Can you use Sprout Social for LinkedIn?

If you're thinking about signing up for Sprout Social, there's one thing that you should be aware of before doing so -- it isn't just another social media management tool like Buffer or HootSuite! This is because the platform has been designed to serve as an all-encompassing solution for managing multiple social channels and content marketing campaigns across your entire online brand presence.

It can help you manage your Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Instagram profiles, YouTube videos, Pinterest boards, Google+ posts, Tumblr blogs, and even RSS feeds (yes, they have their own dedicated "feed" feature). It also offers integrated scheduling tools which make it easy to schedule tweets, update status updates on Facebook, publish blog articles, post photos from Instagram, promote new products on Amazon, and much more. And best of all, you don't need any coding skills to get started using Sprout Social -- anyone who knows how to click a button will find themselves able to create custom landing pages, automate email drip campaigns, monitor influencer activity, and track competitor performance without ever having to touch code at all.

But despite its massive scope, if you're looking for something specifically tailored towards LinkedIn, then you might want to think again. Because while Sprout Social offers some great features when it comes to connecting your other social profiles to LinkedIn, it doesn't offer anything specific for working within the LinkedIn network itself. So unless you already plan on making heavy usage of LinkedIn, we recommend waiting until either Sprout Social gets updated to include integration with the leading professional networking site, or alternatively, you decide to spend the time learning enough HTML and CSS to build out a website yourself instead.

So what exactly do you get once you've signed up for a free trial account with Sprout Social? Read our full review below to learn everything you need to know about whether this could be the right choice for you.

Which networks does Sprout Social integrate with?

The main reason why many people choose Sprout Social over competing solutions such as Hootsuite, TweetDeck, and Buffer is due to the fact that it supports almost every major social channel out there today. For example, it connects with Facebook Pages, Twitter accounts, Instagram accounts, Pinterest accounts, Google+ accounts, Reddit accounts, Tumblr accounts, Vine accounts, Vimeo accounts, SoundCloud accounts, Flickr accounts, Yahoo Groups accounts, Google Analytics accounts, WordPress sites, RSS feeds, YouTube accounts, and yes -- even LinkedIn profiles!

You'll notice I haven't included LinkedIn here yet, but that's mostly because Sprout Social only allows you to connect individual users' LinkedIn profile URLs and not companies'. However, according to the company, they're planning to add support for linking individual user profiles soon, so stay tuned! But for now, you won't find any direct integration between Sprout Social and LinkedIn profiles.

This means that if you'd prefer to keep your LinkedIn profile private, you'll still have to manually log into each social network separately to upload your latest activities and interact with followers. In addition, even though you may be able to import your LinkedIn contacts directly into Sprout Social, you won't see any notifications sent by LinkedIn regarding those connections being added to your profile via Sprout Social. The same goes for comments left on your LinkedIn profile page. You'll simply receive them straight through to your inbox.

As far as getting notified whenever someone views your LinkedIn profile, shares your blog article, or joins your group discussion goes, you'll need to rely on third party apps such as LinkedUp, Kliently, and others, each of which charge a small monthly fee for access to these kinds of notifications. If you're interested in trying these options out, check out our guide to the best notification services available.

What platforms does Sprout Social support?

Of course, the most important question to ask when choosing a social media manager is "which platforms?" To answer that, let me point you to their list of supported platforms:

Facebook Page

Twitter Account

Instagram Profile

Pinterest Board

Google+ Post

Tumblr Blog

Vine Video

Soundcloud Playlist

Yahoo Group Discussion

Reddit Thread

Flickr Photo/Video

GitHub Project

WordPress Site

RSS Feeds

YouTube Channel

LinkedIn Company Profile

LinkedIn Individual User Profile

That said, the above list represents the majority of popular social networks out there today, including ones that aren't currently supported by Sprout Social. Of course, you can always try importing existing data into your account from other sources like Google Contacts or Microsoft Outlook, but remember that each social network will present different challenges depending upon the amount of customization required.

For instance, if you run a business, you'll probably want to focus your efforts on building up your Twitter following rather than focusing on growing your LinkedIn follower count too quickly. That way, you avoid attracting potential clients who prefer to work with individuals rather than businesses. On the other hand, if you're running a personal blog, you'll likely want to focus your attention on growing your LinkedIn audience. After all, it's very difficult to grow a large number of fans on Twitter, especially since people rarely share links to your content.

