12 Apr Sprout Social and Salesforce Partnership Leads to So Many Questions

Sprout Social and Salesforce Announce Their Surprising Partnership

We recently came across a press release that surprised us with the following headline: Salesforce and Sprout Social partner to manage full social media presence. Upon reviewing the article, it became clear they’re positioning Sprout as a tool to enable Salesforce customers to help deliver a seamless connection with their audiences.

As a social media agency, we work in various Social Media Management (SMM) tools for our clients. At times, our clients come to us with a SMM tool already in place but we may help other clients shop around for the right tool so their social media goals will be met, and the tool will make sense for their needs.

Since this directly impacts us and some of our clients, we wanted to break things down around it that might be useful as the partnership unfolds.

What Does This Partnership Really Mean?

One thing that immediately stood out from this move was questioning what this means for our clients using Salesforce Social Studio tool here at the agency.

The article suggests that Salesforce customers may need to switch over to Sprout’s social suite, which creates a lot more questions to consider, such as:

• How does this impact current Salesforce customers using Social Studio for their social needs – will they be transitioned over to Sprout at no cost?
• If it’s not complimentary, what will the price difference be for customers who agree to move over to Sprout per Salesforce’s recommendation?
• Will Sprout be able to handle current Social Studio customers, or will users need to consider other SMM tools to meet their needs?
• Will Sprout be able to duplicate current Social Studio user settings to avoid any customer frustrations during a potential transition phase?
• What’s happening with current Social Studio customer contracts and where do those stand?
• What’s the best way to migrate social data out of the tool so it’s not lost?
• Will they offer any assistance to exporting your data or will this be up to the customer to handle?

The biggest question we’re pondering is this one: Is Salesforce going to end Social Studio altogether to focus back on its roots as a CRM tool? And if so, when?

The reason this crosses our mind stems from a conversation we had with Social Studio support on behalf of a client last year. They confirmed that IG Reel comments are not pulled into Social Studio, and they had no plans to add that capability into the tool.

This was a bit concerning for some of us, considering that IG reels are stepping things up to compete with TikTok. However, we know social platforms APIs can be tricky to integrate so it’s challenging to know if they already had a desire to get out of the SMM space entirely.

What Do You Think About It?

Personally, I’ve used Social Studio for a few clients over the past five years for community management work and still do today. This tool is great for clients who have high volume, multiple users in the platform at once, want to use data tracking for audience insights and trends, keep an eye on some social listening, want to publish/schedule content and pull detailed reports on the fly with ease by setting up custom dashboards.

These reporting dashboards can be extremely useful while monitoring PR-related situations on your social channels to get insights quickly and when every second counts.

Yes, I’m aware of the platform glitches, the macros, the automation, the outdated volume post influxes when things don’t work as they should and more. Despite those flaws, I’ve become quite fond of the tool because when you truly know a tool’s limitations, you can usually find workaround solutions for your clients’ needs.

This is something to keep in mind now and moving forward though, I cannot tell you one SMM tool that is perfect because they’re not and never will be, and that shouldn’t be expected because technology means updates, glitches, server issues and more.

It just happens despite all best efforts.

Overall, Social Studio is one of my preferred SMM tools because as a user, I feel like I have a stronger handle on how to use it, but this also comes from using it for years in many ways.

Why Haven’t I Heard About This Partnership Yet?

As of today, Salesforce has not showcased any press releases in their News & Insights regarding this partnership, whereas Sprout shared this news on their website and even showcased it on LinkedIn, which received some nice traction overall in the beginning of March 2022.

If you’re a current user of Social Studio and haven’t heard this news yet, I highly recommend reaching out to your Salesforce account manager to see how this may impact you and what will follow from this partnership. It’s also important to share this news with your team who may be actively using or working in Social Studio because this is falling under the radar for some and it’s kind of a big deal.

Another helpful tip might be to evaluate your current Social Studio setup and make a list of things it’s currently handling for you to be on the safe side until more details are shared. This way, if you do need to transition out of Social Studio entirely, you can have a knowledge base of what you need your new SMM tool to do for you or your social team.

These points can help you prepare a little bit better for the unknown, but it would be devastating to lose any data during a potential transition so please make sure you inquire about this specifically and don’t put it off.
If you want some more ideas, check out this article we wrote regarding Social Media Management Tools for Brands – it has some great insights to think about.

TL;DR

Salesforce announces social media partnership with Sprout Social. This leads us to question what Salesforce plans to do Social Studio, which used to compete with Sprout Social as a SMM tool.

Some things you should consider doing if you’re a current Social Studio user and Salesforce customer:

• Contact your Salesforce account manager to express any questions about what this means for you and your current contract with Social Studio
• Inquire and learn the best way to potentially export data from Social Studio and request a timeline of when this should be completed
• Make a list of things Social Studio helps you achieve (think of any automation, integrations, macros, etc.) so you have a running list in case you need to switch to another tool over time
• Share this news with relevant teams and have a conversation about it together and what this may mean for your team(s) that use it or could be impacted

Now that we have that initial news covered, let’s see what happens next as this moves forward. 👀

Do you need some more help with your social media strategy to get the results you need?

Look no further, Ignite Social Media has you covered because we only concentrate on social media – not everything in the digital marketing space. This is what sets us apart from other agencies and we would love to show you our expertise if you need some fresh ideas with your social media strategy. Send us a quick note to get started.