highlight reel. Scrolling through BeReal’s Discovery page, you might find people posting pictures of their festival tickets 14 hours late. Sure, the photo was taken within two minutes, but there’s a strategy at play.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, some photos seem a little too chaotic. The chances that the random notification came out at the exact moment your kitchen caught fire are pretty low. Saving your daily post until something noteworthy happens isn’t exactly real.

What goes around comes around (including user preferences)

Whenever new social media apps come into play, there’s always a question of longevity. We’ve seen it over and over again, a newcomer hits the stage and more established platforms scramble to introduce its functionality into their ecosystems. There is no first mover advantage in social. The spontaneity of BeReal could easily be adopted into other platforms (and already is).

But the functionality doesn’t seem to be what’s driving people to BeReal. The app interface is minimal, with black backgrounds and white sans serif fonts. It could easily be mistaken for a medium fidelity wireframe. The magic of BeReal lies in how it bucks expectations. That’s what’s driving people to download.

How much staying power does this definition of “reality” have?

Tastes shift over time. Right now, it’s trendy to post the lows but we could easily swing back around to highly curated feeds in a few years. Fundamentally, BeReal just has a different answer to the question that all social platforms pose: how do you want people to see you? Only time can tell us if people will keep liking their answer.

Interested in learning more about trends in social media? Check out the 2022 Sprout Social Index™, where we break down marketer and consumer opinions on the changing social landscape.

The post What’s the appeal of BeReal? Deciphering social media authenticity appeared first on Sprout Social.