Does Sprout Social support LinkedIn?

I'm happy to report that Sprout Social fully supports LinkedIn, so long as you sign up for a free account and link your corporate profile to your personal one. As mentioned earlier, however, you won't be able to automatically sync your LinkedIn Activities feed with Sprout Social, nor will you be able to view LinkedIn Comments on your Sprout Social dashboard. Instead, you'll need to switch back to your browser window to visit the appropriate URL to read your recent interactions.

However, you don't necessarily need to go to the trouble of creating separate accounts for both your personal and professional profiles. You can easily combine the two into one single account by clicking the "+ Add Linkedin Profile" option inside your settings menu. Doing so will allow you to display both your public and private profile information on one screen, and also give you access to all of the relevant sharing features built into LinkedIn.

In my experience, this approach works well enough for most professionals who primarily use LinkedIn to communicate with colleagues and friends. But if you frequently engage in conversations with customers, prospects, industry experts, etc., then you may actually benefit from maintaining separate accounts. In this case, you'll definitely want to consider checking out Sprout Social Pro, which gives you complete control over both your personal and professional profiles. Otherwise, you'll end up spending hours going back and forth changing your profile pictures between your primary and secondary accounts.

Does Sprout Social support TikTok?

Unfortunately, no. While TikTok certainly deserves recognition as a legitimate social app, it hasn't gained anywhere near the popularity of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Thus, it makes sense that Sprout Social would completely ignore the short video service.

And unfortunately, there really isn't much else to say about the matter. You can't embed TikTok videos onto your websites, and you can't pull in the latest trends from the service to show off on your Sprout Social dashboards.

If you absolutely must have a solid social media management tool that integrates with TikTok, you'll need to look elsewhere. One possible alternative worth considering is Sprinklr, which offers similar functionality to Sprout Social, plus the ability to integrate with TikTok and hundreds of additional social networks.

Whether you're looking for a simple social media management app or one that includes advanced capabilities like SEO optimization, automated image posting, and automatic engagement tracking, Sprout Social is probably the best platform out there for the job. Just take note of the limitations noted above.

If you're looking into using Sprout Social as your social media management tool, there's some important information that you should be aware of before making the move. If you already have an account and want to see if it works well with LinkedIn or not, keep reading!

The biggest thing to remember is that Sprout Social isn't just another Twitter clone. The platform offers different features than regular Twitter and has integrated tools like Google Analytics, which can help you track how much traffic each post gets on Facebook and other platforms. You also get email marketing automation built right into the app so you don't have to pay extra for any of these services separately.

In addition to all these advantages, Sprout Social gives you access to tons of free data about who visits your website and what they're doing when they visit your site. This includes insights into their interests and demographics -- valuable data that might prove useful for targeting ads later down the line (if you decide to go that route).

So yes, you can definitely use Sprout Social to manage your social media presence but will you actually benefit from it? Let's take a look at what the service can offer.

Can you connect LinkedIn to Sprout Social?

Not yet. Sprout Social doesn't currently support connecting with LinkedIn directly through its apps. But you could still set up a profile on LinkedIn without having to worry about posting to Sprout Social.

You'll simply need to create a separate LinkedIn profile instead of one that integrates with both accounts. Then you can share content between the two profiles manually. You won't receive updates automatically though unless you link them together by setting up a connection.

Here's how to set up a LinkedIn profile without linking to Sprout Social:

Sign up for a new LinkedIn account.

On the "Profile" page click the button labeled "Create Profile."

Fill out the forms for basic info including name, photo, job title, etc.

Click the "+ Add More Fields" button above the fields section.

Now scroll down until you find "Connections," then click the dropdown arrow next to it and select "Add Connection...".

Select "LinkedIn" under the Connections option.

From here you can add people you'd like to follow and update your contact details.

Once you've finished adding connections you should receive a verification code via text message. Once you enter the code and confirm your identity, you'll be able to start following others on LinkedIn too. And you can even browse LinkedIn groups and events you belong to.

