Sprout Social for Social Media Professionals at U-M

The university has reached an agreement with Sprout Social for an enterprise-level social media management solution. This is the first time that communicators from across campus have the opportunity to use the same feature-rich technology platform.

What does this mean for the university? It opens the door for more collaboration between units throughout every campus. It will encourage the development and sharing of best practices to help all social media efforts flourish. And it will enhance the strategic management of the university’s collective social media voice.

Inquiring About Sprout

If you are a university communications professional with social media responsibilities, please contact the social media leadership for your unit or join the conversation on the umichWORKS Slack workspace #sprout-social channel

University social media leads can email [email protected] to ask about reserving seat licenses.

Every U-M Branded Account Can Join the U-M Enterprise Account
Broad adoption of Sprout will help establish greater unification of social media strategy, greater risk and reputation management, increased collaboration and support the adoption of university best practices and policies. To help reach this potential, all units are encouraged to request one or more seat licenses for the U-M implementation.

A single license can connect unlimited social channels. However, each license is connected to a specific user. That means departments will need a license for each user who has access.

All U-M branded social channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are eligible to be connected to a license.

Please note, faculty or research lab social accounts are not eligible at this time.
Cost and Savings

Each license has a cost of about $500 per year. This is about half of the cost that a license costs when purchased independently. These savings are realized thanks to the financial commitment from LSA, Michigan Medicine, OVPC, The U-M Alumni Association, and the College of Engineering.
Reducing Risks
Increased security, by having access to accounts secured behind U-M sign-on protocols.

Reduced friction of personnel changes and forgotten passwords.

University-wide “pause button” to suspend any additional pre-scheduled content during times of crisis until department communicators have a chance to review and resume or follow crisis protocols

Social Bells and Whistles

Sprout Social offers many additional features and benefits that will increase the efficiency of work in this space as well as enhance well-being and collaboration while reducing reputational risk.

Sprout Social Features and Benefits
Feature	Benefits
Content Scheduling	A unified calendar allows departments to see/plan all their social media content in one place. Optimal posting times help departments share their content at times when it is more likely to be seen.
Shared Asset Library	Easy distribution within the tool of graphics that departments can use to make their social posts more engaging.
Approval Workflows	Provides a system of checks and balances, especially for those departments with multiple contributors, to ensure that correct messaging is being sent out.
Advanced Analytics	Detailed reporting on post and profile performance will enable departments to evaluate the health of their presence and the effectiveness of their strategies, and share those results with leadership within their department. Additionally, using campaign tagging and tracking, we will be able to see the impact of social from the entire college on a coordinated effort.
Competitor Benchmarking	Departments will have the ability to compare their social performance to peers across the industry for the purpose of evaluating strategies.
Social Listening	Tracking the overall brand and sentiment on social media will give us an advanced warning on trends that could benefit us or cause concern. Additionally, we will have the ability to more easily support departments/faculty by tracking and reporting during a specific crisis and advising administration.
Unified Inbox	Having all incoming communication from social in one place allows departments to identify trends, have canned responses to FAQs, and provide the level of customer service expected by our constituents. Messages can also be “assigned” to other users who may be better able to answer the inquiry.
Comprehensive Support	Standard onboarding, world-class vendor support materials, and certification programs give the department continuity of skillsets for people managing social media, making it easier to transition new people into roles where this responsibility is present.