It may seem odd that you would have to sign up for a second LinkedIn account to make sure everything links properly. However, many third-party sites require you to log in twice because they aren't capable of storing cookies across multiple domains. So while you're logged into Sprout Social, you'll also need to login again somewhere else. That makes sense since you wouldn't want anyone to accidentally read something private on your personal profile that you didn't intend them to.

How do I connect LinkedIn to sprouts?

To link your LinkedIn account to Sprout Social you'll need to head over to your account settings menu and choose the "Integration" tab. Here you'll find a list of all available integration options. Clicking on the plus icon beside each entry will bring up additional information about it.

When you hover over the plus symbol, you'll notice that clicking on it displays a full screen overlay showing you exactly what happens behind the scenes. In order to enable a particular integration, you must check off the box beneath the heading "Enable Integration".

After enabling each integration, you'll need to verify your identity. To do this, click the blue "Verify Identity" button underneath the corresponding field. After verifying your identity you'll be ready to begin sharing content between LinkedIn and Sprout Social.

Note that you cannot import existing posts from LinkedIn into Sprout Social. Instead, you'll need to retype every single word you had previously posted to LinkedIn manually into Sprout Social. It's annoying, but necessary given that it's impossible to sync anything automatically after you remove the original source file.

Can Sprout Post to LinkedIn?

Yes. When you publish a new article to Sprout Social, you can easily attach it to a specific LinkedIn status update. From within the Sprout dashboard, navigate to the individual blog post where you want to insert the embedded URL. On the top left corner of the window you can see a small pencil icon that looks like a hashtag. Hover over this and you'll see three options appear below it. Select "Insert Linked Content" and you'll be presented with several choices depending on whether you want to embed a YouTube video, image gallery, audio clip, or PDF document. Choose whichever type of attachment best suits your needs.

Then paste the entire URL of the embedded piece into the appropriate space provided and hit submit. Your content will now show up alongside whatever status update you were writing.

What does Sprout Social integrate with?

There are quite a few ways you can tie Sprout Social to various parts of your business. For example, you can schedule messages to send to followers based on certain triggers such as time intervals or keywords. Or you can automate responses to comments made on your company's Instagram feed.

However, we found that the most popular feature was probably Sprout Social Analytics. This allows you to monitor the performance of each of your articles, videos, images, and webpages. All you have to do is give Sprout permission to crawl your domain and collect data from your server logs.

This way, you can view statistics on how often visitors come back to your site after viewing one of your pages and how long those users spend on average per visit. These metrics can reveal patterns and trends that will inform future strategy decisions.

For example, you might discover that most of your readers are interested in learning about SEO techniques. If you have other related products or services you sell online, you might consider creating an ecommerce store that focuses solely on selling these kinds of items.

All told, Sprout Social is a great choice for businesses looking to streamline their workflow and improve overall user experience. For companies that rely heavily on social media engagement, Sprout Social provides a powerful suite of tools for keeping tabs on what's happening on social networks. Whether you're managing your own network or you work for someone else, this software lets you stay ahead of the curve no matter what industry you're working in.

Want to learn more about Sprout Social? Check out our guide to Sprout Social Pricing & Plans to learn more about prices and plans offered by the service.

Sprout Social is one of the most popular software applications that focuses specifically on social media marketing and management. It's a tool designed to help users manage their Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram account, and even Pinterest profile from one place, but it also has extensive features aimed at helping businesses run a successful online presence.

But if you're not sure where to start when using Sprout or how much it will cost, here's everything you need to know about Sprout Social before making your decision to sign up. Read our full review below.

How do I link accounts on Sprout Social?

Once you've signed up for an account, you'll see all of your previous data displayed within the application. This includes any pages you have created (such as your personal blog), any groups you belong to, and any profiles you maintain across multiple platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and so forth. If there's anything missing, simply click "Add" next to each platform. You can then log into those sites individually through the same login screen.

If you want to keep your information separate between platforms, you can create different profiles by clicking "Create New Profile." After creating a new profile, you can connect it to other accounts via the "Link Accounts" tab located under the main menu bar. Simply select which account you'd like to associate with your profile and enter the username and password associated with said site. Once complete, you should be able to access individual accounts from the left-hand navigation panel.

The great thing about linking accounts is that if someone joins your group on one service, they automatically gain membership to every other service you participate in. For example, if you join a certain group on Facebook, you can easily share content to both your own Facebook wall and your Sprout Social dashboard.

Does Sprout work with LinkedIn?

Yes! The ability to integrate with your professional network is a huge benefit for anyone who uses Sprout regularly. As mentioned above, you can set up separate profiles for each website you visit, meaning that you don't have to worry about keeping track of your LinkedIn credentials while working with other services.

Additionally, you can choose whether or not you would like to display your entire company bio or just your name and email address. While we highly recommend adding your full name to your public profile, many people may prefer to only show themselves as either "John Smith," "Jane Doe," or something similar.

You can make these changes directly from the settings section found on the top right corner of the homepage. From here, you can view what sort of sharing permissions you have granted to yourself and others, and change them accordingly.

There is no way to fully disable LinkedIn integration, though. When accessing your LinkedIn profile, you will always be taken back to the landing page for your account. Even if you switch off "Send notifications" and hide your profile entirely, the LinkedIn button still appears at the bottom of the page whenever you go to another site. This means that some companies might find it difficult to get employees to stop posting updates on behalf of the business without explicitly asking them to take down their LinkedIn activity.

However, if you're concerned that doing this could cause complications later on, you can block LinkedIn completely. To do so, head over to Settings > Integrations & Services and uncheck "LinkedIn."

Can you schedule LinkedIn posts on Sprout Social?

No. At least, not yet anyway. However, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try. In fact, you can already schedule post alerts to appear on your Facebook timeline and Twitter feed. Just remember that once scheduled, you won't be able to edit or cancel the alert until 24 hours after its initial launch.

To begin scheduling alerts on Facebook, open the calendar icon located in the upper right hand side of your home screen and scroll down to "Schedule Posts." Selecting this option will allow you to pick the time when you'd like to publish your update, along with the title and description of the piece. Click save and wait for the alert to pop up on your friends' feeds.

For Twitter, head to the "Schedule Tweets" option from the dropdown menu. Again, you must specify the exact date and time that you wish to tweet out, including the text and picture of your choice. Click save and wait for the notification to appear on your followers' timelines.

How do I add social accounts to Sprout Social?

After logging into your account, you should now have access to a list of available networks and sites listed beneath your profile image. Simply drag and drop whichever ones you want to include onto your homepage.

From here, you can customize the look and feel of your layout by editing the colors and fonts used throughout the app. You can also adjust various elements such as font size, background color, border radius, and padding. Finally, you can remove any unwanted icons by clicking on the trashcan symbol beside them.

As long as you haven't made any tweaks to the default templates provided by Sprout, all of your social accounts will remain accessible from the left-hand navigator. But if you decide to tweak things around, you can quickly add additional buttons to control exactly how often specific pieces of content appear.

When browsing through your dashboard, you will notice three tabs labeled "Today", "Yesterday", and "Cumulative". By default, items posted to your social accounts during the past day will populate the Today category. Items published prior to today will show up in Yesterday. And finally, all posts submitted since the beginning of time will fill the Cumulative column.

These categories let you fine tune the amount of content displayed on your homepage -- perfect for showing off your latest project or product announcement, but less useful for maintaining an active status.

Finally, you can enable the sidebar by selecting "Sidebar" from the left-hand nav. Adding this feature gives you quick access to recent posts, upcoming events, and links to related articles.

Overall, Sprout Social offers plenty of customization options for power users seeking maximum control over their digital footprint. But if you aren't interested in tweaking every aspect of your account, you can rest easy knowing that the basic setup process is incredibly simple. The interface itself isn't too cluttered, and you can navigate between sections fairly intuitively.

And while you may never reach 100 percent adoption rate for Sprout, it's hard to argue against the value proposition offered by a free trial period. Most competitors charge upwards of $100 per month if you opt to skip the 14-day trial, while Sprout provides unlimited usage for just $10/month. That alone makes it worth considering if you're looking to build a robust social media following.

While Sprout does offer a lot of flexibility, it doesn't support nearly as many third party apps as other alternatives. So, if you frequently collaborate with outside developers and agencies, you may encounter problems trying to implement custom integrations. Meanwhile, Hootsuite, Buffer, and Klout boast a wider array of tools for managing multiple social channels.